Patrick Kelly is an artist-filmmaker and creative practice researcher who is passionate about contributing to the creation of diverse and inclusive communities around film and screen. He is particularly interested in contributing to the areas of screen media and diversity, ecological impacts of screen production, film and television and sustainability, and film and digital media platforms and governance.
His PhD in Creative Media from RMIT University was passed in 2013. The practice-led project examined the process of using various traditional and contemporary filmmaking technologies. Autoethnography directed the project's creative practice element, which was a feature-length documentary film, Detour Off the Superhighway, interrogating the implementations of going offline for creative practice. The research also examined the practices of transmedia storytelling, convergence, interactive platforms, and mobile media.
As a screen production scholar, his research generates traditional publications in Q1 journals (Studies in Documentary Film and Studies in Australasian Cinema). His creative research outputs have been exhibited in discipline-leading journals (Sightlines Journal and Journal of Science and Technology in the Arts) and festivals (Midsumma and Now or Never Festival). He has attracted $81,500 in external funding. He is highly sought after as an HDR Supervisor and Examiner, and has supervised 3 PhD and 3 Masters research candidates to completion, with 4 current PhD candidates. His work addresses the UN Sustainable Development Goals: (10) Reduced Inequalities, (9) Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, (13) Climate Action, and (3) Good Health and Well Being.
Patrick has been a Director of the Screen & Sound Cultures research group and has convened Sightlines: Screen Production & the Academy and various programmes of screenings in partnership with the Vietnam Film Institute, Birrarangga Film Festival, and RMIT Capitol Theatre. In 2025, he was lead editor of the Senses of Cinema dossier ‘My Formative Queers: Stories of the Music Videos that Made Us Queer’.
Selected Journal Articles, Book Chapters, and Creative Research Outputs
Kelly, P. (2025). ‘The Other Other Ginger Spice: Becoming a Creative Queer with Wigs, Friends, and Video in Post-Joh Queensland’, in P. Kelly & S. Richards (eds.), My Formative Queers, Senses of Cinema.
Kelly, P., Taylor, S., Howard, C. and Richards, s. (2025). My Formative Queers (exhibition), Senses of Cinema, ACMI, and Howler, Melbourne, Australia.
Kelly, P. (2025). ‘Holding Space through Queer Documentary Film and Kinship Making’, in A. Hickey-Moody, G. Coombs, M. Wilcox (eds.), New Materialist Affirmations: Creative Research Interventions in Methods and Practice, Edinburgh University Press, 278-303.
Kelly, P. (2025). ‘On Queer Selfies: Selfie Filmmaking, ‘Scrolling Back’, and creative innovation with the liquid aesthetic of smartphones,’ in M. Schleser & D. Sylls-Jones (eds.), Journal of Media Practice & Education.
Black, A., Kelly, P., Munro, K., and Taylor, S. (2024). A Mani-Pedi-Anti-Counter-FESTO for Queer Screen Production Practice, In: Journal of Science and Technology in the Arts, 15(2), 155-169.
Kelly, P. (2023). On Queer Selfies, In: Sightlines Journal, Melbourne, Australia.
Kelly, P., Taylor, S. (2023). Dirty/Queer/Green/City, In: Australian Environments on Screen and MINA mobile film commission Melbourne, Australia.
Taylor, S., Kelly, P., Black, A., and Munro, K. (2023). Between the Cracks, In: Wild Hope: Conversations for a Planetary Commons, Melbourne, Australia.
Taylor, S., Black, A., Kelly, P., Munro, K. (2023). ‘Manifesto as method for a queer screen production practice’. In: Studies in Australasian Cinema, 17, 50-67.
Kelly, P. (2022). ‘Smartphone Filmmaking for Queer Australian Documentary’, in M. Schleser (ed.), Studies in Documentary Film.
Kelly, P. (2021). The Trouble (film), Sightlines journal, Melbourne, Australia.
