Film Victoria, ABC, Princess Pictures and Fremantle have announced emerging creators Ravi Chand and AP Pobjoy as the recipients of the coveted Victorian Screen Development Internships.
Designed to overcome traditional barriers to entering the screen industry, the internship program will fast-track the career progression of Victorian creative talent from diverse and traditionally under-represented backgrounds by spanning the full scope of content development.
Filmmaker Ravi Chand founded Warrior Tribe Films in 2019 which has enabled him to champion screen projects that showcase authentic diversity and inspire social change. His work has been shortlisted for the Sundance YouTube New Voices Lab, and selected for Documentary Australia Foundation’s Storyworks program and Cinespace’s Screenwriters Fellowship program. His feature documentary, Five Year Grandma recently received development funding from Screen Australia, and the pitch video has had close to 600k views on Facebook.
Ravi Chand said: “Ever since I was young, I've wanted to make a difference to the way our people and culture have been represented on screen because it's had very real-life implications. I am so grateful for this opportunity that will connect me with screen professionals whose incredible guidance will expedite years of grunt work into a personalised mentorship over 12 months."
A graduate of Swinburne University, AP Pobjoy is inspired by storytelling centred around the queer and trans experience. They wrote and directed television documentary, Why Did She Have To Tell The World?, which screened as part of ‘My Queer Career’ during Mardi Gras Film Festival 2021, and premiered on ABC’s Compass earlier this month. They were also the script coordinator for ABC comedy, Retrograde, and recently nominated for Byron Bay Film Festival’s Filmmaker of the Year.
AP Pobjoy said: "I am thrilled to be a part of an internship that will not only excel my goals of being inside the development space but will also support my identity too. I can't wait to start and help get the stories that matter to me out there and learn from some of the best."
Over the next 12 months, Ravi and AP will follow the full lifecycle of developing content, learning how to assess pitches, scripts and funding applications with Film Victoria, working with commissioning editors and EPs across the production process at the ABC, and learning first-hand from principal producers at Fremantle and Princess Pictures.
The Victorian Screen Development Internship program is now in its second year following a successful pilot in 2020. Both 2020 interns Nikki Tran and Davey Thompson are forging ahead with their screen careers with Nikki working as part of Fremantle’s scripted department and continuing to develop her own projects, while Davey is a Development Associate in Screen Australia’s Indigenous Unit.