Heather Kirkpatrick

Heather Kirkpatrick is a professional outdoor instructor, emergency relief work logistician, freelance journalist and filmmaker. She has led expeditions on every continent - climbing mountains and raft guiding in the world's most remote wilderness regions. Heather has spent seven seasons teaching field survival skills in Antarctica and recently managed the helicopter logistics as food was delivered to flood victims in Pakistan. Her worldwide travels inspired her to pursue short courses in filmmaking over the last decade and to study postgraduate Convergent Journalism. Heather has published stories in print media and produced an ABC radio documentary. She has travelled independently through the Democratic Republic of Congo filming stories of war-displaced people and in Rwanda following rap-artists who became orphans after the genocide. Heather has independently produced and directed her first feature length documentary 'Mary Meets Mohammad,' where she intimately followed Mary and Mohammad for 16 months in Tasmania. Mary Meets Mohammad won a United Nations Media Peace Prize in 2014 and was also a 2013 Walkley Award Finalist [Australia's most prestigious journalism awards]. Heather was also a Finalist for the "Outstanding Documentary Talent Award 2013" which saw the film premiere at the Australian International Documentary Conference in Adelaide in February 2013. Winner United Nations Media Peace Prize - Special Award for Promotion of Multicultural Issues 2014 Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism - 2013 Finalist Documentary . Tasmanian Media Awards Winner - Best Feature, Documentary or Current Affairs 2014 Winner Australia Day Council Award 2013 for Promotion of Muslim and Non-Muslim Understanding Winner 2014 Migration Institute of Australia - Outstanding Coverage of Migration in the Media Winner Tasmanian Community Awards - Heather & Christopher Chong Outstanding Achiever Award 2013 F4 Outstanding Documentary Talent Award finalist - Australian International Documentary Conference 2013 Finalist Australian Migration Council Media Award 2014 - Television Nomination Best Documentary Director - Australian Directors Guild 2014