Sex kitten Emmanuelle returns as a sad product of modern sexuality

It is hard to imagine now, when any kind of pornography is just a click away, what an impact Emmanuelle had on its release in 1974. The breathy, gauzy account of the sexual misadventures of a young French expatriate wife in Bangkok was not the first soft-porn film to jump into the mainstream – the more explicit Deep Throat and Behind the Green Door beat it by a couple of years – but it was altogether a more beautiful package.
It was also a hit, reaching number three at the US box office that year. Numerous sequels and knock-offs followed, while the original continued to be shown at a cinema in the Champs Elysees for 13 years.
Why did it work? Emmanuelle was based on a trashy novel, first published in 1959, by a pseudonymous 'Emmanuelle Arsan' who later turned out to be a French diplomat stationed in Thailand, presumably with time on his hands. It wasn't a good film. It was atrociously dubbed. But it had high production values, exotic cultural notes, some solemn theorising about the nature of the erotic (giving it a drop of European seriousness) and winsome Sylvia Kristel – a Dutch model who wanted to break into acting – under the camera's constant caress.
Emmanuelle 's endless simulated sexual encounters look astonishingly cheesy now. They are also unmistakably a male fantasy: a woman's supposed sensual awakening entirely orchestrated by the men around her. At first, she fiddles with other trophy wives, before being taken up by an elderly roué who steers her to an opium den where he invites a couple of patrons to rape her. Kristel argued against this scene, which now looks as dreadful as it sounds, but director Just Jaeckin said they had to do it because it was in the book.
He said later he just wanted to make 'something soft and beautiful, with a nice story'. While Kristel would star in three sequels, he refused to make another one. Emmanuelle was not the springboard either had imagined; Kristel was never taken seriously as an actor, while Jaeckin's career as a photographer was permanently stunted by his brush with the raincoat brigade.
Given this history – not to mention the convulsions in gender politics of the intervening 50 years – it was certainly a surprise when Emmanuelle was revived by French producers, this time to be directed by the impeccably feminist Audrey Diwan. It was a bold idea. Diwan won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2021 with The Happening, a powerful film about a young woman seeking an abortion in provincial France in the early '60s. She came to Emmanuelle, she says, from a position of relative ignorance. To this day, she has seen only 20 minutes of Jaeckin's Vaseline fantasy.
'I clearly understood this wasn't made for me as an audience, like I was not invited,' she said at last September's San Sebastian Film Festival, where her film screened on opening night. She was intrigued, however, by the idea of discussing the erotic from a woman's point of view, still more by the challenge of finding a cinematic language that would make that possible for modern audiences.
'The movie of the '70s was strong because it was about opening the frame. Whereas I want to restrain the frame. Now everyone can see everything, does it still work? That was the first thing.' She read the book, then let the character – or whatever Emmanuelle might become – sit with her.
In the script she eventually wrote with Rebecca Zlotowski, Emmanuelle is no longer a trophy wife. Now played by Noemie Merlant, she has a high-flying job – literally – visiting and evaluating luxury hotels, where armies of service workers ensure that every detail of life in the bubble is perfect. Her destination is not languorous Thailand but bustling Hong Kong, where she is tasked with finding a reason to sack the Rosefield Hotel's manager Margot (Naomi Watts).
On the way, in an echo of the opening scene in the first film, she has sex with a stranger in the plane's toilet. The original Emmanuelle declared herself only interested in pursuing pleasure. In Diwan's film, she grits her teeth through the act, then returns to her seat with an expression of dull disappointment. The former sex kitten is now a picture of emptiness.
Merlant, who is most immediately recognisable as the feisty painter in Portrait of a Woman on Fire, says she immediately recognised herself in the new Emmanuelle. 'At the beginning of the movie, you have this woman who did not feel anything belonged to her, including her body,' she says. 'She doesn't get pleasure; she tries to make others satisfied. She is a robot. For me, it makes a lot of sense, so I said yes.'
Merlant started modelling when she was 17. On her first job, she was sexually assaulted; when she told her agents what had happened, she was told it was her fault for not refusing clearly enough. This must be adult life, she decided; she would have to protect herself. Like Emmanuelle, she says, she shut down.
'For years I couldn't cry any more. It's like the only place I could cry was when I was shooting in films. And laugh. Like I could be alive only when I was shooting.'
She played another role in everyday life. 'The role society gave me when I was young, the role I played for others, for men, not for myself.' What she wanted in reality, she says, eluded her. 'We have been used for men's pleasure for centuries,' she says. 'We don't even know what we want. That's what I felt. With the #MeToo movement, I realised that things were not right.' Emmanuelle's quest is to find her way back to her own desire. ''How do I get there? It takes time and then I'm going to say what I want out loud.' This was very strong for me.'
Watching Emmanuelle drift to the toilet on the plane is Kei (The White Lotus ' Will Sharpe), a Japanese engineer whom she later meets in the hotel. He is as sexually numb as she is, but he is interested in her life; he questions her with gentle curiosity, peeling away her layers of icy control.
Like the raddled Mario in the first Emmanuelle, he introduces her to an Asian underbelly of grubby, druggy mahjong dens, a world away from the opulent artificiality of the hotel. Unlike Mario, he is not a voyeur or a sadist.
'He is here for her, he wants her to have space,' says Merlant. 'He is a listener. And, most of the time, we are not listened to.' When her Emmanuelle does say what she wants, it is as if a wall has crumbled.
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The new Emmanuelle was rejected by the bigger festivals, Cannes and Venice; when it finally had its premiere, some reviews were startlingly vicious. 'I think people are not happy to see a movie where Emmanuelle is sad and empty,' says Merlant.
Diwan says, however, that younger generations – for whom '70s nostalgia means nothing – relate strongly to the characters' loneliness. Many say they don't want to have sex at all, which she puts down to fear: they are afraid of falling short of their online images. Maybe they are as sad as Emmanuelle; at least we can talk about it.

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She and Pauly, like most of the actors in this charming comedy of manners set on both sides of the English Channel, are bi-lingual. English suits Agathe's writing style and she wins a residency at the Jane Austen estate. She will spend two weeks deep in the English countryside, working alongside a small group of other writers who have also been selected for assistance with their development. One the day she departs, the Channel crossing isn't especially choppy, but as you might expect, Agathe gets seasick anyway. When her lift at the other end, Oliver (Charlie Anson) shows up in his vintage sports car, she cannot hold it any longer. Anyway, he has unbearable attitude, and he declares his celebrated great-great-great-great aunt overrated. Then his car breaks down and they have to complete their journey in sullen silence, with a lift in an apple cart. 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It's a delicious concoction, a contribution to a genre that we barely see on the cinema screen these days, and hope will one day return. A film like Materialists, a rom-com for these digital times that was released last week, is unusual at the cinema these days. And Notting Hill was a very long time ago. Jane Austen died young and wrote anonymously during her lifetime. Yet her six novels were hugely influential and have had a life of their own on screen. You have to wonder what she would have thought of the many films and series made in her name. As a writer fed up with the gothic and exaggerated romanticism in popular literature in her time, she would have liked the humour mixed with realism, even if it couldn't match her incisive, comic insight into the absurdities of ordinary daily life. 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She will spend two weeks deep in the English countryside, working alongside a small group of other writers who have also been selected for assistance with their development. One the day she departs, the Channel crossing isn't especially choppy, but as you might expect, Agathe gets seasick anyway. When her lift at the other end, Oliver (Charlie Anson) shows up in his vintage sports car, she cannot hold it any longer. Anyway, he has unbearable attitude, and he declares his celebrated great-great-great-great aunt overrated. Then his car breaks down and they have to complete their journey in sullen silence, with a lift in an apple cart. Although she's a sophisticated, cultivated Left Bank Parisian, Agathe clearly belongs to the tradition of clumsy and awkward female romantic leads, like Rene Zellweger of the first Bridget Jones film, famously inspired by the works of Jane Austen, and a hugely popular series. Of course, the wider the gulf between the romantic couple, the more fun it is. Agathe thinks Oliver is insufferable and arrogant, while he lets her know he finds her underwhelming. Of course, they will despise each other at the start. Think 10 Things I Hate About You. And so continues the never-ending tit-for-tat between the French and the English. No one besides the English themselves are better at sending themselves up, and the same can be said of the French. For both countries, farce is a national sport. Filmed in France, this charming frothy rom-com is the work of French writer-director, Laura Piani. It's a delicious concoction, a