Black Cockatoo Crisis is a feature length documentary film project that includes a comprehensive social impact campaign aimed at moving audiences to action and pushing for change.

The project grew out of an earlier film project the director and producer Jane Hammond had made in 2020 called Cry of the Forests. That independent film was complimented by an intense social impact campaign that urged audiences to lobby their members of parliament to end native forest logging. The WA Forest Alliance was the film’s impact partner and coordinated the campaign. Ten months after the release of the film the WA Labor Government committed to end all native forest logging by 2024.

The success of Cry of the Forests’ social impact campaign demonstrated how grassroots action could be harnessed for social change. The film was an effective tool in showcasing the wasteful and destructive logging industry and highlighting that forests were far more valuable standing than as woodchips, firewood and charcoal.

Jane Hamond has again teamed up with the WA Forest Alliance to present Black Cockatoo Crisis and the team has been joined by the Wilderness Society. Using the film as a key engagement tool the impact partners will campaign for change to save WA’s three species of south west black cockatoo. But the cockatoos will not be the only beneficaries from the campaign. As an umbrella species if we protect the black cocktatoo then we also protect the other threatened and endangered plants and animals that share the bird’s critical habitats. And in lobbying for more effective federal legislation to protect our endangered species all Australians and our precious biodiversity stand to benefit.

While native forest logging will grind to a halt at the end of 2023, strip mining the northern jarrah forest and other critical black cockatoo habitat is continuing and expanding.

There is much that citizens can do to save these precious birds, such as planting cockatoo friendly trees and shrubs to visiting local members of parliament to voice their concerns. Joining your local landcare or urban bushland group is an another key way you can help protect these birds.

The black cockatoo is a much loved species and together we can turn the current race to extinction into a race to replant, rewild, preserve and protect.

Please urge your friends and family to see the film and engage with the campaigns. We hope to have the film in schools early in the new year and to screen it nationwide.

“We often hear about the push of a species to the brink of extinction, but it’s not always easy to grasp what that means. This film goes straight to the heart and is going to be a critical tool in educating and mobilising the community.”

Jess Beckerling Campaign director WA Forest Alliance

About the Team

Black Cockatoo Crisis was directed and produced by environmental filmmaker Jane Hammond. Executive producers were Ian Hale and Hannah Pocock, Narrator Janine Oxenham, Editor Nicholas Dunlop. Cinematography Jane Hammond & Richard Todd. Associate Producers were Paddy Cullen, Shane French, Suzanne Worner, Richard Evans, Simon McGrath, Maryellen Yencken, Ravi Wasan, Peter & Amy Bennett, Cher Van Schouwen, the Wilderness Society and the WA Forest Alliance. Original title music composer Damien Lane, Title Vocals Nicole Smede. Location Sound Lucy Nicol. Title Sequence Cinematography Byron Martin, Title sequence bird handler Ravi Wasan. Assistant Editor Jade Rice. Australian cinema distributor Ian Hale, International distributor Hannah Pocock.

Jane Hammond

Director/Producer/Cinematographer

Jane Hammond is a filmmaker and freelance journalist. She specializes in stories of environmental justice, action on climate change and social affairs. In 2012 she took redundancy from The West Australian newspaper and went back to university to learn the art of filmmaking. She completed a Masters of Professional Communications at Edith Cowan University in Perth doing her final units of study at the WA Screen Academy in 2016.

Jane has made three longer form documentary films prior to Black Cockatoo Crisis. Her documentary Cry of the Forests – A Western Australian Story, released in November 2020, was instrumental is raising awareness and changing public opinion on logging in WA. After a strong social impact campaign around the film the WA Government announced in 2021 that all native forest logging in the state would end by 2024.

Jane’s other films include A Crude Injustice (2017), which tells the story of the 2009 Montara oil spill off the coast of WA and its impact on the seaweed farmers of West Timor; and A Fractured State (2016) which examined the threat of fracking in WA and the community movement fighting that threat.

Black Cockatoo Crisis was named winner of the 2021 Brian Beaton Award for social impact.

Jane has also written, shot, edited and produced in excess of 100 short form videos on environmental issues, the climate crisis and social justice.

NIcholas Dunlop

Editor

Nicholas Dunlop edits factual and drama for independent producers and broadcasters including ABC, SBS, BBC, ITV and ZDF-Arte.

Nick was series editor on primetime programs such as Australia’s Health Revolution with Dr Michael Mosley (SBS), Don’t Stop the Music (ABC), and the feature documentary Laura’s Choice (ABC). Nick was the co-winner of the 2018 Ellie (ASE) Award – Best Factual Entertainment and nominated again in 2019 for the ABC feature documentary Storm In A Teacup. He is the recipient of six West Australian Screen Awards including Best Editing and Best Directing for ABC series Comic Book Heroes (2013). His most recent work prior to Black Cockatoo Crisis was on Rob Rinder’s Interrogation Secrets for A&E Network (UK) and Our Law for NITV.

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Janine Oxenham

Narrator

Janine Oxenham is a Malgana Yamatji woman from the Shark Bay area in WA. She has studied dance at both NAISDA college, NSW and WAAPA, WA.
She has choreographed and performed as a freelance contemporary Indigenous dancer for numerous festivals in regional WA. In 2015 she mounted the work Willy Willy as part of the Ausdance’s Future Landings project. She has facilitated community dance groups and performed as part of the core crew for the travelling festival Creality (formerly Gascoyne In May) for the past 9 years.

More Recently, Janine has worked as Movement Director and choreographer for Yirra Yaakin (YY) and Perth Festival productions of Hecate and Panawathi Girl. She is currently working on various independent projects including working on The Stars Descend with Annette Carmichael Projects, Josh Pether’s experimental durational work The Reckoning and her own work Contours, created of and for Country of the Gascoyne.

(Head shot credit is Dana Weeks)

Ian Hale

Executive Producer & Distributor

Ian Hale has been a familiar face in the Perth film fraternity for more than 30 years in his capacity as State manager WA/SA/NT for Paramount Pictures, Universal Pictures,Dreamworks Animation and Transmission Films.

In 2013 Ian embarked on his own production as Managing Director of The Backlot Perth, a 50-seat, state-of-the-art cinema designed for not only for corporate film screenings and presentation use but also to service film makers with post-production and editing facilities and worked as an Executive Producer on local films.

In 2020 Ian started his own Distribution Company HALO Films to use his experience in assisting WA films that had no funding or distribution get made and find an audience.

HANNAH POCOCK

Executive Producer & International Distributor

Hannah Pocock brings more than 20 years of programme-making experience which has delivered a rich tapestry of stories over time.

Pocock’s journey is marked by an unwavering commitment to authenticity and a penchant for diverse narratives. From her early days as a burgeoning creative talent in scriptwriting and production, Pocock’s trajectory has covered popular science, natural history and adventure, and true-crime for Australian and international broadcasters, including ABC, SBS, BBC, Discovery Channel, National Geographic channel and A&E.

As a naturalised Western Australian who adores the regions endemic natural wonders, contributing her time to the Black Cockatoo Crisis project has been a no-brainer.

Pocock has promoted the film at markets in Europe to garner it earn more audiences and direct further funds to the critical aims of the film.

About

“We often hear about the push of a species to the brink of extinction, but it’s not always easy to grasp what that means. This film goes straight to the heart and is going to be a critical tool in educating and mobilising the community.”

Jess Beckerling Campaign director WA Forest Alliance