“What can be viewed as a ‘disability’ by society can also lead to extraordinary ‘ability’, and sharing Renee’s story of passion, skill, talent and ultimately triumph helped her overcome her feelings of loneliness and isolation.”

Sophie Hexter is an award-winning writer and director. She launched her career in magazine publishing at Harper’s Bazaar, before going on to forge a successful freelance career, including a four-year tenure as a syndicated columnist with the The Age. Her debut documentary short, The Battle, screened at over 30 international film festivals, including Cannes and Asthetica. Her dramatic short, Hitch, premiered at Santa Barbara International Film Festival in the US and St Kilda Film Festival in Australia, and won the Audience Choice Award at Flickerfest. Her most recent short, Drummer Girl, was nominated for Best Documentary Short at Big Sky Film Festival in Montana, and screened widely in 2018. In 2019 she travelled to New York to film The Nightside, a short documentary about the inherited BRCA gene mutations causing breast cancer in young women, which was a semi-finalist for best documentary short at Uptown New York Film Festival and SENE Film Festival. Sophie recently finished directing and producing a six-part documentary series, Design Story, for streaming service Shelter, which will be screened in mid 2022, and is currently developing her feature directorial debut, W.SMITH. Sophie is a Varuna Writing Fellow and a LunaFest Female Filmmaker winner. She has a BA (Hons) from Monash University, Melbourne, and an MA in Creative Writing from Oxford University, England.

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