Many of our community and ARTSLAB audiences will have seen at least some of the documentaries Shark Island Productions have created or produced: The Final Quarter; Alone Across Australia; Suzy and the Simple Man; Wash My Soul in the Rivers Flow; 2040; Paul Kelly: Stories of Me, to name just a few. Now the award-winning team led by Director Ian Darling are turning the cameras on the wonderful community of Kangaroo Valley.

Immersed in Kangaroo Valley over the course of a year, the feature documentary The Valley is a portrait of life in a small town in rural Australia today. 

Without formal interviews or narration, this observational documentary captures the diversity of the local community: witnessing cows being milked; bread being baked; crops being planted; shop owners selling their wares; artists creating and performing; emergency services preparing for the next fire or flood.

We hear conversations in the street and over fences in the paddocks, in homes, across breakfast and dinner tables. We see the tourists filling the village on weekends, and the locals living their lives and going about their daily tasks during the week, attending meetings in the community hall, the annual show and festivals, and the monthly karaoke sessions at the pub. 

The film also captures the valley’s unique and breathtaking backdrop of natural beauty, with its spectacular escarpments, rainforests, flowing streams and waterfalls, rich green pastures, and the diversity of landscape, trees and animals. 

You may have seen our small crew around town at the end of March. Joining Ian Darling is cinematographer Ben Cunningham; producer Kate Hodges; sound operator Emma Darling, and camera assistant Harry Kielly (yes KV’s very own!) They will be back in town at the end of May and ‘The Valley’ will be filmed primarily during 2023. 

For more information go to sharkisland.com.au or contact me at sarahbutler@sharkisland.com.au.

Sarah Butler

Producer