australianscreen curators
Janet Bell
Television curator
Janet has been working in the Australian television industry as a producer, director and executive producer for 30 years. Her credits as producer include the AFI Award-winning Land of the Morning Star, the original series of Dynasties for ABC TV, In the Mind of the Architect and the Dendy Awards finalist Seasons of Revenge. Her latest project is as co-producer on the documentary In Search of Bony.
Paul Byrnes
Feature film curator
Paul has been a film critic for The Sydney Morning Herald for 15 years. He was director of the Sydney Film Festival for ten years, and has programmed exhibitions of Australian cinema for venues in Berlin and New York. His educational DVD looking at the politics and propaganda of immigration film, co-written and directed with Penny McDonald, won the 2005 Focal International award for best use of archive footage in a digital medium. Paul recently won the 2007 Pascall Prize for Critic of the Year.
Pat Fiske
Documentary curator
Pat Fiske is an experienced director, producer and sound recordist and is recognised as a prominent member of Australia’s independent filmmaking community. She produced a two-part series about private prisons in Australia and the United States called Business Behind Bars which won a 2001 Walkley Award. In 2001, she was awarded the prestigious Stanley Hawes Award for her outstanding contribution to the documentary industry in Australia at the Australian International Documentary Conference in Perth. Some of the films she has directed and/or produced are the award-winning documentaries: ‘Doc’, a portrait of Herbert Vere Evatt; For All the World to See, a portrait of Professor Fred Hollows; Australia Daze; Following the Fenceline; Rocking the Foundations, a history of the NSW Builders Labourers Federation and the Green Bans; Woolloomooloo; An Artist in Eden; Night Patrol; Leaping off the Edge; Selling Sickness and Rivers of Dreams.
Romaine Moreton
Indigenous curator
Dr Romaine Moreton is a writer of poetry, prose and film with a PhD in philosophy from the University of Western Sydney. Romaine Moreton published her first book of poetry, The Callused Stick of Wanting in 1996, and her second anthology, titled Post Me to the Prime Minister and published by IAD Press, was launched at the Sydney Writer’s Festival in 2004. Romaine has also scripted films, and her first two Redreaming The Dark, and Cherish were selected for the fringe program at the Cannes Film Festival. A third film, A Walk With Words, based on Romaine’s poetry and experience, won the award for Best International Short Film, at the World of Women Film Festival.
Annemaree O'Brien
Children's television curator
Annemaree O’Brien has an extensive background in media education as a teacher, consultant, writer, and lecturer and was previously Education Projects Manager for the Australian Children’s Television Foundation for seven years. Currently Annemaree works part-time in Screen Education at ACMI where she is project manager for the Digital Storytelling in the Classroom program, and is responsible for developing and implementing screen literacy and production programs for teachers and students. With a passionate interest in screen literacy, media and education, she is also involved in the development of some exciting and innovative multimedia education projects, including designing and scripting online learning objects for The Le@rning Federation.
Damien Parer
Documentary curator
Damien is an independent film and TV producer. He was a film editor, art director and production manager on various independent films, before becoming in-house producer at the Tasmanian Film Corporation and Film Australia. He was then Head of Production for Barron Entertainment and the Film Development Manager for the South Australian Film Corporation. He has also produced six feature films and two mini-series. His award-winning films include Shame, Father and Tracks of Glory.
Adrienne Parr
National Archives of Australia curator, documentary curator
Adrienne is an award-winning documentary producer who has specialised in the incorporation and use of archival material in educational and contemporary programming. Adrienne’s experience with moving image research began over 20 years ago when she was offered the job of assisting Graham Shirley with film research for the mini-series The Dismissal. Her list of credits includes: as producer, The Forgotten Force, Teachers of the World, Family, and AsiaScope; and, as Archival Researcher, Camera Natura, Handmaidens and Battleaxes, Uluru, An Anangu Story and Women 88.
Elizabeth Taggart-Speers
National Film and Sound Archive curator
Liz joined the National Film and Sound Archive in 2000 and since then has worked across the organisation from Preservation to Access. She has provided material from the collection for documentaries, exhibitions and publications. More recently, Liz provided audiovisual material to The Le@rning Federation for their online resource for schools.
Before coming to Canberra, Liz worked in Sydney with Screenrights, the audiovisual copyright society. This involved researching and identifying copyright owners amid the labyrinth of rights issues and distributing royalties to grateful recipients in the film and TV industries.
Lauren Williams
National Film and Sound Archive curator, documentary curator
Lauren has worked as a video tutor/facilitator for the Australian Centre for the Moving Image’s Digital Storytelling program where she assisted community groups in creating short first person video biographies. She has also worked with national community arts organisation big hArt in Sydney, and compiled various programs for television broadcast while working for the production company Espresso Digital.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree where she majored in fine arts (film), and has recently completed a Masters degree in Arts Management. Her minor thesis was entitled Creative Development: Insights from Culture and the Arts and included a chapter on the use of participatory video programs with refugees as a way of stimulating social change and participatory development.
