hartflicker is the creation of writer, director, producer and film and screen researcher and educator Phoebe Hart. Pronouns = she/her.

Dr Phoebe Hart

After completing her undergraduate degree in film and television production at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Phoebe Hart went on to be a finalist in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's (ABC) race around the world. Next, she produced a documentary about travelling around Tasmania with four other ex-racers. The Full Kombi screened on the ABC to strong reviews, which allowed Phoebe to continue her relationship with the ABC producing mini-documentaries for national broadcast with Recovery, Fly TV and George Negus Tonight.  

Continuing in the vein of factual television, Phoebe joined Network Ten's top rating children's factual program Totally Wild, which in turn led Phoebe to work with Ten's documentary department as a researcher, writer, coordinator and producer. Her projects include Future Farming, Living Smarter and The Tarkine - all of which have drawn strong audiences.  

Going freelance, Phoebe continued to produce and direct documentaries and short films for inclusion in film festivals under the banner of hartflicker. Her acclaimed mini-doc Dumpster Divers was a finalist for the Wild Spaces Pro-Cam Award and screened at the Other Worlds Are Breathing Film Festival at the World Social Forum (WSF) in India. Traje: Women and Weaving in Guatemala showcased at the WSF in Brazil, 2005, and has since toured the world at various festivals.

In 2005, Phoebe commenced a scholarship-funded PhD project at QUT's new Creative Industries Precinct. She wrote and co-directed a primetime four-part documentary series on the state of higher education in Australia for SBS (broadcast in March 2008) called Downunder Grads, and directed a standalone documentary for ABC1 on a group of women who play the rough-and-tumble sport of roller derby entitled Roller Derby Dolls (broadcast in September 2008). She is a member of the Australian Directors Guild and the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA).

Phoebe completed her PhD at QUT in 2009, out of which grew a multi-award winning, long form documentary film entitled Orchids: My Intersex Adventure. The film premiered at the Brisbane International Film Festival in 2010 where it was voted the number one film of the festival by audiences. Orchids was broadcast on ABC1 in Australia in 2012. It has featured in more than 90 film festivals internationally and been broadcast internationally in Switzerland, Sweden, Israel, Spain, France, Russia, Germany and the USA.

In 2013, Phoebe took the leap into academia, becoming a lecturer (now associate professor) at QUT Creative Industries Education Social Justice. At the same time, she has continued to craft a range of creative outcomes including associate producing for Wildbear and ABC1’s factual entertainment series, Save Your Life Tonight, editing of video installations for Queensland Museum‘s “What Do You Collect?” and the Lost Creatures exhibitions and consulting with the Safe Schools Coalition on the resource All of Us. In 2016 she directed and produced Mudskipping, which combines 3D film, dance and music, which found success at many film festivals and events. In 2018 she wrote a TV pilot script Ordinary Pain and launched a digital archive of QUT film graduate works.

Phoebe co-produced an award-winning short documentary film Thomas Banks’ Quest for Love (available on Stan from December 2020) and wrote a chapter for popular Black Inc Publishing anthology Growing up Queer in Australia, which was then relicensed for the definitive Growing Up in Australia. Her documentary feature project Handbag was streamed gloablly as of February 2021 on OUTtv and broadcast on SBS VICELAND (Australia) during World Gay Pride 2023.

Phoebe regularly publishes research and in 2024 released her first book Crafting Contemporary Documentaries and Docuseries for Global Screens: Docu-mania with an inprint of Rowman & Littleford. The purpose of the mongraph was to determine the landscape for and current practices of established nonfiction filmmakers post-COVID via interviews and subsequent thematic analysis.

Phoebe Hart has a passion for all that is beautiful in the world and has a strong sense of social justice. She has travelled, lived, worked and studied in many parts of the globe and speaks German and Spanish.

Check out Phoebe's previous projects and our links for some of hartflicker's earlier exploits!