Rachel Perkins is a film and television director, film and television producer and writer who has contributed extensively to the development of indigenous filmmakers in Australia and, more broadly, the Australian film industry. In addition to her experience as an executive producer for both the ABC and SBS, Ms Perkins has had a successful film and documentary-making career, directing the feature films Bran Nue Dae, Radiance and One Night the Moon, which received five Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards, as well as the critically acclaimed television series First Australians, which won the 2008 Logie Award for Best Documentary.
Rachel Perkins 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 Charlie Perkins by Australian filmmaker Ivan Sen.
Ms Perkins is from the Arrernte and Kalkadoon nations in Central Australia and was raised in Canberra by parents Eileen and Charles Perkins, who was also known as an Aboriginal activist. She has previously served on the Council of the Australian Film Television and Radio School, the NSW FTO, the Australia Film Commission, and is a founding member of the National Indigenous Television Service.
Rachel is one of the directors of a six-part Australian television drama series Redfern Now. The series tells the stories of Indigenous Australians living in the Sydney suburb of Redfern, whose lives are changed by a seemingly insignificant incident. The first season has already received five AACTA award nominations for 2013. Along with the other directors Catriona McKenzie, Wayne Blair and Leah Purcell, the film has local indigenous writers, producers and actors. A second season has been commissioned.