contribution to a genre that we barely see on the cinema screen these days, and hope will one day return. A film like Materialists, a rom-com for these digital times that was released last week, is unusual at the cinema these days. And Notting Hill was a very long time ago. Jane Austen died young and wrote anonymously during her lifetime. Yet her six novels were hugely influential and have had a life of their own on screen. You have to wonder what she would have thought of the many films and series made in her name. As a writer fed up with the gothic and exaggerated romanticism in popular literature in her time, she would have liked the humour mixed with realism, even if it couldn't match her incisive, comic insight into the absurdities of ordinary daily life. There is a touching moment at the end of Jane Austen Wrecked My Life that has a serious bit of advice for the wary and the uncertain, when a well-known American documentary filmmaker appears in a cameo, reading a poem about letting life in. It hints at a little more than froth and farce and is a good note to end on. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life M, 98 minutes 3 Stars Once again, one of England's best and most popular novelists has a thing or two to answer for. Here we have another romantic comedy for the screen that was inspired by the wonderful books of Jane Austen about village life set in the south of England two centuries ago. It is a charmer. Set in the literary milieu in Paris, it is no surprise to hear bookseller Agathe (Camille Rutherford) tell a customer at Shakespeare and Company that Sense and Sensibility is her favourite Jane Austen read. And to confide that her favourite heroine is Anne Elliot in Persuasion. The fabled English-language bookshop in Paris that has featured in films by Woody Allen and Richard Linklater and more takes another bow. Agathe adores the company of characters in books, but life outside of work for this thirtysomething isn't scintillating. She quite fancies her good friend Felix (Pablo Pauly), but hasn't slept with anyone in two years and struggles with imposter syndrome as she tries her hand at writing fiction. Felix, she says, is a "breadcrumber". Well, if I'm leading women on, he replies, you're reclusive. Not into digital, not into likes on social media. Just not born into the right century. Touché! British-French actress Rutherford is a natural for her role as Agathe. She and Pauly, like most of the actors in this charming comedy of manners set on both sides of the English Channel, are bi-lingual. English suits Agathe's writing style and she wins a residency at the Jane Austen estate. She will spend two weeks deep in the English countryside, working alongside a small group of other writers who have also been selected for assistance with their development. One the day she departs, the Channel crossing isn't especially choppy, but as you might expect, Agathe gets seasick anyway. When her lift at the other end, Oliver (Charlie Anson) shows up in his vintage sports car, she cannot hold it any longer. Anyway, he has unbearable attitude, and he declares his celebrated great-great-great-great aunt overrated. Then his car breaks down and they have to complete their journey in sullen silence, with a lift in an apple cart. Although she's a sophisticated, cultivated Left Bank Parisian, Agathe clearly belongs to the tradition of clumsy and awkward female romantic leads, like Rene Zellweger of the first Bridget Jones film, famously inspired by the works of Jane Austen, and a hugely popular series. Of course, the wider the gulf between the romantic couple, the more fun it is. Agathe thinks Oliver is insufferable and arrogant, while he lets her know he finds her underwhelming. Of course, they will despise each other at the start. Think 10 Things I Hate About You. And so continues the never-ending tit-for-tat between the French and the English. No one besides the English themselves are better at sending themselves up, and the same can be said of the French. For both countries, farce is a national sport. Filmed in France, this charming frothy rom-com is the work of French writer-director, Laura Piani. It's a delicious concoction, a contribution to a genre that we barely see on the cinema screen these days, and hope will one day return. A film like Materialists, a rom-com for these digital times that was released last week, is unusual at the cinema these days. And Notting Hill was a very long time ago. Jane Austen died young and wrote anonymously during her lifetime. Yet her six novels were hugely influential and have had a life of their own on screen. You have to wonder what she would have thought of the many films and series made in her name. As a writer fed up with the gothic and exaggerated romanticism in popular literature in her time, she would have liked the humour mixed with realism, even if it couldn't match her incisive, comic insight into the absurdities of ordinary daily life. There is a touching moment at the end of Jane Austen Wrecked My Life that has a serious bit of advice for the wary and the uncertain, when a well-known American documentary filmmaker appears in a cameo, reading a poem about letting life in. It hints at a little more than froth and farce and is a good note to end on.

