I have served as a documentary filmmaking consultant, lecturer, film festival jurist and writer. I am spending most of my time writing fiction but continue to write about film as well. My writing explores trauma and its consequences, including how parents and children help and harm each other. My current project, Past Imperfect, follows a young woman in San  Francisco, building a career as an artistic photographer, as she deals with a family legacy of abuse and a missing parent who returns in a mysterious way.

I consult with documentary filmmakers on various projects ranging from an exploration of the consequences of Wounded Knee on participants in that historic event to an environmental, interactive journey down the Mississippi River from its headwaters to the Gulf, and from a study of the sometimes parallel and often divergent lives of two Mexican-Americans, one in prison, the other the filmmaker, to an overview of the global issues surrounding the production of food in its modern, industrialized forms.

I have served on film festival juries in the Netherlands, Korea, the Czech Republic, and Brazil to name a few. I have lectured in numerous countries in Europe, Asia and South America as well as at dozens of universities and other venues in the United States. My cv, here on the website, details my academic work. My books and articles are listed there and well as further information about my consulting work.

The blogs here cover a wide range of topics of interest to me and go well beyond film related topics.

My email address, billnichols99@gmail.com is also listed under Contact. You can write me directly or use the form below.