About/Contact | Kim Paul Nguyen

About:

I'm a social worker, journalist and documentary filmmaker. My work has been published by the BBC, SBS News, VICE News, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The Big Issue and Monocle Magazine.

After completing a Bachelor of Social Work I spent my 20s working in child protection in the UK and Australia.

But wanting to see the world and have a positive impact on it, at 27 I spent 18 months cycling from Australia to Denmark, documenting climate impacts and solutions. I was nominated for 2010 Young Australian of the Year for my troubles.

After that journey, I turned to journalism, completing a Master of Journalism and a Master of International Development and Environmental Analysis in 2013.

Since then I've been working part-time in social work, part-time in journalism and part-time in documentary film.

My work has taken me all over the world, working for media organisations, NGOs and doing my own self-funded projects.

I'm always on the look out for new projects and collaborations, so if you'd like to chat, please reach out! (the Contact Form is below)

Extended Background:

Growing up in Canberra in the 1990s, I loved making films on my parents' camcorder, imagining going to Hollywood to write and direct my own indy hits.

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

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

In 2008 I needed a change, and at 27 began a 18 month bicycle trip from Brisbane to Copenhagen, documenting my experiences with a particular focus on climate impacts and solutions.

By the start of 2010 I was in Europe but broke, picking up a job bartending in Amsterdam, where I decided to start retraining as a journalist.

Back in Australia in 2011, I began a Master of Journalism/Master of International Development and Environmental Analysis, whilst working part-time in disability care.

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

I returned to Australia via the Philippines, covering the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan for Al Jazeera, writing 100 days since Typhoon Haiyan and A Filipino’s fight against climate change.

Back in Australia I returned to social work, making videos on the side and publishing an article on Afghan refugees living in Melbourne for The Big Issue, The Buddha of Dandenong.

During 2016 I travelled across the US and Central America, trading my video making skills for room and board.

Then in 2017 I moved to Bhutan to do a Filmmakers Without Borders Fellowship, teaching and making films in the remote Himalayan kingdom. There I completed a 45 minute documentary on the emergence of a civil society, that was broadcast on BBS, the Bhutan Broadcasting Service.

Returning to Australia in 2018, I worked for several NGOs, including making a series on the impacts of climate change on health in the Pacific, for the WHO.

In 2020 I received a grant from the Walkley Foundation to make Conversations with Coal Miners about Climate Change (co-directed by my colleague Chris Phillips), which was released by VICE News in 2022 and went on to be a finalist in the prestigious Rory Peck Trust Awards that year.

In 2025 the BBC released The Battle for Doongmabulla Springs, of which I was a major contributor, and in which my journalism was heavily featured.

This includes my research into workplace safety violations at the Adani-owned Carmichael Coal Mine in central Queensland, Australia, that was published by SBS News in early 2025.

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