“Strictly Jewish” named documentary of the year
Sydney’s Mint Pictures has won the 2016 Screen Producers of Australia (SPA) award for best Single Documentary of the Year for its production “Strictly Jewish”.
Producer Dan Goldberg and the award presented to Mint Pictures
‘Strictly Jewish’ opened a rare window into the secret world of Australia’s most ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect, the 200-plus families of the Adass Israel congregation in Melbourne’s Ripponlea.
It was the first time TV cameras had been given access into this reclusive community who generally shun the media – not everyone inside Adass was happy about it.
The award was announced at the annual SPA awards at Melbourne’s Crown Palladium last week.
Mint Pictures was up against documentaries from Media Stockade, Intafusion Films, Waterbyrd Filmz and Princess Pictures.
Strictly Jewish was commissioned by SBS as part of its Untold Australia strand, and was the highest rating documentary of the four-part series, with more than 500,000 viewers when it aired in April.
The documentary was directed by Danny Ben-Moshe; produced by Dan Goldberg; and executive produced by Adam Kay.
It was financed by SBS, SBS Sales, Screen Australia and Screen NSW.
Mint Pictures was a finalist in three other categories: Children’s Series of the Year for Bushwhacked! Bugs; Series Documentary of the Year for Streets of your Town; and Breakthrough Business of the Year.
Dan Goldberg told J-Wire: “The award is extra-gratifying for Mint Pictures on two levels: first, it’s from our industry peers, the members of Screen Producers of Australia; second, it’s remarkable that we actually managed to get cameras inside this small, reclusive, media-shy community.”
