Board

The Screen Tasmania Board advises the State Government on achieving the objectives of Screen Tasmania. It comprises local film, television and multimedia practitioners and others.

Margaret Reynolds :: chair

Margaret Reynolds has a background in education, social policy and human rights.

She was born in Launceston and after training at the University of Tasmania taught in special education in Tasmania, London and Queensland over a fifteen year period. She established Kindergarten Headstart for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in 1967.

Margaret has extensive experience in social policy development and advocacy, working at local, state and federal government levels. She was an elected member of the Townsville City Council from 1979-83 and the Australian Senate from 1983-99.

As Minister for Local Government and the Status of Women from 1987-90 she developed a range of initiatives to highlight access and equity issues.  She represented the Australian Government on the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation from 1991-96. Margaret has worked with a number of international organisations to promote human rights and was National President of the United Nations Association of Australia from 1999-2005. She has represented Australia at a number of U.N. Conferences and at the U.N. General Assembly in 1997.

Margaret taught Human Rights and International Politics at the University of Queensland from 1999-2004 and is currently Adjunct Professor at the University of Tasmania, where she coordinates international internships for Arts/Law students.

Since 2004, Margaret has worked in disability policy and advocacy and is State Manager of National Disability Services, based in Hobart. Her book Living Politics tracing her career in Australian and International politics was released by University of Queensland Press in 2007.

Margaret has been the Chair of the Screen Tasmania Board since its inception in 2000.

Colin Grubb

Colin graduated from the school of Art at the University of Tasmania before joining the Tasmanian Film Corporation where he worked in many areas of film production.

After a brief period at the ABC Children's Unit as a producer in Hobart and Adelaide, Colin moved to Washington in 1991 where he produced and directed three major 13 part documentary series for Discovery Channel including Wings of the Luftwaffe and The X Planes.

Since 1994 Colin has worked as a Senior Producer at ABC Hobart, particularly on gardening Australia. He has also directed three music documentaries including the award-winning Ravel's - Mother Goose.

Di Drew

Di Drew is one of Australia’s most respected, award winning, drama directors. The Australian Director’s Guild awarded her their prestigious annual award “in recognition of consistent excellence in the art of screen direction in feature film and television direction”.

Her extensive body of work includes the feature films Hildegarde – starring Richard E Grant and Tara Morice; The Right Hand Man – starring Rupert Everett and Hugo Weaving, telemovies Trouble in Paradise starring Raquel Welch and Jack Thompson; Whipping Boy starring Sigrid Thornton and Temuera Morrison, the mini-series Through My Eyes starring Miranda Otto, Peter O’Brien and an impressive cast of Australia’s “A” list actors. Seven Deadly Sins - Gluttony starring Richard Roxburgh and Gia Carides, Spring and Fall – Perfect Company starring Ruth Cracknell and Robyn Nevin; and the landmark 1915 for which she won a Penguin Award for Best Director.

Di’s work has gained both local and international recognition from some of the most prominent film festivals around the world. Hildegarde won the Grand Jury Prize at the Kinderfilmfest in Japan; the Jury Award at the Chicago Film Festival 2002 and featured in competition at the Berlin Film Festival, and the Turin International Film Festival. The Right Hand Man opened the Monterey Film Festival in 2003 and won an AFI ACS Award. Through My Eyes won a Silver Logie for Miranda Otto for Most Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Telemovie or Mini- Series and two AFI nominations for most outstanding actress in a leading role as well as best supporting actress.

Di pursued her film degree at the Australian Film Television and Radio School and won Best Fiction Film at the Sydney Film Festival with her graduate film Tread Softly. Di was the Head of Directing at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in the late 1980’s.

In theatre Di won the best director prize for her first production Picnic on the Battlefield. Further credits include Cabaret, Oliver, the Green Room Award winning Knuckle Dusters, The Jewels of Edith Sitwell with Kerry Walker, and the one-woman play Machiavelli, Machiavelli starring Ruth Cracknell.

As producer of All Saints, Di brought the Seven Network’s Australian drama series to the number one position three years in a row achieving two gold Logies, seven Silver Logies and being twice awarded the double Logie for Australia’s Most Popular Drama and Most Popular Program.

She has directed some of the most successful series on Australian television, including GP, A Country Practice, Medivac, Bananas in Pyjamas, Butterfly Island, The Ferals, Magic Mountain, A Sporting Life and Learned Friends as well as for US cable, Five Mile Creek and Monarch Cove.

Di is an active member of the film community working as a tutor, mentor and Board member. She has taught for The National Institute of Dramatic Art, the New South Wales Institute of Technology, The Australian Film, Television and Radio School, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Women in Film and Television and Wide Angle Tasmania and is currently a member of the Screen Tasmania Board.

Nick Cole

Nick Cole is a lawyer with the Corporate and Financial Services group at DLA Phillips Fox in Sydney and was formerly an in-house lawyer with the Film Finance Corporation.  He has extensive experience in the film and television industries in both a legal and production capacity, and has production credits on some of Australia’s leading feature films including Strictly Ballroom.  Nick also directed the Nine Network’s television drama series Water Rats.

Nick is able to provide a unique insight into the audio visual industries that comes from firsthand experience.  He can provide expert advice on financing and investment of film and television, as well as assignment and licensing of intellectual property.  He also advises companies generally on all industry sectors on technology, media and communication issues.

