Work
UNSEEN SKIES
Feature Documentary
Available on:
Australia & NZ: DocPlay
USA & UK: Apple TV / iTunes
Yaara Bou Melhem’s debut feature Unseen Skies (2021) had its world premiere in competition at the San Francisco International Film Festival. It explores Trevor Paglen’s mind-bending art pieces that lift the lid on the inner workings of mass surveillance, computer vision and artificial intelligence. It also joins the celebrated US artist on one of his most audacious projects to date - the launching of a satellite into orbit to show that our skies are not the exclusive playground of the military-industrial complex. Or are they? Production partners include Oscar-winning Participant (American Factory, An Inconvenient Truth) and In Films (Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra).
Maria RESSA: WAR ON TRUTH
Documentary Short
Available online: Witness, Al Jazeera English
Filipino journalist and TIME Person of the Year Maria Ressa wages a global yet personal battle against disinformation and the forces manipulating social media giants that is undermining democracies worldwide.
The Oasis
Documentary Short
Available Online: Foreign Correspondent, ABC
A radical experiment in democracy and women’s rights is under way in the old badlands of Islamic State. But it could be crushed in an instant.
Creating a Nation
Documentary Short
Available Online: Witness, Al Jazeera English
One former journalist has renounced his Australian citizenship and is creating an independent indigenous nation.
Saudi Design Queens
Documentary Short
Available Online: Witness, Al Jazeera English
Two young Saudi women host a design event that is pushing boundaries of art and tradition.
About
Illuminate Films brings together acclaimed journalists, filmmakers and creative thinkers Yaara Bou Melhem and Lisa Main. It makes artistic films that often explore the most pressing issues of our time.
The female-driven venture collectively brings together 40 years of investigative and international journalism and filmmaking practice as well as an impressive global contact base of creative practitioners and industry professionals.
Yaara Bou Melhem
Writer / Director / Producer
Yaara Bou Melhem is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has received two UN Media Peace Awards, two New York Film & Television Festival Awards and five Walkley Awards.
Yaara’s wrote, directed and produced feature-length documentary, UNSEEN SKIES (2021) which interrogates the inner workings of mass surveillance, computer vision and artificial intelligence. Production partners include Participant (USA) and In Films (AU). It was nominated for Best Documentary at the San Francisco International Film Festival and Sydney Film Festival and is now represented by Magnolia International after a successful film festival run.
Yaara has also directed and produced documentary shorts including WAR ON TRUTH (2019) about Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Maria Ressa and the Filipino editor’s global campaign against disinformation. She recently wrote, directed and co-produced THE WHITELEY ART SCANDAL (2023), a 2 x 1hr series about one of Australia’s biggest art crime fraud trials for the ABC.
Yaara turned to filmmaking after 15-years as a long-form broadcast journalist working for some of the most acclaimed international current affairs programs including SBS Dateline, ABC Foreign Correspondent and 101 East, Al Jazeera English. She holds degrees in Journalism and Law.
Lisa Main
Executive Producer / Producer
Lisa Main has had a storied, multi-faceted career that spans the most acclaimed journalism programs both in Australia and internationally, the impact field in the corporate sector and most recently as an advisor to former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Together Lisa and Malcolm Turnbull have released two seasons of the podcast series DEFENDING DEMOCRACY. Prior to joining Mr Turnbull, Lisa was the Director of Grants at the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.
Lisa has produced international investigations including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Panama Papers and played a founding role at ABC Fact Check. As Digital Editor for ABC Current Affairs she produced many award-winning investigations and drove distribution strategy for new platforms and audiences. In 2016, Lisa completed a fellowship at The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University examining the impacts of metadata legislation.
Lisa holds a Masters in International Relations from Sydney University.