Guntarik, O., Kelly, P., Byrne, B., Fiegert, B. ,Glisovic, S. (2019). CREATIVE TECHNOLOGIES a case study of place-based learning and teaching in the digital age In: Creative Victoria and Kangaroo Flat Primary School Melbourne, Australia
Kelly, P., Berry, M. (2019). Appeasing the Trolls: Contextualising New Screen Practices with Smartphones In: The Palgrave Handbook of Screen Production, Springer, Cham, Switzerland
Kelly, P. (2018). New Contextualised Perspectives: Using Bluetooth Beacons and Drones for Mixed-Reality Storytelling In: Mobile Story Making in an Age of Smartphones, Palgrave Pivot, Cham, Switzerland
Kelly, P. (2018). Deconstructing the detour: a meld of theory and filmic practice to generate new knowledge In: Studies in Australasian Cinema, 12, 104 - 115
Kelly, P. (2017). Quo Grab #01 In: Melbourne Central Art Loop, Series Three: Issues of Tomorrow Melbourne, Australia
Kelly, P. (2017). Quo Grab #02 In: 7th International Mobile Innovation Screening Melbourne, Australia
Kelly, P. (2016). Creativity and autoethnography: Representing the self in documentary practice In: Screen Thought: A journal of image, sonic, and media humanities, 1, 1 - 9
Kelly, P. (2015). From cinema to superhighway: A filmic examination of slow In: Altitude: An E-Journal of Emerging Humanities Work, 13, 1 - 16
Kelly, P. (2015). Experimenting with distribution models for the PhD documentary In: Proceedings of What's This Space? Screen Practice, Audiences and Education for the Future Decade, Adelaide, Australia, 15-17 July 2015
Kelly, P. (2015). Diorama #01 In: MINA International Mobile Innovation Screening Wellington, New Zealand
Publications and Appearances in the Lay Press
Browne, C. 2025. ‘Segment: My Formative Queers (feat. Patrick Kelly & Stayci Taylor)’ (radio broadcast), Out Takes on Joy 94.9FM, 4 November, Melbourne, VIC.
Butler, J. 2025. ‘Segment: My Formative Queers (feat. Cerise Howard, Patrick Kelly & Stayci Taylor)’ (radio broadcast), Queer View Mirror on 3RRR FM, 10 September, Melbourne, VIC.
Ford, F. 2024. ‘Top picks of the program for Melbourne Queer Film Festival (feat. Cerise Howard & Patrick Kelly)’ (radio broadcast), Primal Screen on 3RRR FM, 11 November, Melbourne, VIC.
Bakan, S. 2022. ‘Streaming services stay close to roots with weekly releases’ (feat. Patrick Kelly), The New Daily, 23 August.
Kelly, P. 2014. ‘Do we need transparent texting to avoid a mobile accident?’, The Conversation, 2 April (republished by Fairfax).
Kelly, P. 2014. ‘Facebook isn’t dying but it needs to evolve more’, The Conversation, 29 January (republished by Mumbrella, The New Zealand Herald, and Fairfax).
Kelly, P. 2014. ‘The Unique Experience of Interactivity’, Spectacle Blog, ACMI, 16 January.
Kelly, P. 2013. ‘Slow Media: Deliberate and Thoughtful Art & Film’, Critical Animalia: A Decade Between Disciplines, 4 October.
Kelly, P, O’Brien, C & R Scott. 2012. ‘The Future of the Internet’, The Lifted Brow, September.
Kelly, P. 2012. ‘Your Passwords Aren’t Safe Anymore’, ABC’s The Drum, 8 June.
Kelly, P. 2011. ‘Music Piracy on iCloud Nine’, ABC’s The Drum, 8 June.
Kelly, P. 2008. ‘Cinema: Vicky Cristina Barcelona’, M/C Reviews, 24 December.
Kelly, P. 2008. ‘Cinema: How to Lose Friends and Alienate People’, M/C Reviews, 26 October.