Alex Kelly

Alex Kelly is an Australian freelance artist, filmmaker and producer based in regional Australia. Kelly was born in regional NSW and grew up in a farming community near Wodonga in regional Victoria,

Kelly has worked with diverse communities in Australia and around the world including Coober Pedy, Alice Springs, Amsterdam, Barcelona and the UK organising and lobbying for social change. She has been involved in community development, the arts, media (communication), environmental protection and social justice projects.

Social justice In the 1990s, Kelly was involved in organising campaign events in Melbourne and across Australia. where she developed an interest in independent media. – a group of senior Aboriginal women on the 'Irati Wanti–Poison Leave It' campaign continuing as Creative Producer of Ngapartji Ngapartji from 2005 to 2010 and becoming National Producer in 2012.

With Big hART Inc., she collectively developed the large-scale community development and art-making project Ngapartji Ngapartji as creative producer from 2004 to 2010. After Ngapartji Ngapartji wrapped in 2009, Kelly worked as community liaison adviser to Senator Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Greens in Canberra.

Kelly was producer on the award-winning documentary Nothing Rhymes with Ngapartji which premiered on ABC TV in 2011 &. The film, directed by Bates, explores Aboriginal Australian languages, the legacy of the Maralinga atomic tests in South Australia, and the staging of the Ngapartji Ngapartji theatre show in the remote Aboriginal community of Ernabella, in the APY Lands. It was screened at the This is Not Art Festival (Newcastle, Australia), Yosemite Arts Festival (Yosemite, USA), Radar International Documentary Film Festival (Germany), the International Film Festival (Ireland), Docs Campus (NZ) and the Global Social Change Film Festival (Indonesia). The documentary won the El Capitan Award at the 2011 Yosemite Film Festival and was finalist in both the ATOM Awards 2010 (Best Biography) and Global Social Change Film Festival 2011. Coniston won the 2012 Best Docudrama ATOM Award.

In 2012, Kelly directed the 30-minute documentary Queen of the Desert for 360 Degree Films, showcasing the collaborative work of transgender hairstylist Starlady Nungari and the Areyonga community. Queen of the Desert was funded by Screen Australia, Screen NT and ABC TV for the Opening Shot scheme. The film screened at Fist Full of Films Festival (Darwin 2012), Cockatoo Island Film Festival (Cockatoo Island, 2012) and had two successful openings in both Melbourne and Alice Springs and premiered on ABC2 on 25 November 2012.

From 2013 to 2015 Kelly worked at the Global Impact & Distribution Producer on Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis' This Changes Everything project. The documentary film premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and was released globally in the lead up to the COP21 Climate Change meeting in Paris in December 2015.

Kelly also co-founded the Something Somewhere Film Festival in Alice Springs in 2015.

In 2017 she produced the short film The Island for The Guardian, and in 2018 produced the documentary Island of the Hungry Ghosts. Island of the Hungry Ghosts premiered at Tribeca Film Festival in April 2018, where it won Best Documentary.

In 2019 Kelly produced Pay the Rent with Buzzfeed Australia, and worked on the completion and release of Maya Newell's feature documentary In My Blood It Runs, which premiered at Hot Docs International Film Festival in Toronto, Canada.

In 2022 Alex worked as an Impact Producer on Maya Newell's short documentary The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone which premiered on Netflix worldwide in September 2022.

Recognition Kelly has been on the board of a range of media, arts and political organisations, among others Arid Lands Environment Centre, RedHOT Arts, & and was a YouthActionNet fellow &, taking part in the 'Global Fellows Retreat' in Washington DC (USA, 2008).

In 2010, she undertook an Australia Council residency at in Paris.

In 2011, she received the Screen Territory Bob Plasto Fellowship.

She was awarded a 2012 Churchill Fellowship to undertake research into social change film distribution, impact and outreach models.

Kelly was awarded The Fitzgerald Social Change Award – NT Human Rights Awards in 2016 and in 2015 was part of Screen Producers Australia's Ones To Watch program and was the Kickstart pitch winner for a series in development How to Make Trouble and Influence People.

She was a 2016 Sidney Myer Creative Fellow. In 2020 Alex was awarded a Bertha Foundation Bertha Challenge Fellowship.

Miscellaneous Kelly has been founding member of Malice Springs Roller Derby League. She was crowned 1998 "Miss Camel Cup" at the annual Alice Springs event.

In 2010/11, she tour-managed the Australian summer tour of brass band Orchestra Del Sol from Edinburgh (UK).