Darlene Johnson

Darlene Johnson, an Australian Aborigine of the east-coast Dunghutti people of NSW, was born in Sydney. As a child Darlene loved hearing her mother's stories of life as a performer in the travelling sideshows of the pre-television Australia of the 1950s. Her Mum's colourful tales of adventures as "Obelia the Mermaid, " who could "eat, drink and smoke underwater " fired the young Darlene's imagination. And although the sideshow life-style was by then long gone Darlene knew she would be part of the bright lights of showbusiness! Somehow! She also credits the George Street cinema for her love affair with film, "It was the place I went everyday after school while my mother worked two jobs. The cinema quickly became my de facto babysitter and my cinematic pre-school!"

Her career as writer/director started with the internationally acclaimed short film "Two Bob Mermaid" in 1996, a story inspired by her mother's experiences of growing up under the assimilation period of the 1950s. It deals with the effects of racism on a fair-skinned Aboriginal teenager, and struck a chord nationally and internationally. Darlene has continued exploring themes of race, identity and perception in both documentary and fiction, from "Stolen Generations" which was nominated for an international EMMY Award, to "Stranger in my Skin", "The Making of Phillip Noyce's 'Rabbit-Proof Fence', " Gulpilil-One Red Blood", a biography of the iconic actor David Gulpilil, to her supernatural fictional drama "Crocodile Dreaming" which featured the first-time pairing of legendary Aboriginal actors David Gulpilil and Tom E Lewis, and her poetic and moving portrait, "River of No Return," about the complexities of living in a remote Indigenous community. "River" was chosen as the opening film at Imaginative Film Festival in 2008.

Darlene has recently been producing documentaries for the Message Stick series at the ABC TV. In late 2013, Darlene completed writing, directing and co-producing the independent doco, "The Redfern Story" a TV hour which was broadcast in 2014 on the ABC TV for Naidoc week. She has just completed her short film "Bluey" as part of the Springboard initiative which had its premiere at the 2015 Sydney Film festival and won best screenplay in a short film. It has also been accepted into MIFF 2015. She is currently developing two feature films, "Baru" and "Obelia". Phillip Noyce is attached as the EP for "Obelia".

Filmography

	GULPILIL » David Gulpilil lives a Spartan and demanding life in tribal Arnhem land. The film shows David at home in Ramingining in Australia's Northern Territory and in his other life as a respected film actor...
	STOLEN GENERATIONS » The removal of Aboriginal children in Australia was a deliberate government policy and forms part of the history of dispossession of the country's original inhabitants...
	CROCODILE DREAMING » A stone holding the stories and songs of the ancestors has been stolen from its proper location and subsequently causes the death of two children...
	RIVER OF NO RETURN » From early childhood Frances Daingangan, a 45-year-old Yolngu woman, dreamed of being a movie star - a dream that came true when Rolf de Heer cast her in the film TEN CANOES...
	REDFERN STORY, THE » WINNER! BEST DOCUMENTARY (Social and Political Issues), 2015 ATOM AWARDS. "This is an extraordinary film that shines a light on otherwise unknown aspects of Australian history...
	BLUEY » In August 2016, BLUEY won the Best Short Film award at the First Peoples Festival, Montreal.The official citation reads (translated from French): "The director looks right into the darkness of a troubled teenage girl's soul, with precise and spare writing that gets to the heart of the matter...