Australian Story on the ABC

The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) has wonderful programs and no advertisements (except for their upcoming programs.) and last night I watched "Australian Story", a regular Monday night event.  It is a program of some 30 minutes that tells the story of someone in Australia.  The variety of subjects is awesome, and unless you do some research it can be a mystery to the viewer.


I had been watching Master Chef, which started at 7.30 pm and had to remember to switch over to the ABC1 station at 8 pm, but I was engrossed in the cooking competition and was a few minutes late, so I missed the first few minutes.  However, I will later, go to the website and see the whole program again. 


The focus last night was on the Sherman family - on the website it says

"Brian Sherman achieved the kind of success every migrant dreams of after arriving from South Africa with only $5000 to his name.

He and his business partner sat around a kitchen table and set up a funds management company called Equitilink. Five years ago they sold the business for $150 million."

The program was enlightening about Brian Sherman and his extra ordinary business, and also spoke of the rest of the family in particular Emile Sherman.  I had heard the name, but was about to be really education about Emile and the rest of his family. 

Emile was an Oscar winner in the recent Academy Awards for the movie "The King's Speech" - he was the producer.  If one does some research he has been very busy in film making since 2000, when his first effort was a documentary about his uncle in Lithuania.  His list of credits is awesome. 

Australians are accused for having what is called a 'cringe mentality' - as if we are embarrassed about the efforts/successes of Australians.  We don't embrace Australian movies or talents, but on the whole seem infatuated with all things that come from the US. 

This wonderful young man should be more well known in Australia - he is clearly so talented.

I would suggest that anyone (especially Aussies) sit up and take notice of the work of Emile Sherman, and I would also suggest watching last night's Australian story program here.  As I write this it has not been uploaded, but should be soon - perhaps after it is repeated on Saturday. 

One of his films "Sunshine and Oranges" is about to be released and I am looking forward to seeing it.  I have learned quite a lot about Emile Sherman (and his family) from last night's program, and I shall follow his career with renewed interest.