NFSA Board

The Board of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia is responsible for the overall performance of the organisation, including setting the strategic direction and establishing goals for management.

Members of the NFSA Board are:

• Mr Chris Puplick AM
• Ms Catherine Robinson
• Mr Andrew Pike OAM
• Ms Patricia Amphlett OAM
• Mrs Terry Bracks
• Mr Patrick Donovan
• Ms Natasha Gadd
• Mr Wayne Denning

National Film and Sound Archive of Australia Board Appointments

Mr Chris Puplick AM was a Senator for NSW (1978-81 and 1984-90) and Shadow Minister for the Arts (1987-1990). He has had a long involvement in the performing arts, dance and film industries, and an extensive interest in archive and museum matters. He was Chair of the Archive Forum (a national support group for the NFSA) and has also served as a Trustee of the Australian Museum. He has a particular interest in issues of arts policy development and advocacy having published extensively in this area, most recently as author of Getting Heard – Towards an Effective Arts Advocacy (Currency Press, 2008)

Mr Puplick has previously served on many boards, including as President of the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board, NSW Privacy Commissioner, Chair and Deputy Chair of the Griffin Theatre Company, and the Board of the National Institute for the Dramatic Art. He was also the Chair of the Australian National Council on AIDS, Hepatitis C and Related Diseases and has represented Australia at meetings of the United Nations General Assembly and the International Whaling Commission. He is a current member of the Theatre Board of the Australia Council.

Ms Catherine Robinson is an archivist, currently employed by the State Records Authority of NSW. Ms Robinson has worked in both the private and public sectors in a range of archival roles. From 2004 to 2006 she was the President of the Australian Society of Archivists, during which time she advocated on behalf of the archival profession in Australia. Ms Robinson was involved in the lobbying efforts undertaken by the Australian Society of Archivists from 2004 to 2007 to secure an independent NFSA.

Mr Andrew Pike OAM is a film producer and film distributor. In 1974, he formed Ronin Films with his then wife, Dr Merrilyn Fitzpatrick. The company was involved in many innovative distribution and marketing activities, for which Mr Pike won the Australian Film Institute’s Byron Kennedy Award in 1986. As an exhibitor, Ronin Films ran the Academy Cinemas in Sydney for several years during the 1990s, and Electric Shadows Cinemas in Canberra from 1979 to 2006. He has a keen interest in policy issues affecting the film industry as a whole and is a frequent contributor to debates on industry issues. In 1999, Mr Pike was involved in the formation of the Friends of the NFSA, dedicated to supporting the NFSA’s work and to promoting the principles of best practice in the film archive profession. He is a former interim council member of the NFSA (then known as ScreenSound Australia). In 2007, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Canberra.

Ms Patricia Amphlett OAM is an accomplished recording artist. She is currently the president of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance. Patricia received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 2003 for her services in this role and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2009.

Mrs Terry Bracks is the Deputy Chair of the Breast Cancer Network Australia, a former Board member of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation and a Trustee of the Victorian Arts Centre Trust. Terry Bracks is a highly regarded supporter of the arts and is Patron of Heide Gallery. She is founding chair of Western Chances, an organisation which assists young people in the western suburbs, and was inducted into the 2011 Victorian Women’s Honour Roll for her work with Western Chances. Mrs Bracks has also worked as a secondary school teacher in regional Victoria and as an electorate officer to Federal MPs. She is the Number One Female Ticket Holder of the Melbourne Football Club, has received a Centenary Medal and received an Honorary Doctorate from Victoria University. Terry is the wife of the former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks.

Mr Patrick Donovan was appointed the inaugural CEO of Music Victoria, the peak body for contemporary music, in August 2010. This followed a 15 year career at the newspaper The Age, where he was chief music writer for 12 years, wrote the local music Sticky Carpet column and interviewed artists like Nick Cave, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, David Bowie and Lou Reed. In his time at The Age, he founded and ran the EG Awards for five years, and started the campaign to name a street in honour of AC/DC, which led to AC/DC Lane. He tour managed Iggy Pop in 1998, played in a band, ran a live music venue and continues to DJ. He is currently a member of the Victorian Liquor Control Advisory Council and is on the board of the Arts Industry Council of Victoria.

Ms Natasha Gadd is a documentary filmmaker, writer and curator, whose documentary Muscle was awarded Best Direction in a documentary at the 2008 Australian Directors’ Guild Awards. Prior to moving into film production, Natasha was Cinema Programmer at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) for which she curated a number of programs featuring expression and resistance in contemporary culture. As Director of REAL: Life on Film, Australia’s only dedicated documentary festival from 2002–2004, Natasha developed a strong passion for documentary films and combined these interests as co-director of Words from the City (2007), her debut feature documentary.

Natasha has directed community based film projects in Indigenous communities and, most recently, she was commissioned to direct the film component of the Murundak (Black Arm Band) performance, a moving image work of contemporary and archival Indigenous film for the Melbourne International Arts Festival. As a freelance writer, her articles and essays have appeared in Australian film journals including Inside Film and Metro Magazine and the book Short Site: Recent Australian Short Film. Natasha has, with partner Rhys Graham, co-directed a series of short documentaries for the ABC on Australian poets.

Mr Wayne Denning is the managing director /executive producer of Carbon Media, a multimedia production company based in Brisbane, Australia.

Carbon Media offers both creative and corporate services. The company, set out to break the mould of more traditional production houses by offering design and delivery of content across all genres and platforms. Carbon is proudly Aboriginal, and produces content that challenges perceptions, promotes success and highlights issues that impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Carbon Media has produced television commercials, documentaries, multi-platform children’s game shows, corporate DVDs, coverage and live streaming of events, interstitials, and the design and delivery of interactive and innovative websites and mobile applications.

Wayne is a proud Birri Gubba man who grew up in Central Queensland with a strong sense of identity and a desire to learn and make a difference. He strongly believes education and better opportunities for Indigenous Australians will help close the gap. He is also committed to ensuring that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are a part of the 21st century digital economy.

Wayne completed his MBA at the Queensland University of Technology in 2006, specialising in Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Corporate Governance and then set up Carbon Media.

Wayne currently sits on the Board of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Queensland Screen Industry Council and previously the South East Queensland Indigenous Chamber of Commerce.