“The organising (for this project) was a group effort that's for sure, but it was flawless because you guys were the right people for the job. These (films) are absolutely phenomenal. I showed my team and they were crying! So bloody powerful! Mate honestly, absolutely amazing work.”
First People's Disability Network (FPDN)
Carly Wallace, National Training and Engagement Manager
“Just wanted to pass on some positive feedback from our friends at the Department of Tourism, who said that imagery captured and overall marketing of QMF events is second to none. They said everything looks and feels very polished and content captured is always beautiful.“
Tim Price - Marketing Campaign Manager
“Working with Article One was made easy and rewarding by the team's professionalism, skill, and commitment to the project.”
Bec Moran, Lived Experience Facilitator
“They were also very adaptable, as like always, we wanted some last minute alterations.. and with the coolest head in the world, granted our desires and created an ad that we absolutely loved!”
You Came Again - Vegan Tapas Bar in West End
Nicola Stone, Owner
Collaborative filmmaking through participatory storytelling
We’re Article One: film and media makers who specialise in community-connected participatory filmmaking.
Let's talk about working together, whether you have in mind a project to create a short or long observational documentary, branded social media content, scripted short films, promotional pieces, music videos, event documentations or anything else that can help share your message or story.
We offer a complete service from ideation and pre production planning, through to production and a full editing post production workflow.
You may notice from the projects we’ve completed that one of our specialties lies in working with communities, social change activists and artists/arts and cultural organisations to create materials that meaningfully involve and reflect the voices of those involved. We want to be part of creating a better world by supporting grassroots communities and groups to share their stories towards this end.
We have over 30 collective years experience working with First Nations mob to create content, including experience developing campaigns and conducting award-winning engagement processes with diverse communities around Australia. Together we work with you to create engaging content that amplifies your work and builds audience and support.
As a team, an important part of our focus is to strengthen and broaden the way we work with communities through building relationships, cultural knowledge and appreciation of protocol. This allows us to create great outcomes through good process and deep understanding of the work.
We’re also passionate about how our company operates - we use a non-hierarchical collective decision making model and consistently embody this approach when working with our clients and collaborators - whether that’s with crew members or with organisations, communities and project participants.
When you work with us, you're engaging a group of independent professionals working together. What that means is that all of your budget goes towards delivery rather than supporting fees and costs associated with maintaining a company, with every member of our team receiving the rates listed in our quotes.
This enables us to build an equitable business model that also incorporates opportunities to train, mentor and create paid work for underrepresented groups in the industry while simultaneously creating high quality films. We use this opportunity to support emerging First Nations filmmakers and women, particularly with accessing camera and sound equipment and in post production.
Lastly, everyone at Article One loves and appreciates working from Triple A in West End and being able to play whatever small part we can in creating opportunities for more First Nations crew and filmmakers to document and tell their own stories.
If you're a Magandjin-based filmmaker with an interest in the types of projects we describe here on this site, please get in touch, we'd love to connect.
We're keen to explore ways to support emerging filmmakers and, in particular, crew from a First Nations cultural background. If that's you, or if you know someone with an interest in editing, cameras, sound, directing or any other area of filmmaking, please contact us.At present we're working on a fundraising approach to raise funds to support an emerging First Nations editor.
We’re a small crew operating a flexible flat-structured media business in a way that seeks balance between generating income, being respectful and inclusive in the way we gather and share stories, and that supports important social justice issues in meaningful ways. All of that means that while our capacity is pretty limited we really value building relationships and connecting with people who want to make content.
While we can't always guarantee we'll have paid opportunities for emerging artists available initially, where there is compatibility we can work together to create projects we can mentor, train and provide experience through.
“Article One worked with us to develop a great community engagement strategy and suite of products. Steph and Dan were collaborative, talented and flexible partners for our project”
Fiona Hunt, CEO
A little about us
Steph Vajda
Steph is a producer, director and editor who also shoots and pilots drones. For over ten years Steph has blended his careers in engagement and community arts with filmmaking, specialising in designing collaborative projects with storytellers and communities.
With a focus on inclusion, voice and social change, Steph brings a unique approach to filmmaking where participants are supported to share their stories through culture and place and to be actively involved in shaping narratives and the filmmaking process.
Over the past few years Steph’s documentary work has included themes of First Nations justice, creative approaches to mental health and suicide prevention, substance abuse and access to housing, delivered alongside a range of creative projects including music videos, web series and short films.
Supporting the next generation is an important part of Steph's work. As a 2nd generation settler in Australian (born in Magandjin-Brisbane) with Sri Lankan heritage, his work through Article One includes a strong focus on developing mentoring, training and experiential pathways for emerging First Nations filmmakers.
