BIOGRAPHY:
Nicola Woolmington initially began a professional career in theatre, performing, writing and directing after completing a double drama degree at the University of New England. She went on to the Swinburne Film School, under the very fine teacher, Peter Tammer, and completed a Post Grad Diploma in film.
Her student film Oceans Apart, a 30 min drama, was nominated for ATOM Best Short Drama. She then went on to write and direct Get Real, a teenage comedy funded through the Victorian Independent Filmmakers Fund and the AFC.
She turned to documentaries with Searching, a film about adoption including the story of finding her birth mother and meeting her in Paris.Her other documentaries have continued on the path of social issues and the struggle for justice. The overturning of euthanasia legislation in the Northern Territory (Where Angels Fear To Tread), the biggest class action in the world against German Industry for WW2 forced and slave labour (Paying For the Past, a long and valued collaboration with producer Penny Robins) and the untold history of The Forgotten Australians (produced by Nell White).
CRITICAL
OVERVIEW:
I am drawn to complex subject matter that challenges, moves and leads me to search for a deeper understanding about who we are and where we are going.
I was headed for a career in drama and it was a surprise to find myself making documentaries. However the more you go deeply into stories which weigh deeply on peoples lives, hidden, unjust and uncomfortable stories, something quite extraordinary unfolds. This is what has fuelled my love for making documentaries.
While I have delved into euthanasia, the consequences of war, music frontiers and Modern China, the theme of families being torn apart returned in my last documentary.
The Forgotten Australians is the untold history of 500,000 children placed in care last century in Australia and the two activists who helped pave the way towards a National Apology. It took four long years to make, and I had to beg, borrow, get help from friends and fund a lot of it in those earlier years. I just could not get a broadcaster interested.
This is definitely the film I am most proud of and very thankfully, SBS came on board and it was finally funded under the National Interest Program. This incredible history is now being more fully investigated by the Royal Commission into institutional responses to child sex abuse.
While I like big picture social issue documentaries, I can also turn my head equally to science, history, the arts and drama. I am currently working on a drama series.
- Nicola Woolmington, March 2014.
FILMOGRAPHY:
1988
1997 Writer/director 8 min comedy.
Oceans Apart
1989, Writer/director 30 min B/W Drama.
Get Real
1991 Writer/director 26 min comedy drama
Searching
1992 Writer/director 52 min documentary film
Sky Trackers
1995 One of the writers on a teenage science based drama series
for Australian Children’s TV Foundation Channel 9
Where Angels Fear To Tread
1998 Writer/director. 56 min documentary
Paying For the Past
2001 Writer/ Director 56 min documentary
Einstein’s Wife
2003 Director- 52 min Documentary
The Hunt For The Sydney
2007 Additional Directing 52 min documentary
The Forgotten Australians
2010 writer/director 52 min documentary
Einstein’s Wife excerpt(2003)
AWARDS and FESTIVALS and BROADCASTS:
Shooting Searching
Oceans Apart
Swinburne Film and TV School. Nominated best short drama ATOM.
SBS Eat Carpet.
Get Real
Film Vic IFF Fund.
SBS Australian Shorts. Melb Film Festival. St Kilda Film Fest.
Searching
ABC BBC
Sky Trackers
Golden Cairo. Best Children's TV series ATOM. Best Children's TV Series Nominated Media net Award Germany. Screened Channel 9.
Where Angels Fear To Tread
Winner Best Social Issue Documentary ATOM.
ABC Inside Story - The inside story which lead to the overturning the Northern Territory’s controversial euthanasia law. Sold well to overseas networks.
Shooting Paying for the Past
with late DOP Tony Wilson
Paying For the Past
Tel Aviv Film Festival Jewish Film Fest Berlin.
SBS Cutting Edge. Broadcast in a number of countries.
Einstein’s Wife
Doc Aviv Ox Doc, Doc Point Amsterdam, ABC. PPS. Screened in 29 countries.
The Hunt For The Sydney
ABC
The Forgotten Australians
Unspoken Human Rights Fest New York State, 2012 Guangzhou International Film Fest 2013.
SBS National Interest Program.
