MANUS

Director and Producer

Five time Archibald Prize Finalist Angus McDonald, is an artist, refugee advocate and award-winning documentary filmmaker. Since 1995, he’s held more than 30 solo exhibitions across Australia & internationally.

In 2017, McDonald began a film project under the name Howling Eagle to advocate for more humanitarian approaches to managing the welfare of forcibly displaced people seeking asylum.

His first standalone documentary, “MANUS” which he produced and directed in 2019, won several awards at film festivals in Australia and overseas and qualified for selection at the 2020 Academy Awards in the Documentary short category. McDonald was also an Ambassador for World Vision’s KidsOffNauru Campaign.

Director of Photography, Stills & Editing

Nolan Verheij is a cinematographer and photographer from Byron Bay, Australia, specializing in lifestyle and documentary work. His documentary filmmaking has taken him to the Middle East covering the refugee crisis and commercially he has worked with national and international brands shooting lifestyle.

Olivia Rousset has been working as a journalist and documentary filmmaker for 20 years, traveling the world making films in many countries including Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Ethiopia, Kosovo, Brazil, Indonesia and Bosnia.

She usually works alone, shooting and directing, and is passionate about social justice issues. Her films have screen on the BBC, CBC (Canada) and the ABC and SBS in Australia. Olivia won two Walkley Awards (Australia's highest journalism prize), UN Media Awards as well as the George Munster Award for Independent Journalism for her reporting for SBS TV’s 'Dateline' programme. Last year Olivia produced a radio documentary for 'Reveal' at the Centre for Investigative Reporting in the U.S.

Behrouz Boochani (born 23 July 1983) is an Iranian-Kurdish journalist, human rights defender, poet and film producer. He was born in western Iran. He was detained by the Australian Federal government on Manus Island for more than six years beginning in 2013. He is now in NZ where he has applied for asylum.

Boochani is the co-director, along with Iranian film maker Arash Kamali Sarvestani, of the 2017 documentary Chauka, Please Tell Us the Time, selected for the BFI awards and awarded the audience award for best documentary at the Sydney Film Festival in 2018. He has published numerous articles in leading media internationally about the plight of refugees held by the Australian government on Manus Island, and has won several awards.

His memoir, No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, won the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Victorian Premier's Prize for Nonfiction in January 2019. The book was tapped out on a mobile phone in a series of single messages over time and translated from Persianinto English by Omid Tofighian.

Abdul Aziz Muhamat, is a Sudanese refugee and tireless human rights defender, who spent almost six years trapped by the Australian Government's offshore processing policy on Manus Island. He belongs to the Zaghawa ethnic group of Darfur in north-western Sudan. In 2013, the conflict forced him to flee his country. He arrived to Australia by boat from Indonesia to seek asylum and was transferred to Manus Island. In 2019, he was awarded the prestigious Martin Ennals Award, an annual prize for human rights advocates given by a jury of 10 of the world's leading human rights NGOs. On travelling to Switzerland to receive the award, he was granted residency there and continues to advocate for the freedom of the hundreds of men who still remain in PNG now.

Jarrod McKenna is the Founding Director of CommonGrace.org.au, an initiator of the LoveMakesAWay movement and the Teaching Pastor at Sanctuary Church.

David Smith, also known as Fighting Father Dave, is an Australian Anglican priest best known for his work with at-risk youths, especially in his use of boxing for those suffering from substance abuse problems and anger management issues. He is also a 6th degree black belt and a professional boxer. His progression into martial arts and boxing happened while he was attempting to raise funds for the community in Dulwich Hill, where he has been the parish priest of the Anglican Church since 1990. Smith's "Trinity's Youth Centre" opened in the church hall in 1994, providing a safe-place for young people after school.

In 2002 Dave established "Binacrombi" - a remote facility in the heart of the Australian bush – as a centre for both prayer and martial arts training for young people. He runs regular 'Warrior Weekend'camps at Binacrombi, aimed at teaching both physical and spiritual fitness, and (increasingly) at developing social integration between Muslim and non-Muslim youth.

Much of Dave's energy is indeed focused on inter-faith and social-justice work. He has built close ties with the Shia Muslim community in Sydney and works hard at trying to combat Islamophobia and anti-Arab prejudice.

Smith is also a published author and has taken a very public stance on various human-rights issues, including refugee protection.

Smith has been twice awarded Marrickville Citizen of the Year award and was nominated for Australian of the Year in 2004 and 2009. In 2012, he broke the world record for the most continuous rounds boxing

Dr Mahnaz Alimardanian is a Consultant Anthropologist. She is an Honorary Associate with the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, La Trobe University, Australia. She provides community-based research services at PiiR Consulting and has a background in visual and performing arts and design.www.piir.com.au