Steph and Dan formed Article One in 2021 with Sam joining the team in 2022.
Download Steph's profile HERE
Siena Stubbs
As a young Yolŋu woman, Siena grew up in the community of Yirrkala surrounded by her family and culture. Her love for learning and sharing knowledge guides her between both worlds; Yolŋu and Ŋapaki, and helped her graduate from Nhulunbuy High School in 2019 as the Co-School Captain, with a strong sense of self. Since graduating, Siena has begun working at The Mulka Project, further developing her skills as a Film Maker and Artist. In 2020, her work ‘Shinkansen (2020)’ was awarded the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award – Multimedia Prize. She also produced and filmed a story that featured ABC’s ‘Lockdown Stories (2020)’, telling the story of how her community faced COVID-19. Currently, Siena is about to graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Film, Screen & New Media) from the Queensland University of Technology.
Siena joins Article One as an emerging editor with an interest in learning camera technique and Directing. Our team will provide support and mentoring for Siena through the post production process.
Dan Baebler
Dan is a multitalented filmmaker adept in all stages of the filmmaking process – conceptualisation, shooting, editing, colour grading and audio mixing.
Dan has created dozens of films including music videos, social advocacy, corporate video, event documentation and drama. Dan has a special interest in social justice and frequently mentors marginalised young people through filmmaking and digital storytelling. He has also worked with First Nations communities all across Queensland.
Prior to his career in film production Dan worked for 15 years as a multimedia communications designer, a skill-set that spans graphic design, motion graphics animation and video editing. This background dovetails with Dan’s cinematography skills to allow him to independently cover all aspects of film production. On large projects Dan has demonstrated capability in sub-contracting and directing other creatives as needed.
Outside of work, Dan has played for 20 years in punk rock band Sixfthick (and others) which was the subject of the 2010 ABC documentary Sixfthick: Notes from the Underground in which Dan scored the incidental music for this film.
Sam Watson
Sam Woripa Watson is a Wangerriburrah and Birri Gubba emerging filmmaker with an interest in camera and set work. Sam worked in Multimedia and Communications at Link-Up (Qld) from 2015-2020, where a large part of the role was to create promotional videos. During this time, in 2017, Sam studied Screen and Media through the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association.
In 2018 Sam directed and shot a short film entitled "Yoonthalla", for the NITV series "Our Stories" and was mentored by Dewi Wilson, a Trainer and Assessor at Triple A Training in Brisbane.
In 2021 Sam joined the Article One team, honing his skills in camera operation, lighting and sound, as well as strengthening his capacity as a Director and editor.
Some of the incredibly talented people we collaborate with...
Karina Hogan
Born in Logan on the south side of Magandjin (Brisbane), Karina Hogan is part of a big Aboriginal and South Sea Islander family. With a degree in Journalism and International Politics, Karina is a mother to two beautiful children and works as a journalist and content producer at ABC Radio Brisbane.
We collaborate with Karina on projects she produces outside of ABC as part of her personal practice. We also are developing concepts with her for future production. We love working with Karina who is a powerhouse networker and relationship builder with big dreams (that we share!) about the content she wants to create. ]
Check out Karina's latest project with Jenae - Bloodlines To Country
Surya McEwen
Surya does high demand support work and counselling, builders labourer work and is a stonemasonry apprentice. He lives on Bunjalung country in Northern Rivers NSW. He is interested in human liberation and radical imagineries. We're currently working with Surya to develop a 26 Jan Invasion Day documentary as well as collaborating on some smaller scale film projects.
Brendan Blacklock
Check out Blacklock Media's website
Jenae Tien
Jenae Tien is a media professional with over 8 years of experience and spent an impressive six years at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
As a versatile multimedia producer, she excels in film, digital content, radio, producing and podcasting and is acclaimed for her award-winning work on the podcast "Bloodlines to Country." With expertise in interviewing, Jenae crafts inclusive and engaging stories.
She is also the author of the educational resource "Deck of Diversity" and the founder of "Expand Your Library," a social enterprise promoting allyship and cultural diversity within organisations and educational settings.
Check out Jenae's latest project with Karina - Bloodlines To Country
Bogaine Spearim
Boe is a Gamilaraay & Kooma radio presenter with 98.9fm and created the popular Frontier War Stories podcast dedicated to truth-telling about a side of Australian that has been left out of the history books. Over 28 episodes and counting Boe has spoken with different Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people about research, books and oral histories which document the first 140 years of conflict and resistance. We're currently collaborating with Boe on an Invasion Day documentary as well as a range of smaller activist-lead projects.
