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Screen Oz funds doc on pioneer female diver

The Real Jaws: The Valerie Taylor Story profiles the shark conservationist

Screen Australia has funded a feature documentary which profiles an Australian diver and filmmaker who shot underwater scenes for movies such as Jaws and The Blue Lagoon.

WildBear Entertainment’s Bettina Dalton will produce and Sally Aitken will direct The Real Jaws: The Valerie Taylor Story, drawing on decades of Taylor’s archives to reveal how she defied gender expectations in her field and dedicated her life to shark conservation.

The film is among seven documentary projects that are receiving more than A$1.6m (US1.1m) from Screen Australia’s documentary producer and commissioned programmes.

The commissioned works include ITV Studios Australia’s Who Should Get a Passport? (3×55’) for pubcaster SBS. The observational doc will follow migration lawyers and agents who advocate for those who aspire to live in Australia at a time when the country is debating whether the annual migrant intake should be reduced.

Renowned filmmaker Warwick Thornton (Sweet Country) will experience life on an isolated beach in the remote Dampier peninsula on the north-west coast of Western Australia in The Beach (6×26’), produced by World Wide Minds for Indigenous broadcaster NITV.

Essential Media Group’s Sam Griffin will produce Lucy in the Sky, a feature doc from writer-director Maria Dudko, which will explore the events that led to the conviction of her mother, Lucy Dudko, after she hijacked a helicopter to pluck her lover from a Sydney jail in 1999. The couple was arrested after 45 days on the run and Lucy spent seven years in jail. The film will also examine Lucy’s claims of innocence.

Sally Ingleton will produce and direct Wild Things, a feature doc which looks at the campaigns to stop coal mining, fracking and logging in Tasmania’s Tarkine rainforest, for 360 Degrees Films.

The Fight will follow a group of people with disabilities on a trek in their wheelchairs over the Andes, only to find themselves battling the Bolivian government. Violeta Ayala will direct and produce, with Daniel Fallshaw and Redelia Shaw.

Finally, Closer Productions will make A Game of Three Halves (6×3’), an online animated collection of some of the most bizarre stories from soccer’s untold history, in partnership with global soccer platform Copa90.

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