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Ronin Films

People

Steve Thomas

Steve Thomas is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and lecturer in documentary at the Victorian College of the Arts School of Film and Television. His previous documentary feature HOPE (2008) told the story of SIEV-X survivor Amal Basry. It won the ATOM Award for Best Social/Political Documentary and was a finalist in the Australian Human Rights Awards and Australian Directors Guild Awards (see www.hopedocumentary.com.au).

Steve's earlier films include BLACK MAN'S HOUSES and HAROLD, ABC TV documentaries examining black-white history in Australia. The former won a Dendy and the Rouben Mammoulian Award at the Sydney Film Festival. He won the AFI Award for Best TV Documentary with his exploration of multiculturalism in THE HILLMEN – A SOCCER FABLE and a United Nations Association Media Peace Award for LEAST SAID, SOONEST MENDED, an exploration of his twin sister's adoption story.

Steve's interest in asylum seeker issues began with the making of WELCOME TO WOOMERA (2004) for ABC TV and FREEDOM STORIES completes a trilogy dealing with this subject (see www.freedomstoriesproject.com). Steve has an MA by Research in the ethics of documentary making and is currently completing a PhD involving an examination of the making of Freedom Stories.

Filmography

WOODCUTTER'S SON, THE (Family Foibles) »

Family Foibles is a series of five half-hour documentaries that examine contemporary Australian families. Each story revolves around a family confronting a problem...

MY MOTHER NANCY (Family Foibles) »

Family Foibles is a series of five half-hour documentaries that examine contemporary Australian families. Each story revolves around a family confronting a problem...

UPSTAIRS DOWNSTAIRS (Family Foibles) »

Family Foibles is a series of five half-hour documentaries that examine contemporary Australian families. Each story revolves around a family confronting a problem...

KIM & HARLEY & THE KIDS (Family Foibles) »

Family Foibles is a series of five half-hour documentaries that examine contemporary Australian families. Each story revolves around a family confronting a problem...

MICK'S GIFT (Family Foibles) »

Family Foibles is a series of five half-hour documentaries that examine contemporary Australian families. Each story revolves around a family confronting a problem...

BLACK MAN'S HOUSES »

This documentary tells the story of black survival in Tasmania amidst the continuing suppression of history and culture. In doing so, it challenges skin-deep assumptions about Aboriginality today...

HAROLD »

The story of a forgotten Aboriginal hero: in the late 1940s Harold Blair was one of the most renowned Australian tenors of the concert hall, and was held up as a model of assimilation...

LEAST SAID, SOONEST MENDED »

The story of the filmmaker’s twin sister: an unmarried teenage mother, despatched at the age of 15 to an institution where she was hidden away and arrangements made for the adoption of her baby...

FREEDOM STORIES »

Recommended by the Refugee Council of Australia: "a thoughtful and uplifting film that places humanity back in this often politicised debate...

HOPE »

In 2001, 400 asylum seekers set out on a boat known as the Siev X. Only 7 made it to Australia. Amal Basry was one of them ...