Sophie Raymond: director, co-writer, co-producer & animator
Sophie is a multi-award winning animation and documentary director, earning Australia’s highest accolades from AACTA (Best Documentary, Best Direction), ADG (Best Documentary) and ASSG (Best Sound in Documentary) for Mrs Carey’s Concert. She was Assistant Animator on the Oscar-winning Harvie Krumpet and co-produced/directed the animated documentary short It’s like that – a festival hit from IDFA to Sundance and beyond. Sophie is also an internationally respected singer-songwriter.
Genevieve Lacey: subject, co-writer, musician
Genevieve Lacey creates sanctuaries in sound. Using found and environmental sounds, as well as newly composed material, she creates poetic, sensual worlds, experienced in a huge variety of contexts. Her works include Pleasure Garden (sound installation recently experienced by 30,000+ people in Australia and Europe), Soliloquy (participatory music-dance ritual), one infinity (cross-cultural music-dance performance), and Namatjira (theatre and documentary)
As a recorder virtuoso, Genevieve has appeared as a soloist around the world, premiering works written for her by a vast array of composers. She has performed at the Lindau International Convention of Nobel Laureates, for Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey, on a basketball court on Thursday Island with Australian indigenous ensemble The Black Arm Band, as a concerto soloist in the Royal Albert Hall for BBC Proms and at the opening night of the London Jazz Festival. Genevieve is a member of the curatorial team for Rising, artistic advisor to UKARIA, Adelaide Festival’s chamber music curator 2019, and was Melbourne
Recital Centre’s 2018 Artist in Residence. Her work has won Australian Recording Industry (ARIA), Helpmann and Green Room awards, Churchill,Freedman and Australia Council Fellowships, Melbourne Prize for Music and the Sidney Myer Individual Performing Arts Award.
Clare Sawyer: Producer Clare is a producer and programmer and specialises in film and literary festivals. Currently she is Programmer for Younger Readers at the Adelaide Festival. Previously Clare curated the Family Program for Sydney Film Festival (2016-2019) and was the Head of Children’s and YA Programs for Sydney Writers Festival (2016-2018). She has produced five award-winning films that have screened at numerous international film festivals and her award-winning drama The Forest screened in the Calling Cards section of Telluride Film Festival and on ABC TV. Clare previously worked with the Youth Jury at Berlinale and programmed films for Flickerfest, Dungog and Cockatoo Island Film Festivals. For four years Clare was Producer and General Manager of the IF Awards which screened on SBS TV and Showtime (2007-2011). Recorder Queen is her sixth film.
Bob Connolly: Executive Producer, Music Films
Bob Connolly began his career at the ABC, directing some thirty documentaries there in the 1970s before teaming up with Robin Anderson to work independently. In 1983 they released First Contact, followed by Joe Leahy’s Neighbours (1989), and Black Harvest (1992). Shot in the PNG Highlands over ten years, these three films won thirty national and international awards, including an Oscar nomination for First Contact. All three won the Grand Prix at France’s Festival Cinema du Reel, and AFI awards for Best Documentary. In 1996 Connolly and Anderson released Rats in the Ranks. Their last film together was Facing the Music (2001), which like all its predecessors enjoyed a lengthy national theatrical release. It too won the AFI Award for Best Documentary, and was voted most popular film at the Sydney and Brisbane Film Festivals. In March 2002, Bob Connolly’s wife and colleague Robin Anderson died aged 51. With co-director Sophie Raymond, Mrs Carey’s Concert is Bob’s 6th major film release and most publicaly acclaimed, becoming the 2nd highest grossing Australian documentary cinema release of all time.
Helen Panckhurst: Executive Producer, Music Films Helen Panckhurst is one of the founders of Matchbox Pictures, one of Australia’s most dynamic production houses. Currently Head of Production for the company, Helen oversees all production. Recent Matchbox titles include long-form series Stateless, Safe Harbour, Secret City, Seven Types of Ambiguity, Wanted, Barracuda, Glitch, The Family Law, Deadline Gallipoli, the serial The Heights, and children’s series Nowhere Boys and Mustangs F.C. Helen has produced and executive produced television drama, documentaries and feature films. Notable producer credits include feature film Ali’s Wedding, the ABC TV series Old School starring Bryan Brown and Sam Neill, the ABC TV crime drama series The Straits, the AACTA award-winning documentary box office hit Mrs Carey’s Concert, Rachel Perkins and Darren Dale’s landmark seven-part documentary series First Australians, Gregor Jordan’s documentary Ian Thorpe: The Swimmer, and Curtis Levy’s documentary The Matilda Candidate. Helen is currently executive producing Freeman, a documentary about runner Cathy Freeman.
Emma Kelly: Animator
Emma is a highly skilled animator who can traverse all forms – from traditional hand-drawn techniques through to 2D and 3D digital animation. Emma was trained in graphic design at the Canberra Institute of Technology and has a Diploma in Film and Television animation from the Victorian College of the Arts. As an in-house Maya animator at Tantalus Interactive, Emma’s contributions range from Sponge Bob Square Pants for Nintendo to Top Gear Rally for Gameboy. Emma’s fine, traditional animation is what she’s most known for, working on Ocean Girl and Silver Brumby, as well as Sarah Watts’ award-winning feature Look Both Ways. Emma is also a founding member of S.L.A.G, working on both their productions. Emma has a particular interest in natural history illustration and has exhibited and sold such works in the form of postcards.
Nicola Daley: Cinematographer Nicola boasts a strong passion for creative and bold storytelling. For the last two consecutive years Nicola has been nominated for Best Cinematography in a Documentary for the AACTAs. Nicola has won numerous ACS awards, including Gold and Silver awards for her short drama work. Nicola received the outstanding cinematography award at the 2009 and 2010 WOW Film Festival and the 2008 Fuji Film Flickerfest Award for Best Cinematography. Nicola was also selected to attend the Berlinale Talent Campus in 2012. Nicola was accepted into the prestigious Australian Film, TV and Radio School to study a Master of Arts in Cinematography in 2003. The following year, Nicola collaborated on the Oscar nominated short film The Saviour. Nicola has also shot three feature films, including more recent work on John Winter’s (Producer of Rabbit Proof Fence), directorial debut Black & White & Sex. Nicola has extensive experience in documentaries including most recently, Aim High in Creation; a feature documentary shot in North Korea, directed by the renowned Anna Broinowski. Nicola also shot the ground-breaking series for SBS Go Back to Where You Came From. Nicola has shot in some of the most talked about locations on earth, including North Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan.
