Australian Story

Australian Story looks back at Race Around the World, the edgy 1997 documentary competition that launched John Safran and became one of the 90s unlikeliest TV hits.

Eight aspiring filmmakers were chosen from more than 1300 applicants to travel the world for 100 days making a four-minute documentary every 10 days. Although Safran was the breakout star, each of them went on to have a successful career in the film and television industry.

"We just thought, a bunch of young people going around the world making shit films – who's going to watch that?" says Olivia Rousset, the eventual winner of the series. 

But it struck a chord with viewers, who loved the rawness of the documentaries and the unvarnished opinions of the judges back in the studio. "It was a one of those weird TV dreams that actually came true," says the show's presenter, Richard Fidler.

Contestants, judges and producers share previously untold stories from behind the scenes of the show, which all agree was a health and safety nightmare.

"I got robbed, I got mugged, shook down, pepper sprayed," says contestant Scott Herford, who now has his own production company. "Everyone was pushed to their absolute breaking point."

"It was mad," says Safran, who famously streaked through Jerusalem, broke into Disneyland and asked voodoo priests to put a curse on his ex-girlfriend. "Not only could we have died, we could have died and they didn't know about it."

Armed with a new generation of digital camera – small, light, with a flip screen that made it easy to film yourself – the eight young filmmakers pioneered a style of visual storytelling that is now everywhere on social media sites such as YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.

"I don't know if we were the original influencers," says contestant Daniel Marsden, "but it was definitely a different style of filmmaking that no one had seen on tele before. It was pretty fresh."

Murat Dizdar is the Secretary of the NSW Department of Education, responsible for more than 2200 public schools and almost 800,000 students. And he's on a mission to stem the flow of students to private schools and claw back funding from the federal government.

For Dizdar, the son of Turkish migrants raised in council housing, this mission is personal.

"I stunk of working class," he tells Australian Story. "I stunk of what work looked like. And I don't mind when I reminisce about that odour because that odour was hard-earned. It taught me that to get your way there was no shortcut. I've always been in the in the corner of the battler, the working class and that's why I'm also so passionate about public education."

Dizdar thrived in the public system and received one of the highest HSC marks in the state. The expectation was that he would study law or medicine, and he chose law. But while working in a law firm as a student he realised he had to follow his true passion – teaching.

A notoriously hard worker, Dizdar worked his way to the top of the department, only resting for nine days after a serious heart attack.

"Absolutely read him the riot act after the heart attack," his wife Ceyda Dizdar says. "And I remember distinctly him saying to me, ‘I'm fine. I'm fine. Can you bring my laptop?'"

Australian Story was granted extraordinary access to Murat Dizdar as he undertook the fight of his life – to secure an extra $800 million per year in funding and start the process of winning back students to public education.

"Murat has got the right idea, in my opinion," former justice of the High Court Michael Kirby tells Australian Story. "For most of the time I was on the High Court, I was the only justice whose entire education had been at public schools. For a long time now, the federal government has been the donor of very, very large amounts of funding to private and religious schools and they've done that to the damage of public schools."

The episode also features interviews with NSW Education Minister Prue Car, former public school alumnus and Socceroo Craig Foster, and former colleague and now state minister Jihad Dibb.

Bob Katter is about to turn 80, an age when most people are long retired. But the maverick MP – a colourful character in the federal and Queensland parliaments for more than 50 years – now finds himself in the spotlight once again.

Not only is he getting the rare honour of an official portrait, Katter is one of the key crossbenchers whose support may decide the outcome of the election in the event of a hung parliament.

"When people simply ridicule him for being some Queensland hick, they do so at their own peril," former prime minister and friend Kevin Rudd tells Australian Story.

The last time Katter was thrust into the role of ‘kingmaker' in a hung Parliament was 2010, when Julia Gillard sought the support of three independents to form a government. Katter says he learned from that experience and would make the most of any new opportunity to influence government policy.

"I'm not locked into either side," Katter tells Australian Story. "I'll be pretty brutal about getting what I want."

Australian Story secured unprecedented access to Katter over the past five months. We've filmed him in Canberra with his exasperated staffers, across his sprawling electorate where the TikTok sensation is mobbed by young fans, and at home with his longsuffering wife.

Think you know everything there is to know about Bob Katter? Think again.