John Swindells
2022 Judge
Role/organisation
Film Educator
Melbourne Polytechnic
Writer/Producer/Director
Location
Vic.
Australia
Short bio
John’s filmmaking journey started in India with an eighty-five year old English Benedictine monk who went there seeking the other half of his soul; to South Dakota and the Sioux indigenous agricultural schemes; into the head of a man living with schizophrenia; to a New Age cult’s therapy trial on traumatised African children; into animal rights activism with the first person to stop animal testing, Henry Spira; with an African refugee family as they strive to feel emotionally settled in a new land; and with Barbara Blackman, a blind woman, as she learns to ‘see from within’.