Mentor, Roundtables
Sam Matthews is a director who established her career in the film industry in post-production. She is co-owner of creative production agency Beyond Content and works across a variety of projects as a director, editor, colourist and animator.
Projects aiming to increase the diversity of characters on our screens often consult with Sam. These are opportunities for her to raise greater public awareness of queer and transgender identities. In 2017, Sam directed ‘Unboxed’, an award-winning 6-part documentary series about trans artists for the ABC’s Art Bites initiative.
Her recent post credits include My Name is Gulpilil (2021, colourist, dir. Molly Reynolds), The Rover of Tobruk (2021, editor/animator, dir. Stephen de Villiers) Aquaphobe (2020, editor/colourist, dir. Melanie Easton), Yer Old Faither (2020, colourist, dir. Heather Croall), Damage (2020, colourist, dir. Madeleine Blackwell), Getting Their Acts Together (2020, colourist/animator, dir. Richard Jasek) and Lucy & DiC (2019, colourist, dir. Jeremy Kelly-Bakker).
Mentor
An AWGIE winning playwright, Sally is also a screenwriter, children’s author and producer, and is a member of the National Executive Council for the Australian Writers Guild. Originally trained as a screenwriter at RMIT, Sally has worked as script consultant and concept developer for SLA Films and KOJO and produced a documentary with Red Wall Films in 2019. In theatre she has worked with such companies as Brink Productions, Slingsby, Patch Theatre, State Theatre Company, ActNow, Ink Pot Arts and the True North Youth Theatre Ensemble. Her plays have been published by Australian Plays Transform (APT) and Trinity College London, and have featured in the DreamBIG Children’s Festival (2019 & 2017), World Festival of Children’s Theatre (Canada, 2016), Come Out Children’s Festival (2015), Adelaide and Melbourne Fringe Festivals, as well as featuring on the VCE Playlist (2006). As a Dramaturge she has worked on shows in the Adelaide Festival (2018) and Adelaide Cabaret Festival (2018). In 2016 she won an AWGIE (Youth & Community Theatre) for A Kid Like Me, and in 2014 she won the Trinity College London International Playwriting Award for her play Gone Viral. She has received multiple grants, including from Arts South Australia, the Australia Council for the Arts, the Adelaide Festival Trust, the City of Adelaide Cultural Fund and Mt Barker District Council. Recently Sally was the 2020 Artist in Residence for Slingsby Theatre Company, where she wrote her play Night Light with funding from Arts South Australia. Also in 2020, Sally was a core writer for the State Theatre Company / ActNow digital co-production Decameron 2.0, writing for all 10 episodes. Her work as a teaching artist has seen Sally work with students from preschool age through to elderly citizens and has taken her to Primary Schools, Kindergartens, High Schools, Universities, youth theatre companies and community arts organisations, throughout Adelaide and regional South Australia.
Mentor
Ruth has been a professional writer in the screen industry for over ten years. She’s worked across a wide range of genres and formats including feature film, television, multi-media projects, podcast and animation. Ruth’s work has been funded by state and national agencies, and she has been commissioned for international projects. Almost all of her original projects have been optioned and had funded development. For the past seven years, Ruth has been writing with Pete Monaghan, in the ‘Word Ninjas’ partnership. They currently have two major feature films in late development and three television series gaining traction in the marketplace. Ruth is keen to share what she has learned about pitching along the way. She reckons if an introvert like her can do it, you can, too!
Mentor
Dr. Pieter Aquilia is a scriptwriter, script editor and director, who has combined her creative practice with a career in academia. Formerly an Associate Dean and Associate Arts Professor for NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia, she was also Associate Professor and Head of Program at UNSW Asia and University of Newcastle. Pieter completed her Doctor of Creative Arts in Scriptwriting at University of Technology Sydney in 2000. Her research publications cover International Television Drama, the Globalization of Screen Education, Ethnic and Gender Representation on Screen, and the Media in Asia. Dr. Aquilla graduated from the BA Program at the Australian Film Television and Radio School in 1988.