The Age

a day ago

• The Age

How SBS evolved from ‘clogs and cooking' into our most innovative broadcaster

For some Australians, it was the soccer that first prompted them to watch SBS. Others came for its flagship World News bulletin; current affairs programs such as Dateline, Insight and Living Black; or cult hits including South Park, Queer as Folk and Fat Pizza. And for many teenagers, its racy international films served as a reliable drawcard (and a gateway drug to the appreciation of arthouse cinema). But for Julia Zemiro, SBS was a lifeline to her home country. 'I was born in France and did all my primary education at a French school in Australia,' says the popular presenter, who has hosted several series and specials for the broadcaster including RocKwiz, Who Do You Think You Are?, Great Australian Walks and the Eurovision Song Contest. 'To have all those French films and TV shows was incredible. There was French radio but to see those images on TV made you feel even more connected.' This month, the Special Broadcasting Service – affectionately dubbed the 'Sex Between Soccer' network by viewers – marks its 50th anniversary. And there is much to celebrate: over the course of five decades, it has evolved from two experimental radio stations (2EA in Sydney and 3EA in Melbourne; EA standing for 'Ethnic Australia') into a radio network broadcasting in 68 languages, as well as six television channels. In 2014, its share of the TV audience was 5.2 per cent; last year, it was 9.3 per cent. And its SBS On Demand service has grown by 18 per cent over the past 12 months, with almost 2.25 million active accounts logging into the platform in April alone. 'SBS has been a constant companion of multiculturalism in Australia,' says the network's managing director, James Taylor. 'I'm reminded of the Noel Pearson Boyer Lecture from 2022, where he spoke about the story of Australia resting on three pillars: our First Nations heritage, the British institutional foundations and the multicultural gift of migration. I like to think that SBS sits at the intersection of these pillars by brokering understanding, belonging and mutual respect.' When SBS was launched by the Whitlam government in 1975, it had a narrow aim: to inform non-English speaking Australians of the Medibank public health system, now known as Medicare. Indeed, it was intended to operate for just three months, until its success prompted the government to acknowledge the value of a permanent multicultural broadcaster in a country with a booming migrant population. In 1980, SBS expanded into television, with the Fraser government appointing former ABC chair Bruce Gyngell as its first chief executive. 'I was horrified with the concept they had,' Gyngell later recalled. 'It sounded to me like a typical sort of ethnic station with dancing and clogs and exotic cooking and not much more than that. The sense of culture seemed to be totally absent.' What Gyngell wanted was a channel that would encourage migrants to feel embraced by their adopted country – and to foster a greater appreciation and understanding of their cultures among Australian-born citizens. Loading 'If SBS had never existed, we'd understand so much less about ourselves,' says Jenny Brockie, who hosted the acclaimed Insight program between 2001 and 2020. 'It encouraged us to celebrate our differences while recognising that we're all part of a community, which I think is its biggest contribution. And at a programming level, SBS has been a real innovator; it's a place where a lot of risks have been taken.' Insight is a good example: under Brockie, it evolved from a magazine format into a discussion forum. Each episode is devoted to a single topic, from domestic terrorism to the pain of betrayal, with a studio audience – as opposed to a panel of talking heads – sharing their views and experiences. This might seem like a recipe for Jerry Springer-style conflict but in reality, Insight is among the most thoughtful and illuminating programs on Australian television. 'Every single person in the room is nurtured by producers through extensive conversations over a long period of time,' says Insight's current host, Kumi Taguchi. 'We don't do gotcha moments; if somebody says they don't want to discuss a particular part of their experience, we never cross that line. We're transparent with our guests about who else will be in the room, and the fact there will be differing opinions, which helps build trust and understanding. About 80 per cent of the work is done behind the scenes before people even get into the studio.' 'We were allowed to be a bit more bold than we might have been on a commercial network.' Julia Zemiro Long before Taguchi joined SBS, she was an avid viewer of the network. 'It brought a new kind of quirkiness and irreverence to our screens,' she says. 'Everyone would talk about the late-night world movies, and it was the only station at the time to show South Park. I really like the way it pushed those boundaries.' Loading Zemiro agrees. 'We were allowed to be a bit more bold than we might have been on a commercial network,' she says. 