"The Assembly"
The ABC to premiere its ground-breaking factual series "The Assembly" on Tuesday, 20 August on ABC TV and ABC iview. Mentored by one of Australia’s most renowned interviewers, Leigh Sales, "The Assembly" is the adptation of Can't Stop Media "The A Talks" and follows autistic journalism students as they interview Australia’s biggest names including actor Sam Neill, radio and television personality Hamish Blake, Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese, singer-songwriter Delta Goodrem, sporting legend Adam Goodes and radio and television star Amanda Keller.
In each of the six episodes, "The Assembly" team of journalism students learn their craft, research their guest of the week and plan their questions, culminating in an interview with an A-lister that is disarming, surprising and engaging.
"The Assembly" offers an opportunity to include diverse voices and their perspectives in conversations of national interest, while providing audiences with a fresh, funny and poignant take on the traditional interview format to reveal the real person behind the public figure.
The series is a HELIUM Pictures production for the ABC in partnership with Aspect, Australia’s largest service provider for people on the autism spectrum, Macquarie University, who developed and taught Australia’s first journalism course for Autistic people in their world leading facilities, and Bus Stop Films, Australia’s leading social enterprise supporting people with disabilities in film making.
"The Assembly" is financed with assistance from Screen NSW and support from Screen Australia’s Skills Development Fund. HELIUM has developed "The Assembly" for an Australian audience from a format created by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache "The A Talks", originally produced by Kiosco.TV & Quad+Ten, and distributed by Can’t Stop Media, who also sold the format to TVN in Poland.