SAM Content | Bold and unknown stories I Sydney

Leeanne Torpey

Producer

Leeanne Torpey is an impact producer. Her film and TV credits include War On Waste (2023, Dir. Jodi Boylan, ABC), Magda’s Big National Health Check (2023, Dir. Rob Innes, ABC) Ithaka: A Fight To Free Julian Assange (2022, Dir. Ben Lawrence, Bonsai & ABC), Big Deal (2021, Dir. Craig Reucassel, Madman & ABC), Wakefield (2021, Dir. Jocelyn Moorehouse, ABC) and Regenerating Australia (Regen Studios, 2040) and Stand Up for Mental Health (2021, ABC iview). She has over 15 years of experience working in media and human rights advocacy in refugee advocacy.

Inconceivable: The Secret Business of Breeding Humans

Documentary / SBS November 2022

A child of the fertility industry grows up and unravels the secrets of the rogue baby makers. This intensely personal film is the story of award-winning investigative journalist Sarah Dingle and her fight to uncover the truth – who made her and how, and just how many siblings does she have? The deeper Sarah delves, the more disturbing her discoveries – and the more determined she becomes to tell the real story behind a powerful multi-million dollar industry that trades on emotion but that is built on secrets and lies.

IMDb

Kirrily Bentnall

Producer

Kirrilly Brentnall is an experienced documentary producer with career highlights including: crafting 20 episodes of the popular history series Who do you think you are? (SBS); traveling and interviewing first nations communities across the Pacific for The Pacific: in the Wake of Captain Cook with Sam Neill (Foxtel History); developing up the series Fight for Planet A: Our Climate Change Challenge with Craig Reucassel (ABC) and recently producing the six-part series Great Southern Landscapes with Rachel Griffiths (ABC). Kirrilly directed and co-produced the art documentary Not Finished Yet (SBS’ STUDIO TV) about three-time Archibald prize winner Eric Smith. Kirrilly is an English and French speaker. In 2022, Kirrilly joined the SAM Content team as Head of Development and has been story producing on the Amazon Prime feature Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles.

Aline Jaques

Producer & Principal

Aline Jacques is a creative and strategic media executive who has developed and produced documentaries across a wide range of genres for many of the world’s major broadcasters and distributors. Clients include the ABC, SBS, BBC, National Geographic, Arte, PBS, Curiosity Stream and Discovery as well as theatrical distributors, Madman and Universal Pictures. Her slate as a Producer is diverse – ranging from musical feature doc, Slim and I, to cutting-edge science in The Living Universe; politics and money in Big Deal; history with The Pacific in the Wake of Captain Cook with Sam Neill and contemporary journeys with Miriam Margolyes’ Almost Australian

Sally Aitken

Director / Producer & Principal

New Zealand born, Sally Aitken is a twice-Emmy® nominated director and writer and show runner of multiple international series. Known for visually arresting work characterized by compassion and humour, she delights in unknown stories and the world’s complexities. Her most recent film is the Sundance Film Festival hit, Playing with Sharks, the remarkable story of maverick conservationist Valerie Taylor and her love affair with the ocean’s most terrifying predator. Featuring a rich archival palette, the filming of JAWS and a magnetic central character, the film has been described as “extraordinary” “visually stunning, enthralling” and “a moving portrait of grace and compassion”. Sally’s debut feature, A Cinematic Life appeared in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017 where Sally was also nominated for the Camera d’Or. Other major works include The Pacific in the Wake of Captain Cook with Sam Neill (2019) and Getting Frank Gehry (2015).

The Hunt For The Family Court Bomber

Factual Series / Paramount Plus, Network 10, Australia & Fremantle International

Murder, terrorism and assassinations re-examined by a tenacious female Chief Inspector. For 40 years a heinous chapter of crime in the name of family values remained unsolved. Told using a trove of archive together with a triple helix of perspectives of the victims, the policing, and the judiciary to access the socio-political contexts of the time, this powerful and engaging new series, examines a case of homeland terrorism in the 1980s, domestic violence and the upsurge of conservative men’s groups in response to the progressive Family Court. It exposes a shocking chapter of Australian social history that has frightening relevance today.

IMDb

Penny Jope

Production Manager

Penny Jope has worked on an array of projects from The Pacific: In the Wake of Captain Cook with Sam Neill (Foxtel History) to Lindy Chamberlain: the True Story (Network 10) to Miriam Margoyles Almost Australian (ABC) to Anh’s Brush With Fame (ABC) to The Go-Betweens: Right Here (ABC) and Slim and I (Universal Pictures)

Marianne Leitch

Producer

Marianne Leitch has been a journalist for more than forty years, a filmmaker for twenty-five and a storyteller all her life. She grew up in country NSW, has worked all over the world and has conceived and brought to fruition many multi-layered broadcast and digital stories. She was a founding producer of the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent program, where she produced many award-winning films, and between 2015 and 2019 she was the show’s Executive Producer. She is now based in Sydney, where she’s collaborating on a number of independent documentary and factual projects.

Designing A Legacy

Factual Series / ABC May 2023

The second season of this celebrated design series where comedian and architecture enthusiast Tim Ross, discovers how what we design and build defines us. Part nostalgia, part history, part road trip and all passion, with incredible cinematography the central question of the series is whether our story and identity can be seen in buildings around us.

Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles

Feature Documentary / Amazon

Dubbed the Beatles for pre-schoolers, The Wiggles are an incredible true story of early childhood teachers who became superstar performers for kids and one of the greatest entertainment stories of all time. Four mates who rock and rolled their way into the hearts of millions of families around the globe. Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles is an ode to childhood and homage to the power of friendship and dreams.

Bold stories.

Visually arresting journeys.

It’s what we do.

The Hunt For The Family Court Bomber +

Hot Potato: The Story of The Wiggles +

Designing A Legacy +

Inconceivable: The Secret Business of Breeding Humans +

Hello, we’re SAM Content.

A female-led company from established creatives and thinkers, Sally Aitken and Aline Jacques.

For many decades, we’ve made award winning programs and films for broadcasters all over the world.

Who we are

Sally Aitken

Aline Jacques

Marianne Leitch

Kirrily Bentnall

Leeanne Torpey

Penny Jope

Send us a message