Make it Look Real – Kate Blackmore

— About

Kate Blackmore is an Australian filmmaker whose work spans fiction, documentary and experimental forms. In 2025, Kate’s debut feature documentary, Make it Look Real, premiered at SXSW (TX), Sydney Film Festival, and was subsequently acquired by Netflix (ANZ). Exploring the evolving role of intimacy coordinators on film sets, the hybrid film was produced by Bethany Bruce (Staple Fiction) and Dan Joyce (Projector Films), with support from Screen NSW, Screen Australia, and the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund. Make it Look Real is distributed in Australia by Bonsai and represented internationally by Autlook Film Sales.

Kate has written, directed, and produced over 25 short documentaries for the ABC, including the Walkley Award-nominated series on contemporary dance, The Movement. In 2018, she was awarded the prestigious Hive commission to create The Woman and The Car, a hybrid documentary about iconic Australian artist Margaret Dodd. The film was produced by Bridget Ikin (Felix Media) and financed by Adelaide Film Festival, Screen Australia and the ABC. Kate’s narrative short films have screened at the Sydney Film Festival in 2021 and 2023 (Dendy Awards).

Kate is also a founding member of the acclaimed artist collective Barbara Cleveland whose works have been included in notable exhibitions: Know My Name, NGA, Canberra (2021); Divided Worlds, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Adelaide (2018); Unfinished Business, ACCA, Melbourne (2017); Unboxed: Artists and the Archive, Hayward Gallery, London (2017); Today Tomorrow Yesterday, MCA, Sydney (2017); Bodies in Time, Australian Contemporary Art Commission, AGNSW, Sydney (2016); and The future is already here, 20th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (2016). Barbara Cleveland’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; and Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne. The collective is represented by Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney.

Kate holds a BFA/BA (Hons) Moving Image & Performance from UNSW Art & Design, Sydney and a MA Visual and Media Anthropology from Freie Universität, Berlin. She works as a Lecturer in Directing at AFTRS, Sydney.

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Make it Look Real

MAKE IT LOOK REAL (2024)

Featuring Claire Warden, Sarah Roberts, Albert Mwangi, Tom Davis, Kieran Darcy-Smith

Writer & Director Kate Blackmore
Producers Bethany Bruce, Daniel Joyce
Executive Producers Bridget Ikin, Emma Cooper, Elliott Magen, Michael Agar, Stevie Ray
Production Companies Staple Fiction, Projector Films, Broadtalk
Cinematography Justine Kerrigan ACS
Editor Elliott Magen
Composer Benjamin Speed
Sound Design Jennifer Leonforte
Post & Colour Justin Tran
Sequence Director Kieran Darcy-Smith

Feature Documentary, 78mins

Official Selection: 2024 Adelaide Film Festival – World Premier
Official Selection: 2025 SXSW Film Festival – International Premier
Official Selection: 2025 Sydney Film Festival

Watch film on Netflix

Financed with the support of Screen Australia, Screen NSW and Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund.

Make It Look Real is a hybrid documentary that goes behind the scenes of Tightrope – a fictional film created specifically to explore the work of intimacy coordinator Claire Warden. Centred on the rehearsals and shooting of three intimate scenes, the documentary follows Claire as she guides actors through the delicate process of choreographing sex scenes, balancing the director’s vision with the performers’ emotional and physical wellbeing.