MISSION STATEMENT
Defrosting Oz is Australia's first multi-platform crime series
Defrosting Oz is a multi-platform, narrative-driven, ethical, crime series that looks at Australia's coldest cases, and long term missing people, published on all available social media.
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As a team, we expressed a joint feeling that the current landscape of "true crime entertainment" is lacking in morality, honesty, and a point.
Using stories of the worst times in peoples lives for profit is extremely popular, so Defrosting Oz seeks to manipulate and redirect that popularity onto solving cases that are long overdue for justice, whilst simultaneously donating profits to charities and direct action causes.
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It is also undeniable that social media has been instrumental in assisting to solve some of the toughest crimes around the world over the last few years.
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Each episode is crafted in consultation with family and loved ones, law enforcement, and through utilising as many primary sources as possible.
It is not merely a retelling of a terrible crime for entertainment.
We hope that the right people see this content, and come forward to police to provide the missing piece that could solve these crimes.
ABOUT THE SERIES
“Defrosting Oz” is an independent, multiplatform, webseries, and audio podcast, that sheds light on Australian cold cases, long term missing people, and unidentified human remains, with the hope of generating new leads, and exposure and empathy for forgotten victims.
The team consists of two journalists, a filmmaker, a forensic psychologist, and a criminologist; along with the support of the Victims of Homicide Support group, and various law enforcement and legal professionals.
“Defrosting Oz” is a narrative driven, factual, series hosted by Rory Banwell (“Still Not Asking For It”, and formerly “Australian True Crime”) whose goal is to elicit empathy for victims and their loved ones with the hope the right people see/hear, and come forward to police to add new insight or momentum to these cases.
It has become clear over the last few years that digital media is one of the most powerful tools society has in solving any crime that police are having difficulty with, and “Defrosting Oz” is the first multiplatform webseries to utilise that power in Australia.
The series is using digital content techniques that have become extremely popular in the true crime arena, however, with the priority of ethical consumption of true crime, not sensationalisation for the sake of entertainment, and with an emphasis on victims and families, rather than perpetrators.
There is a lot the general public don’t know about the “after” in these cases; when the media circus dies down and the leads slow up. “Defrosting Oz” shows the viewer the new types of hurdles families are constantly faced with after a loved one goes missing or passes away, that are not widely discussed or known. Whose responsibility is it to keep searching for answers?
Each story is crafted through rigorous research, consultation with families and various professionals, and scrutiny of available evidence, with the goal of presenting a well rounded picture of the case to the public, while simultaneously bringing the victim back to life through personal anecdotes from family and friends, and multimedia.
Note: “Defrosting Oz” has a mandate that when the series begins to profit, 50% of all profits will be donated to various charities such as MPAN, Leave a Light On, direct action causes, and the other 50% reinvested into making a second season. If the project reaches a self sustaining point, 100% of profits will be donated to various Australian charities that align with our aims.
