Feature Documentary

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Dale Frank Nobody's Sweetie is a visual extravaganza showcasing the life and work of one of Australia’s most successful and prolific contemporary artists, Dale Frank. It is also an intimate portrait of the very private artist and reveals his well-guarded life behind the scenes and shows what it means and takes to be a professional artist at the top of the game. 

 

The stakes are high, the art world is fickle and Dale spends as lavishly as he creates. 

His ever-evolving rural estate where he lives among the largest private Natural History collection in Australia is surrounded by his latest creation, a fifty hectare exotic Botanical Garden.

 

On top of a crushing workload, Dale has inner demons and health struggles to contend with. Due to debilitating illness Dale battles chronic and excruciating pain. But with help from morphine, medicinal booze and cigarettes, Dale’s resilience, creative drive, and capacity for hard work bulldoze through each day to get the work done.

 

Ultimately, we have an inspirational story of a young neuro-diverse boy from the back-blocks who dreamt up a big life and went out and made it happen, but Dale’s fortieth exhibition of paintings at Roslyn Oxley’s prestigious Sydney gallery may well be his last.

 

Feature Documentary Writer / Director: Jenny Hicks

Producers: Sarah Beard, Jenny Hicks

Cinematographer: James Falconer Marshall

Editors:  Scott Walmsley, Andrea Lang, Jenny Hicks

Composer: Dave Chapman

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Nominated for Sydney Film Festival's Documentary Australia Award 2024, Australian Director’s Guild,  Best Director in feature documentary and Australian Screen Editor’s Guild, Best Editing in a feature documentary.