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Nicholas Samolski Torrens Torrens is a leading Australian author of original, independent, award-winning documentary, filming subjects in Asia, Australia, Africa, Europe, the US and Canada. His films observe the intimate lives of ordinary and extraordinary people - and the dramatic, unexpected worlds they inhabit. They have screened at major film festivals, in cinemas and on international television. Torrens read Literature and Psychology at the University of Queensland, and continued his education in the wider world on Greek fishing boats, German building sites as both labourer and photographer, as a Dresser in London theatre on Oh Calcutta! and he ran a bar in Paris.
He has commissioned documentary for the SBS Television Network, designed and directed courses for the Australian Film, Television & Radio School, conducted development programs for State and Federal agencies, taught documentary history and practice, chaired international forums, prepared industry submissions and reviews, assessed projects for federal and state film agencies, acted as mentor for emerging filmmakers and worked to enhance the profile and sense of community among documentary practitioners. He is a founding member and former National Chairman of the Australian International Documentary Conference, and Artistic Director of HEADLANDS, Australia's first National Documentary Ideas Development Laboratory.
Torrens conducts Master Classes and seminars in documentary technique and gives documentary presentations, including at the Australia-China Business Council, the Victorian College of the Arts, the Australian Film Television and Radio School and the Australian Graduate School of Management at the University of NSW. In 2015 he was Jury President for Ecrans de Chine, the European Festival of Chinese Documentary (Paris-Rome-Saarbrücken-Turin- Milan).
A few of his much-awarded films over 30 years are: CHINA'S 3DREAMS (Documentary feature): This long-term study, filmed over 11 years, takes us deep inside the present-day dilemmas and dreams of China's people - without mediation from Western presenters or narrators. Featuring rare archive and extraordinary testimony from former Red Guards and Rebels, it is a powerful parable of China in the twenty-first century. Awarded Best Feature Documentary, Film Critics Circle 2015, Best Direction, Australian Directors Guild 2015 nomination, Best Documentary Sydney Film Festival nomination, Finalist in the 2016 American Insight Annual Free Speech Awards, Philadelphia. FESTIVALS TO DATE: FIPA Film Festival, Biarritz France 2015, the Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival, Myanmar, Lasalle Festival international du documentaire en Cévennes 2015, 2015 ECRANS DE CHINE, European Festival of Chinese Documentary (Paris-Rome-Saarbrücken-Turin- Milan), Sydney Film Festival, Canberra International Film Festival, BOFA Film Festival, WORLD INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALS 2016: New York, Los Angeles, Vienna, Toronto, Athens and Singapore. Other screenings: Chauvel Cinema Sydney, August 2014 (sold out), The Centre on China in the World, Australian National University, August 2014, China Studies Centre, University of Sydney May 2015; Sydney Riverside Screen Cafe August 2014; Deptford Cinema season London May 2016, Kings College London special screening May 2016
LIBERAL RULE: THE POLITICS THAT CHANGED AUSTRALIA (3x one hour) Winner 2010 AFI Award for Best Documentary Series, Winner 2010 Australian Directors' Guild Award for Best Direction A landmark television series that analyzes Australia's recent political history featuring former Prime Minister John Howard, his key cabinet ministers and the nation's leading political historians, social scientists, economists and authors. SBS Network
THE MEN WHO WOULD CONQUER CHINA Best Feature Documentary, Film Critics Circle of Australia, Best Documentary, Sydney Film Festival Dendy Award, AFI Award- Best Editing in a non-Feature, InPUT Taipei, Chicago International Documentary Festival, Shanghai TV Festival, Tri-Continental Film Festival, Asian Studies Film Festival USA, Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs, Australian International Documentary Conference, New Zealand Film Festivals ... others A candid and very personal study of West-East capitalism:; a New York banker and his Hong Kong partner search over 4 years for the perfect mix of economic and political opportunity in China
TO GET RICH IS GLORIOUS Sydney Film Festival, IDFA Amsterdam, Culture Unplugged Online Film Festival, Auckland, Wellington Film Festivals among others. The second in a long-term series documenting the lives of Hong Kong residents: a wealthy Chinese entrepreneur shares his strategies and identity-dilemmas, and together with a millionaire New York partner, tries to take advantage of "the Golden Era" in China.
TSAU GWEI! RUNNING FROM THE GHOST Paris Cinéma du Réel, Margaret Mead Film Festival in New York, Melbourne Film Festival, Australian International Documentary Conference, TEN Network and international television An observational parable: how British colonial perspectives controlled the lives of Hong Kong's people
Vis à vis: TECHNO TRIBAL Winner Best Creative Work Award, 2010 Xi'an International Imaging Festival, Best Documentary Feature DownUnder International Film Festival 2004, Best Documentary finalist, Montréal Présence Autochtone 2004, Planet IndigenUS Toronto 2004, Sydney Indigenous Arts Festival 2004 A joint venture with Yerosha Productions Inc in New York: Two indigenous writers and performance artists from Australia and the United States embark on a satellite link journey comparing their worlds and their work.
