Brisbane-based production company WildBear Entertainment is currently filming a feature-length Stan Original documentary about the Great Barrier Reef and the power of conservationism. Titled Revealed: Reefshot and hailed as a testament to people-power in action, the 80-minute nature activism documentary is supported by the Queensland Government through Screen Queensland’s Screen Finance Program and Regional Incentive, and principal production investment from Screen Australia.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the production shines a spotlight on the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef – one of the world’s greatest natural attractions.
“Backed by our government, Revealed: Reefshot will splash the Great Barrier Reef over the small screen and inject $680,000 into the state economy,” the Premier said.
“It is wonderful to see streaming platforms such as Stan embrace Queensland-made content about our State’s most outstanding, yet vulnerable features.”
Director Matt Tomaszewski is currently filming around Cairns, with shoots planned around Townsville and Heron Island in Central Queensland.
The documentary tells the story of some of the reef’s most loyal citizens racing against time to turn the tide on the danger facing the world’s largest living organism.
Cairns-based environmentalist Andy Ridley, CEO of Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef and Founder of Earth Hour, leads a crew of scientists and activists to survey the far reaches of the Great Barrier Reef by uploading reconnaissance data to one of the largest natural censuses undertaken in human history, filling critical data gaps for the conservation of this iconic ecosystem.
Ridley is also executive producer, alongside Chris Chard (Bump, Romper Stomper) and the pioneering Great Reef Census team, and Cailah Scobie and Amanda Duthie for Stan.
The documentary has a strong First Nations focus, featuring the Yirrganydji Indigenous Land and Sea Rangers, who use thousands-of-years-old First Nations science to lead cutting edge reef rehabilitation programs.
Screen Queensland CEO Kylie Munnich said it was yet another example of local screen businesses successfully creating content destined for big audiences via popular streaming services.
“Queensland’s WildBear Entertainment is one of the state’s most successful local producers, with a number of other Screen Queensland-supported documentaries including Gem Hunters Down Under, Demolition Down Under, Hating Peter Tatchell and the greatly anticipated Ford vs Holden,” said Munnich.
“Cairns-based Biopixel, whose previous work includes David Attenborough’s Life in Colour, will be providing the spectacular underwater cinematography, using state-of-the-art equipment and expertise.”
Executive producer Andy Ridley said, “Revealed: Reefshot is all about the power of the citizen to help achieve the scale necessary to address the vast conservation challenges ahead of us.
“The Great Barrier Reef is probably the greatest place on the planet to remind people what is at stake, and mobilise them to help. ”
Far North Queensland Screen Champion Curtis Pitt said that the production is yet another example of the success of the Queensland Government’s three-year Far North Queensland Screen Production Strategic Plan, to increase production in the region.
“The plan had the aim of building the local screen industry and attracting more big-budget projects into the region, to utilise our spectacular locations such as Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef,” said Pitt.
“It’s doing just that, including the construction of the $12.8 million Screen Queensland Studios in Cairns, which is due to be operational in 2023.”
Revealed: Reefshot received principal production investment from the federal government agency Screen Australia in association with Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef.
Stan Original Documentary Revealed: Reefshot will premiere on Stan in 2022.