Private Project

Where The Water Starts

Listed as a national heritage area in 2008 the Australian Alps is the birthplace of some of our iconic rivers. The trampling of hard hoofed animals is endangering the headwaters of the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers and the thirty four threatened native species of plants and mammals that live in this unique and sensitive habitat. A law protecting feral horses in Kosciuszko National Park and the ongoing impacts of climate change are taking their toll.
Where The Water Starts reveals how these challenges are seen by Indigenous and non-Indigenous people who were born or live in the southern mountains area, or who care deeply about it.
The film brings together respected Aboriginal community leaders as well as business people, a local farmer, a scientist, a former parks officer and an academic.

It explores our shared colonial and Indigenous histories and identities. Revealing the beliefs of its core interviewees, it focuses on the themes of caring for Country as a shared responsibility of all Australians; that the best of Aboriginal connection and the best of regenerative science can work together for a better future for the alpine environment and the planet.

  • Amanda King
    Director
    The Great Strike 1917, Clement Meadmore, Time To Draw The Line
  • Amanda King
    Writer
    The Great Strike 1917, Clement Meadmore, Time To Draw The Line
  • Fabio Cavadini
    Producer
    The Great Strike 1917, Clement Meadmore, Time To Draw The Line
  • Richard Swain
    Key Cast
  • Bruce Pascoe
    Key Cast
  • Dr Isa Menzies
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 11 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    August 31, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    50,000 AUD
  • Country of Origin:
    Australia
  • Country of Filming:
    Australia
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 1920X1080
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Wildlife Conservation Film Festival
    New York
    United States
    December 5, 2021
    Official Selection
  • Florida Environmental Film Festival

    United States
    September 12, 2021
    North American Premiere
    Official selection
  • Nature Without Borders International Film Festival

    United States
    January 18, 2022
    Official selection
  • Richmond International Film Festival

    United States
    March 15, 2022
    Honourable Mention
Distribution Information
  • FanForce
    Distributor
    Country: Australia
    Rights: Internet, Video on Demand, Theatrical
Director Biography - Amanda King

AMANDA KING

Amanda King is an Australian filmmaker who has been producing documentaries since the late 1980's. Her interests range from contemporary issues such as the environment, Indigenous rights and independence struggles, through to the arts and labour history. She works closely with her partner, Co-Producer and Cinematographer Fabio Cavadini, and they have done for over three decades, as the partnership Frontyard Films. They have produced a number of documentaries around stories based in the Pacific – in Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea and Bougainville - which have shown on Australian broadcast networks as well as to international audiences. Titles include Time To Draw The Line, Colour Change, An Evergreen Island and the arts documentary, A Thousand Different Angles. In 2018 they co-produced, filmed and edited BUWARRALA ARYAH Journey West with director, Gadrian JARWIJALMAR Hoosan from the Borroloola community. In 2019, their documentary The Great Strike 1917 screened at the Antenna International Documentary Film Festival and in 2020, their film Clement Meadmore screened at the Fine Arts Film Festival in LA. They are currently completing 2 independently produced documentaries, WHERE THE WATER STARTS and MAXISM...according to(Working Title)

WORK HISTORY

2021 Director Co-Producer
WHERE THE WATER STARTS

2020 Director Co-Producer
CLEMENT MEADMORE
Documentary
68 minutes
Film festival: Fine Arts Film Festival in Venice, LA

2019 THE GREAT STRIKE 1917
Documentary
58 minutes
Film festivals: Antenna International Documentary Film Festival
Workers Unite Film Festival New York
Laborfest SF
"Depicting a historical moment of working-class protest, Amanda King’s documentary brings together analysis and copious archival material with artistic responses to the 1917 strike a century on.  … A welcome and important addition to our continuing national dialogue regarding workers’ rights, unions, class and power. … (An) elegant and insightful exercise in non-fiction storytelling.”  - Barnaby Smith, Metro Magazine 205

2018 Co-Producer
BUWARRALA ARYAH Journey West
Documentary
52 minutes
Broadcast: NITV 2019 and 2020
Screened: Bali International Indigenous Film Festival

2017 Director Co-Producer
TIME TO DRAW THE LINE
Documentary
52 minutes
Cinema on Demand: Demand Films
Distribution: Ronin Films

2013 Co-Producer
COLOUR CHANGE
Documentary
54 minutes
Broadcasters: NITV & ABC TV’s Australia Network
Official Selection in Reel Earth Environmental Film Festival’s 7th Season

2011 Director, Co-Producer & Editor
A FIRST STEP
Documentary
26 minutes
Broadcast NITV 2014

2011 Director, Co-Producer & Editor
THE WILL & THE SKILL
Documentary
26 minutes
Broadcast NITV 2014

2010 Co-Producer/Director
A THOUSAND DIFFERENT ANGLES
Documentary
27 minutes
Broadcast on ABC TV 1’s Artscape
“This profile of Inge King’s career and support for modernism in large-scale, site-specific works, is filled with zest.’ Doug Anderson SMH, The Guide, March 2010
‘This is an absolutely great piece - strong and interesting. I think she’s a really strong character and it has a really strong narrative.’ Michael Idato SMH, Random on Purpose, March 2010

2000 Co-Producer-Director
AN EVERGREEN ISLAND
Documentary
45 minutes
Broadcast SBS TV 2001/NITV 2013
Awards & Film Festival screenings:
Finalist, 2002 ATOM Awards, Best Short-Form Documentary
World Social Forum Film Festival, Mumbai, 2004, India
Docomania, 2003, NZ
5th Kalamata International Documentary Film Festival, 2002, Greece
Cape Town Earth Festival Film Programme, 2002, SA
Commonwealth Film Festival, 2002, Manchester, UK
THIRD Annual Labor Film Festival, 2002, Brookline, MA USA
Version>02 2002, Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago Avenue, Chicago USA
20th GLOBALVISIONS FESTIVAL, 2001, Edmonton Alberta CANADA
Wild Spaces Environmental Film Festival, 2000, 5th Environmental Film Festival, Fitzroy
WOW 2000 - A WORLD OF WOMEN'S CINEMA, 10th International Film Festival, 2000 Sydney

2002 Co-Producer, Co-Director
STARTING FROM ZERO
Documentary
52 minutes
Broadcast SBS TV 2001

1990 Co-Producer, Co-Director
THE SHADOW OVER EAST TIMOR
Documentary
58 minutes
Broadcast SBS TV 1990
ATOM (Australian Teachers of Media) Award, in 1987
Finalist, in the Best Documentary category, at the AFI(Australian Film Institute Awards) in 1988.
The film was broadcast on television in Britain, the Netherlands, Canada, Portugal, Macau and Australia.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Where The Water Starts
Director’s Statement

Amanda King
Myself and my partner, cinematographer and producer, Fabio Cavadini started filming in mid 2019 to create a documentary focussing on the environment in Australia through stories about our precious and fragile high country. After three months of filming our main protagonists and most of the rest of the country was engulfed in wild fires never seen on such a scale or intensity before. Much of the alpine region was severely burnt. While the immediate issue that our participants was the highly destructive impact of feral animals in the national park, the fires brought the larger picture of climate change into sharp focus. We hope this film will inspire communities to take a different approach and work alongside Indigenous communities speaking out about environmental degradation and threats to life, water and country.

The edit of the film is locked off and we are now working on the final stages of Post Production, including the Sound Mix and final titles. We expect this to be completed in August 2021.