The SHIT filmmakers
(left to right) Trudy Hellier, Patricia Cornelius and Susie Dee
Director: Susie Dee
Susie has worked extensively in the theatre, TV and film as a performer, devisor and director, in Australia and overseas, for over 35 years. As an actor, Susie has worked on numerous television roles including Bed of Roses (ABC, 3 seasons) Funky Squad (Working Dog Productions) and Dogwoman. Recently she created a suite of short videos that were incorporated into her award-winning work Animal (toured to Dark Mofo 2018) She has been the Artistic Director of three theatre companies: Melbourne Workers Theatre (MWT), Union House Theatre (UHT) and Institute of Complex Entertainment (ICE).
In 2011 Susie was the recipient of the Australia Council residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (for female director) and in 2022 she received the prestigious Australia Council Theatre Award. She has directed theatrical works for MTC, Malthouse Theatre and many independent theatre companies and has been nominated for and won numerous awards. Her 2016 production, Animal won five Green Room Awards, including Best Director. In 2017 she was nominated for three Awards for Direction – including a Helpmann Best Director nomination for SHIT. Susie directed Patricia Cornelius’ plays, SHIT and Love, which both toured to the 2019 Venice Biennale Theatre Festival. Susie directed the acclaimed Anthem for Melbourne/Sydney and Perth Festivals in 2020. This year, six shows that she has directed have toured nationally, including RUNT to the Sydney Opera House.
Director: Trudy Hellier
Trudy originally worked as an actor appearing in over 40 productions including regular roles in renowned series Frontline and Around the Twist before studying screenwriting at RMIT.
She won an AACTA and Australian Critics Circle award for her first short film script Break and Enter with Oscar-winning producer Melanie Coombs. She wrote and directed Trapped (Screen Australia funded) which opened St Kilda Film Festival and won the Audience Award. Trudy and Melanie developed feature films Barking Love (Screen Australia/Irish Film Board development) and female action adventure Car City (Screen Australia).
Trudy wrote on series 1 and 2 of Lowdown (ABC TV) with Amanda Brotchie and Adam Zwar, won the narrative comedy AWGIE and received an AACTA nomination. With Maria Theodorakis, Trudy co-created online series Little Acorns, staring Rachel Griffiths. Little Acorns won multiple awards including Best Writing at NYC Webfest, SPAA and ADG nominations, sold to Virgin Airlines, was optioned by the 7 Network and developed as a half-hour series. Their drama series Black Eyes (optioned by Matchbox Pictures) was selected for the Film Victoria Writers’ Room with US showrunner Simon Mirren, Criminal Minds. Trudy was selected by Film Victoria to attend the Cinestory Lab in Los Angeles, CA in 2017. She wrote an animation feature, Daisy Quokka for Like a Photon and NBC Universal (in development). Her shorts have screened at numerous international festivals including Clermont-Ferrand, Edinburgh, MIFF, Odense, New York and Aspen.
Writer: Patricia Cornelius
Patricia Cornelius is a founding member of Melbourne Workers Theatre. She’s a playwright, novelist and film writer. Cornelius is a recipient of the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize, the Mona Brand Award and the 2019 Green Room award for Life Achievement. Her prizes for stage work include the 2011 Victorian and NSW Premiers’ Literary Awards, the Patrick White Playwright’s Award, the Richard Wherrett Prize, the Wal Cherry Award and numerous AWGIES for stage, community theatre, theatre for young people. She won the prestigious Australian Writers Foundation Playwriting Award in 2015 as well as the Patrick White Fellowship (2012), and a Fellowship from the Australia Council’s Theatre Board. Patricia has won the AWGIE Major Award three times.
Her plays include: RUNT, Anthem, Big Heart, Savages, Do not go gentle…, Slut, The Call. SHIT and Love were the first Australian plays to be performed at the Venice Theatre Biennale in 2019. Patricia co-wrote the feature film Blessed based on the play Who’s Afraid of the Working Class? She is currently developing a feature film, Stolen, with director/co-writer, Catriona McKenzie. Patricia’s novel, My Sister Jill (Random House) was published in 2002. Her new play, My Sister Jill, based on the novel, will premiere at Melbourne Theatre Company next year.
Producer: Jannine Barnes
Jannine Barnes has worked in the Australian Film Industry for 20 years in various guises including production manager and production accountant on many well-known feature films and broadcast documentaries. She has always had the ambition and passion for feature film and DOWNRIVER was the debut film for her production company HAPPENING FILMS. Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015 DOWNRIVER has won a number of international awards and sold to key territories including the US and UK.
Jannine has previously produced many short films including THE WILDING which premiered at the Berlinale and DEEP STORAGE which premiered in Geena Davis’ Bentonville Film Festival winning Best Short. Her latest projects are the VR Film 30 MINUTES OF DANGER which premiered at MIFF in 2018 and the feature documentary STRANGERS TO THE WORLD starring Rachel Griffiths which made its premiere at Melbourne Documentary Film Festival in 2020.
Jannine actively works to promote the industry and has twice mentored a group of film makers complete their first film for the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and Beyond Blue. She attended the Berlinale Film Festival as a participant in the highly regarded Talents program and was named by Screen International as a “Future Leader”.
