About/Contact | Kim Paul Nguyen

About:

My name's Kim Paul Nguyen and I'm a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker. I'm also a social worker, having spent my 20s working in child protection before studying journalism in my early 30s.

My journalism work has been published by SBS News, VICE, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, the Big Issue, Monocle, The Lancet, ARD (Germany) and BBS (the Bhutan Broadcasting Service).

I've also made documentary content for organisations including the Sydney Opera House, the World Health Organisation and many others.

I'm always looking for new stories, projects and people to collaborate with, so please get in touch if you'd like to have a chat! (Contact form below)

Background:

Growing up in Canberra in the 90s I loved making films on my parents' camcorder, imagining going to Hollywood to write and direct my own indy hits.

But instead, I graduated from uni with a Bachelor of Social Work in 2003 and moved to the UK to work in child protection (first in London and then in the Highlands of Scotland).

I got back to Australia in 2007 and continued working in child protection in Melbourne and Sydney.

But in 2008 I needed a change, and began a 16 month bicycle trip from Brisbane to Copenhagen, documenting what I experienced and saw, with a particular focus on both climate impacts and solutions.

By the start of 2010 I had made it to Europe and ending up in Amsterdam broke, picking up a bartending job in an Irish bar. Looking to retrain it was there I starting studying journalism.

I came back to Australia in 2011 and began a double Masters in Melbourne, in Journalism and International Development and Environmental Analysis, whilst working part-time in disability.

I finished my post-grad studies in 2013 in Sweden, researching the impacts of mining on the indigenous Sami in the Arctic Circle. That led to my first published journalism work, 'Reindeer herds in danger as Australia's mining boom comes to Sweden', in The Guardian in Jan 2014.

I returned to Australia via the Philippines, just after the devastating Typhoon Haiyan had ripped through the country. There I wrote two stories for Al Jazeera, '100 days in the Philippines since Typhoon Haiyan' and 'A Filipino’s fight against climate change', in Feb 2014.

Back in Australia I tried to get a job in journalism but had no luck, returning instead to social work with a youth work job at the YMCA, and making videos for NGOs when I could, particularly in the global health field. I did manage to get one article published in The Big Issue in 2015, 'The Buddha of Dandenong', the story of Afghani refugees in the eastern Melbourne suburbs carving a recreation of one of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in the local mens' shed.

In 2016 I headed to the US to try freelancing again, but having no luck pitching to news outlets, I ended up contacting NGOs and offering to make them a video if they could provide me room and board. With that arrangement I traveled across the southern US states and then down to Costa Rica, making videos all the way.

At the start of 2017 I moved to Bhutan to start a voluntary Filmmakers Without Borders Fellowship, teaching and making films in the remote Himalayan kingdom. My last major work there, a 30 minute documentary about the emergence of civil society, was broadcast on the national BBS (Bhutan Broadcasting Service).

Getting back to Australia in 2018 I worked for NGOs for a couple of years, making videos about climate, resource extraction, and other environmental issues. In mid-2019 I managed to pick up a contract for the WHO covering climate impacts on health in the Pacific, travelling to a number of tiny remote low-lying nations to document what was going on.

The pandemic years are a still a bit of a blur, like I suppose they are for most of us, but right in the middle of it I somehow managed to make 'Conversations with Coal Miners about Climate Change', along with my friend Chris Phillips. The film was released by VICE and funded by a small grant from the Walkley Foundation, going on to be nominated for the prestigious Rory Peck Awards, 2022.

The rest of 2022 and 23 was spent researching the international oil industry and it's relationship to the war, following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. I ended up filming in Ukraine twice, as well as Europe, the Middle East, and India, where I was held in police detention for filming around the Jamnagar Oil Refinery, the largest in the world.

In 2024 I spent most of my time researching the coal industry in Australia, most recently publishing an investigation into the Adani-owned Carmichael Coal Mine on 30 Jan 2025, via SBS News, 'Be prepared to die out there': Workers blow the whistle on Adani's Carmichael coal mine.

Some new documentary films are on the way, but I can't say more about them until they're out! Thanks for reading!

Lots of love,

Kim

Education:

Bachelor of Social Work, Australian Catholic University, 2003
Master of Journalism, Monash University, 2013
Master of International Development and Environmental Analysis, Monash University, 2013

Awards:

Nominee for Young Australian of the Year ACT, 2010
Dean's Award, Monash University, 2011, 2012
Fellow, Filmmakers Without Borders, 2017
Grant Recipient, Walkley Foundation, 2020
Finalist, Rory Peck Awards, 2022

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