13 11 2019 - Media release Screen Australia announces 2019 Developing the Developer participants
Moreblessing Maturure, Ratidzo Mambo, Taryne Laffar
Screen Australia has today announced the 11 creatives who have been selected to take part in the Developing the Developer workshop for 2019, which will be held in Sydney from 21-24 November. In its third year, the four-day workshop aims to diversify the pool of professionals developing Australian stories for the screen.
Head of Development at Screen Australia Nerida Moore said, It's important that we identify, nurture, and collaborate with the new generation of fiction developers to ensure there are a greater diversity of voices and ideas reflected in the content we see on screen. Louise Gough and Screen Australia Industry Development Executive Bali Padda have put together a fantastic workshop for the participants this year.
Developing the Developer has proven to be an effective identifier of people with a broad range of story skills and has launched a number of careers in the screen industry. I look forward to following the careers of these 11 Australians as they bring their unique perspectives and skill sets into the industry.
The workshop will provide an opportunity for practitioners to enhance their existing screen story development skills, and build a development toolkit across platforms and genres.
It will be co-run by script developer Louise Gough and Screen Australia's Industry Development Executive Bali Padda, who was a participant in the first Developing the Developer workshop in 2017 before joining Screen Australia in 2018.
Presenters at the workshop include Julie Kalceff (Starting from Now, First Day), Kodie Bedford (Mystery Road, Robbie Hood), and Penelope Chai (Other People's Problems).
Of the creatives who took part in Developing the Developer in 2018, seven went on to secure work placements: Sarah Bassiuoni at Freemantle, Amy Stewart at Matchbox Pictures, Hiroki Kobayashi at Berg Shanley Productions, Dan Prichard at Lingo Pictures, Li-Kim Chuah at ABC, Vidya Rajan at Tony Ayres Productions, Jean Tong at Goalpost Pictures, and Leticia C ceres at Seven Studios.
2019 DEVELOPING THE DEVELOPER PARTICIPANTS Amal Awad: A writer, director and performer, Awad was a recipient of Screen Australia's Gender Matters Brilliant Stories funding for Sex in the West (dir. Fadia Abboud). She has participated in numerous writers' rooms, including Muhammed Jones (2017) and Aleph (2019). In 2017, she was selected for SBS's Diversity Talent Escalator, a national initiative focused on increasing the representation of Australia's diverse communities within the television production sector. She wrote and directed the short film The Doorknock Appeal, which screened at Colourfest in 2013, and is the author of five books. Awad has consulted on film and TV projects, including SBS series Muslims Like Us (2018). She has multiple projects in early development.
Jack Dowdell: An aspiring writer and disability advocate, Dowdell participated in the Createability Internship program earlier this year and worked at Goalpost Pictures. He is currently working on a short horror film script and a slate of future projects. Dowdell is extremely passionate about disability representation and authentic casting in film and TV and has spoken on a number of panels on this subject. He currently runs a movie review website called That Other Movie Blog.
Taryne Laffar: A producer who descends from the Bardi and Jabbir Jabbir peoples of the Dampier Peninsula in Western Australia, Laffar was selected for the 2019 Screen Producers Australia Ones to Watch' program. Last year she received Screenwest's Spark funding a professional and project development initiative and worked as a producer on ABC iview comedy series KGB. Her previous work includes documentaries Who Paintin' dis Wandjina? (2007) and Rainforest Warriorz (2013). She also co-wrote and co-produced On Country Kitchen (2016) and produced five short documentaries for NITV including Aden Eades, Rev. Sealin Garlett, Healing Songs, directing on two - Rubeun Yorkshire and Beccy Garlett. Laffar recently joined the Screenwest Industry Advisory Group Committee and is the head of the Women in Film and Television (WIFT WA) diversity taskforce.
Gina Lambropoulos: A Melbourne-based screenwriter Lambropoulos' feature script That Time of the Year (aka The Princess and the Bear) won the 2016 Australian Writers' Guild's Open Channel New Writer's Script Competition. It's currently in development with Matthewswood Productions and has received development support from Screen Australia and Film Victoria. In 2015 Lambropoulos wrote and produced the short film The Escape Hatch which screened in over 50 festivals worldwide including Frameline41 and the Melbourne Queer Film Festival. She is also a community broadcaster on JOY 94.9, Australia s only LGBTQI radio station.
Melissa Lee Speyer: A graduate of NIDA (Playwriting) in 2011, Lee Speyer also studied at AFTRS (Screenwriting) after winning the inaugural Foxtel Diversity Scholarship in 2017. Her television screenwriting credits include ABC drama series The Heights, series two of Random and Whacky, and the first season of forReal!. Lee Speyer has also written a number of short films her co-written short Jadai The Broome Brawler won the 2018 Sydney Film Festival Lexus Australia Fellowship, and premiered at the 2019 Sydney Film Festival. Lee Speyer's theatre credits include TickTickBoom (2018, The Actors Pulse) which won the 2015 Silver Gull Play Award, A Christmas Carol (2017, KXT Bakehouse) and Trade (2017, Adelaide Fringe and Old 505 Theatre). She is a founding member of The Collective, an Asian-Australian performing arts collective. Her theatre practice is divided between traditional text-based, writer-driven play
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13 11 2019 - Media release Screen Australia announces 2019 Developing the Developer participants 
