Rachel Perkins facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Rachel Perkins
Perkins at the 2012 AACTA Awards in Sydney
Born	1970 (age 54–55) Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
Occupation	Producer, director, writer
Years active	1998–present
Spouse(s)	Richard McGrath (divorced)
Children	1
Parent(s)	Charles Perkins (father)
Relatives	Hetty Perkins (grandmother) Hetti Perkins (sister) Madeleine Madden (niece)

Rachel Perkins (born 1970) is an Indigenous Australian filmmaker. She is a director, producer, and writer for movies and television.

Rachel started her own film company called Blackfella Films in 1992. She was a co-director there until 2022. Her company made First Australians (2008), a documentary series that won many awards. This series is still the most popular educational show in Australia. Rachel thinks it's her most important work.

She has directed several films, including Radiance (1998), One Night the Moon (2001), Bran Nue Dae (2009), and Jasper Jones (2017). She also directed the TV movie Mabo (2012). Blackfella Films also made the TV drama series Redfern Now. Rachel directed two episodes and the movie that finished the series, Promise Me (2015).

Rachel is an Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman. Her family comes from Central Australia. She grew up in Canberra. Her father was Charles Perkins, a famous Aboriginal activist.

Early Life and Learning

Rachel Perkins was born in Canberra, Australia, in 1970. Her father was Charlie Perkins. Her grandmother was Hetty Perkins. Rachel has family roots from the Arrernte, Kalkadoon, Irish, and German communities. Her siblings are Adam and Hetti Perkins, who works with art. Her niece is the actress Madeleine Madden.

Rachel and her sister went to Melrose High School in Canberra.

After high school in 1988, Rachel wanted to learn about her grandmother's culture in Alice Springs. She applied for a TV presenter job at CAAMA to get a flight there. She didn't get the job but was offered a training position at Imparja Television. There, she learned how to edit films and record sound.

In the early 1990s, Rachel won a scholarship. She studied film production at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) in Sydney. She finished her producing course in 1995.

Filmmaking Career

When Rachel was 21, she became a leader at the Indigenous unit at SBS Television. She was the only person in that unit.

Starting Blackfella Films

In 1992, Rachel Perkins started Blackfella Films. This company makes documentaries and movies for TV, live shows, and online. They focus on telling stories about Indigenous Australian people. Most of Rachel's film work was done through this company.

Early Film Projects

Rachel wrote, directed, and helped produce a documentary about her father's 1965 "Freedom Ride". This was a protest bus journey in New South Wales. The film was called Freedom Ride (1993). It was part of a series called Blood Brothers. Rachel said making this film helped her understand how important filmmaking is for sharing Australian history.

In 1996, Rachel produced a film for her friend Warwick Thornton. It was called From Sand to Celluloid – Payback.

Directing Feature Films

Radiance (1998) was Rachel's first feature film as a director. She spent a long time finding the right actors. They rehearsed for six weeks before filming.

In 2001, she co-wrote and directed the TV movie One Night the Moon. It featured musicians Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody.

First Australians Series

First Australians is a seven-part documentary series. It was shown on SBS Television in 2008. The series took six years to make. Rachel said it was the most important project she would ever work on. It was a chance to tell the Indigenous story from an Indigenous point of view. This had never been done before. As of 2024, it is still the best-selling educational title in Australia.

More Directing Work

Rachel directed Bran Nue Dae, a movie based on a popular stage musical. It was released in 2009.

In 2009, Rachel helped organize the Message Sticks Indigenous Film Festival. This festival showed Fire Talker, a documentary about her father.

Her TV movie Mabo was shown in 2012. It was a drama about Eddie Koiki Mabo, a land rights activist.

In 2012, Rachel directed two episodes of the TV series Redfern Now. One episode was about a death in police custody. She also directed the movie that ended the series, Redfern Now: Promise Me (2015). Critics praised the movie's great actors.

Rachel was an executive producer for the first series of First Contact (2014). This reality TV show challenged non-Indigenous people's ideas about Indigenous Australians.

In 2014, she also finished a documentary called Black Panther Woman for SBS.

She directed the movie Jasper Jones, which came out in 2017.

