The Bazura Project
The Bazura Project is a comedy show about the history of cinema, written and presented by Shannon Marinko and Lee Zachariah. It originally ran on Australian community television from 2006 to 2008, and on ABC2 in late 2011.
In 2025, The Bazura Project was inducted into the Community TV Hall of Fame.
On Australian Community TV
The show originally aired on Australian community television stations on 7 December 2006. It ran for three seasons, ending on 18 December 2008.It was nominated for multiple Antenna Awards, and won Best Comedy Program and Best Director in 2007, and Best Arts Program in both 2007 and 2008.
Every episode began with a pre-title sequence in which hosts Shannon Marinko and Lee Zachariah parodied a classic film scene. There would then be a news segment, a feature story, an interview with a key figure movie figure, then reviews of that week's releases.
Opening Sequences
These sequences are not strictly parodies, but rather hosts Shannon and Lee finding themselves in situations that closely resemble famous scenes. Notable openings included the season one finale The Graduate, season two's On the Town, the season two finale Back to the Future Part II, Plan 9 from Outer Space, Full Metal Jacket, and the series finale Fight Club.Episode 1.01 – The Sixth Sense
Episode 1.02 – Clerks
Episode 1.03 – It's a Wonderful Life
Episode 1.04 – Say Anything...
Episode 1.05 – Apocalypse Now
Episode 1.06 – Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Episode 1.07 – The Usual Suspects
Episode 1.08 – Goodfellas
Episode 1.09 – Manhattan
Episode 1.10 – Psycho (film)|American Psycho]
Episode 1.11 – The Graduate
Episode 2.01 – The Blues Brothers
Episode 2.02 – Trainspotting
Episode 2.03 – Faster Pussycat Kill Kill
Episode 2.04 – Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Episode 2.05 – Pulp Fiction
Episode 2.06 – Donnie Darko
Episode 2.07 – Adaptation
Episode 2.08 – The Untouchables
Episode 2.09 – On the Town
Episode 2.10 – Midnight Cowboy
Episode 2.11 – A Clockwork Orange
Episode 2.12 – King Kong
Episode 2.13 – Back to the Future Part II
Episode 3.01 – The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Episode 3.02 – Lolita
Episode 3.03 – Plan 9 from Outer Space
Episode 3.04 – On The Waterfront
Episode 3.05 – The Shining
Episode 3.06 – Singin' in the Rain
Episode 3.07 – Goldfinger
Episode 3.08 – Blade Runner
Episode 3.09 – Psycho
Episode 3.10 – Full Metal Jacket
Episode 3.11 – ''Fight Club''
Interviews
People interviewed on the community TV iteration of the show included George Miller (producer), Melanie Coombs, Anthony Lucas, Sarah Watt, Chris Noonan, Everett De Roche, Jack Sargeant, Danny Boyle, Geoffrey Wright, Pixar's Jerome Ranft & Paul Topolos, Roger Donaldson, Robert Connolly, Sue Maslin, Jonathan King, Scott Hicks, Rolf de Heer, Jason Schwartzman, Gillian Armstrong, Brian Trenchard-Smith, David Eggby, Mark Hartley, Steven Berkoff, Leigh Whannell, Bud Tingwell, Nathan Phillips, Jan Sardi and Clara Law.On the ABC
Guide To Sinema
In early 2011, the ABC commissioned a six-part series for ABC2 entitled The Bazura Project's Guide To Sinema. Each episode was devoted to a different cinematic sin: Violence, Sex, Money, Profanity, Drugs and Fame. The series began on 29 September, airing Thursday nights at 9pm.Regular segments included: History, in which Shannon and Lee give a lesson on how sins were depicted in early cinema; Forgotten Films, featuring Shannon revealing obscure cult works; Lee's Therapy, with Lee explaining to his therapist how he's been forever scarred by sinful movies; the Future, in which Shannon and Lee travel to the future to meet a robot who uses sci-fi films to reveal the future of sins; How To Make a Movie, a guide on how to make your very own sinful movie; and The Bazura Project Awards, an elaborate show rewarding cinema's standout sinful scenes.
The series included appearances from Kat Stewart, Tony Martin, Francis Greenslade, Julia Zemiro, John Safran, Bryan Dawe, Michael Ward, Luke Hemsworth, Abe Forsythe, Marc Fennell and Stephanie Bendixsen.
Radio Free Cinema
In 2021, the show returned as a six-part audio series The Bazura Project's Radio Free Cinema, released as a podcast on the Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, and Amazon platforms."Radio Free Cinema" was made in the format of a commercial radio show, presented as if old tapes had been recovered and re-released online. The show featured fake movie news, trailers for non-existent films, original music, scripted interviews, and sketches.
It featured cameos from Tom Ballard, Rusty Berther, Kristy Best, Robyn Butler, Rhonda Burchmore, Santo Cilauro, Marc Fennell, Tim Ferguson, Abe Forsythe, Bob Franklin (comedian), Francis Greenslade, Tosh Greenslade, Roz Hammond, Stephen Hall (actor), Andrew Hansen, Peter Helliar, Tegan Higginbotham, Ming-Zhu Hii, Adam Hills, Claire Hooper, Wayne Hope, Dan Ilic, Laura Hughes, Mark Humphries, Nazeem Hussain, Ed Kavalee, Christopher Kirby, Colin Lane, Tommy Little (comedian), Cassandra Magrath, Tony Martin (comedian), Shaun Micallef, Rhys Muldoon, Brian Nankervis, Celia Pacquola, Geraldine Quinn, Ben Russell, John Safran, Kat Stewart, Emily Taheny, Chris Taylor (comedian), Dave Thornton, Toby Truslove, Michael Veitch, Cal Wilson, and more.
The show was nominated for Best Comedy Podcast and Best Fiction Podcast at the 2022 Australian Podcast Awards, winning Silver in both categories. The sixth episode received a nomination in the Audio - Fiction category at the 55th AWGIE Awards.