DOCUMENTARIES
DOCUMENTARIES
Walking Fish harness 10+ years of creating award-winning documentaries for broadcast, streaming, festivals and online. From character-led films, to quirky stories and documentaries that reflect extraordinary access, we value curiosity and creative boldness, and believe in changing hearts and minds through human-focussed and cinematic trojan-horse narratives.
As seen on
MOCKBUSTER
Feature Documentary
Director: Anthony Frith
Producers: Sandy Cameron, David Elliot-Jones & Naomi Ball
A struggling Australian filmmaker’s chance at redemption collides with chaos and compromise as he navigates the eccentric world of notorious Sharknado production house, The Asylum.
In co-production with Mostly True Media.
Principal production funding from Screen Australia, in association with South Australian Film Corporation, Adelaide Film Festival, Giant Pictures and VicScreen.
THE ANIMAL SANCTUARY
Documentary Series – In Post-Production
Set in one of the most spectacularly unique and biodiverse places on the planet, The Animal Sanctuary takes us inside Tasmania’s Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, a place where a young family has taken on the extraordinary task of running an entire island’s wildlife rescue operation.
In co-production with Spectral Media, Orange Entertainment Co, Copperpot Pictures & Campfire Studios.
SUKUNDIMI WALKS BEFORE ME
Writer & Director: Matasila Freshwater
Director: Lachlan McLeod
Producers: David Elliot-Jones, Maria Tanner, Kerry Warkia, Emmanuel Peni
When a proposed mine threatens Papua New Guinea’s Sepik River, the Sepik people resist the mine on their own terms, resisting the forces of colonialism by invoking Indigenous and ancestral knowledge.
In co-production with Brown Sugar Apple Grunt Productions.
Principal production funding from Screen Australia, in association with VicScreen, The Post Lounge and Pacific Islanders in Communications.
WE ARE THE ONES
Feature Documentary: In Post-Production
Director: Lachlan McLeod
Producers: Naomi Ball & David Elliot-Jones
The world’s largest accessible choir is preparing for their most ambitious project to date: An original concert accompanied by Australia’s premier orchestra. The choir is writing a new story. Ready or not — is this what the world has been waiting for?
Principal production funding from Screen Australia, in association with VicScreen, with support from Shark Island Foundation.
CLEAN
(2022) : Feature documentary
Director: Lachlan McLeod
Producers: David Elliot-Jones & Charlotte Wheaton
When illness forces her away from her beloved trauma cleaning business, Sandra faces up to her traumatic past and begins a search for her birth mother. Meanwhile, the workers approach this difficult work with camaraderie and humour, bringing hope to their clients despite carrying trauma of their own.
In co-production with GoodThing Productions.
Winner, Best Documentary (One-off), Asian Academy Creative Awards, 2023
Nominated Best Documentary at the 2022 AACTA Awards
Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize (Feature Documentary Competition) at SXSW 2022
Selected as the Closing Night Film at Melbourne International Film Festival 2022
WHO I AM
(2022) : Short documentary
Director: Naomi Ball
Producers: David Elliot-Jones & Cadance Bell
A transgender teen on the spectrum learns to be himself and find the support he needs with the help of his original animated characters, The Fallens.
A recipient of the 2020 Doc Edge Rei Foundation Film Fund, with principal production funds from Screen Australia and support from VicScreen.
SEARCHING FOR THE TASSIE TIGER
Vice (2021): Short documentary
Director: Naomi Ball
Producer: David Elliot-Jones
New evidence and a growing civilian movement are challenging the long-held belief that Tasmanian tigers are extinct. A short doc for VICE’s Australiana strand.
Winner of the AIDC 2020 Screen Australia and VICE Pitch Australiana competition.
HAKAMADA
Al Jazeera (2020): Feature documentary
Director: Louis Dai
Producer: Katy Roberts
When conviction is guaranteed, justice is lost.
Hakamada: The Longest-Held Death-Row Inmate In The World reveals the human cost of Japan’s 99.9% incrimination rate, through the plight of Iwao Hakamada and sister Hideko’s 47-year battle to save him from execution.
BIG IN JAPAN
Amazon Prime (2018): Feature documentary
Director: Lachlan Mcleod
Producer: David Elliot-Jones
What is fame? Why do we want it? And what does it take for an ordinary person to get it?
After hearing about the huge demand for foreign talents in Japan, three Aussie filmmakers ship their lives and girlfriends to Tokyo on an outrageous DIY mission to make ‘ordinary’ Dave famous.
Premiered at DocEdge Festival (2018) and featured on Qantas.
CONVENIENT EDUCATION
SBS (2012): Online interactive/broadcast documentary
Co-directors: Lachlan Mcleod, David Elliot-Jones & Louis Dai
Producer: David Elliot-Jones
A multi-perspective story exploring the struggles of Australia’s student-migrants amid the 2008-10 crisis in international education.
Produced as an online-interactive documentary for SBS Online and later broadcast on SBS 2.
