David Flatman
DAVID & SUE FLATMAN
BIO LINK
Living Pictures/David & Sue Flatman of Living Pictures (Australia) Pty Limited is a Sydney-based independent production company specializing in TV series and documentaries for Australian and international television, and large format cinema films. Its founder is David Flatman. David joined Australia’s ABC National Television in1968 as a foundation senior reporter on the legendary Australian daily current affairs program, This Day Tonight (“TDT”). Over the next ten years he went on to host the ABC’s flagship current affairs program, Four Corners.
From 1978 to 1982, he worked as a writer, director and producer of the multi-award winning Australian documentary series, A Big Country, and the new technology series, Towards2000. Fifteen years with the National Broadcaster culminated in 1982 when he wrote, produced, directed and hosted the ABC’s 50th Anniversary 90-minute TV special, From Carbon Mikes to Satellites.
David Flatman left the ABC at the end of 1982 to establish his own production company. His aim was to make fine documentary films, with a particular interest in social documentaries and giant-screen films. David has served as Vice President and Councillor of the Screen Producers’ Association of Australia, and as specialist documentary investment consultant to the Australian Film Finance Corporation (“FFC”).
David is also a licensed scuba diver and a keen aviator. He has several thousand hours piloting single and multi-engine aircraft from the DeHavilland Chipmunk (in which he learned to fly on a scholarship in 1961) to the Beechcraft B200 Super King Air. In 1981, he and Sue made the first one-hour film on the world’s largest aviation convention called, The Oshkosh Express, shown on ABC-TV. David plans to keep flying into the sunset.
In 1984 Sue Flatman joined David as co-director of their company. After graduating as an Occupational Therapist Sue undertook extensive post-graduate training in group psychotherapy. She has worked as a group therapist, health educator, clinical supervisor and ultimately a clinician and administrator of Drug and Alcohol Services in Sydney. Part of her duties required close liaison with ABC TV in the production and supervision of health education programs for young people on national television. Sue trained at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and went on to manage the production of all of the Flatmans’ projects.
FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS INCLUDE:
ANTARCTICA (Co-producer)- the world's first giant screen 70mm film on Antarctica, the frozen continent. Funded by the Chicago Museum of Science & Industry and the Australian Film Finance Corporation.
POETRY IN MOTION (Prod) - 1 x 1Hr documentary on the Australian Women's Gymnastics Team and their quest for gold at the 2000 Olympics under their extraordinary Chinese coach, Ju Ping Tian. ABC TV.
1993 & 1994 AUSTRALIAN EXPORT AWARDS (Prod) - Staged in the Great Hall, Parliament House Canberra. Australia's top exporters acknowledged and rewarded. Broadcast in Australia by ABC, SBS, and in Asia by Australia TV.
HMS PANDORA: In The Wake Of The Bounty (Prod, Writer, Dir) Recovery of the wreck of British naval frigate, PANDORA, returning to England in 1791 with 14 mutineers from HMS BOUNTY. Presented and narrated by David Attenborough, later updated and retold by Australia’s Bush Tucker Man, Les Hiddins. 2 X 56-mins, screened by ABC, sold internationally.
THE LIVING BETTER SERIES (Prod) - 3 x 1Hr TV Series: The Big Australians (nutrition), The Hidden Killer (injury), and Stepping Forward Looking Back (ageing). Pre-purchased and screened nationally by ABC.
THE HOME SHOW (Prod) - Series Three and Four of the ABC's groundbreaking popular family lifestyle flagship with Maggie Tabberer, Richard Zachariah and John Worthington. For most of its 40-episodes, the ABC’s most-watched program.
GREAT IDEAS (Prod) - A magazine series for ABC Television about Australian innovation and ingenuity. Hosted by cricketer Mike Whitney and made in collaboration with the Business Council of Australia, Department of Science & Industry and Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade; after four weeks, the ABC's second most-watched program.
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS (Prod, writer, dir) - A series of 4 X 1-hour documentaries broadcast nationally by ABC TV dealing with intimate issues facing families including children’s welfare, family violence, divorce and marital relationships. Produced by Sue and David Flatman, photographed and directed by David Flatman. AFI Best Documentary finalist.
AUSTRALIA: Land Beyond Time (Prod, Writer Director)- 40-minute large format (IMAX®) 70mm documentary. Wildscreen Panda Award finalist. The story of Australia’s journey through time and the strategies its plants and animals used to survive an ever changing environment as it became the oldest, flattest, driest inhabited continent on earth.