Phillip Island Festival of Stories is at Berninneit Cowes Cultural Centre

2-4 August 2024

We are pleased to be partnering with Bass Coast Council Arts and Culture team

2024 Program


Friday, 2 August

  • 7:00 PM - The Dressmaker (Movie Screening): This screening ties in with Saturday morning's session featuring Rosalie Ham and Sue Maslin.

Saturday, 3 August

  • 9:15 AM - Smoking Ceremony (Forecourt)

  • 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM - The Dressmaker (Theatre): Sue Maslin and Rosalie Ham share behind-the-scenes insights on the making of the film, including the fashion, fun, glamour, and disasters.

  • 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM - Black and Blue (Theatre): Veronica Gorrie discusses her memoir on racism and resilience, joined by barrister, Patrick Coleridge.

  • 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM - Lunch Break

  • 2:00 PM - 2:45 PM - Extinction & History (Theatre): Hannie Rayson and Michael Cathcart explore themes of extinction and history.

  • 3:00 PM - 3:45 PM - Bearing Witness: A Life in Journalism (Theatre): Kerry O’Brien reflects on his journalism career.

  • 4:00 PM - 4:45 PM - A Question of Age (Theatre): Jacinta Parsons and Hannie Rayson discuss ageing.

  • 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM - Dinner Break

  • 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM - Evening Session (Theatre): Rosie Batty and Jacinta Parsons discuss domestic violence and resilience.

Sunday, 4 August

  • 10:00 AM - 10:50 AM - Truth in Journalism Panel (Theatre): Chaired by Jacinta Parsons, with Kerry O’Brien and Margaret Simons.

  • 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM - Unfinished Woman (Theatre): Robyn Davidson and Rachelle Unreich share their writing and travel experiences.

  • 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM - Lunch Break

  • 1:30 PM - 2:30 PM - Lies My Mirror Told Me (Theatre): Wendy Harmer and Hannie Rayson discuss self-perception and identity.

  • 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM - After Party (Foyer): Join us for drinks and nibbles, and share your thoughts on the event and future festivals

 

Find out more about our presenters

Sue Maslin

Sue Maslin (AO) is one of Australia's most successful screen producers. Her film The Dressmaker, is one of Australia’s all-time highest grossing films and winner of five Australian Academy Awards. She is also a documentary producer, distributor, and a tireless advocate for the screen industry.

 

Rosalie Ham

Rosalie Ham writes for stage and radio as well as being a best selling novelist, short storywriter and teacher. Her work has been translated into multiple languages and The Dressmaker was adapted into a film starring Kate Winslet. She is the author of five books.

 

Veronica Gorrie

Veronica Gorrie is an Indigenous writer, and a Gunai/Kurnai woman. Her book Black and Blue: A memoir of racism and resilience, reflecting on her Aboriginality and her experience in the police force, won the Victorian Prize for Literature, Australia’s richest literary award. Her new book is When Cops Are Criminals.

 

Patrick Coleridge

Patrick Coleridge is a Melbourne barrister with a broad practice, including several years as a senior lawyer and manager of Appeals Practice at the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency. His most recent role has been as Counsel assisting the Coroner in the Kumanjayi Walker Inquest in the Northern Territory.

 

Hannie Rayson

Hannie Rayson (AO) is a multi-award-winning playwright, screen writer, and author. She has written a string of plays among which is Inheritance, Life after George and the work she is most known for, Hotel Sorrento. Life After George was the first play to be nominated for the Miles Franklin Literary Award. Her autobiography Hello Beautiful!: Scenes from a Life was published in 2015.

 

Michael Cathcart

Michael Cathcart is a writer, theatre director, university lecturer, historian and arts broadcaster on Radio National. He is the author of four books, including The Water Dreamers and Starvation in a Land of Plenty: Diary of the Fateful Burke and Wills Expedition.

 

Kerry O’Brien

Kerry O’Brien is a prominent journalist and author who has spent more than 30 years in public broadcasting, including as the former host of trailblazing current affairs programs 7.30 Report, Four Corners, and Lateline on the ABC. He has been awarded six Walkley Awards and is the author or co-author of four books, including The Voice to Parliament, with Thomas Mayo, which was awarded the 2024 Book of the Year by the Australian Book Industry.

 

Rosie Batty

Rosie Batty (AO) is a British Australian who became a campaigner on the issue of family violence after her 11-year-old son, Luke, was killed by his father in a violent incident. She won the Pride of Australia Award in 2014 and was named Australian of the Year in January 2015. Her memoir, A Mother’s Story, was published in 2016. Her new book is Hope.

 

Jacinta Parsons

Jacinta Parsons is a Melbourne radio broadcaster, writer and public speaker. She is the co-host of ABC Radio Melbourne's Friday Review with fellow presenter Brian Nankervis and the author of two books, Unseen, and A Question of Age.

 

Margaret Simons

Margaret Simons is an award-winning journalist, academic, and author of 10 books, with an abiding commitment to quality journalism. Margaret was a founding board member of the Public Interest Journalism Initiative which conducts research and advocacy on media issues and is also a director of The Scott Trust, which owns The Guardian.

 

Robyn Davidson

Robyn Davidson (OAM) is an explorer, filmmaker, public speaker and author whose writing career has spanned 40 years. She is best known for her 1980 book Tracks, and later film, which tells of her 2,700 km trek across the WA deserts using camels. Her memoir, Unfinished Woman, was recently published.

 

Rachelle Unreich

Rachelle Unreich has worked as a print journalist in various publications in the United States and Australia for much of the last 38 years. She is the author of A Brilliant Life, which tells the true story of her mother, Mira, a Holocaust survivor.

 

Wendy Harmer

Wendy Harmer is one of Australia’s most versatile and much loved entertainers with a career stretching across four decades. She is the author of books for both adults and children, as well as being a journalist, playwright, columnist, radio show host, comedian, and television personality. Her most recent book is Lies My Mirror Told Me. A Frank, funny, fearless memoir

 

Thank you for your continued support of our volunteer committee and this endeavour.