Original Thinking Productions
Original Stories. Enduring Impact.
“Original Thinking Productions crafts provocative, imaginative storytelling drawn from a rich creative and research network; bringing to life defining stories for our time. Original stories that meet the moment – and look beyond it. WHAT COMES NEXT?”
PROJECTS
TRAITOR: AUSTRALIA’S GREATEST UNTOLD SPY STORY
DOCUMENTARY
Margot unmasked for the first time the KGB mole who betrayed Australia by selling national secrets while serving as a senior officer inside ASIO, the nation’s top intelligence agency. (Four Corners, ABC TV, with Sally Neighbour)
THE AI RACE: ROBOT V HUMAN
DOCUMENTARY
Margot created and fronted a one-hour documentary about the looming AI employment revolution. (ABC TV, with Fanou Filali)
UPCOMING PROJECTS
‘ENOUGH GOOD PEOPLE’
DOCUMENTARY
A luminous journey through seven decades of activism, as two legendary human rights warriors, Indigenous leader Patrick Dodson, and his longtime mate, Phil Glendenning, share the laughter, lessons, and legacy of lives spent fighting for justice – and why the next generation should pick up the torch.
IN DEVELOPMENT
Kindred by Kate Legge
MOVIE ADAPTATION
How an unlikely romance and breathtaking vision from more than 100 years ago endured perilous expeditions, intense isolation, ridicule, conspiracy theories, police intimidation and mob violence—to ultimately protect the ancient majesty of Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain as a World Heritage treasure for us all. Based on a true story.
BERDY
DRAMA
In a new era of intelligence, the future has her eyes.
ABOUT
Margot O’Neill
Founder, Original Thinking Productions
Margot is a multi-award winning journalist and author who built her career first in print media and then with Australia’s public broadcaster, the ABC, reporting for a range of flagship programs, including the acclaimed investigative show, Four Corners. Her work has taken her from Washington DC to the frontlines of stories covering military coups, politics, national security, climate change, spies, technology and the erosion of public trust in democracy. She was a Journalist Fellow at the University of Oxford.
Awards
Margot has won two Walkley Awards including for Best Investigative Journalism and four Human Rights awards. She was also nominated three times for a Logie.
Book
Margot’s book BLIND CONSCIENCE tells the powerful story of ordinary Australians who defied the populist tide to challenge the country’s harsh asylum seeker detention policies. It won the National Human Rights Award for Best Non-Fiction 2009 and was short listed for the inaugural John Button Prize.