David Noakes

David Noakes is an executive producer and producer for television and feature films within SeeView Pictures Pty Ltd as well as film consultant.

His first film as co-producer and co-director was Wagerup Weekend, a 47-minute documentary which follows the occupation by protesters of a Bauxite mine in the Darling Ranges in Western Australia. Other documentaries since then have included: Milliya Rumarra/Brand New Day (1983, 50 mins), How the West was Lost (1985, 55 mins), which was nominated for five AFI Awards, Extinct, But Going Home (1988, 48 mins), 3 & 1 - Three Weeks On; One Week Off (1990, 30 mins), Bigger Than Texas (1992, 50 mins) and Battleships (1999, 4 x 52 mins). In the Shadow of the Shark (1999, 3 x 52 mins), was a co-production with National Geographic, Telcast and Network 7 Australia, and follows the remarkable lives of underwater filmmakers and photographers Ron and Valerie Taylor. His latest project was The Trouble with Merle, a one-hour television documentary on the mysterious origins of 1930s Hollywood star, Merle Oberon.

From 1978 to 1983 David worked for various film agencies, including the Perth Institute of Film & Television, the Sydney Filmmakers Co-operative and as a tutor in film history at the Western Australian Institute of Technology. Since then, he has worked at the Australian Film Commission as Senior Project Manager - Creative Development Fund, and as Investment Manager at the Australian Film Finance Corporation, in the documentary area as well as in features and TV drama.

Filmography

HOW THE WEST WAS LOST » On 1 May 1946, 800 Aboriginal station workers walked off sheep stations in the north-west of Western Australia, marking the beginning of a carefully organised strike that was to last for at least three years, but never officially ended...