'As a viewer, you'd see things that were a bit sexy or dangerous. SBS showed soccer before anyone gave a shit about soccer. We could say things like, 'Colonialism isn't great' or 'These animals are suffering and we need to do something about it'. And with [music quiz show] RocKwiz, they just let us go for it and be creative, which is pretty rare.' Of course, SBS – which receives about one third of its funding from commercial sponsors and the rest from taxpayers – is not immune to the difficulties facing free-to-air broadcasters in 2025. This is largely due to technological advances, which spawned direct rivals such as Netflix, Stan* and Disney+. (Meanwhile, Google and Meta now account for an estimated 70 per cent of digital advertising spend.) But technology has also been a boon for the network, allowing it to maintain its multilingual programming while reaching new audiences through SBS On Demand and additional channels such as Viceland, World Movies, Food, WorldWatch and NITV. Karla Grant, a Western Arrernte woman, joined SBS in 1995 as a producer and reporter on ICAM, the network's first Indigenous affairs program. In 2002, she created the acclaimed Living Black, which she hosts to this day, and she is one of the main presenters on the National Indigenous Television channel, which became part of SBS in 2012. Loading 'SBS has been a leader in terms of Indigenous programming and storytelling, giving First Nations people a platform and a voice they don't have anywhere else,' Grant says. 'But NITV and Living Black also play a huge part in informing and educating our nation about First Nations issues, history and culture, which is something we want to share with the rest of the country and the world. It's an important role and I think we do it well.' Among the reporting Grant is most proud of is an investigation called Taken, which examined the growing number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children being removed from their homes by authorities. 'Everyone talks about the stolen generations as though they're a thing of the past,' she says. 'In fact, it's still happening today. We did a story about kids in detention, and how one boy had to drink from the toilet in his cell because the guard wouldn't let him have fresh water. A lot of people wrote to me saying, 'We had no idea this type of thing still happens, but it's an appalling breach of human rights'.' Over the past three decades, Grant has also told countless positive stories. Loading 'We shine a light on all the great things that are happening in our communities and the people who are making huge contributions to our country' she says. 'It's entertaining but it's also educating people at the same time.' The same could be said of many SBS dramas. East West 101, which was set in a major crime squad, explored issues of race and justice; Deep Water was based on unsolved gay hate murders in the 1980s; and New Gold Mountain captured the racial tensions of Victoria's goldfields in the 1850s. There have been warm-hearted comedies such as The Family Law, based on Benjamin Law's memoir of the same name; the groundbreaking documentary series Struggle Street, which detailed the reality of living in poverty in Australia; and the hit reality show Alone Australia, in which survivalists attempt to live by themselves for as long as possible in the wilderness. Among the network's best-known former presenters are newsreaders Lee Lin Chin and George Donikian; Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton, who hosted The Movie Show between 1986 and 2004; and sports broadcasters Damien Lovelock and Les Murray. Craig Foster, who spent 18 years as SBS's chief football analyst, believes the network's purpose was best described by Murray, who died in 2019. 'Way back in the '80s, it was Les who rightly said that SBS is [an affirmation] of the value of pluralism and multiple ancestries,' Foster says. 'It didn't matter whether you spoke Turkish, Greek or Italian – that should be celebrated.' Foster recalls the semi-final between South Korea and Germany at the 2002 FIFA World Cup with a particular fondness. 'There were hundreds of thousands of people watching that game with immense passion,' he says. 'And it was SBS that not only understood that fact, it celebrated it. In effect, what SBS was saying is, 'We are all connected through this game and we respect you as equal Australians. Your parents might have been looked down upon, but we want you to know that we love it when you speak different languages and we love it when you wear your ceremonial dress. In other words, we get you'.' Anton Enus, who hosts the World News bulletins on Fridays and Saturdays, echoes this sentiment. 'I came here from South Africa in 1999 and SBS really helped me embrace this nation that was new to me,' he says. 'As a migrant, you also want to feel connected [to your home country], so you're always looking for someone who sounds like you or speaks your language. But another great thing about SBS is that it teaches you about other cultures you might not have any direct connection to. You might start watching an Italian movie and before you know it, you're completely sucked in because it's something totally different to what you'd get from Hollywood or the BBC.' For managing director Taylor, this is the raison d'etre for the network. 'I regard SBS as a national broadcaster that tells the stories of all Australians,' he says. 'The Australia you see when you tune into any one of our channels or platforms is the same Australia you see when you walk out your front door.'

