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HOMEMADE HISTORY WITH SOPHIE JACKSON
		published: oct 2003
HOMEMADE HISTORY is a documentary series that draws upon 8mm home movies of ordinary Australians. Celebrating the private lives of 13 individuals or families, each five-minute episode tells a story, giving a personal touch to Australian history. Screenrights Member Services officer, Emma Rogers talks personal history with producer Sophie Jackson. With an interest in three dimensional art forms as well as film, Jackson attended the City Arts Institute in Sydney before specialising in producing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS). Jackson told Off the air that in this period her focus was on creating atmospheres, rather than telling stories. "The individual films I made as a student explored the 3D elements of cinema, using the medium to move through time and space, which I think gave me a good sense of the filmic," she said. More than a decade after literally drawing a production role out of a hat for a student film, Jackson is a working producer. "That's pretty much how I became a producer, and it seemed to suit many aspects of my character," she said. A key professional relationship was also formed on the same short film. "The director of that project was Robert Herbert and we continue to work together, fifteen years later," she said. Straight out of AFTRS Jackson produced the short feature, SQUARE ONE with Herbert. "Unlike all the other films I'd made up to that point, it had a reasonable budget and a full crew. It really put everything I had learned to the test. As a producer I felt supported by an experienced team" and free to "act as a producer, rather than worry where lunch was coming from," Jackson said. Jackson has enjoyed each project for different reasons. As producer of the documentary TWO THIRDS SKY (dir Sean O'Brien), about the creative lives of five contemporary artists and the Australian interior, Jackson was "back to a tiny crew and worrying about the catering." "I was cooking on camp fires in the middle of the MacDonnell Ranges in the Northern Territory or at Mutawintji beyond Broken Hill. It was a fantastic experiencee." Her most recent production, HOMEMADE HISTORY (dir Robert Herbert), is a "documentary found in the bottom of the cupboard", involving footage of home movies. "We were constantly surprised by the generosity of the subjects, not just welcoming us into their houses, but the candour with which they let us into their lives," she said. In fact it is the people and their lives that attracts Jackson to documentaries. "In documentary it's real people, it's an opportunity to meet people you may not have met in any other way. In that sense HOMEMADE HISTORY in particular was endlessly fascinating". While real people draw Jackson to documentary, it is character that attracts her to drama. She is interested in complex characters that feel real to the audience. "Both genres are concerned with telling stories. For me the two are interlinked. I've never thought of myself as specifically a documentary producer, perhaps just a film producer," she said. Jackson enjoys "shaping the creative ideas" with the writer and director in the development stages of production, "feeling excited about the potential" of a project and getting others involved. She also gains satisfaction from seeing the project come together through editing and helping find the key to narrative problems. For Jackson, the biggest challenge is financing a project in an extremely competitive market. "You have to put a lot of work into getting a small amount of development money, and then you may be turned down anyhow. Although it is usually a useful process in terms of solidifying ideas, the creative challenges are much more satisfying." "To me [the Australian industry] feels very much like a cottage industry. A lot of independent filmmakers give their heart and soul to one production that is creatively or politically very interesting, then spend the next two or three years trying to get the next one happening, while working parttime in unrelated fields." After two successful documentaries in recent years, Jackson has a feature film in development entitled INTRODUCING HORROR HOSPITAL. The feature is a "gay teenage punk romance based on a short story by underground LA writer Dennis Cooper". Together with Herbert, she is also developing Imaginary Traveller, a poetic documentary using images from travelogue films of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s with words from postcards and letters sent from home. "The film looks at the idea of visiting the exotic other from the perspective of staying at home." Sophie Jackson is an independent Australian producer with her own production company Arcadia Pictures. HOMEMADE HISTORY has been so warmly received there is a strong possibility of a second series.


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