Frances Elliott & Samantha Marlowe

Frances Elliott and Samantha Marlowe met in 2011 while working as editors in the Channel 9 newsroom, completing their time in news by being flown to Sydney to accept ‘Best News Editor’ and ‘Runner Up Best News Editor’ for Channel 9, the first females to do so in West Australian history. Frances Elliott has a background of film and television, with over ten years experience in behind the scenes direction of drama and factual content, while Samantha Marlowe has a decade of experience in journalism and documentary, and a passion for forming deep and long lasting friendships with her subjects, which translates to the empathetic telling of human stories on screen. While working together in the newsroom, the pair recognised the cohesion of their talents and unity of ambitions, joining forces to create deep access documentaries that drive positive societal change.

 

Together, the pair have written and edited hundreds of hours of broadcast television, including 7Mates Desert Collectors, ABC’s Kidnap Case Files and the Discovery Channels, Outback Farms, Outback Opal Hunters & Outback Car Hunters. Off the back of this success, Frances and Sam were dually selected as the directors’ attachments for multimillion dollar documentary Under the Volcano, which went on to be officially selected for SXSW Film Festival, and made it to #1 on iTunes.

 

Under Rush Films, the pair wrote and directed the short documentary The Beeman, which was officially selected for multiple academy accredited festivals internationally; including AMDocs in Palm Springs and Short Shorts Film Festival Asia in Tokyo. The documentary also secured a nomination for 'Best Documentary Short' at the 2018 ATOM Awards, and took out the big gong ‘Best Documentary Short 2020’ at local film festival WA UNLOCKED. In their biggest achievement to date, Frances and Samantha spent six years writing, directing, editing and co-producing their first feature documentary Girl Like You, which was selected for the AIDC Factory pitch and subsequently commissioned by the ABC as both a 6 x 10 online series released on ABC iView, and a feature airing on ABC’s main channel. Girl Like You won Most Outstanding Script of the Year at the AWGIE Awards 2022, as well as taking out the Best Documentary category. The documentary is now available to stream on Netflix. 

 

Their most recent feature documentary Renee Gracie: Fireproof is a Stan Original and is available to stream now.