Here’s a review of our doco Freedom Stories by Phillipa Hawker via The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.

“Steve Thomas’ thoughtful, quietly involving documentary gives us stories of freedom and tales of the everyday”

“And the film isn’t neatly resolved; these are stories of lives in progress. Thomas returns at various points to key figure on the film, finding further surprises, changes of circumstances and direction. He reminds us that when the people taking part in this film arrived in Australia, they were first known not by name, but by number: this film embraces their individuality.”

Be sure to check it out at Cinema Nova (Lygon St Carlton here in Melbourne) who has upped the screenings to 2 session per day so there’s no excuse! Grab tix here

Check out this poster for Freedom Stories, a feature doco I scored earlier this year. Screening at Cinema Nova from July 23rd. If you’re in Melbourne see if you can get along to support the film.

“In Freedom Stories, filmmaker Steve Thomas explores the achievements and struggles of a number of former ‘boat people’. Now Australian citizens, they arrived from the Middle East seeking asylum, around 2001. This was the year of the Tampa and PM John Howard’s infamous “We will decide” speech. Some were only children when they found themselves in indefinite mandatory detention in Woomera or Nauru. Thomas captures the determination and resilience of this diverse group, who, a decade on, have rebuilt their lives in Australia. These are ordinary people, caught up in traumatic times, and in this poignant film their voices are finally heard.”

Proud to be asked to compose original music for the documentary feature Freedom Stories which premiered last week at the 2015 Syndey International Film Festival to a sold out screening followed by Q&A with director Steve Thomas and producer Lisa Horler. Freedom Stories is also screening at Cinema Nova from the 23rd July so keep your eye out!

You can listen to the score here

So James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenge is on SBS TV this Sunday night at 8:30pm. Certainly worth a look. Music by yours truly, Ricky Edwards and Amy Bastow. Good times.

Here’s a link to the SBS promo.

Mako Mermaids, a 26-part childrens TV series I co-composed with Ricky Edwards premieres this Friday 13th Feb (auspicious!) on NETFLIX and locally as Mako: Island of Secrets on ELEVEN this Sunday 15th Feb at 10am. Get your kids to watch it. It’s a great series: high production values and, of course, a great score!

“In this hit sequel to “H20: Just Add Water,” new merman Zac becomes a target of the mermaid council when they see his strong and mysterious connection to Mako Island as a threat to mermaids everywhere. To stop Zac, they send two new young mermaids ashore to strip him of his merman powers, not knowing that there might be another merman in town that poses an even greater risk to the pod.”

It was a huge honour being nominated along with Amy Bastow and Ricky Edwards for Best Music for a Documentary at this years AACTA awards for Deepsea Challenge 3D. Congratulations to Jed Kurzel who got the gong for ‘All This Mayhem’ (which I must track down, especially given how many other awards it picked up). It was a good show. Pic left to right: Brett (I love the red carpet) Aplin, Amy Bastow & Ricky Edwards.

OK, I’m feeling pretty damn proud right about now to have picked up a nomination at this years AACTA (AFI) Awards for our score to Deepsea Challenge 3D. We are in the Best Original Music Score in a Documentary category. Stiff competition but that somehow makes the acknowledgement even more humbling. Congrats to my co-nominees Ricky and Amy (and a HUGE thanks to Peter H)

That brings the total nominations for Deepsea Challenge to a whopping 4!

From the AACTA website:

“The AACTA Award for Best Documentary Television Program presented by Foxtel Movies sees the Oscar-winning Eva Orner nominated for her SBS television documentary THE NETWORK, alongside TENDER (ABC) and the series BRILLIANT CREATURES: GERMAINE, CLIVE, BARRY & BOB (ABC) and TAKING ON THE CHOCOLATE FROG (Foxtel – STUDIO).

A number of the previously announced nominees for Best Feature Length Documentary received craft award nominations today, with UKRAINE IS NOT A BROTHEL up for six AACTA Awards, and ALL THIS MAYHEM and DEEPSEA CHALLENGE 3D receiving four nominations each.

Australian music icons Nick Cave and Warren Ellis are among the nominees for the new AACTA Award for Best Original Music Score in a Documentary presented by APRA AMCOS for TENDER (ABC). Jed Kurzel (ALL THIS MAYHEM), Jed Palmer and Zoë Barry (UKRAINE IS NOT A BROTHEL) and Ricky Edwards, Brett Aplin and Amy Bastow (DEEPSEA CHALLENGE 3D) round out the nominees in this category.

The Australian Academy congratulates all nominees for the 4th AACTA Awards.”

If you missed it in cinemas, James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenge 3D has just been released on Blu-ray. You should check it out. Music score of course by Brett Aplin, Ricky Edwards and Amy Bastow. You can get it pretty much anywhere but here is one link. Here’s another!

Great news! Along with co-composer Ricky Edwards, Brett Aplin has just been nominated for this years APRA-AGSC Australian Screen Music Awards in the category ‘Best Music for Children’s Television’ for ‘Mako Mermaids‘. You can listen to some of his music for season 1 here.

Do check out the other nominees at this link as well as all the other categories filled with amazing screen composers!

Staged jointly by APRA AMCOS and the AGSC (Australian Guild of Screen Composers), the Screen Music Awards celebrate those quiet achievers of the Australian music industry who create the magic between screen and sound. This year’s event will be held on Wednesday 12 November at the City Recital Hall in Sydney, and will feature nominated compositions performed by an orchestra as directed by Emmy Award winning screen composer Ashley Irwin.

I went to the Deepsea Challenge 3D Melbourne preview last night with co-composer Amy Bastow at the Jam Factory in South Yarra. John Garvin who is the Co-Writer, Life Support Supervisor and Dive Instructor featured in the film gave a great speech beforehand honouring Jim and all those who had contributed to the journey giving the screening last night extra resonance. Quite an account of the story behind the film and a moving tribute to inspirational co-director Andrew Wight and underwater cameraman Mike deGruy who died during filming. Andrew’s family was in attendance. I hope they were proud of all our efforts.

Deepsea Challenge 3D opens Australia wide this Thursday 21 August.