Barbara Anna Chobocky

ROLE / ORGANISATION

Filmmaker | Documentary Films

LOCATION

NSW | Australia

SHORT BIO

Barbara Chobocky is one of Australia’s most highly respected documentary filmmakers. Her work spans five decades from 1975 to the present, during which time she has focused on subjects that illuminate the psychological impact of social history and politics on the lives of individuals and families across a multicultural spectrum. Barbara has chosen topics that throw light on the behaviour of ordinary people whose lives have been shaped by extraordinary circumstances.

BARBARA ANNA CHOBOCKY Barbara is a well-known Australian writer/producer/director with many successful and award-winning projects to her credit. In 1978, she established Documentary Films and through this company has produced a number of films dealing with urgent social issues. Among these, several have attracted particular acclaim. In 1990, Barbara was awarded the prestigious DOCUMENTARY FELLOWSHIP by ABCTV and the Australian Film Commission in recognition of the quality and creativity in her productions over the preceding decade. MARIA – her resulting fellowship film – was broadcast by the ABC and won the Dendy Award for Best Documentary at the 1992 Sydney Film Festival. Amongst many awards, it won the Australian Human Rights Commission Award and the NSW Ethnic Affairs Commission Award for best film, as well as an AWGIE for Best Documentary Screenplay, Australian Film Institute Award for Best Documentary Film Play and the Cinevex Award at the St. Kilda Film Festival. BILLION DOLLAR CROP reveals the real reasons behind the original prohibition of cannabis (a.k.a. hemp, grass, marijuana) during the 1930s. This program was broadcast on ABCTV in 1994 and 1996 and is widely-acknowledged throughout Australia as having led to legal reforms enabling farmers to grow the new non-drug varieties of this plant. In April 1992, Iranian exiles ran riot in simultaneous demonstrations in Europe, North America, and Australia. In Canberra, the trashing of the Iranian Embassy was recorded by an SBSTV news crew and was telecast worldwide. THE RAID, co-written, produced and directed by Barbara, tells the stories of those people who were labeled as terrorists by the media and tried as members of an international terrorist conspiracy. The Australian Film commission awarded Barbara her second Fellowship in 1998, which has led to the development of a project about the decade of changes in the Czech Republic since the introduction of democracy in 1989. Barbara has recently completed two documentaries. Viva La Diva – Portrait of Yvonne Kenny, is a one hour program about Australia’s best-known opera soprano Yvonne Kenny and was broadcast on SBSTV in July 2002. The other, Welcome to the Waks Family, is about one of Australia’s largest families, with 17 children to the same two parents. This will be broadcast on SBSTV in the near future.