AustLit logo

AustLit

Donna McRae Donna McRae i(A147867 works by)
Gender: Female
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

BiographyHistory

'Donna McRae is a Melbourne Filmmaker who started her career as an actor. Quickly realising that jobs were hard to come by, she started writing film scripts. This led to several projects in development and a six week residency at Tropnest, Fox Studios, Sydney, where she was encouraged to direct these projects herself. Donna completed the post graduate filmmaking course at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2003 and her projects enjoyed success in both local and international film festivals. (Holly's Grail, 03. The Usherette, 05, The Favour, 07, Lonesome Dog Blues, 09).

'Donna is near completion with her PhD candidature at Monash University. Having a foot in both camps of the film industry and the art world, - (Arcadia, 06, Lamb of God 08, both 3 channel video installations shown locally and internationally) Donna has also collaborated with visual artist Michael Vale on the project Le Chien qui Fume, (feature film in development AFC & Film Victoria support) where they have made short films & videos culminating in a film award from Asolo Film Festival, Italy, for best film on art.'

Source: Johnny Ghost official website (http://www.johnnyghostfilm.com/director-biography.html). (Sighted: 27/6/2012)

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

form y separately published work icon Johnny Ghost ( dir. Donna McRae ) Melbourne : mcraeandvale , 2011 Z1870477 2011 single work film/TV horror fantasy

'Millicent, a professional musician, lectures in music at a Melbourne university. Popular with the students, she loves her job and the opportunities it brings her. Millicent lives alone in her flat. She is also a recovering alcoholic who has a commemorative tattoo - 'Johnny Ghost' - that stretches across her shoulder. It signifies a past that she has long since buried - the time of post punk Melbourne in the early '80's, when she was a different person. In fact she has suppressed the past so effectively it is concealed like a crypt inside her. So she lives her life in almost solitary confinement - paying for an old sin. When she decides to take a risk and remove the tattoo she encounters ghosts who won't let her move on so easily. They want her to pay for what she has done.'

Source: Official website (http://www.johnnyghostfilm.com/synopsis.html). Sighted: 27/6/2012)

One reviewer, quoted on the film's official website, notes that:

'In fact perhaps the scariest thing about 'Johnny Ghost' isn't the recent spirits themselves but Millicent's own breakdown in their assumed presence. As a result it is almost inconsequential whether these ghosts are real; nowhere in the film is there anything to suggest these ghosts are able to be seen by others, and they act for the most part impassively. While the film does occasionally hold to its genre conventions with a couple of real jolts, it mostly, and I will use the word again, 'unsettles'. Millicent (a great non-modern name by the way), is unsettled not just emotionally, but in the real world too, not fitting in or 'settled' anywhere, not even in her own home. This feeling pervades the film with a proper sense of eeriness and dread, rather than the scarifying thrills typical to ghost films.'

2012 winner Melbourne Underground Film Festival Awards Special Jury Award
2012 winner Melbourne Underground Film Festival Awards Best Screenplay
Last amended 27 Jun 2012 13:35:27
Other mentions of "" in AustLit:
    X