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Owen and Chief
A TV producer and his dog, out past the cities.
For most of my working life I’ve been in television, making news, sport and entertainment for Australian networks. It meant long days, other people’s deadlines and a lot of time in the city, and Chief was beside me through all of it. Somewhere along the way I noticed he was slowing down.
He’s getting older now, and that changes how you think about time. I want him to have a proper adventure with his dad while he still can, with new places to sniff around and new people to meet. I also want him to see, before he goes, that I’m going to be alright on my own, because I think that’s what he’s been quietly working on all along.
I’ve always had a feeling that Chief’s real job was to get me to this point, out the door and onto the road. Who knows who we’ll meet along the way. If it turns out to be someone special, he’ll take the credit.
Part of it is about me, too. I spent years working to other people’s terms, and I want whatever comes next to be a happy life lived on mine.
Then there’s the country itself. Australia is enormous and wildly varied, yet most of us squeeze into a handful of cities that keep getting more expensive and more crowded. Out past them is a lot of quiet beauty, and plenty of people living easy, unhurried lives that most of us never get to see. That’s what I want to find, and Right Side Under is how I’m sharing it: Chief and me, a camera, and whatever turns up beyond the city limits.
If you’d like to come along, the films go up on YouTube and the tracker shows where we’ve been.