LOVE & FURY: JUDITH WRIGHT & ‘NUGGET’ COOMBS
Narrated by Ramona Koval, with Helen Morse and Paul English reading from the letters of Judith Wright and ‘Nugget’ Coombs, LOVE & FURY explores the relationship and shared passions of these two remarkable Australians. Their clandestine relationship over 25 years has been one of the best-kept secrets in Australian literary and political public life.
Judith Wright, among Australia’s foremost literary figures, poet, essayist, activist, dedicated herself to writing and fighting for a more humane Australia. Her passion was the land and the first Australians; she was often furious about what she saw as the betrayal of both. ‘Nugget’ Coombs, policy intellectual, ‘sage’, advisor to governments from Curtin to Whitlam, devoted the last decades of his life to the most rigorous commitment to Indigenous Australia. They met in the early 1970s –Nugget was 66 and Judith 57 –at a moment when their shared ambitions for a new kind of Australia seemed achievable. This is a story of two people whose love, work and knowledge have much to tell us still.
Director: John Hughes
Producers: Philippa Campey & John Hughes
Year: 2013
Duration: 28 Minutes
Produced by Early Works
AWARDS:
Finalist ‘Best one-off broadcast documentary’ Australian Director’s Guild 2014
Finalist ‘Science Technology & Environment’ ATOM Awards 2013
Finalist ‘Best Broadcast Documentary’ Australian Writer’s Guild AWGIE 2013