Anatomy of Secrets and Stories

Sunday brunch with Nick Willing, Paula Rego's son, filmmaker, the author of the documentary "Paula Rego, Secrets and Stories", 2017. Moderated by the curators of the exhibition "Paula Rego. There and Back Again", Alistair Hicks and Adam Budak.

Followed by the exclusive screening of "Paula Rego: Secrets and Stories" in the Kestner Cinémathèque.

Nick Willing has a varied filmography. Although he is best known for his popular fantasy television shows, he has also written and directed theatrically released movies, thrillers, social realist dramas, before recently focussing on feature documentaries. The one common thread is innovative storytelling.

In the last two years he has brought his experience as a screenwriter of fiction to help tell factual stories. In “Secrets & Stories,” Nick spent a year interviewing and filming his mother, the painter Paula Rego, to better understand her and her work. He discovered that she had kept major secrets about her life from him, secrets that helped explain much of her life, and his. The experience was so affecting that it’s hugely developed Nick’s interest in the intimate and insightful power of documentary. The film won both the Grierson and Royal Television Society awards for best Arts program and encouraged him to stay in the medium to make “Unstoppable, Sean Scully & The Art of Everything,” an equally probing and revelatory film about the outspoken abstract painter.

Interestingly, Nick’s experience in drama has helped in the factual arena. In particular, drawing testimony from evasive and challenging subjects - a skill developed from directing dramatic actors. And his many years as a screenwriter, honing story, have translated directly to the story telling challenges of documentary editing. His goal is to produce powerful, revelatory and entertaining films which get under the skin of their subjects, to not only show what makes them tick, but also expose how their worlds work.