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All round praise for Freshwater nominations

Freshwater Productions welcomes Prestigious Awards’ nominations for excellence in documentaries
Queensland based Freshwater Productions has praised filmmakers of the documentaries Rare Chicken Rescue and Roller Derby Dolls following their high profile nominations at the 2008 EnhanceTV ATOM Awards, and the Best Documentary nomination for Rare Chicken Rescue for the 2008 AFI Awards.

Rare Chicken Rescue has already won the Dendy Award for Best Documentary at the recent Sydney Film Festival and has also been nominated for the Animal Planet International People and Animals Award at Wildscreen Film Festival’s Panda Awards in October in Bristol.

The half-hour documentary Rare Chicken Rescue, directed and written by Queensland filmmaker Randall Wood, and produced by Vickie Gest for Freshwater Productions, has been nominated for ATOM Awards in two categories –
Best Documentary Human Story and Best Documentary Short form under 30 minutes.

Rare Chicken Rescue focuses on rare and heritage poultry breeder Mark Tully, who after a long battle with depression is now on a mission to protect the endangered chickens to which he owes his life. It screened nationally to a prime-time
audience on the ABC.
For more information: Rare Chicken Rescue

Roller Derby Dolls, co-written and directed by Brisbane based Phoebe Hart has been nominated for an ATOM award for best documentary short form under 30 minutes. Roller Derby Dolls is set in the outer suburbs of Brisbane, where a group of young women resurrect the lost sport of full-contact roller derby in Australia.
For more information: Roller Derby Dolls

Roller Derby Dolls will air on the ABC soon. CEO of Freshwater, Trish Lake was executive producer for both documentaries, sharing EP credits with Screen Australia’s Mark Hamlyn.

Freshwater also congratulates their colleagues at Hatchling Productions and writer-director-producer Cathy Henkel, for the feature length documentary The Burning Season which recently screened at the Brisbane Film Festival and is leading the Audience Prize score at BIFF.

The Burning Season was nominated for the ATOM Awards Best Documentary Social & Political Issues and Best Documentary Science, Technology and The Environment. Freshwater’s Trish Lake was executive producer of The Burning Season sharing EP credits with UK based Roger Graef of Films of Record.

The Burning Season focuses on the annual burning of rainforest in Indonesia which endangers orangutans and contributes to climate change. The story follows a young Australian carbon trading entrepreneur who goes in search of a solution. The television version will air on ABC TV on October 14th, and has already screened on BBC TV, PBS and CBC in North America, while a longer theatrical version will screen in festivals and cinemas worldwide.
More information: The Burning Season

Freshwater Productions is also a partner with Soul Vision films in another cinema documentary by director-writer-producer Peter Hegedus, called My America, which is in pre production in its Brisbane offices currently. Jane Jeffes of Firefly Productions is producing and Trish Lake is executive producer. Freshwater also negotiated the cinema release in Australia with Disney and Horizon Motion Pictures of the acclaimed documentary Sharkwater.

Trish Lake said Freshwater Productions was proud to be associated with documentaries of such high production value and high audience appeal.

"These documentaries where Freshwater has partnered with other producers, have much in common. It is no surprise that they are attracting big television and cinema audiences and prestigious nominations and awards.

"They are strong factual, but hugely entertaining, stories from passionate auteur directors, with strong political messages for society and the environment. Freshwater is so proud to be associated with such talent and high quality productions."

Freshwater Productions is a production company based in Brisbane, Queensland, which develops and produces feature film, television and factual product for both domestic and International markets.

Other current feature films include Subdivision, to be distributed by Disney, with director Sue Brooks, currently in post production, and One More River a co-production with Wild Bear Films, New York, with director Kate Woods, slated for
production early 2009.

[Release by Freshwater Productions]