Project Summary
“I began to realise that if I was getting into so much trouble—owning my own house and a newspaper—what hope would a pensioner have?” Juanita Nielsen, 1973.
The Beehive will tell the story of Juanita Nielsen — a community journalist and anti-gentrification activist known for her distinctive beehive hairdo. Juanita fought for the right of low income communities to live in the inner city of Sydney, particularly in Kings Cross and Woolloomooloo. She campaigned against the violent eviction of long term tenants on Victoria Street who were being pushed out to make way for apartment blocks. She vanished in 1975, ‘believed murdered’. To this day, the crime remains unsolved.
Despite an enduring public fascination with Juanita Nielsen over four decades, only two feature films have touched on her story - neither included a character actually called Juanita. The Beehive will fill this void by telling Juanita's story.
The Beehive won the inaugural $70,000 ACMI and Artbank commission and will premiere at ACMI in the latter part of 2018. This is a huge vote of confidence for the vision of the team and a large amount of money for a visual arts project - but it is just short of what we need to complete the film at the quality it deserves. This crowdfunding campaign will raise money for the post-production process - colour grading, audio mastering, music composition, titles and marketing. These things might sound like little details - but they are expensive and will make a huge difference in the quality of the finished film.
What We Need & What You Get
We need to raise $12,500 to pay for colour grading, audio mastering, music composition, titles and marketing. We have a huge range of wonderful perks to offer in return for your support - from unique 1970s costumes, original drawings, satin bomber jackets, tees, silk scarves and wonderful memorabilia from this vital story.
![]()
Hand drawn 70s inspired geometric wallpaper by Zanny Begg.
The Impact
Every contribution you make, however small, will help us complete the film at the quality it deserves. $25 will help us begin our journey, $250 is a quarter of a day of colour grading, $2000 will get us on our way, $5000 will transform our financial situation. We thank all of you for taking time to engage with this project, we hope to keep the memory and fighting spirit of Juanita alive.
The Team
![]()
Zanny Begg working on the set of 1001 Nights in Fairfield, 2015.
The Beehive team is a powerful one. Director Zanny Begg is an award winning artist who has exhibited at biennale and film festivals around the world. Her last film project The City of Ladies (co-directed with Elise Mcleod) was a retelling of a feminist text written in Paris in 1402 and premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney in 2017. She was the winner of the Terrence and Lynnette Fern Cite Residency Paris and the Incinerator Art for Social Change Award in 2016.
Creative Producer Philippa Bateman has worked in independent cinema for over 20 years, as an executive, writer and producer and recently with visual artists working with film, photography and code. She produced Brad Miller’s “Starry Night” for Vivid, Ray Lawrence’s feature film Jindabyne starring Laura Linney and Gabriel Byrne which premiered at Cannes and sold to Sony Classics in the US. She has also worked for United Artists ( Bowling for Columbine, Capote, 24 Hour Party People), and with Good Pitch Australia on social impact documentaries (Blue, Whiteley, Guilty, The Hunting Ground).
This team is joined by a talented mix of performers; Bronwyn Penrith, Nyx Calder, Koco Carey, Ivy D’Orsogna, Emma Jackson, Amala Groom, Maria Tran, Ebube Uba and Taylor Wiese among others. Additional contributions will be made by Juanita's friends and/or contemporaries including Ian Milliss, Meredith Burgman and David Farrell.
The story of Juanita is ultimately the story of the struggle for affordable inner city housing. With rents in Sydney reaching "severely unaffordable" this story is an important, and timely, one to tell.
![]()
