Member Profile - Nick Bolton
Nick Bolton, chair of Screen Illawarra, is an ardent filmmaker, actor, producer, director, theatre and arts lover. This has nothing to do with the likes of Chris Hemsworth, Idress Alba and Pierce Brosnan being spotted about town recently. Film is growing in popularity as a cost effective means of entertainment with households reviewing their budgets. Nick is a passionate and pro active voice in the call to make Wollongong a viable film making destination.
"It must have been about eight or nine years ago when I first heard about Culture Bank Wollongong (CBW), thanks to Fergus Manning. It just clicked straight away. I thought this is just such an important initiative. I could just see the potential, and so straight away, as a donor, I subscribed and have been ever since. It's my favorite subscription of the year. We don't like subscriptions these days, do we? But this subscription, when it comes through, I'm thoroughly delighted to have that renewed."
Screen Illawarra (with Nick as its Chair) applied for funding in March this year to run the inaugural film festival for Illawarra First Nations people. Grants from Wollongong City Council and CBW were integral to getting the project up and running.
"We wouldn't have been able to run it on ticket sales alone. It would not have happened. We would not have been able to apply a platform for these six wonderful films to be showcased, and for the community to come and watch them. The project was a huge success. We are running the Port Kembla Film Festival next year, February March, and we want to have a strand of that, which is for Illawarra Indigenous practitioners.”
“It's so frustrating that sports and manufacturing and all the other arts, in fact, theater and writers and music, all get lots of funding, but film in the Illawarra doesn't. So for us, it's a it's a very important way to receive some money, and to make these films happen, but it's also important for all creatives and all artists because art takes time and money. Culture Bank (grants are) very accessible and easy to apply for and I'm really pleased to see that CBW have partnered with South Coast Arts and have started Culture Bank South Coast (CBWSCA) as well. Anything I can do or Screen Illawarra can do to help spread the word, e are there for you. Thanks for everything that you do, and long may it continue.”
Here is Nick's ABC Drive interview on Hemsworth in town: