Beck Cole | |
|---|---|
| Born | Australia |
| Occupation(s) | Screenwriter,film director |
| Years active | 2000–present |
| Partner | Samuel Cole (2016–c.2017) |
| Children | Luka May Glynn-Cole (Luka May) |
Beck Cole is an Australian filmmaker of theWarramungu andLuritja nations. She is known for her work on numerous TV series, includingFirst Australians,Grace Beside Me,Black Comedy andWentworth, as well as documentaries and short films. She is based inAlice Springs, in theNorthern Territory.
Cole grew up inAdelaide and around thePort Adelaide area.[1]
Cole started working in media as a journalist when she got acadetship atImparja Television, when still at school. She gained experience in both writing and presenting stories, and also worked as a news and weather presenter.[1]
She graduated fromCharles Sturt University with a BA in Communication and Sociology, and soon afterwards started work in the Indigenous Unit atABC Television, where she started herfilmmaking career.[1] In 2001, Cole graduated with a Master of Arts (Film & Television) Documentary from theAustralian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS),[2] where she was exposed to a number of Australian documentary filmmakers.[1]
Cole was mentored by photographer and filmmakerMichael Riley, who co-foundedBoomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative, until his death in 2004.[3]
While at AFTRS, Cole worked on and off for theCentral Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA), with whom she has had an association ever since.[1]
Her early short documentary and drama films were mainly focused onAboriginal culture and family,[1] includingFlat (2002; co-produced byRachel Perkins andDarren Dale[4]) andPlains Empty (2005[5]) premiered atSundance, andFlat also screened at theEdinburgh Film Festival.[6]
Cole established a working as well as a personal relationship with cinematographerWarwick Thornton,[1] and along with producerKath Shelper they called themselves "the trinity" since working together from 2004.[7]Wirriya: Small Boy (2004) is a short film about an eight-year-old boy who lives in Hidden Valley, an Indigenous town camp near Alice Springs in theNorthern Territory, with his foster mother.[8]
Cole worked as a writer-director onFirst Australians (2008), the acclaimed documentary television series about the history ofIndigenous Australians, along withRachel Perkins andLouis Nowra.[1]
In 2009 she wrote and directedMaking 'Samson and Delilah', a 55 minute documentary on the making of the feature filmSamson and Delilah, directed by Thornton.[6]
Her debutfeature film was the dramaHere I Am (2011),[3] which stars prominent activist and academicMarcia Langton.[9]
She directed several episodes over three series of theBlack Comedy, which won a 2015 AACTA award for Best Direction in a Light Entertainment or Reality Series.[6]
After working on a number of series on Indigenous themes, she collaborated withLeah Purcell on several episodes of the popular prison drama series,Wentworth, between 2019 and 2021,[10] and withBevan Lee on theSeven Network seriesBetween Two Worlds, which premiered in 2020.[3][6]
Cole was voice director for all three seasons ofLittle J & Big Cuz, and wrote two episodes of the series.[3][6]
As of 2019 Cole was working on ahorror film set in Alice Springs, based on a true story told by Aboriginal children who lived in a residential care home, where they were attacked by an evil entity.[3]
Cole and Sam Paynter workshopped ideas with local elders and young people to produce ideas for the storyline of the 2020 children's TV seriesThalu, which was commissioned byNational Indigenous Television andABC Me.[11] She also co-wrote the screenplay for the series along with Paynter,Nayuka Gorrie, David Woodhead, and Donald Imberlong.[12]
Cole directed one of the segments of the anthology filmWe Are Still Here, which premiered as the opening film of the 2022Sydney Film Festival.[13]
In 2020 Cole was co-presenter, withWarwick Thornton, of a five-day development workshop called the Aboriginal Short Film Initiative, held atSouth Australian Film Corporation's Adelaide Studios.[14]
Cole was one of seven filmmakers featured in the 5thAsia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at theGallery of Modern Art (GoMA) inBrisbane[6]
Cole was formerly married to director Warwick Thornton,[5] whom she met in 1999.[18] They have a daughter, Luka May,[19][18] an actress also known asLuka Magdeline Cole or Luka May Glynn-Cole.[20] The couple shared a personal as well as professional relationship.[7] By 2018 Thornton and Cole had separated.[21]
She is a cousin of filmmakerDanielle MacLean.[22]
[Reproduced from]RealTime issue #74 Aug-Sept 2006 pg. 19.
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