Executive Producer/Script Editor:
Claire Dobbin AM
Claire Dobbin is an an Australian script editor and EP/Creative Producer who works globally with film development agencies, production companies, screenwriters, broadcasters, streaming companies, producers and directors.
Additionally, Claire is:
Advisor and board member of international script workshop eQuinoxe Europe
Regular jury member of international film festivals
Lecturer in screenwriting in Australia, Europe, India and UAE
Devises, runs and advises on international screenwriting workshops (Norway, Germany, Spain, NZ, India, UAE, Australia, Portugal, Ukraine, Italy, Brazil, Iran, Qatar)
Previously:
1986–2000: Senior Executive (development) at Australia’s Screen Agency (Australian Film Commission)
2003–2019: Chair of Melbourne International Film Festival – devised and implemented MIFF’s industry program. (37ºSouth and the MIFF Premiere Fund)
In 2017 Claire was awarded an Order of Australia (AM) for services to the film industry.
In 2019 Claire received the Jill Robb award for outstanding leadership in the Australian Film Industry.
Producer: Eyvonne Carfora
Eyvonne has been a producer in media production for 21 years specialising in commercial content. Her recent project has been “A Different Lens” short online documentaries for Monash University. Eyvonne has produced numerous short films including Trudy Hellier’s short Foul Play which was selected for, the Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival and David Rosetzky’s films Composite Acts & Gaps. Eyvonne produced award winning web series Little Acorns, created by Trudy Hellier and Maria Theodorakis & staring Rachel Griffiths. Little Acorns won multiple awards including Best Writing at NYC Webfest, SPAA and ADG nominations, sold to Virgin Airlines, was optioned by the 7 Network and developed as a half hour series. Eyvonne is currently producing half hour workplace comedy Cloud Nine, written by Michele Lee which recently received development funding from Film Victoria.
Cinematographer: Sky Davies
Sky Davies is a multi-award-winning cinematographer, bringing to life projects from such diverse arenas as feature film to video art.
She recently completed Upright S2 for Foxtel and A Beginner’s Guide to Grief for SBS, with the series being nominated for a 2022 AACTA Award.
Sky was awarded the ACS Golden Tripod for her debut feature, the genre film Blood Vessel, which screened at numerous international festivals. In 2020 Sky completed principal photography on her second feature film, SHIT, and was awarded an ACS Silver. In the same year, she shot Retrograde, a six-part narrative comedy for ABC.
Sky’s short film work has screened at over 120 international festivals, garnering her many awards including the prestigious ACS Golden Tripod for Goodnight Sweetheart. Most recently, Tarneit, her second collaboration with director John Sheedy, was awarded the prestigious Iris Prize. Their initial collaboration, Mrs McCutcheon won Best Australian Short Film at MIFF whilst also nominated by AFI/AACTA and SPA for Best Short Film, and had over 10 international festival wins. In 2013 Sky shot Emo the Musical, which garnered a Crystal Bear Special Mention at the Berlinale and won Best Short Film at the SPA Awards and the St Kilda Film Festival.
Sky has shot 2nd Unit for both Film and TV, including Fires, Stateless and Undertow.
Sky has collaborated with esteemed video artists including Shaun Gladwell and Christian Thompson and regularly works within the documentary realm shooting such pieces as Coming Back Out Ball and Graceful.
Editor: Meri Blazevski
Meri Blazevski’s interest in editing began while exploring narrative based structures for her Master’s Degree at Art School. The project explored the way in which time can be manipulated and stretched through cutting and how easily the reading of a scene can shift with clever editing. From there she was invited to assist Nick Meyers on The Bank, one of the last Australian features to be cut on 35mm film using Steenbecks. This experience sealed her interest in editing and she began assisting some of Australia’s best editors before taking up the role of editor.
Credits in post production include international productions Where the Wild Things Are, The Pacific and local productions My Year Without Sex and Offspring. Meri’s interest in both film and art has led her to work with prominent Australian visual artists including David Rosetzky, Christian Thomson and Laresa Kosloff. She has produced and edited a series of artist interviews featuring some of Melbourne’s best known visual artists. Meri’s more recent works include the successful short Jupiter directed by Michael Zito which picked up a number of awards at MQFF and Christian Thomson’s Berceuse.
Original music for the film: Anna Liebzeit
Anna Liebzeit is a multi-disciplinary artist and educator with a 20-year practice spanning performance, audio composition and collaborative practice across installation, theatre, and film and TV. In 2022 she composed the score for The Survival of Kindness; in 2021 she was a Creative Victoria Creators Fund recipient. Other work includes Sleeplessness Carriageworks (2022 and 2020); James Tylor’s The Darkness of Enlightenment (Kaurna Language), Samstag Museum of Art (2021); and kipli pawuta lumi (Palawa Kani), MONA FOMA (2020). Other works include original music for the film SHIT, and composing for the plays SHIT and Love by Dee and Cornelius (2021). Anna has made music for NAIDOC events nationally and has had work shown at Malthouse Theatre, Blak Dot Gallery, ABC TV, Yirramboi Festival, Melbourne International Arts Festival, Ilbijerri Theatre, Footscray Arts Centre, 45 Downstairs and Linden Gallery. www.soundslikeus.org