Based in Melbourne, Australia, Genepool Productions specialises in creating quality science documentaries for international audiences. Sonya Pemberton, Emmy award-winner and record breaking five-time winner of the prestigious Eureka Award for Science Journalism, leads the company.

Recent films include the multi-award-winning theatrical documentary Carbon - The Unauthorised Biography (with Handful of Films), and the ‘surprisingly tender’ ABC science special Cracking COVID with Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty.

Previous projects include the critically acclaimed and multi-award-winning science documentaries Immortal with Nobel Laureates Elizabeth Blackburn & Carol Greider; Catching Cancer featuring  Nobel Laureates Barry Marshall and Harald zur Hausen, and Professor Ian Frazer;  Jabbed – love, fear and vaccines with Sir Gus Nossal,  Professors Ian Frazer and Ingrid Scheffer; Vaccines - Calling the Shots for PBS NOVA and Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Uranium - Twisting the Dragon’s Tail for PBS, ARTE and SBS with Dr Derek Muller and Vitamania - The Sense and Nonsense of Vitamins also with Dr Derek Muller for SBS, Curiosity Stream and ARTE, featuring Professors Walter Willett, Fiona Stanley and Tim Spector.

Coming soon, an intimate journey into phage therapy, A Forgotten Cure (working title) and Mutant, a global series on the science and ethics of genome editing.

Genepool has received over 80 international awards, and collaborates with scientists, filmmakers, and broadcast partners around the world.

The Team

Sonya Pemberton is one of Australia’s leading factual television producers and she specialises in science. An Emmy Award-winner and record-breaking five-time winner of the prestigious Eureka Award for Science Journalism, her passion is quality science programming.

Previously Head of Specialist Factual at ABC Television, she commissioned and managed over three hundred hours of factual television; her understanding of audiences’ desire for smart, accessible television saw ratings rise across the genres.

Sonya has written, directed and produced over 60 hours of documentary, her films winning over 70 international awards. She also executive-produced many award-winning factual programs, including Crude-the incredible journey of oil, Uranium: Twisting The Dragon’s Tail and Carbon: The Unauthorised Biography.

As a writer and director her multi-award-winning films include Cracking COVID for ABC, Vitamania: The Sense and Nonsense of Vitamins for SBS, CuriosityStream and ARTE; the SBS feature length special on immunisation, Jabbed: Love, Fear and Vaccines, followed by Vaccines: Calling the Shots for PBS NOVA; Catching Cancer highlighting the work of Nobel Laureates Barry Marshall and Harald Zur Hausen, and Prof Ian Frazer; and Immortal which featured the work of Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn, won the 2012 Emmy award for Outstanding Science programming.

Sonya has also been honoured with Australian Health Journalist of the Year in 2011 and 2013, the Jill Robb Award in 2015 and the 2016 Stanley Hawes Award for contribution to documentary.

“There’s something redemptive in Pemberton’s work. She straddles the categories of art and journalism, entertainment and knowledge. She is a filmmaker who, in respected director Ken Burns’ terms, is really a “tribal storyteller.”
— Graeme Blundell, The Australian

Harry has more than 40 Australian and US feature films credits as a cameraman, Steadicam operator, and second unit DOP. He also works as Director of Photography on documentaries and factual programs.

Married to director Sonya Pemberton, the husband and wife creative team thrive on tackling stories of science together, most recently on a co- producing role. Recent films together include Catching Cancer (ABC/NGTV), Emmy award-winning Immortal (SBS/Smithsonian), Jabbed – love, fear and vaccines (SBS) and Vaccines — Calling the Shots (PBS NOVA) and Vitamania: the sense and nonsense of vitamins (SBS, CuriosityStream, ARTE).

Lucy is an award winning features and documentary producer. She recently co-produced the feature film ‘MISS FISHER AND THE CRYPT OF TEARS’ which premiered at Palm Springs International Film Festival this year.

 Over ten years Lucy produced documentaries at Renegade Films including the three part series for SBS ‘IMMIGRATION NATION’ (a finalist in the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards) and the award winning ‘INSIDE THE FIRESTORM’, ‘UTOPIA GIRLS’ ( a finalist in NSW Premier History Awards and AACTA awards) and ‘SUBTOPIA’ for the ABC.  In 2015 she produced the one hour documentary ‘THE DIPLOMAT, THE ARTIST AND THE SUIT’ and in 2018 ‘AFTERMATH both for the ABC.

 In 2000 she produced her first feature film 'STRANGE FITS OF PASSION' written and directed by Elise McCredie, which was accepted into Critic's Week at the Cannes Film Festival.  This was followed by the highly acclaimed dramatised documentary ‘LOVE LETTERS FROM A WAR’.  She has produced several short films including the AFI Award winning ‘MY SECOND CAR, ‘LIFE FORMS, ‘CABLE’ and ‘DRAGON’, which she also directed, all of which screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

A graduate from Swinburne Film and Television school, Lucy has been Investment and Project Manager at the Australian Film Commission and Film Victoria, and worked as a Line Producer on many feature film projects.

Lucy is currently producing several Genepool projects, including the feature documentary Carbon - The Unauthorised Biography, and the upcoming ABC documentary special, Cracking COVID-19.

Melbourne based freelance production accountant; Trish Mulhall has over 25 years of experience in a variety of finance and accounting roles in the media, publishing and entertainment industries.

Trish is currently working with Genepool Productions on a range of projects.  Trish assumes the entire production accounting function from dealing with multiple funding partners, numerous reporting requirements to the never ending juggling act of the cashflow.  Ultimately Trish’s focus is on internal and external business and production requirements to assists the producer to achieve timely decisions. 

Trish has a Bachelor of Business in Accounting, a Graduate Diploma in Marketing and is a Registered BAS Agent.  

Josephine Wright is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and science communicator with experience as a producer, line producer, field producer, development producer across many genres including science, wildlife, history and contemporary factual programs. Jo has worked on over 30 hours of television for various broadcasters including BBC, National Geographic, SBS, PBS, ABC and Arte.  Jo started working with Genepool Productions in 2013.

Jo's credits include producer of the multi award winning documentary 'Queen of the Desert' (ABC), line producer/field producer for the 3 part series 'Uranium - Twisting the Dragon’s Tail' (PBS, SBS, ZDF Arte), line producer  'Vaccines–Calling the Shots' (PBS NOVA), 'Kangaroo Mob' (ABC, YLE, RTBF, SVT), 'Australia’s Great Floods' (NGT), 'Possum Wars' (ABC, SVT), associate producer 'Vitamania' (SBS, Arte, Curiosity Stream), 'Tales of the Unexpected' and development producer for 'Devil Island' (ABC, ITV, FRANCE TELEVISION, NGTI), ‘Charles Beans Great War’ (Foxtel, NGTI).