Event Summary
26—28 August, 2025 | ArtSpace, Gadigal Land, Sydney
What climate stories does the world need now?
Whose voices should tell them?
Which audiences need to see and hear these stories, and how do we ensure those audiences are reached?
Climate Story Lab Australia brings together climate leaders, experts and storytellers to answer these questions in a three-day gathering of First Nations leaders, scientists, political strategists, advocates, community organisers, journalists, businesses and philanthropists.
Our aims for this event are to:
- Strengthen existing climate storytelling projects and impact campaigns
- Spark the creation of compelling new stories that are strategically aligned with movement towards climate understanding, action and justice
- Spur new partnerships amongst storytellers, movement leaders, impacted communities and climate experts to mobilise strategic audiences towards action
There have now been 33 Climate Story Labs held successfully in locations around the world – from the Brazilian Amazon to East and West Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and Europe - with 2025 marking the first time the event comes to Australia.
From 55 applications, the applications committee selected seven compelling storytelling projects with strong impact ambitions to be workshopped and elevated through the three-day intensive.
The projects were reviewed by Documentary Australia Impact Director Stephanie King, Doc Society Director of Special Projects Hollie Fifer, and external reviewer and filmmaker Douglas Watkin.
Austinmer 2515
Documentary podcast
Director: Kellie Riordan
Producer: Sarah Dabro
Austinmer 2515 is a 10-part narrative documentary podcast which follows one town’s quest and one crazed entrepreneur’s dream to electrify a town. Can this beachside village illuminate our path to a fossil-fuel-free future?
Confidential Gas Project
Feature Documentary
Further details of this project are currently embargoed.
Connected to Country
Documentary Podcast
Director: Genevieve Grieves
Producer: Laurrie Mansfield and Kate Montague
Connected to Country is an immersive listening experience that amplifies the wisdom of Australian First Nations Elders, custodians of the world’s oldest living culture. Through intergenerational storytelling, young people will preserve oral traditions while confronting the urgent and connected challenges of climate action, cultural survival and environmental stewardship.
Floodland
Feature Documentary
Director and Writer: Jordan Giusti
Producers: Gal Greenspan and Rachel Forbes
Writers: Dr Carlie Atkinson and Joseph Nizeti
Lismore is Australia’s flood capital, priding itself on historic resilience in the face of immeasurable deluge. But as the climate crisis rises tides, uncomfortable truths boil to the surface, leaving residents wondering if their precarious way of life can survive a changing world.
Moblands
Feature Documentary
Director and Producer: Yale MacGillivray
Three renegade cowboys ride to protect a world most have forgotten. As they train for the rodeo of their lives, they’re armed with 80,000 years of unbroken knowledge to defend their Country — and pulled into a fierce reckoning with the forces erasing land, memory, and future. Against the backdrop of colonisation, they ride with fury, loyalty, and joy.
Saltwater Cowboys
Documentary Series
Director: Karla Hart
Producer: Renée Kennedy
Executive Producers: Renée Kennedy, Nathan Gibbs and Karla Hart
Malgana entrepreneur Michael Wear and his Indigenous startup, Tidal Moon, revive Australia’s sea cucumber trade and restore Shark Bay's / Guthaaguda's seagrass, battling shark-infested waters, regulatory barriers, and local tensions while trying to grow their business, empower their community and combat climate change.
Testimony
Feature Documentary
Director: Maya Newell
Executive Producers: McRose Elu and Deanne Weir
Producers: Barbara Ibuai, Larissa Behrendt AO, Sophie Hyde, Alex Kelly and Lisa Sherrard
As the climate emergency rises before them, Torres Strait Islanders rise up too and sue the Australian Government for failing to protect them. We walk with witnesses and dance with story-holder Sedrick as he gathers his people to remember, brace and dream of possible futures. This film is their testimony.
“We could not be more passionate about supporting these independent climate documentary projects characterised by their interrogation of power, their elevation of research and lived experience, and their visions of climate just futures. As a committee we deliberated at length on the 55 projects submitted, and are proud that this selection reflects both the quality of storytelling in this region, and the strategic opportunities for documentary to advance climate action and justice.”
—
Stephanie King
Documentary Australia Impact Director and initiative lead
“We are so excited to bring the Climate Story Lab model to Australia for the first time alongside Documentary Australia as co-hosts. Over three days, we will bring change-makers across the country including First Nations leaders, climate experts, storytellers, funders and the documentary industry to exchange knowledge, lived experience, movement strategies and the power of documentaries to shift Australia's understanding of climate justice. This is an essential moment in Australian climate communications.”
—
Hollie Fifer
Doc Society Director of Special Projects and initiative lead
Interested to partner with us?
If you are interested to attend Climate Story Lab Australia as a climate expert or leader, or if you are a vision-aligned organisation looking to partner with us on the event, please reach out to us at info@documentaryaustralia.com.au and tell us a bit about yourself, your experience and your interest in being part of this climate narrative shift event. Please note that attendance at this event is by invitation only, however we would love to learn more about you and your work.
Co-hosts
Partners
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