PROFESSOR JENNY HOCKING AM FASSA

Emeritus Professor Jenny Hocking AM FASSA is an award-winning biographer, the inaugural Distinguished Whitlam Fellow with the Whitlam Institute at Western Sydney University, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. She is the author of several books, including biographies of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, High Court justice and Attorney-General Lionel Murphy, and the Australian author Frank Hardy.

Her two-volume biography of Gough Whitlam, Gough Whitlam: His Time and Gough Whitlam: A Moment in History, was awarded the Fellowship of Australian Writers Barbara Ramsden Award and shortlisted for several major literary awards including the National Biography Award, the Age Book of the Year, the Magarey Medal for Biography, the NSW Premiers Awards, the Queensland Literary Awards, and the Prime Minister’s Awards for Literature. Her book The Dismissal Dossier: Everything You Were Never Meant to Know about November 1975 was published in 2015 with new editions in 2016 and 2017.

In 2016, Jenny took a landmark legal action against the National Archives of Australia seeking access to the secret 'Palace letters' between the Queen and the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, regarding the dismissal of the Whitlam government. The High Court’s emphatic 6:1 ruling in Jenny’s favour in 2020 ended the Queen’s embargo over this historically significant vice-regal correspondence, leading to the release of the Palace letters. The explosive revelations in the letters of the Queen’s prior knowledge that Kerr was considering dismissing Whitlam, and that her private secretary had provided advice to Kerr about the dismissal, have transformed the history of the dismissal.

Professor Hocking’s latest book, the best-selling and award-winning The Palace Letters: The Queen, the governor-general, and the plot to dismiss Gough Whitlam, tells the story of this remarkable archival research journey and legal battle to secure the release of the Palace letters, and their impact on the history of the dismissal. It was published by Scribe Publications in November 2020 with a foreword by Malcolm Turnbull, and has been described as ‘a political thriller’, an ‘absorbing courtroom drama’, and ‘riveting … vital Australian history’.

DARYL DELLORA

Daryl Dellora is a film producer, director, writer and author. He was an executive producer on Film Art Media’s box office and critical triumph The Dressmaker (2015) and co-producer and executive producer on feature documentaries Hunt Angels and Celebrity. He is a published author, his book Jørn Utzon and the Sydney Opera House (Penguin 2014) having sold into two reprints. His first book Michael Kirby: Law, Love & Life (Penguin 2012) is an intimate portrait of the former High Court Judge and great Australian human rights advocate.

Daryl Dellora has been making documentaries for many years. He is an award-winning writer and director. Daryl has been a recipient of an AFC Documentary Fellowship, in 1991 his Mr. Neal Is Entitled to be an Agitator won the Australian Human Rights Award, and The Edge of The Possible won the Gold Plaque for Best Arts Documentary at the Chicago International Television Awards.

In 2005 Daryl was accepted to the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation study centre in Bellagio. Daryl co-produced the feature Hunt Angels (2006) and has worked closely with producer Sue Maslin through their companies Film Art Doco and now Film Art Media on a raft of documentary films including Harry Seidler: Modernist; Michael Kirby: Don’t Forget the Justice Bit; The Edge of the Possible; A Mirror to the People; Conspiracy; The Highest Court and Koories and Cops. Daryl’s films have been screened and sold all over the world including in South East Asia, US, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Portugal. They have been included in collections in Musée de Cité Architecture & Patrimoine in Paris, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark and the Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

SUE MASLIN AO

Sue Maslin is one of Australia's most successful screen producers. Her smash hit The Dressmaker, became one of Australia’s all-time highest grossing films. Sue has produced and executive produced numerous documentaries including The Edge of The Possible, Harry Seidler-Modernist, Jill Bilcock Dancing The Invisible, The Show Must Go On and most recently, Brazen Hussies, and Anonymous Club - Courtney Barnett. Sue is committed to engaging and empowering audiences with ideas that matter. Her innovative rights management company, Film Art Media established in 2008 with Daryl Dellora, develops and distributes screen content across many platforms.

Sue joined the Board of Documentary Australia in 2018 and currently holds the position of Deputy Chair. Her contribution to the screen industry has been recognised in numerous ways and in 2019 she was appointed as an Officer (AO) of the Order of Australia.