Amazon Prime Video has announced a new six-episode documentary series, Unheard, the first feature produced by LADbible Australia Originals and with production funding from Screen Australia. All six episodes of Unheard will premiere on Amazon Prime Video in Australia, New Zealand and select countries around the world on 29 October, with the first two episodes also available to stream for free on primevideo.com.
Unheard will give Prime Video members an insight into critical issues of racial discrimination in Australia, including Indigenous deaths in custody, the targeting of Indigenous youth, attacks towards Asians during COVID, Islamophobia, the vilification of the African community and the treatment of asylum seekers and refugees. The six stand-alone episodes in the Unheard series are told through interviews, blended with animation, archive footage, podcasts, photographs, phone conversations and infographics revealing the statistics and complexities behind the larger issues. Each episode is led by the voices of personal accounts, so their experiences and calls for justice are presented without a filter.
“The opportunity to program this compelling investigative series is significant to us,” said Tyler Bern, head of content, Amazon Prime Video Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. “Unheard is a necessary action and awareness series that is globally relevant to Prime members in Australia and makes them aware of social injustice locally. We are very proud to be involved with LADbible Australia on this production and showcasing this important documentary series.”
The Unheard documentary series is an extension of LADbible Australia’s Unheard campaign. Launched in February 2021, the campaign utilises LADbible Group’s global audience of almost a billion and Australian audience of 11.8 million to support their campaign partners; the National Justice Project, Human Rights Commission, National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services, The Refugee Council of Australia, Change.org, African Women Australia, Asian Australian Alliance, Islamophobia Register Australia, Deadly Connections Community and Justice Services and All Together Now.
“The Unheard campaign and documentary series not only provides a platform for these powerful stories to be told, but also helps put a global focus on Australian incidents of racial injustice that are often overlooked,” says executive producer, writer and creator, Shahn Devendran, head of originals, LADbible APAC. “We are proud that LADbible’s first feature documentary series is able to support our campaign partners, and in working with Amazon Prime Video and Screen Australia will help bring these important issues to light.”
Unheard was written and produced by Shahn Devendran (LADbible Australia Originals), Jack Steele (Between Two Lines), Cathy Vu (SBS), Luke Cornish (Alone Out Here), Dan Mansour (The Final Word), Olivia Suleimon (Rosaline’s Untaming) and Ellen Dedes-Vallas (Nickelodeon).