“Our films are ambassadors for our nation”: A conversation with Jasper Jones director Rachel Perkins

Meet Rachel Perkins: she's one of Australia's most successful filmmakers on both the big screen and small.

She was the brains behind the musical Bran Nue Dae, Mabo and her company Blackfella Films have made documentaries like First Australians and First Contact.

The daughter of iconic Indigenous activist Charlie Perkins, she has also actively been fighting to have the nation's first people recognised in the Australian constitution.

On top of all that, she has taken on the beloved Australian book Jasper Jones: now a funny, dark, murder mystery movie set in Western Australia in the racially charged dying days of the 1960s.
Rachel Perkins
Source: Supplied
“It’s just a great story,” says Perkins of her attraction to adapting Jasper Jones from the page and stage, to the big screen. 

“It has these great elements: it's got the murder mystery, which is the great hook. 

“But it's also got the beautiful humour of those characters and that great dialogue … you know, laugh out loud hilarious.

“That combination of different tones is something I always like. It's really hard to have multiple tones going in the same thing and of course the social commentary resonated with me.”

Comfortable with being dubbed a political filmmaker, Perkins says as an Indigenous creative it’s important her work hits on multiple levels.
Jasper Jones - movie
Source: SBS Distribution
“Our films definitely are ambassadors for our nation,” she says.

“That's what you get to understand, people get to understand Australia through our filmmaking and that's when you realise how powerful filmmaking is cos it frames - it can frame-  a nation.

“It can frame a national narrative in the way that films like Peter Weir's Gallipoli framed that legend.”

Jasper Jones is currently in cinemas Australia-wide.
Tune in to #TheFeedSBS at 7.30pm Monday - Friday on SBS VICELAND, stream , or follow us on , or      


Share
Through award winning storytelling, The Feed continues to break new ground with its compelling mix of current affairs, comedy, profiles and investigations. See Different. Know Better. Laugh Harder. Read more about The Feed
Have a story or comment? Contact Us

Through award winning storytelling, The Feed continues to break new ground with its compelling mix of current affairs, comedy, profiles and investigations. See Different. Know Better. Laugh Harder.
Watch nowOn Demand
Follow The Feed
Published 2 March 2017 9:15pm
Updated 2 March 2017 9:31pm
By Maria Lewis
Source: The Feed


Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world