Vixen Feature Profile: Renée Brack
Meet Renée Brack; full time writer, part time producer & occasional director based in based in Sydney - Gadigal.
Hi, I’m Renée Brack based in Sydney - Gadigal. Full time writer, part time producer, occasional director. With great crews, I’ve made short films, a feature doco. Now have a rights catalogue and development slate under the Mandible Media shingle.
A dream aspect of career would be to work with more Vixens on screen stories that make us laugh wickedly and ugly-cry with their shameless beauty of meaning.
You are currently in the middle of your PhD on the topic of “The emergence of the impact producer as a contemporary crew role charting alternative pathways to funding and audience” - how is it going?
I love research and often get lost in it as a profession and for fun. The PhD was sparked by what I didn’t know about impact production when we started making ‘Ticketyboo’ (2022) - my feature doco about art, dementia, grief and stigma. With the shifting landscape of screen production funding and pathways to audience, I thought a PhD on that very topic could be valuable to practitioners, industry and education.
I started in Sep 2022 and complete in 2026. A highlight was the fieldwork of interviews with impact producers and leaders in the sector. Wow. What an incredible group of diverse and heroic people. I need to be on guard of subjectivity and bias. The first step is admitting it.
Alongside your thesis you are also producing. What’s on your slate at the moment?
In 2024, a little story I wrote about a couple of big ideas was a winner of a script contest. Then Relativity Films offered to partner up and make the film. It’s called ‘Carshare’ and is doing the rounds of the international film festival circuit with 10 laurels and wins so far. It’s a thriller with a heart-warming twist, challenging perceptions and stereotyping, inviting compassion.
A feature I’m developing was a winner of a pitching initiative this year so working on that. It’s called ‘I Thought I Loved You’ - a dark comedy. And I’m mad-keen on scripting Fallen Gums right now (also a pitch contest winner last year). It’s a black comedy series with storyline capacity to be returnable.
The big thing for me in 2025 is taking the slate to SPA’s Screen Forever in May and see what people find interesting. I’m not expecting sales but am seeking possible EOIs and LOIs to support development funding applications for those screen story ideas with the ‘best legs’.
To the Vixens thinking about starting / returning studying to further their careers, what advice would you give them?
Continued education parallel to working seems to be essential to stay relevant and up to date. There are seismic shifts in the ways we do things now. Continual adaptation seems to be a fair mantra. A creative practice Masters or PhD is a way a Vixen can utilise a production they are already working on - or intend to produce - or have produced - that offer research opportunities others can learn from.
It’s well-known that it’s tough if you’re earning money by working and paying to study at the same time, along with all the rest of living life that goes with it. But there are pathways of creating a project that an institution wants to pay you to complete. I’ve done a Master’s of Creative Arts without a stipend (living expenses funding) - but I didn’t pay for tuition (by virtue of being an Australian citizen) - and had access to an Aladdin’s Cave of university resources + an expanding professional network. The PhD did attract a full scholarship that pays me fortnightly for 3.5 years. Happy to chat more about this with Vixens in our community chat.
What's next for you?
The Mandible Media slate has the Baker’s Dozen of stories I have to excise out of my soul before I die. So like Blackkadder, I have a cunning plan… called Bedtime Stories for Big People - a multi-platform space to share stories and see what audience is out there. The plan is to expand it for other writers/creators/producers to do the same.
It kind of flips the Field of Dreams idea of ‘if you build it, they will come’ to ‘if some of them come along, then we can build it’. It’s a testing ground. If it fails, oh well. I’ve been able to share some stories that wildly amuse me.
For you, being a Vixen means…
There’s something special about the safe space that Vixens offers. Due to a fair bit of personal trauma over the last 5 years, I’d become reclusive. But I wrote and wrote and wrote. Vixens was and is the place I could visit via Zoom and feel less isolated. Now I’m coming out again, so to speak, I hope I can contribute more meaningfully to the community. I’m seeking producers to work with - people who like Zig Zag theory - those who like to think and act outside the box - people who are curious, interesting, and fun.
A significant impact of Vixens is sharing and support. It makes me a better colleague and human. I’m eternally grateful to Kristen Hodges (sister Vixen and ‘Ticketyboo’ Producer) for introducing me to the community.
A dream aspect of career would be to work with more Vixens on screen stories that make us laugh wickedly and ugly-cry with their shameless beauty of meaning.
Best piece of advice you have been given?
Steven Wright is the most copied and uncredited comedian, still living. A long time ago in my former life as a journalist, we met and he said something that has also appeared in his tour routine:
“You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?”
This became a way to avoid FOMO and make good choices. That saying no and not trying to accumulate or consume too much, is freedom. Learning what ‘enough’ is, is the real freedom. And we learn it the hard way or by trial and error as kids.
Follow Renée via:
Carshare and Insta @carsharefilm25
Renee’s Insta @reneebrack8
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