British Council Logo UK Films Database
Project Detail

Paula Rego: Secrets and Stories

Synopsis

Paula Rego is one of the most important living artists. She was the first artist in residence at the UK's National Gallery, has a public museum exclusively dedicated to her work and a Damehood from the Queen. And yet, despite over 30 books about her pictures, very little is known about her life. Now, at 81, she has agreed to tell her extraordinary story to her son, the filmmaker Nick Willing. The result is an incredibly intimate and personal account of her battles against the facist dictatorship in Portugal, the misogynistic art world in England, and her own demons of manic depression.

Details

Year
2017
Type of film
Features
Running time
94 mins
Format
Digital 1.77
Director
Nick Willing
Producer
Michele Camarda
Editor
Nick Willing
Director of Photography
Juvenal de Figueiroa
Music
Madison Willing
Film Working Title
Paula Rego: Drawing from Life

Categories

Documentary

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Kismet Film Company

117 Mercers Road
London
N19 4PY

Sales Company

Kismet Film Company

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

Suggest amendments

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

The Experiment The Experiment

Director: Nick Willing

Year: 2024

In 2001, Portugal decriminalised the use of all drugs as a revolutionary answer to the War on Drugs. An emotional film told by the people who lived through it and who eventually succeeded in changing the way we think about addiction.

Altar Altar

Director: Nick Willing

Year: 2015

A contemporary and chilling British ghost story set in Yorkshire. When renovation expert Meg Hamilton (Olivia Williams) moves with her husband (Matthew Modine) and children into a Victorian Estate and starts to restore it to its former glory, the house itself seems to slowly come to life, fired by the ghosts of the original owners.

Horror Fantasy Sci-Fi
The River King The River King

Director: Nick Willing

Year: 2005

A small town cop is called in when a student drowns at an elite prep school. Even though the headmaster insists it was suicide, the detective suspects foul play when he finds clues seemingly left by the dead boy’s spirit.

Action