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  • Cathy Henkel at ECU's School of Arts and Humanities

    Associate Professor Cathy Henkel

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Associate Professor Cathy Henkel

Director WA Screen Academy

Staff Member Details
Telephone: +61 8 6304 6518
Mobile: 0409 453 518
Email: c.henkel@ecu.edu.au
Campus: Mount Lawley  
Room: ML13.207  
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8472-0088

Cathy is the Course Coordinator for Postgraduate Screen Production Courses in the WA Screen and Media Academy within the School of Arts and Humanities.

Current teaching

  • MSP6105 - Screen Scripted Project
  • MSP6140 - Screen Production Skills
  • MSP6110 - Screen Documentary Lab
  • MSP6115 - Screen Post-Production.

Background

Cathy Henkel is the Course Coordinator for Postgraduate Screen Production courses at Edith Cowan University. She has worked as a documentary producer/director and writer for over 30 years and is founding director of Virgo Productions. Her work is focused on inspiring, positive, global stories with cross-platform delivery, engaging audiences through cinema, television, online and education platforms.

Cathy’s credits include The Burning Season (ABC, BBC, CBC, PBS, National Geographic, IF Award for Best Documentary 2008, nominated for an Emmy), I told you I was ill: Spike Milligan (ABC, BBC1, RTE) and The Man who Stole my Mother’s Face (Broadcast in 26 countries, IF Award and Tribeca Film Festival Award for Best Feature Documentary 2004). She has won numerous other awards including SPA Documentary Producer of the Year (2009), an ACS Award, an Emmy, AFI, ADG and SPA nominations.

Cathy’s most recent film, Laura’s Choice, co-directed with Sam Lara, won the inaugural WA Screen Culture Innovation in Feature Documentary Award (2021) and the New Zealand DocEdge Fearless/Matatoa Award. It was broadcast on ABCTV in March 2021 and is currently on iView.

Cathy was awarded the Stanley Hawes Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022 for her contribution to the documentary sector.

Professional associations

  • 2025 - Appointed to Screenwest Industry Advisory Group (IAGC)
  • 2024 - Appointed to of WA Screen Industry Workforce Development Steering Committee
  • 2022 - Appointed to Screenwest Diversity Leadership Group (DLG board member)
  • 2019 - CILECT Sub-Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (SCEDI member)
  • 2017- Women in Film and Television WA (member)
  • 2016 - Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC board member)
  • 2016 - Australian Director's Guild, WA Chapter Head (2016 - 2020, member)
  • 2016 - CILECT - International Association of Film Schools (member)

Awards and recognition

National and International awards

  • 2022 - Stanley Hawes Lifetime Achievement Award (AIDC)
  • 2022 - Toronto International Women’s Film Festival - Best Feature Documentary
  • 2021 - DocEdge International Film Festival - Fearless/Matatoa Award
  • 2020 - Western Australia Screen Culture Awards, Innovation in Feature Documentary
  • 2012 - Women on Women Best Female Cinematographer Award
  • 2012 - ASC Silver Award Best Cinematography in Documentary
  • 2009 - Screen Producers Association - Documentary Producer of the Year
  • 2008 - Inside Film (IF) Award for Best Documentary
  • 2008 - Brisbane Film Festival Audience Choice Award
  • 2008 - Nominated for Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary on a Business Topic
  • 2004 - Best Feature Documentary at Tribeca Film Festival, New York
  • 2004 - Discovery Channel IF Award for Best Australian Documentary
  • 2004 - London Australia Film Festival Audience Choice Award
  • 2004 - Brisbane Film Festival Audience Choice Awards
  • 2001 - Winner ATOM Award for Best Documentary

University and National Teaching awards

  • 2017 - Vice Chancellors Teaching and Learning Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning

Research areas and interests

  • Documentary production and distribution
  • Society and Culture
  • Creativity, culture and artistic practice
  • Diverse, equitable, informed and productive communities, schools and workplaces
  • Innovations in screen production and new technologies
  • Autoethnography

Qualifications

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Queensland University of Technology, 2011.
  • Master of Arts (Research), Queensland University of Technology, 2002.

Research Outputs

2024

Book Chapters

  • Henkel, C. (2024). Finding the Authentic Voice: Ethnographic and Auto-ethnographic Approaches to Teaching Documentary. Teaching Documentary for the 21st Century (Pages 143 - 153). CILECT - The International Association of Film and Television Schools. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks2022-2026/5934.

Creative Arts Research Outputs

2021

Creative Arts Research Outputs

2017

Journal Articles

  • Green, L., Morrison, R., Ewing, A., Henkel, C. (2017). Ways of Depicting The Presentation of One’s Self as a Brand. M/C Journal, 20(4), pp 3.

Conference Publications

  • Rodan, D., Mummery, J., Henkel, C. (2017). The charity model is broken: Crowdfunding as a way to democratise, diversify and grow funding for social change?. Refereed Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Conference 2017 - Communication Worlds: Access, Voice, Diversity, Engagement (16p.). Australian and New Zealand Communication Association.
  • Henkel, C., Michell, A., Green, L. (2017). The disrupted screen production sector reveals patterns of consistency. Refereed Proceedings of the Australian and New Zealand Communication Association Conference 2017 - Communication Worlds: Access, Voice, Diversity, Engagement (13p.). Australian and New Zealand Communication Association.

Research Projects

  • Workplace Integrated Learning Program in a simulated production house environment , White Spark Pictures, Scholarship, 2022 ‑ 2024, $70,000.
  • Art in the Field Film Pilot Project: Inspiring problem solving through art for deployed personnel in military environments, Military Art Program Australia, Grant, 2019 ‑ 2021, $4,918.

Research Student Supervision

Current Supervisions

Principal Supervisor

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Visual framing of female characters through the gaze of female key creatives; A comparative study between Australian and Egyptian drama series over ten years 2013-2023

Co-principal Supervisor

  • Doctor of Philosophy, Integrated Incubators: A Novel Framework for Technology-Based Creative Arts Education
  • Doctor of Philosophy, Frames of Our Voices. Iranian Women Documentary Filmmakers in Iran and the Disspora Amidst Iran's Socio Political Climate.

Completed Supervisions

Associate Supervisor

  • Doctor of Philosophy, The Beloved. A documentary film on the history and aftermath of Fremantle's Rajneesh Sannyasin community -and- hidden realities: Transcendental structures in documentary film. An exegesis
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