Richard Tuohy (b. 1969, Melbourne, Aus.) began making works on super 8 in the late nineteen eighties. After a brief hiatus from cinema (including formal study in philosophy for seven years) he returned to filmmaking in 2004. Since then he has created over 40 films.  His films have screened at venues including the Melbourne IFF, EMAF (Osnabruck), Rotterdam IFF, New York FF, Ann Arbor and Media City and he has toured Europe, North America and Asia presenting solo programs of his work. His films are typically highly structured and and have strongly formalist concerns. He is the proprietor of the artist-run film lab nanolab – the only lab for small gauge film in Australia. An advocate for the possibilities of hand-made cinema, Tuohy has devoted much time and effort in sharing his knowledge through workshops and classes both in his native Australia (notably through the Artist Film Workshop in Melbourne of which he is the founder and convener) and internationally.

 As a young person Dianna Barrie found her way into filmmaking as a middle ground between the pursuit of abstract music and philosophy. Ever pushing the limits of the hand processing of super 8 led to the establishment of nanolab with Richard Tuohy, and into the intersection of hand making and industrial cinema technology. This exploration has spread beyond individual work to the establishment of Artist Film Workshop, where celluloid is embraced and advocated by a community of practitioners in Melbourne.

There are two sides to nanolab. Firstly, nano is a commercial super 8 film lab, the spirit of which is to make super 8 a possible option for artists and the general community in Australia.  Secondly, as the home lab for experimental filmmakers Richard Tuohy and Dianna Barrie, nanolab is an active element in the international artist-run film lab movement. The nanolab team spend a good part of each year conducting workshops in the art and practice of do-it-yourself filmmaking. In Australia these workshops are usually run at the Artist Film Workshop in Melbourne which the nanolab team started. Nanolab also offers  residencies for artists (especially from the Asian region) to stay and work at the lab in rural Victoria.