Rachel perkins biography

Infrustrated by the passive portrayals of Indigenous culture she encountered in textbooks and on television written by non-Indigenous people, Perkins forged forward to found the production company Blackfella Films. Focused on self-representation, Blackfella Films committed resources to culturally significant stories, told by and with Indigenous media practitioners.

Winning the first Indigenous Program Scholarship inPerkins dedicated herself to the mechanics of budgeting, financing and drama production in order to gain access to bigger budgets and bigger audiences. After a consecutive stint at the Australian Broadcasting Commission ABC as the Executive Producer of the Indigenous Programs Unit, Perkins again enabled Indigenous creatives the opportunity to have their stories brought to the screen and for the Australian viewer to re-educate themselves on traditional presentations of the female perspectives and Indigenous culture.

Perkins left the ABC to direct her first feature film. Casting three strong women, Rachel Maza, Trisha Morton-Thomas and Deborah Mailman into a script that dealt with rarely tackled issues such as the stolen generation, racism, rape and adoption, Perkins had created a film with a cultural agenda. Also in Perkins directed two episodes of the first series of Redfern Now in "Stand Up" and "Pretty Boy Blue", the latter dealing with a death-in-custody.

Perkins executive produced the first series of First Contacta reality television show which challenged the non-Indigenous participants of Indigenous Australians. She directed the feature fiction film Jasper Jonesreleased in This series examines the Australian frontier wars fought across the country when British settlers moved in.

Rachel perkins biography

Perkins has said that of all the filmmaking jobs, she likes editing the best, as it is the most creative part. She also said that she rachels perkins biography a great sense of responsibility "to make films or to use media as a vehicle to tell my people's story and to create change". Perkins founded Blackfella Films in Darren Dale joined the company inbecoming co-director of the company.

The award-winning First Australiansa seven-part documentary series broadcast on SBS Television inwon many awards and was also sold overseas. Miranda Dearformerly head of drama at ABC Televisionwas a producer and head of drama at Blackfella from to InPerkins left Blackfella Films. Perkins served as Commissioner with the Australian Film Commission from toand since has been on the board of Screen Australia.

She has said that she gets onto these boards in order to help drive government policy. Inshe raised funding for the Arrernte Women's Project, which had been established inone of the goals of which was to record the traditional songs and associated cultural knowledge of the Arrernte women of Central Australiato create an archive for future generations.

Inshe campaigned for a "yes" vote in the Australian referendum to establish an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. In MarchPerkins was a guest speaker in a "spotlight session" at the Australian International Documentary Conference. In she conducts masterclasses for Indigenous screen students at the Centre of Appropriate Technology in Alice Springs.

Some of the many awards for which her films and TV productions have been nominated or won include:. Perkins has a son with her ex-husband, filmmaker Richard McGrath. She has said that next to filmmaking, music is her other passion. As of March [update] she lives in Alice Springs. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history.

Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikidata item. She has said that she gets onto these boards in order to help drive government policy. Inshe raised funding for the Arrernte Women's Project, which had been established inone of the goals of which was to record the traditional songs and associated cultural knowledge of the Arrernte women of Central Australiato create an archive for future generations.

Inshe campaigned for a "yes" vote in the Australian referendum to establish an Indigenous Voice to Parliament. In MarchPerkins was a guest speaker in a "spotlight session" at the Australian International Documentary Conference. In the same month, she was appointed chair of AFTRS, the first Indigenous filmmaker to be appointed to the position in its year history.

In she conducts masterclasses for Indigenous screen students at the Centre of Appropriate Technology in Alice Springs. Some of the many awards for which her films and TV productions have been nominated or won include:. As of March [update] she lives in Alice Springs. Rachel Perkins facts for kids Kids Encyclopedia Facts. Quick facts for kids. CanberraAustralian Capital TerritoryAustralia.

Charles Perkins father. She founded Australia's premier Indigenous production company Blackfella Films inand has contributed extensively to the development of Indigenous filmmakers in Australia and, more broadly, to the Australian film and television industry. Rachel's films have screened at over 75 film festivals worldwide. First Australians has sold throughout the world and is the highest selling educational title in Australia.

In she raised funding from a wide variety of sources for the Arrernte Women's Project, an archival recording of the traditional dances of the Arrernte women of Central Australia as a cultural project to preserve a unique cultural tradition. Rachel is currently directing and writing First Wars for SBS, a major historical documentary series about the nation's frontier conflicts.