In 2022, Rachel wrote, directed, and presented a three-part documentary series. It was called The Australian Wars. This series looked at the wars fought when British settlers arrived in Australia.

Rachel has said that she enjoys editing the most. She feels it is the most creative part of filmmaking. She also feels it's her job to use media to tell her people's stories and help make changes.

Blackfella Films' Growth

Darren Dale joined Blackfella Films in 2000. He became a co-director. The company made many award-winning productions. These include First Australians, the TV movie Mabo, and the TV series Redfern Now. In 2022, Rachel left Blackfella Films.

Other Important Activities

Rachel has been a Commissioner for the Australian Film Commission. She has also been on the board of Screen Australia since 2009. She has served on other important boards too. She says she joins these boards to help guide government decisions.

In 2015, she helped raise money for the Arrernte Women's Project. This project records traditional songs and cultural knowledge of Arrernte women. This creates an archive for future generations.

Rachel became president of the AIATSIS Foundation in 2015. She is currently the deputy chair of the AIATSIS board.

In 2019, she gave the ABC's yearly Boyer Lecture. She called it The End of Silence.

Rachel also served on the Australian Heritage Council for two terms.

In 2023, she supported a "yes" vote in the 2023 Australian referendum. This vote was about creating an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.

In March 2024, Rachel was a guest speaker at the Australian International Documentary Conference. In the same month, she became the chair of AFTRS. She is the first Indigenous filmmaker to hold this position in the school's 50-year history.

In 2024, she taught masterclasses for Indigenous film students in Alice Springs.

Awards and Recognition

Rachel Perkins has received many awards for her work.

Personal Awards

• 2002: Won the Byron Kennedy Award. This award recognized her wide range of work as a writer, director, and producer. It also praised her creativity and her support for Indigenous filmmaking.
• 2011: Won the Stanley Hawes Award. This was for her important contributions to documentary filmmaking in Australia.
• 2017: Received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the National Dreamtime Awards 2018. This was for her contributions to film and culture.
• 2018: Featured in 200 Women: Who Will Change the Way You See the World. This global project included a book and exhibitions.
• 2023: Was a finalist for the National NAIDOC Awards.

Film and TV Awards

Her films and TV shows have won or been nominated for many awards:

• 1994: Won the Tudawali Award for Blood Brothers – Freedom Ride (1993).
• 1998: Radiance (1998) won Most Popular Feature Film at the Melbourne International Film Festival. It also won the Audience Award at the Canberra International Film Festival.
• 2001: One Night the Moon (2001) won two AWGIE Awards from the Australian Writers' Guild. It also won the IF Award for Best Direction.
• 2009: First Australians won many awards and nominations.
• 2013: Won an ADG Award for Best Direction in a TV Drama Series for an episode of Redfern Now.
• 2013: Redfern Now won TV Show of the Year at the Deadly Awards.
• 2017: Jasper Jones won the Jury Grand Prix for Best Feature Film at the Antipodean Film Festival.
• 2019: Mystery Road, Series 1, won the AACTA Award for Best Television Drama Series.
• 2019: Won an Australian Directors' Guild Award for Best director in a TV drama series for Mystery Road, Series 1.
• 2023: The Australian Wars, Episode 1, won the Digital History Prize at the New South Wales Premier's History Awards.

Personal Life

Rachel Perkins has a son with her ex-husband, filmmaker Richard McGrath.

She has said that besides filmmaking, music is her other big interest.

As of March 2024, she lives in Alice Springs.

Selected Films and TV Shows

• Blood Brothers – Freedom Ride (1993) – producer, director, writer
• Radiance (1998) – director
• One Night the Moon (2001) – director, writer
• First Australians (2008) – producer, director, writer, narrator
• Bran Nue Dae (2010) – director, writer
• Mabo (2012) – director
• Black Panther Woman (2014) – director
• Jasper Jones (2017) – director
• Mystery Road (2019 & 2020) – TV series
• Total Control (s1, 2019) – TV series
• The Australian Wars (2022) – writer, director, presenter, and producer

See also

In Spanish: Rachel Perkins para niños