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This was published 5 months ago
Filmmaker Rachel Perkins to chair prestigious arts school at ‘crisis point’
By Linda Morris
After a bruising stint co-chairing the Yes campaign for an Indigenous Voice to parliament, award-winning filmmaker Rachel Perkins has taken up a new role as chair of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) at a tumultuous time for the institution.
The stakes are make or break. The prestigious arts school is one of eight national training colleges warning of a looming financial crunch impacting skills training ahead of the next federal budget.
Rachel Perkins, in her home of Alice Springs, where she conducted a masterclass for Indigenous screen students with the Centre for Appropriate Technology. Credit: Sara Maiorino
“The school hasn’t had a funding increase in years, and we are now at the crisis point where if we are not going to get an increase we are going to have to slash the programs we deliver,” Perkins says.
“In four weeks’ time we’ll know the budget and I’ll either be helming an organisation that is able to expand and realise its vision or one that is curtailed and limited. It’s a very binary situation we are in.
“I’m hoping very much we will be further supported by government, so we can fully realise our potential, but I’m very anxious as the new chair.”
Perkins is the first former graduate and the first Indigenous filmmaker to be appointed to the school’s chair in its 50-year history.
The role of chair is one that federal Arts Minister Tony Burke says is made for Perkins: “Rachel is one of Australia’s great storytellers, particularly when it comes to First Nation’s stories. As a graduate herself, Rachel knows the importance of AFTRS and the difference it makes.”
AFTRS opened in Sydney in 1973 with an inaugural class of 12 students including Phillip Noyce, Gillian Armstrong and Chris Noonan. When Perkins enrolled in the early 1990s she came as a scholarship student from her home in Alice Springs to study production, and it was there she collaborated with Warwick Thornton (Samson & Delilah).
“I wanted to cross over into drama and learn the language of filmmaking and make connections,” she says. Perkins’ first directorial project after school, Radiance, starred Deborah Mailman in her first screen role, and Thornton as cinematographer.
Perkins went on to co-found Blackfella Films, one of Australia’s leading production companies which made the ABC series Redfern Now and Total Control and acclaimed documentary The Australian Wars.
“I’ve always been interested in pushing the boundaries of people’s expectations,” Perkins says. “As Indigenous filmmakers we were told by the funding bodies that this is commercial money and there was not the mass audience for Indigenous films. We have since proved them wrong.”
Perkins, the daughter of Indigenous activist Charlie Perkins, regrets that a majority of Australians did not support the referendum but said politics is not the only way to unify a nation.
“[The result] was heartbreaking, but it reminded me of the power of filmmaking and its power to educate and shape minds,” she says.
“It proved to me that most Australians don’t know our history and didn’t understand why Indigenous people regarded the Voice as an important moment of recognition.
“Having said that, older Australians were most likely to vote ‘no’ and had not benefitted as young Australians have from a more inclusive education of Australian history. Filmmaking can play a part, it reaches into lounge rooms and can really change people.”
Perkins chaired her first meeting of the AFTRS council one week ago.
“I haven’t walked in with a three-point plan and I want to find the time to get my head under the bonnet,” she says from her home in Alice Springs where she conducts masterclasses for Indigenous screen students at the Centre of Appropriate Technology.
“I’m only half joking about this, but there could be more parties. After the first board meeting last week, the thing that struck me is that there are so many young, ambitious, exciting film and television graduates out there who are desperate to make connections with the industry.”
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correction
Australian film director Phillip Noyce’s name was incorrectly written as Phillip Noonan.