Franklin River Movie

Hi! 

Our crowdfunding campaign has ended.  

But you can still help fund our impact campaign here (it's tax deductible too!).

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Thanks for your support!

Dark Water: Battle on the Franklin is a documentary about the battle to stop the iconic Franklin River from being dammed by Tasmania’s Hydro-Electric Commission in the 1980s.

The feature-length film will follow the story of young Tasmanian Oliver Cassidy as he follows in the activists’ footsteps and embarks on a solo rafting pilgrimage down the Franklin. In the process, he will retrace the extraordinary story of the seven-year campaign.

Watch our 3min sizzle  — a short 'proof-of-concept' to give you a taste of the film we are making:

Who's behind it?

A team of award-winning independent filmmakers based in Tasmania and Victoria:

- Oliver Cassidy, Subject and Co-Producer, is an 8th-generation Tasmanian, activist, filmmaker, musician and transgender person. Oliver began researching the story of the Franklin campaign after the early passing of his father Mike, who in 1983 rafted the river to join the blockade and was arrested the week before Oliver was born.

- Chris Kamen, Producer, joined the project in 2015 and has led the development of the project since. Chris' previous feature-length documentaries include Small is Beautiful (2016) and Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (2011) 

- Kasimir Burgess, Director and Co-Writer, has just completed his exquisite documentary The Leunig Fragments, which screened at Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals, and is in cinemas now! Kasimir previously made the critically-acclaimed drama film Fell (2014). His numerous shorts have screened in over thirty countries at festivals including Berlin, Locarno, Stockholm and Melbourne International. His documentary work in the pacific has screened at the UN and The Sydney Opera House as part of TEDx and The World Conference For The Rights of People with Disabilities.

- Claire Smith, Co-Writer, has written, produced and directed documentaries for ABC, Netflix and Discovery. She is currently producing a global, environmental feature at ITN Productions and in collaboration with Doc Society. Previously she was directing, producing and post-producing several true-crime series for Discovery USA. In Australia, she spent three years on ABC's flagship science show Catalyst, before moving on to become a producer for the ABC/Netflix medical series Ask the Doctor and then at Genepool Productions on Vitamania. 

- Annie Venables, Line Producer. Based in Tasmania, Annie has a depth of experience performing a number of different producing roles across drama, documentary and TV commercials. Annie will lead the hands-on producing work to get this film made once it is funded. 

- Big thanks also to Simon Murray and Josephine Maguire-Rosier for helping us to pull this crowdfunding campaign together! 

- Also thank you to The Night Choir for providing the music for our crowdfund pitch video, and Phil Noy for help with audio!

Our Timeline

March 2020 CROWDFUNDING funding deadline:  If we achieve our stretch goal of $70,000, we can complete the film in the next 12 months.

November 2020 - FILMING the RIVER TRIP: Oliver's solo 2-3 week rafting trip down the Franklin River — after the winter floods have subsided and the water levels are right. 

December 2020 - FILMING INTERVIEWS with all the key players of the campaign  — including Bob Brown, Dick Smith, Alice Hungerford, Lisa Yates, Kevin Keirnan, Jim Everett, Geoff Law plus many more — to get the inside story on how it all went down.

Early 2021 - Post-production: Archive-footage research, editing, visual effects, music, sound mix.

Mid-2021 - LAUNCH! Currently aiming to premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2021. 

What was the Franklin campaign?

The seven-year Franklin campaign remains as Australia’s most significant environmental movement. It peaked in the summer of 1982/3 with a three-month blockade aimed at stopping construction of the controversial "Gordon-below-Franklin" dam project. 

Over 1,200 were arrested on the river and tens of thousands attended rallies all over the country. As the story went global, international celebrities weighed in providing crucial legitimacy and moral support. 

Eventually, Bob Hawke was elected as Prime Minister and announced the project would be abandoned — a decision that the Tasmanian government fought all the way to the High Court, and lost. 

This unprecedented non-violent movement changed the course of history, gave rise to a new environmental consciousness across Australia, and shaped the nation's environmental policy for decades to come. 

Why make this film? Why now? 

This is a film that will not only help audiences understand how it’s possible to win an environmental movement, but how they can be part of that win. 

In the wake of this summer’s bushfires and the looming climate catastrophe, we are all grappling with despair, hopelessness and climate grief.

Recent events have only confirmed our belief that the Franklin campaign provides powerful inspiration and practical guidance on how to respond to everything that’s going wrong in our ecology right now.

It’s a story that gives us hope — and we think it will give you hope too.

Who is this film for?

People across Australia who lived through and participated in the Franklin campaign will be invigorated with a reminder of their amazing achievement. This is a story they can share with younger people in their lives to show how change-making movements can actually succeed. 

Many young Australians, up into their mid-30s, have never heard of the Franklin River campaign. This film will inspire and inform them, showing how their participation in non-violent change-making movements are part of a long tradition. 

Impact partners: We are partnering with Australia's leading environmental advocacy organisations including the Tasmanian Wilderness Society. Our vision is for the film to become a tool to inspire and activate people into action on numerous environmental issues needing to be addressed — be it protecting the Tarkine from logging, stopping Adani, unplugging lake Pedder, preventing drilling in the Bight, or taking action on climate change.

We achieved our base goal of $35,000 in the first six days of this campaign!

Now we are pushing to reach a $70,000 stretch goal that will not only help us finish filming this year, but will allow us to complete the entire project by early next year.

Thanks to the generous support of Screen Australia and Screen Tasmania we have secured 61% of our budget, with another 24% under application at other film funding bodies.

Now we just need your help to raise the final 15%!

The project has received principal production investment from Screen Australia and development assistance from Screen Tasmania.

Tax-deductible donations

To make your contribution tax-deductible, please donate here via the Documentary Austalia Foundation.

Want to support us in some other way?

We are keen to speak to individuals, companies and organisations who can support our project in a more significant way — it can be financial or otherwise. Please contact [email protected] to organise a chat. 

Thank you for your support,

and please share this with a friend!