Anita Ondine Smith

Biography

Born in Sydney, Anita is the daughter of Anka Makovec, a Slovene artist and Albert Arthur Smith, an Australian carpenter.

After a short period living in the former Yugoslavia Anita and her mother moved to Tasmania, where they became deeply involved in the largest environmental battle in Australian history – the battle to save the Franklin River from being dammed.

The Tasmanian Dam Case (Commonwealth v Tasmania), was a landmark decision in Australian constitutional law. After years of protests and grass roots action led by Dr Bob Brown (former Senator and Leader of the Australian Greens), the High Court of Australia decided that the federal law protecting the Franklin River was valid, 4 votes to 3.

Anita graduated with Honours in Law from the Australian National University, where she specialized in intellectual property, technology and international law. Her graduating thesis was entitled Lex Cybertoria: International Law and Copyright on the Internet. Anita also holds a B.A. from the Australian National University in Political Science.

While working as a technology lawyer in 1998 for Freehills and an IBM subsidiary, Anita wrote a book called The Millennium Bomb Disposal Kit about the impact of technology on business and for several years was a frequent speaker at international conferences such as TTI/Vanguard, on the intersection of law and technology.

Anita moved from Australia to London, England in 1999, where she worked for Shaw Pittman (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman) on complex technology outsourcing transactions as well as cutting edge internet advisory work, with clients including Reuters.

Still in the City of London, Anita worked for Lehman Brothers from 2000 to 2006 in legal, operational risk and executive management functions and held the position of Senior Vice President. Anita was a key organizer in raising awareness of disability issues at the firm, including writing and directing a short film entitled Disability Diversity at Lehman Brothers. Anita was also on the Board of Trustees for the Disability Equality in Education charitable trust.

After a decade in law and business management, Anita moved into filmmaking full-time in 2006, co-producing the dark comedy feature film Drop Dead Gorgeous, written and directed by Philip Alderton.

As the independent film industry faced combined challenges from the Financial crisis of 2007–08 and audiences turning to multi-screen, online and mobile viewing, Anita shifted focus to the emerging field of transmedia. Anita collaborated on several projects with renowned transmedia pioneer Lance Weiler through their production company, Seize the Media. Most significantly, Anita Executive Produced Lance Weiler's transmedia story experience Pandemic 1.0 and produced the companion short film Pandemic 41.410806, −75.654259, which premiered in competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and via a US cable network reaching 28 million homes.

Current work

Anita is Director at Transmedia Next, the transmedia production, consulting and training company, based in London, UK and active worldwide.

Anita currently serves as a board member of Screen Tasmania, the government agency responsible for funding film, television and digital media in Tasmania, and is an occasional contributor to the Transmedia Coalition 'Expert' series.

Anita also writes, directs and produces via her company, Touch Light Media. Anita has an ongoing artistic collaboration with American singer and performance artist Rodleen Getsic. John Perry Barlow, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and former lyricist for the Grateful Dead is a member of the Touch Light Media Advisory Board.