MARGOT NASH
Sydney Filmmaker, Screenwriter and Photographer
As If Productions
THE SILENCES 2015 73min
| FALL/WINTER 2023
Produced, Written and Directed by Margot Nash
A personal essay documentary about the tangled bonds, secret histories and unspoken traumas of family life, that stretches from New Zealand to the Australian suburbs. It is an exploration of early childhood and the “silences” of the past that resonate in the present. It draws upon a wealth of photographs, letters, oral histories, documentary footage and clips from the filmmaker’s previous work. It unfolds a mother’s story of lost opportunities, lost love and grief; a father’s story of work, mental illness and war; and a daughter’s story of trying to piece together a more complex picture of the confusing ties of love, loss and kinship between a mother and daughter.
Watch: via Vimeo On Demand: Ronin Films https://vimeo.com/ondemand/silences
Composer and Pianist – Elizabeth Drake, Editing and Narration – Margot Nash, Sound Mix and Picture Online – Michael Gissing
Narration Recording – Luke Bacon, Additional Sound Design – Liam Egan, Dialogue Editing – Megan Wedge, Location Camera & Sound – Margot Nash, Producer's Assistant – Melissa Ippolito, Research – Margot Nash, Natalie Krikowa, Melissa Ippolito
Distributed in Australia and New Zealand by Ronin Films
Awards
2017
CASTELL AWARD: Barcelona International Film Festival Independent
Film Awards
BEST FEATURE Illawarra Film Festival
2016
AWGIE AWARD: Documentary Broadcast or Exhibition, Australian Writers' Guild
JURY PRIZE Best Feature, Reel Sydney Festival of World Cinema
Nominated Documentary Feature Australian Directors Guild Awards
TROPHY AWARD WAYMI (World Association of Young People with a
Mentally Ill Parent)
2015
Nominated Documentary Biography Australian Teachers of Media Awards
Film Festivals and Screenings
2019
Hazelhurst Film Society, Gymea Arts Centre, Sydney
2018
APS Psychoanalytically Oriented Psychologists screening, Brisbane
Melbourne Women In Film Festival (MWFF) 22-25 Feb
2017
Dunedin School of Art - screening New Zealand
Screenwave International Film Festival, Bellingen and Coffs Harbour
Wauchope Arts screening NSW
2016
Australian cinema release in selected cinemas: Cremorne Orpheum Sydney,
Cinema Nova Melbourne, The Mercury Adelaide, The Arc Canberra, The Regal
Newcastle, The Golden Age Sydney, Soroptimist International - Zenith Theatre,
Chatswood Sydney
Queensland Film Festival
Griffith University - Research seminar screening
2nd Reel Festival of World Cinema, Sutherland Sydney - opening night film
Between Past and Present: the films of Margot Nash, Melbourne Cinémathèque, ACMI.
American Documentary Film Festival (Amdocs) Palm Springs USA
Ozdox International Women's Day screening March 8 AFTRS
2015
The Golden Age Cinema Surrey Hills, Sydney preview.
Local Heroes: Documentary screening, Sydney preview
Canberra International Film Festival
Adelaide Film Festival - Australian Showcase
Melbourne International Film Festival - Australian Showcase
New Zealand International Film Festival (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin)
Conferences and Talks
2017 Screenwave International Film Festival Industry Seminar, Coffs Harbour
2016 ASPERA conference Canberra. Process structure and the construction of memory in a personal essay documentary
2015 Camera Stylo - Sydney University Building 'The Silences' - a personal essay documentary
MIFF - Talking Pictures: True to Life - Meet the Documentary Filmakers
2014 Sightlines - RMIT Melbourne The Silences: an auto-ethnography
Abandonment Loss and Longing in Margot Nash's The Silences Senses of Cinema 78, March 2016
Call Her Mum – by Adrian Martin
The Silences: process structure and the development of a personal essay documentary by Margot Nash
Sydney Studies in English Camera Stylo Vol 42 2016
Review Sydney Morning Herald and The Age by Philippa Hawker
See below for more reviews, writings, radio and podcasts.
Philippa Hawker Review Sydney Morning Herald and The Age
Adrian Martin Call Her Mum: Margot Nash's The Silences
http://www.filmcritic.com.au/reviews/s/silences.html
Keith Gallash, Realtime Arts: Love and Pain: a crystalline memoir
Defending Cinefilia (10) - Stephen Gaunson on the Australian Cinema 2015
Abandonment Loss and Longing in Margot Nash's The Silences
Senses of Cinema 78, March 2016
Margot Nash on cracking the structure of the memoir documentary The Silences.
IF magazine interview, April 2016
Margot Nash: Experimentation and the Documentary
FilmInk, April 2016
Kit McFarlane, Metro Magazine:Media and Education No. 188, 2016: 'The silences', autoethnography and mental health The Tyranny of the Unspoken
The Silences at Adelaide Film Festival
The Age - Interview at Melb International Film Festival (MIFF)_
Award Winning Film in Wauchope
From the Heart - Otago Daily Times
A Discovery Driven Screenwriting Process - interview with Margot Nash
The Silences - Radio and Podcasts
The Silences - In Conversation with Margot Nash - OzDox March 2016
Held on International Women's Day 2016 'The Silences' was screened in the AFTRS Theatre, followed by Writer/Director Margot Nash in conversation with Jeni Thornley, then an audience Q&A.
The Silences Interview with director Margot Nash on The Final Cut with Jason Di Rosso on ABC RN
Radio Adelaide - Behind The Screens interview with Margot Nash
RRR Margot Nash on Film Buffs Forecast
The Silences 2SCR Real radio - Margot Nash interview with Jess Kalijman
3CR Annie McLoughlin The Silences Margot Nash
The Movie Pack #16 - Interview with Margot Nash (Writer/Director/Academic) at MIFF 1 hour
Pod cast interview with Margot Nash at MIFF
Radio NZ Nights interview
13th Floor New Zealand radio interview and transcript
Memoir with Margot Nash - Writers Block Plains FM Christchurch NZ
Interview with Margot Nash and chat about the cinematic memoir 'The Silences', 27 min Deadlines & Poetry
RELATED LINK
The First House and The Hop Farm. by Margot Nash
Chapter 3, Page 31 in Locating Suburbia: memory, place, creativity
Edited by Paula Hamilton and Paul Ashton, 2013