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Author image from Ronin Films website.
Darlene Johnson Darlene Johnson i(A113050 works by)
Born: Established: 1970 Sydney, New South Wales, ;
Gender: Female
Heritage: Aboriginal ; Aboriginal Dunghutti
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BiographyHistory

Darlene Johnson, a filmmaker from the Dunghutti people of the east coast of New South Wales graduated with a BA (Hons), specialising in Indigenous and post-colonial cinema from the University of Technology, Sydney.

In 2000 Johnson wrote and directed Stolen Generations, her first hour-long television documentary. The film was nominated for an International Emmy (2000) and for Best Documentary at the 2000 AFI awards. It screened at the 2000 Margaret Mead Film Festival and was a finalist in the Hollywood Black Film Festival. Stolen Generations won the journalist award for Best Documentary at Film De Femmes International Women's Film Festival in France and the Golden Gate Award in the History section of the 2001 San Francisco Film Festival.

Darlene Johnson has directed a documentary about the making of Phillip Noyce's feature, Rabbit Proof Fence and in 2017 wrote her first feature film, Obelia

In March 2019, she was awarded the inaugural Australian International Screen Forum scholarship; the scholarship included a three-month attachment on a film shooting in New York later in 2019.

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

form y separately published work icon Bluey 2015 10271123 2015 single work film/TV

'BLUEY is an intense portrayal of an angry young girl who is trapped in a violent world of inner and outer turmoil. She desperately wants to break out of this cycle but doesn’t know how. It’s a story about courage and survival. One day she meets a mystery mentor, and for the first time, Bluey plunges into the depths of her own being.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2015 winner Sydney Film Festival Awards Short Screenplay Award
2016 nominated Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards Best Short Fiction Film
2016 shortlisted AWGIE Awards Film Award Shrot Form
form y separately published work icon The Redfern Story Once Upon a Time in Redfern ( dir. Darlene Johnson ) Sydney : Samson Productions , 2014 7204376 2014 single work film/TV

'In the early '70s, Aboriginal political activism took to the stage with the first all-Indigenous theatre company, the National Black Theatre in inner-city Redfern. Against the backdrop of street protests, a group of actors and activists created a voice for their community; the theatre became a social hub where Indigenous identity could be explored. Darlene Johnson's forceful documentary features interviews with Indigenous media pioneer Lester Bostock, writer Gerry Bostock, actor Lillian Crombie, activist-academic Gary Foley, academic Marcia Langton and actors Rachael Maza, Bryan Brown and Bindi Williams.' (Source: Sydney Film Festival website)

2015 winner Australian Teachers of Media Awards Best Documentary – Social & Political Issues
form y separately published work icon Two Bob Mermaid ( dir. Darlene Johnson ) Sydney : Core Films , 1996 Z1475866 1996 single work film/TV

Koorine is a young fair-skinned Koori girl growing up in a country town in 1957. At that time, Aboriginal people were not welcome in public swimming pools and had to sit separately at the movies. Koorine desperately wants to enter the 'million dollar mermaid' swimming contest. She has a choice because she 'looks white.' Then a fight breaks out at the swimming pool between her Koori friends and her white friends. She has to decide what is more important to her, her white friends or her Koori identity.

1996 Winner Film Critics Circle of Australia Best Australian Short Film
Last amended 15 Nov 2021 10:50:57
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