We also regularly work with some exceptional organisations...
The Big Anxiety - an initiative of UNSW
Last year we produced a few exciting film projects with Professor Jill Bennett (founder of The Big Anxiety) and her team based at UNSW in Sydney. In 2021 together we began working with the Warwick community on a co-designed augmented reality story project, Hard Place/Good Place. At that time, while in the community filming a Long Table dialogue on suicide and mental health, the opportunity to create a documentary about the a group of local women acting on their vision to create better local support structures. Changing Our Ways is a feature documentary currently entered into film festivals and seeking distribution. We also produced 2 short films, Slice/Silence and I'd Rather Die, both on mental health awareness raising and advocating for better understanding and support for people struggling with long term trauma. We also documented Big Anxiety Festivals in Magandjin (Brisbane) and Naarm (Melbourne). In 2024 we're hoping to continue collaborating with The Big Anxiety, particularly regarding men's mental health and suicide prevention needs.
Queensland Music Festival
In April 2022 we filmed and edited socials content for Queensland Music Festival through a glorious days filming at The Long Sunset, a music festival set in beautiful Canungra and featuring Angus and Julia Stone headlining. Since then we’ve filmed with the QMF team throughout 2023 around the state at a range of small community events, regional gigs and large festivals including Opera at Jimbour, Outback Trails, Shine on Gimuy (Cairns), Yarrabah Music Festival, Sweet Relief (Brisbane) and Between the Tides (Mackay). We also documented local landscapes, sights and people along the way including collecting some pretty amazing drone footage for QMF to deliver their own marketing directly. We look forward to an ongoing relationship working with QMF in 2024!
Check out one of the reels we created for them in 2022 HERE
33 Creative
We're blessed to have worked closely with Sydney-based First Nations communications company 33 Creative to produce the Take Blaktion sexual health campaign film content for NSW Health. Since 2018 Steph has worked with the 33 team and with incredibly talented blak comedians from around Australia to design comedy skits for social media release.
The concept design and writing stages are driven by a different group of comedians each year through a process facilitated by 33 Creative and participated in by us. We then plan and direct the shoot and finally edit all content for sharing. Check out the Take Blaktion website for more info about the campaign and to check out some of our films
We also have collaborated with 33 Creative on an award winning RUOK? Stronger Together campaign for mob
(Note the films we made are from 2019 and featured at the bottom of the website under Written Stories)
First People's Disability Network (FPDN)
We’ve been working with FPDN since early 2023 to create a set of training resources and social media films that capture the unique stories and advocacy needs of First Nations people with a disability. Traveling to locations including Thursday Island, Cairns, Port Macquarie, Darwin, Alice Springs, Adelaide, Mt Gambier, Derby, Broome and Perth, we captured some of the most incredible stories and have turned those into a highly valued set of films that we hope to share soon. In total, we've produced 7 training films and 7 character portraits to support their advocacy work.
We really appreciate the way that Carly and her team at FPDN operates, resulting in a genuine partnership and facilitation of film shoots that generated such real stories about often difficult topics. The relationship we’ve built with FPDN has directly led to the creation of a powerful set of films we hope can achieve positive outcomes in advocating for the needs of First Nations people with a disability.
Stay tuned for an exciting year in 2024 as we release 14 films we've been making, plan international advocacy trips to share the films and hope to expand the work to create new films.
SAE Creative Media Institute
Contemporary and inspiring, SAE courses are definitively high-tech and have their finger on the pulse of creative industries around the world. They offer courses in more than 20 countries with around 50 campuses, enabling collaboration with a world view! We work with SAE to create promotional film content for them, as well as supporting film students with placement options where there's a fit with our current project delivery. Check out their website.
The Crackup Sisters
Just in case you've been living under a rock and haven't heard of them, The Crackup Sisters are whip crackin' clowns from out Winton way, in Central West Queensland. We got to travel all aorund with them speaking to other artists who've loved their days working and traveling in outback Australia.
And from those adventures we've made a little 6 part web series called Outback Artists that you seriously need to check out once it's released. Stay tuned for more info! We're currently talking with Crackup Sisters about creating another series.
Watch the trailer HERE
Galiwin'ku Women's Space - Supporting community media making
Together with members of the Galiwin'ku Women's Space we're setting up a cross-cultural system of training, mentoring and documenting songlines with Yolngu based on Elcho Island in north east Arnhem Land. It's a truly exciting partnership and an opportunity to develop, test and refine protocols and resources that can continue to support local people to learn basic sound recording skills to document important cultural practices and ceremony. Find out more about Galiwin'ku Women's Space HERE