Sydney Morning Herald

a day ago

• Sydney Morning Herald

How SBS evolved from ‘clogs and cooking' into our most innovative broadcaster

For some Australians, it was the soccer that first prompted them to watch SBS. Others came for its flagship World News bulletin; current affairs programs such as Dateline, Insight and Living Black; or cult hits including South Park, Queer as Folk and Fat Pizza. And for many teenagers, its racy international films served as a reliable drawcard (and a gateway drug to the appreciation of arthouse cinema). But for Julia Zemiro, SBS was a lifeline to her home country. 'I was born in France and did all my primary education at a French school in Australia,' says the popular presenter, who has hosted several series and specials for the broadcaster including RocKwiz, Who Do You Think You Are?, Great Australian Walks and the Eurovision Song Contest. 'To have all those French films and TV shows was incredible. There was French radio but to see those images on TV made you feel even more connected.' This month, the Special Broadcasting Service – affectionately dubbed the 'Sex Between Soccer' network by viewers – marks its 50th anniversary. And there is much to celebrate: over the course of five decades, it has evolved from two experimental radio stations (2EA in Sydney and 3EA in Melbourne; EA standing for 'Ethnic Australia') into a radio network broadcasting in 68 languages, as well as six television channels. In 2014, its share of the TV audience was 5.2 per cent; last year, it was 9.3 per cent. And its SBS On Demand service has grown by 18 per cent over the past 12 months, with almost 2.25 million active accounts logging into the platform in April alone. 'SBS has been a constant companion of multiculturalism in Australia,' says the network's managing director, James Taylor. 'I'm reminded of the Noel Pearson Boyer Lecture from 2022, where he spoke about the story of Australia resting on three pillars: our First Nations heritage, the British institutional foundations and the multicultural gift of migration. I like to think that SBS sits at the intersection of these pillars by brokering understanding, belonging and mutual respect.' When SBS was launched by the Whitlam government in 1975, it had a narrow aim: to inform non-English speaking Australians of the Medibank public health system, now known as Medicare. Indeed, it was intended to operate for just three months, until its success prompted the government to acknowledge the value of a permanent multicultural broadcaster in a country with a booming migrant population. In 1980, SBS expanded into television, with the Fraser government appointing former ABC chair Bruce Gyngell as its first chief executive. 'I was horrified with the concept they had,' Gyngell later recalled. 'It sounded to me like a typical sort of ethnic station with dancing and clogs and exotic cooking and not much more than that. The sense of culture seemed to be totally absent.' What Gyngell wanted was a channel that would encourage migrants to feel embraced by their adopted country – and to foster a greater appreciation and understanding of their cultures among Australian-born citizens. Loading 'If SBS had never existed, we'd understand so much less about ourselves,' says Jenny Brockie, who hosted the acclaimed Insight program between 2001 and 2020. 'It encouraged us to celebrate our differences while recognising that we're all part of a community, which I think is its biggest contribution. And at a programming level, SBS has been a real innovator; it's a place where a lot of risks have been taken.' Insight is a good example: under Brockie, it evolved from a magazine format into a discussion forum. Each episode is devoted to a single topic, from domestic terrorism to the pain of betrayal, with a studio audience – as opposed to a panel of talking heads – sharing their views and experiences. This might seem like a recipe for Jerry Springer-style conflict but in reality, Insight is among the most thoughtful and illuminating programs on Australian television. 'Every single person in the room is nurtured by producers through extensive conversations over a long period of time,' says Insight's current host, Kumi Taguchi. 'We don't do gotcha moments; if somebody says they don't want to discuss a particular part of their experience, we never cross that line. We're transparent with our guests about who else will be in the room, and the fact there will be differing opinions, which helps build trust and understanding. About 80 per cent of the work is done behind the scenes before people even get into the studio.' 'We were allowed to be a bit more bold than we might have been on a commercial network.' Julia Zemiro Long before Taguchi joined SBS, she was an avid viewer of the network. 'It brought a new kind of quirkiness and irreverence to our screens,' she says. 'Everyone would talk about the late-night world movies, and it was the only station at the time to show South Park. I really like the way it pushed those boundaries.' Loading Zemiro agrees. 'We were allowed to be a bit more bold than we might have been on a commercial network,' she says. 