Westender Docs is a social media channel that will produce dedicated short-form visual content specifically within the intersection of documentary and journalism. It will be the first in Queensland, if not Australia.
Each filmmaker within Westender Docs has been driven to pick up a camera in response to seeing stories within the communities we are part of ignored, overlooked, and misrepresented in mainstream media.
Content and brand will be investigative in nature, project-based work that sparks, adds, and builds on the public discussion around diversity, justice, accountability, and informed decision-making. Adhering to the journalistic principles of accurate and reliable reporting, our work seeks to allow the space, trust, and time for marginalised voices to create their own narrative.
We see ourselves as both documentary filmmakers and journalists. We are informed by the MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics along with including the culture of consultation and consent when dealing with underrepresented communities and follow similar guidelines for these communities as laid out in Screen Australia’s Pathways & Protocols: A filmmaker’s guide to working with Indigenous people, culture and concepts.
Please see below the upcoming projects and portfolios for Christine Schindler, Mark Doyle, Devina Saberi, and Sarah Hope.
Christine Schindler is a visual journalist and documentary filmmaker who grew up in Toowoomba, Queensland. She spent her first 6 years of honing her journalism craft in Beijing and Chengdu, China. After completing a MA in International Multimedia Journalism through the University of Bolton (UK) in Beijing, she worked for a year in Chinese state media, watching a legacy news organisation pivot to social media platforms.
While freelancing for South China Morning Post and various news platforms, she lectured and program coordinated an MA of Visual Journalism (University of Bolton) in Hangzhou, where she trained Chinese journalists to tell stories to international audiences. Her students worked on stories of HIV/AIDS in the LGBTQI+ community along with innovative long to short-form news media content in what is known as one of the most hostile spaces for journalism in the world.
Since returning to Australia at the start of the pandemic, she works within the intersection of journalism, documentary, and art. Her love of documentary and journalism comes from spending time with people from all walks of life. She covers stories of environmental and social justice struggles, hope in rebuilding a life after experiencing domestic violence, and even gardening as an act of community resilience.
Christine is currently working on WINGS OF HOPE, the story of a community in Logan, Queensland, that battles to defend hope in the face of tragic domestic violence incidents.
See more of Christine’s work here.
The Prison Next Door - Australia is detaining refugees and asylum seekers indefinitely, hidden behind the windows of inner-city hotels.
p/w kangarooPOINT
60 Second Docs - The Girl Who Talks to Chickens
After a 20-year hiatus of work in the mental health sector, Mark Doyle picked up a camera again in 2013. This time it was driven to document people living at the forefront of climate change. In 2013 many of the stories were crisis-driven top-down perspectives with little community involvement.
Mark has worked extensively in regional communities telling the stories of regional energy challenges and renewable solutions. He's worked with Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners to produce media material and stand-alone pieces on the development of a destructive coal mine. For most of this year, he worked with the Getup First Nations Justice Team on indigenous stories from the Northern Territory and North Queensland. These stories were told in their own voices and focused on the issues important to them in the lead-up to the national election.
Mark's work has been included in local and international mainstream media pieces, feature films, and climate-related overseas current affairs programs and has been seen on broadcast and social media by millions of people. Some of his clients include France 24, ABC Four Corners, Al Jazeera, WWF Australia, and Farmers for Climate Action.
Mark is currently working on WE LOVE IT HERE BUT WE’RE AFRAID TO STAY, stories of east coast Australians precarious relationship with the land they live on in light of the unfolding climate crisis.
Sarah Hope is a documentary filmmaker with a background in community arts and theatre.
Sarah spent over eight years living in the Northern Territory where she worked alongside remote bi-lingual schools and ranger groups on storytelling and film projects. She has a particular interest in social justice and is currently focused on telling stories about and for women and the LGBTIQ+ community, often in intercultural contexts.
Sarah now lives in Brisbane and is completing an Advanced Master's in Screen Production, specialising in Documentary and Directing, at Griffith Film School. She also has an Advanced Diploma in Screenwriting for Feature Film from AFTRS.
Sarah's work combines stylistic, hybrid concepts with non-fiction storytelling.
Sarah is currently working on NIM AND THE BUTTERFLY, the story of a transgender woman who navigates family dynamics after moving from Thailand to Darwin as a teenager.
Devina Saberi is a filmmaker and lawyer based in Brisbane, Australia (Yagara & Turrbal Land).
Devina has worked on a number of documentaries across the East Coast of Australia. Her work focuses on diversity, the migrant experience, and the role of culture in the life of society.
Devina specialises in short-form non-fiction content designed to be viewed on contemporary social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram Reels. She is currently directing and producing GROWING PAINS, a social media docu-series with production funding from Screen Australia. The series follows four young Australians from migrant and culturally diverse backgrounds as they face the challenges that arise in their early twenties. Across her work, Devina focuses on stories that broaden our conception of the Australian Dream.
Devina is currently working on SHE IS BEAUTY, SHE IS FAITH, a story about Nooria Ahmadi, who wants to be the first Hijabi Miss World Australia, but isn’t sure if Australia is ready for her.
We acknowledge the traditional custodians on the land that we live and work on. Sovereignty was never ceded. Always was and always will be Aboriginal land.