After completing a law degree in 1987, Nick began working in the feature film industry and gained experience as an Assistant Director, Editor and Director.  His credits as a Director include the Nine Network series Water Rats and A Difficult Women (2nd unit).  He has also worked on many well known Australian and international films - Paradise Road, Fearless, Strictly Ballroom, Green Card, Thank God He Met Lizzie, The Island of Dr Moreau and Death in Brunswick. 

In 1992 he was one of eight writer/directors selected for the Post Graduate Diploma in Film at the Victorian College of the Arts (Formerly Swinburne).  His graduation film The Boatbuilder, which he wrote, directed and edited, was awarded the Cinevex Script Prize for Best Short Script and the Worldfest Silver Award at the Charleston International Film Festival.

In 1995, his feature film script Bad Angel was nominated for an Australian Writers Guild Award.  In 1996, he was one of four writers to be selected as part of the Australian Film Commission's inaugural New Scriptwriters Scheme and received script development for Bad Angel. 

In 2001 Nick returned to legal practice. He spent two years as an in-house lawyer with the Film Finance Corporation Australia before joining the Technology Media and Commercial group at Phillips Fox.

Nick is also producing The Last Ride which will be the debut feature film of 2003 Palme d'Or winner, Glendyn Ivin.  The project was one of eight selected for the 2007 SPAAmart and is due to commence production in 2008.

After having worked on some of Australia's most successful feature films and television, Nick has a broad range of experience.  He is able to provide a unique combination of legal skills, creative talent and film experience.

Michael McMahon

Michael McMahon is an independent film producer and a director of Melbourne based company, Big and Little Films Pty Ltd. Prior to moving into film and television production Michael worked as an arts and entertainment lawyer in the public sector and private practice.

Michael’s first documentary production credit was Sadness (1998), a 52 minute documentary for SBS Television of William Yang’s acclaimed stage monologue of the same name. Sadness screened at over 40 international film festivals and won many awards, including the 1999 Film Critics Circle Award for Best Documentary, the Most Popular Film - Brisbane International Film Festival 1999 and a Special Award at the 2004 Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival.

In 2003 Michael completed two documentaries - Man Made – The Story of Two Men and a Baby, a 52 minute documentary which he executive produced for SBS Television, and Wildness, a 56 minute documentary which he produced for Film Australia and ABC Television. Man Made was nominated for a Silver Logie for Best Documentary. Wildness received the audience award for Best Documentary at the Sydney International Film Festival 2003, was joint winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2004 London Australian Film Festival and won the Best Documentary category in the 2003 Australian Film Institute Awards and the 2003 IF Awards. It had successful theatrical seasons in Hobart and Melbourne and has screened internationally in film festivals.
 
Other production credits include Cosenza Vecchia (2000), a half hour documentary for SBS; Thomson of Arnhem Land (2000), a 56 minute documentary for Film Australia and ABC TV; Mrs Craddock’s Complaint (1997), a short drama for ABC TV and Cruel Youth (1988), a 30 minute drama screened on SBS and theatrically throughout Australia.

In 2005, Michael produced Call Me Mum, a digital feature, and was Executive Producer on The Last Valley, a 52 minute documentary for ABC TV.  Both films screened to critical acclaim at the Sydney Film Festival 2006.

In 2006 he produced a feature film, The Home Song Stories,with Liz Watts of Porchlight Films. The film premiered at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival and screened in Competition at the 2007 Adelaide Film Festival. It has also screened at the Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane film festivals and will screen at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival.

Hugh Baldwin

Hugh Baldwin is Digital Media Director for Nickelodeon Australia.

Hugh has extensive media experience in online content development, interactive television applications, research, children’s production and journalism. He is responsible for the strategic and creative content development of Nickelodeon’s digital media activities including online, mobile and itv applications.  Since 2007, Hugh's work at Nickelodeon has won an ASTRA award for Best Use of Technology, a World BDA Silver Award for Best Flash Site and a Netguide Award as Best Youth/Kids Website.

Hugh is also on the advisory committee for the Australian Council’s Story of the Future project, which aims to bring writers into the digital age.

Hugh was previously at Murdoch University’s Interactive Television Research Institute (ITRI) as a PhD candidate. Hugh designed and developed nine iTV prototypes as part of a three year study on how interactivity can enhance children’s television.

Hugh worked with the Seven Network on their enhanced digital channel coverage of the Athens Olympics, the 2005 Australian Tennis Open and the 2003 Rugby World Cup.

Prior to that, Hugh spent three years working as an NRL, Super 12 and NSL accredited journalist. He travelled to Korea and Japan to cover the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Hugh was the editor and online producer for a Sydney-based sports-entertainment company, NextGenSports, overseeing the production and delivery of broadband and narrowband sports content.

During the last ten years, he has been working as a script-and-screenwriter with over ten professional credits. Hugh has also worked extensively as a director and producer for children's theatre, animation, live action, radio, television, the internet and video. In 1999, Future Visions, written by Hugh, won a Silver Award at the 33rd Annual US Film and Video awards. Hugh is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). He was also nominated for an AFI award in 1994 in the television section.

He is an AWG and MEAA member.