Documentary team
Michelle Dado-Millynn - Co-Creator /
Producer
Michelle graduated from The National Institute of Dramatic Art/NIDA in design in 1988. She has production and costume designed numerous film, theatre and tv productions for Network 7, TEN, ABC, SBS, FOXTEL, Sydney Opera House, PTC, STC, Ensemble Theatre, NSWFTO & Screen Australia and has lectured in design at AFTRS, SFS, TAFE & IFSS since 2006.
Michelle is a qualified animal nurse and has paralleled her visual storytelling/design career with environmental and animal/wildlife rescue & care work as well as advocacy & activism.
In 2016, Michelle signed up her local town Dungog, NSW as the 20th Boomerang Bags community. Today there are 1100+ communities underway around Australia and the World. Boomerang Bags Dungog was awarded Dungog Districts Chamber of Commerce ‘Golden Axe’ Environment & Sustainability Award 2018 and was a Finalist/Runner up for Excellence in Sustainability at the Hunter Region Business Awards 2018. Michelle subsequently led the team that launched Single-Use Plastic Free Dungog in July 2019.
Dungog won six awards in the Keep Australia Beautiful NSW Sustainable Communities Tidy Towns Awards 2019. It was fantastic to be recognised for the work we are doing in our community for environmental sustainability. Soft Plastics Recycling won the Circular Economy Award and Boomerang Bags/ Single Use Plastic Free Dungog won the Waste Less, Recycle More Waste Minimisation Award.
Our inaugural Sustainability Spotlight on Dungog event was highly commended in the Community Spirit and Inclusion Award.
Michelle was awarded Environmental Citizen of The Year by Dungog Shire Council on Australia Day, 2019.
Steve Pasvolsky - Co-Creator / Director
Steve’s short drama INJA, which he wrote and directed whilst a student at AFTRS, was nominated for an Academy Award™ in 2003. Since graduating, he's written, directed and produced a broad range of documentaries for National Geographic, Discovery and the ABC as well as a narrative feature for UNIVERSAL PICTURES. In 2018, Steve wrote and directed JOHN EALES REVELS: THE HAKA, a feature documentary for Discovery Channel, which recently won a Medal at the Olympic Committee’s Sports Press Association Awards (2019) for journalism. Later that year Steve wrote and directed CHRISTMAS SOUNDS BETTER THIS YEAR, a one-hour documentary for the ABC. He followed that film with CALIBRATE, a feature documentary which recently won the Audience Award at the Awareness Film Festival (USA). In 2022 Steve completed the feature documentary THE POWER OF ACTIVISM, which has screened at many festivals internationally before being broadcast on SBS. It also won the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival’s best Australian film in 2022. Feature drama THREE CHORDS AND THE TRUTH is Steve’s latest production, currently being released in Cinemas around Australia after premiering at the Sydney Film Festival in 2023.
Kirsten Armstrong - Actuary
“Improving the lives of our most vulnerable demands big ideas, passion, and the know-how to make them happen. Working with government, providers, and investors, Social Ventures Australia (SVA) helps turn those big ideas into reality.”
Kirsten is a Non-Executive Director of icare, Chief Editor of Actuaries Digital and Director in the impact investing team leading SVA’s social impact bond and outcomes-based contracting work, supporting governments, social-purpose organisations and impact investors to create high impact projects that generate evidence and change lives.
Prior to joining SVA, Kirsten led the health practice at analytics consultancy Taylor Fry, with clients including the Disability Royal Commission and multiple health departments. Kirsten is an accomplished actuary and adviser and a former PwC Partner, and has advised on major health reforms in Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong and insurance system reforms in Russia, Estonia and Mongolia.
She created new ways for The Fred Hollows Foundation to access funds for eye care, through the world’s first healthcare development impact bond, the Cameroon Cataract Bond, and an investor-friendly social enterprise, Alina Vision, providing sustainable, affordable eye care in South-East Asia.
In 2019, Kirsten was recognised as one of the AFR’s 100 Women of Influence for this work. Kirsten is a non-executive of disability provider Northcott and of NSW’s workers compensation insurer, icare.
Kirsten’s Qualifications:
Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia
Graduate, Australian Institute of Company Directors
Master of Economics, Macquarie University
Master of Public Health, Sydney University
Kirsten calculated the financial value of each of the projects featured in The Power of Activism… and the results are astonishing.