Can a film really make a difference?

Join Academy Award-winning documentarian Louie Psihoyos (Racing Extinction, MIFF 2015), along with Shark Island Productions' Malinda Wink and filmmakers George Gittoes (Snow Monkey, MIFF 2015), Nick Batzias (That Sugar Film) and Susan Lambert (Tyke Elephant Outlaw, MIFF 2015) as they discuss how a film can cross over from telling a story to influencing real world situations.

Louie Psihoyos, Executive Director of the Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS), is recognised as one of the top photographers in the world. He was hired directly out of college to shoot for National Geographic and created images for the yellow-bordered magazine for 18 years. His ability to bring humanity and wit to complicated science stories carries over to his filmmaking. An ardent diver and dive photographer, he feels compelled to show the world the decline of our planet’s crucial resource, the oceans. Psihoyos’s first documentary film, The Cove, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Film of 2009 and over 75 other awards around the world.

Malinda Wink's professional experience spans the corporate, political and philanthropic sectors. She has worked as a microfinance adviser in Nepal, as a media officer and adviser to the Labor Leader in the Australian Federal Parliament, and as a project coordinator of the Corporate Responsibility Index at the St James Ethics Centre. More recently, Malinda has worked as a consultant advising on business strategy and capital raising for the not-for-profit sector and for a number of for-profit film companies including Madman Films, Hopscotch, Transmission Films and Electric Pictures. Malinda has served on a number of advisory boards including the Social Enterprise World Forum and Metro Screen.

George Gittoes has been making his award-winning and unique films since 1977. His feature documentaries – including Rampage (MIFF 2006) and Soundtrack to War –  have been broadcast and screened at festivals throughout the world. George is also talented and well-respected artist who has won numerous awards for his artistic works made in regions of conflict and war. He has worked in countries including Rwanda, Cambodia, Bouganville and South Africa.

Nick Batzias has 14 years of acquisition, distribution and production experience at Madman Entertainment. He has worked on the release of over 500 feature and documentary films. As a key part of his role, Nick has assessed hundreds of scripts, treatments and rough cuts with a view to acquiring the films for distribution in Australia and New Zealand. Most recently, Nick produced the Matthew Saville dark comedy A Month of Sundays starring Anthony LaPaglia, and the Australian box-office doco smash That Sugar Film.

Susan Lambert is an Australian filmmaker whose work has been broadcast and distributed locally and internationally. Her films have been screened in major international film festivals including London, Toronto, New York, Cannes, Edinburgh, Goteborg, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Susan is the sole director of Jumping Dog Productions and since 2001 has produced Tokyo Bound: Bondage Mistresses of Japan (SBSi), Deadly Enemies (ABC TV), The Good The Bad and The Ugg Boot (ABC TV), The Cars That Ate China (ABC TV), Love and Money (ABC TV) and Recipe For Murder (ABC1).