Rachel Perkins | |
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![]() Perkins at the 2012 AACTA Awards in Sydney | |
Born | 1970 (age 53–54) Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia |
Occupation(s) | Producer, director, writer |
Years active | 1998–present |
Spouse | Richard McGrath (divorced) |
Children | 1 |
Parent |
|
Relatives | Hetty Perkins (grandmother) Hetti Perkins (sister) Madeleine Madden (niece) |
Rachel Perkins (born 1970[ citation needed ]) is an Australian film and television director, producer, and screenwriter. She directed the films Radiance (1998), One Night the Moon (2001), Bran Nue Dae (2010), and Jasper Jones (2017). Perkins is an Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman from Central Australia, who was raised in Canberra. She is the daughter of Aboriginal activist Charles Perkins and his wife Eileen.
Perkins was born in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory in 1970. She is the daughter of Charlie Perkins, [1] granddaughter of Hetty Perkins, and has Arrernte, Kalkadoon, [2] Irish, and German ancestry. [3] Her siblings are Adam and Hetti Perkins, an art curator, and her niece is actress Madeleine Madden. [4] [5] She and her sister attended Melrose High School. [6]
At the age of 18, Perkins moved to Alice Springs and entered into a traineeship at the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association. [2]
In 1992, Perkins founded Blackfella Films, a documentary and narrative production company creating distinctive Australian content for television, live theatre, and online platforms, with a particular focus on Indigenous Australian stories. Its productions have included multi-award winning seven-part documentary series First Australians , television film Mabo , and TV series Redfern Now . [7]
She served as Commissioner with the Australian Film Commission from 2004 to 2008, and since 2009 has been on the board of Screen Australia. [7]
She was also curator for the 2009 Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival. This tenth anniversary of the festival held at the Sydney Opera House featured the premiere of Fire Talker , a documentary film about her father Charlie Perkins by Australian filmmaker Ivan Sen. [8] [9]
Since 2015, Perkins has been the president of the AIATSIS Foundation, [10] [11] which is part of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.
She has continued to make award-winning films and TV series (see below).
In 2019, she was invited to give the ABC's annual Boyer Lecture, which she titled The End of Silence, and broadcast on ABC RN in November and available as a podcast. [3]
Perkins has a son with her ex-husband, filmmaker Richard McGrath. [12] [13]
![]() | This section of a biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification .(November 2019) |
Canberra International Film Festival
Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards
Melbourne International Film Festival
New York International Independent Film & Video Festival
Australian Directors' Guild Awards
Tudawali Film and Video Awards
New South Wales Premier's History Awards
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Ruby Charlotte Margaret Hunter, also known as Aunty Ruby, was an Aboriginal Australian singer, songwriter and guitarist, and the life and musical partner of Archie Roach.
One Night the Moon is a 2001 Australian musical non-feature film starring husband and wife team Paul Kelly, a singer-songwriter, and Kaarin Fairfax, a film and television actress, along with their daughter Memphis Kelly. The film was directed by Rachel Perkins and co-written by Perkins with John Romeril. In 2009 Romeril adapted the script as a musical theatre work.
Radiance is a 1998 Australian independent film. It is the first feature film by Aboriginal director Rachel Perkins about three indigenous sisters who reunite for their mother's funeral. The film is based on the 1993 play written by Louis Nowra.
First Australians is an Australian historical documentary series produced by Blackfella Films over the course of six years, and first aired on SBS TV in October 2008. The documentary is part of a greater project that further consists of a book, a community outreach program and a substantial website featuring over 200 mini-documentaries.
Rachael Zoa Maza, also credited as Rachael Maza Long, is an Indigenous Australian television and film actress, and stage director. She is known for her role in the 1998 film Radiance, and worked with Company B and Wesley Enoch in Sydney for many years. She has been artistic director and of Ilbijerri Theatre Company since 2008.
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Redfern Now is an Australian drama television series that first aired on ABC1 in 2012. It follows the lives of six Aboriginal Australian families living in the urban hub of Redfern, Sydney. The series provides insight into contemporary issues facing Aboriginal Australians, including lack of employment and mental illness, which are positioned as direct ramifications of colonialisation and the Stolen Generations. Produced by Blackfella Films as part of the ABC's Indigenous Department, the show is the first series to be 'commissioned, written, acted and produced by Indigenous Australians'. f5 in The series' release contributes to widespread public debate surrounding Indigenous representation in the Australian media.
Shari Sebbens is an Aboriginal Australian actress and stage director, known for her debut film role in The Sapphires (2012), as well as many stage and television performances. After a two-year stint as resident director of the Sydney Theatre Company (STC), in 2023 she will be directing productions by STC and Griffin in Sydney, as well as Melbourne Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne. She is on the board of Back to Back Theatre.
Hetti Kemerre Perkins is an Aboriginal Australian art curator and writer. She is known for her work at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where she was the senior curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the gallery from around 1998 until 2011, and for many significant exhibitions and projects.
Blackfella Films is an Australian documentary and narrative film production company is Sydney, founded in 1992 by Rachel Perkins. The company produces distinctive Australian short and feature-length content for film and television with a particular focus on Aboriginal Australian stories. Its productions have included the documentary series First Australians, the documentary The Tall Man, the television film Mabo, and the TV series Redfern Now.
Trisha Morton-Thomas, also known as Patricia Morton-Thomas, is an Anmatyerr woman born in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is a writer, producer, director and actor who has worked in the Australian film industry since 1998 when she appeared in Radiance, the first feature film by director Rachel Perkins.
Sally Riley is an Australian filmmaker, writer, producer and media executive, as of 2021 Head of Scripted Production at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Darren Dale is an Indigenous Australian film and television producer. Since joining Blackfella Films as a producer in 2001, he is as of 2021 co-director of the company, along with founder Rachel Perkins. Dale is known for co-producing many films and television series with Miranda Dear since 2010, with their most recent collaboration being the second season of Total Control.
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Danielle MacLean is an Australian filmmaker. She is known for her writing on television series such as Little J & Big Cuz, 8MMM Aboriginal Radio and Redfern Now.
David Jowsey is an Australian film producer, co-founder of Bunya Productions. He is known for producing many films made by Indigenous Australian filmmakers. Bunya Productions' co-owners are Indigenous filmmaker Ivan Sen, and Jowsey's wife Greer Simpkin.
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: CS1 maint: others (link)...an edited extract from the first of Rachel Perkins's Boyer Lectures. Her complete series of lectures, titled The End of Silence, will be broadcast on ABC RN.
...covers the Tudawali Film and Video Award. Rachel Perkins' entry 'Freedom Ride' won the award and Rachel discusses the film and using the visual media as a tool to help tell Indigenous stories