'As a viewer, you'd see things that were a bit sexy or dangerous. SBS showed soccer before anyone gave a shit about soccer. We could say things like, 'Colonialism isn't great' or 'These animals are suffering and we need to do something about it'. And with [music quiz show] RocKwiz, they just let us go for it and be creative, which is pretty rare.' Of course, SBS – which receives about one third of its funding from commercial sponsors and the rest from taxpayers – is not immune to the difficulties facing free-to-air broadcasters in 2025. This is largely due to technological advances, which spawned direct rivals such as Netflix, Stan* and Disney+. (Meanwhile, Google and Meta now account for an estimated 70 per cent of digital advertising spend.) But technology has also been a boon for the network, allowing it to maintain its multilingual programming while reaching new audiences through SBS On Demand and additional channels such as Viceland, World Movies, Food, WorldWatch and NITV. Karla Grant, a Western Arrernte woman, joined SBS in 1995 as a producer and reporter on ICAM, the network's first Indigenous affairs program. In 2002, she created the acclaimed Living Black, which she hosts to this day, and she is one of the main presenters on the National Indigenous Television channel, which became part of SBS in 2012. Loading 'SBS has been a leader in terms of Indigenous programming and storytelling, giving First Nations people a platform and a voice they don't have anywhere else,' Grant says. 'But NITV and Living Black also play a huge part in informing and educating our nation about First Nations issues, history and culture, which is something we want to share with the rest of the country and the world. It's an important role and I think we do it well.' Among the reporting Grant is most proud of is an investigation called Taken, which examined the growing number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children being removed from their homes by authorities. 'Everyone talks about the stolen generations as though they're a thing of the past,' she says. 'In fact, it's still happening today. We did a story about kids in detention, and how one boy had to drink from the toilet in his cell because the guard wouldn't let him have fresh water. A lot of people wrote to me saying, 'We had no idea this type of thing still happens, but it's an appalling breach of human rights'.' Over the past three decades, Grant has also told countless positive stories. Loading 'We shine a light on all the great things that are happening in our communities and the people who are making huge contributions to our country' she says. 'It's entertaining but it's also educating people at the same time.' The same could be said of many SBS dramas. East West 101, which was set in a major crime squad, explored issues of race and justice; Deep Water was based on unsolved gay hate murders in the 1980s; and New Gold Mountain captured the racial tensions of Victoria's goldfields in the 1850s. There have been warm-hearted comedies such as The Family Law, based on Benjamin Law's memoir of the same name; the groundbreaking documentary series Struggle Street, which detailed the reality of living in poverty in Australia; and the hit reality show Alone Australia, in which survivalists attempt to live by themselves for as long as possible in the wilderness. Among the network's best-known former presenters are newsreaders Lee Lin Chin and George Donikian; Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton, who hosted The Movie Show between 1986 and 2004; and sports broadcasters Damien Lovelock and Les Murray. Craig Foster, who spent 18 years as SBS's chief football analyst, believes the network's purpose was best described by Murray, who died in 2019. 'Way back in the '80s, it was Les who rightly said that SBS is [an affirmation] of the value of pluralism and multiple ancestries,' Foster says. 'It didn't matter whether you spoke Turkish, Greek or Italian – that should be celebrated.' Foster recalls the semi-final between South Korea and Germany at the 2002 FIFA World Cup with a particular fondness. 'There were hundreds of thousands of people watching that game with immense passion,' he says. 'And it was SBS that not only understood that fact, it celebrated it. In effect, what SBS was saying is, 'We are all connected through this game and we respect you as equal Australians. Your parents might have been looked down upon, but we want you to know that we love it when you speak different languages and we love it when you wear your ceremonial dress. In other words, we get you'.' Anton Enus, who hosts the World News bulletins on Fridays and Saturdays, echoes this sentiment. 'I came here from South Africa in 1999 and SBS really helped me embrace this nation that was new to me,' he says. 'As a migrant, you also want to feel connected [to your home country], so you're always looking for someone who sounds like you or speaks your language. But another great thing about SBS is that it teaches you about other cultures you might not have any direct connection to. You might start watching an Italian movie and before you know it, you're completely sucked in because it's something totally different to what you'd get from Hollywood or the BBC.' For managing director Taylor, this is the raison d'etre for the network. 'I regard SBS as a national broadcaster that tells the stories of all Australians,' he says. 'The Australia you see when you tune into any one of our channels or platforms is the same Australia you see when you walk out your front door.'