Documentary
& Long-Form

What happens when you combine a free-spirited artist with a shake in his hands, a sharp-eyed photographer with a farm girl’s soul, and a passport with no limits? You get Painting Pictures — a warm, funny and visually stunning series that follows husband and wife Jake and Ange Butler as they chase beauty to the far corners of the globe, capturing the world through lens and paint.

She’s organised. He brings the chaos. Ange is a gifted photographer with an instinct for landscape and portrait, shaped by a childhood split between a rural Western Australian farm and the city. Jake is “Shakey Jakey” — a self-taught artist living with an essential tremor who has turned what should be an obstacle into something extraordinary, becoming one of Australia’s most sought-after artists working across canvas, mural and aerosol.

Together, they’re an unlikely creative force, and every episode is a new destination, a new moment in time, and a new work of art waiting to be made. Painting Pictures is travel, creativity and real life rolled into thirteen irresistible half-hours.

Some people survive addiction. Fewer turn that survival into a punchline — and make the whole room laugh. Meet Dora Smith, a proud Noongar woman from Perth whose journey from methamphetamine addiction to the national stage of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival is one of the most extraordinary stories of resilience you’ll ever hear.

Dora’s path was anything but easy. Placed in the welfare system at eight, uprooted to regional WA as a teenager, and lost to addiction for seven years, she hit rock bottom before making the gut-wrenching decision to save her own life. It was inside a rehabilitation program on the outskirts of Perth that she discovered an unlikely lifeline — stand-up comedy. Through the microphone, Dora found a way to channel her pain, reclaim her voice, and start again.

Deadly Funny is a deeply moving documentary that follows Dora as she transforms her darkest chapters into material that stops audiences in their tracks. Now clean, performing regularly on the Perth comedy circuit, and a winner of the national Deadly Funny competition for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander comedians, Dora is proof that the human spirit doesn’t just recover — sometimes, it finds a way to shine.

In a world racing toward renewable energy, one woman stands at the epicentre of the most polarising debate of our time. Meet Michelle Manook — CEO of the World Coal Association, and one of the most influential voices in global energy politics. Armed with 25 years of experience across the energy, oil and gas and mining industries, Michelle is fighting to secure the future of an industry that billions of people depend on every single day.

As governments and policymakers push hard for a green transition, Coal Face takes viewers inside the corridors of global energy power — where Michelle navigates relentless political pressure, public opposition and fierce ideological debate. A trailblazer in a male-dominated industry, she’s breaking barriers while shouldering the weight of an entire sector’s future, balancing loyalty to her industry with an honest reckoning about what progress really looks like.

Coal Face is a raw, compelling and thought-provoking documentary that challenges everything you think you know about energy, climate and the complex human stories behind the headlines. Whatever side of the debate you’re on, this is a story you need to hear.