SBS snags three ATOMs for film production
The merits of three SBS documentaries have been recognised at a ceremony for the ATOM Awards in Melbourne.
SBS won awards in the Best Documentary: General Category, Best Documentary: History, Social and Political Issues Category and the Best Factual Television Series Category for The Tall Man, Go Back To Where You Came From and Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta.
The announcement:
SBS picked up three ATOM Awards for its documentaries The Tall Man, Go Back To Where You Came From and Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta, at a ceremony in Melbourne overnight.
The ATOM Awards recognise excellence in over thirty categories of film, television, animation and multimedia celebrating the very best of Australian and New Zealand production.
The Tall Man won the award for Best Documentary: General Category. The Tall Man is a multi-award winning documentary about the events on Palm Island that follow the death of local Indigenous man Cameron Doomadgee. It is based on the same titled book by Walkley Award winning author Chloe Hooper and made by Blackfella Films for SBS.
One morning in 2004, Cameron Doomadgee was arrested for swearing at a police officer. 45 minutes later he lay dead in a watch-house cell. The powerful documentary interviews the family, friends and residents of the community on the island as they struggle to understand what happened to Cameron, and the tragic events that subsequently followed his death.
In the category for Best Documentary: History, Social and Political Issues, Go Back To Where You Came From, Series One scooped the award. The multi-award winning three part series saw six ordinary Australians challenge their preconceived notions about refugees and asylum seekers by embarking on a confronting 25 day journey. Tracing in reverse the journeys that refugees have taken to reach Australia, they traveled to some of the most dangerous and desperate corners of the world. Deprived of their wallets, phones and passports, the participants boarded a leaky refugee boat, were rescued mid-ocean, experienced immigration raids in Malaysia, witnessed sheer desperation in Kenyan refugee camps and visited slums in Jordan, before ultimately making it to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Iraq, protected by UN Peacekeepers and the US military.
SBS also collected the award for Best Factual Television Series for Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta.
Once Upon a Time in Cabramatta is the story of how the Vietnamese community fought back from adversity and found their place in modern Australia. This landmark documentary series explored the extraordinary transformation of this south-western Sydney suburb, and how it has contributed to the Australian multicultural success story. Told for the first time by the community itself, the three-part series featured interviews with the youth who got caught up in gang culture, politicians and police who were involved in Cabramatta’s critical moments, and the ordinary people who lived through it all – from the crime and violence, the fear and racism, a heroin epidemic and the first political assassination in Australia’s history, to the fight back as this immigrant community found its voice.
ATOM is an independent, non-profit, professional association promoting the study of media. The membership of ATOM primarily includes teachers and lecturers from across subject disciplines at all levels of education. The membership also includes media industry personnel, a range of media and education organisations and, increasingly, the general public interested in the media.
Source: SBS Press Release
