Biography
Donna McRae is a Melbourne-based filmmaker whose work has been screened across several continents. Having trained and worked as an actor, visual artist/ researcher and filmmaker, she is uniquely placed to make films that are thoughtfully researched, visually beautiful and politically charged.
Embracing drama, documentary and video installation, her work reflects a deep interest in both genre and feminist theory, an unconventional but highly potent combination. Donna has repeatedly proven herself to be undaunted by ‘swimming against the tide’, unafraid to work across colour and black & white, long takes
or multi-channel, she possesses a fluency that is exceptional. Her particular interrogations of 19th century gender roles and post-punk rock‘n’roll once again offer a surprising and powerful potential.
After graduating from the VCA Film and TV School in Melbourne, Donna McRae made several shorts which were all selected for local and international film festivals. Her first micro-budget feature film, Johnny Ghost (2012), was selected into numerous film festivals locally and internationally, winning 7 awards including Best Female Director at Berlin Independent Film Festival, Best Feature at South Texas Underground Film Festival and two Special Jury Prizes, including Hamilton Film Festival, Canada,. The film has North American distribution with Continuum Pictures, and local distribution with Titan View.
Donna’s latest micro-budget horror feature Lost Gully Road has won three international awards for Best Feature, in Los Angeles, Peru and Texas, has distribution with Umbrella Entertainment and has been sold to Channel 9.
Donna has an interest in video installation and has shown her work in art galleries both here and overseas. She has also made several collaborative works with visual artist Michael Vale, including music videos for Dave Graney and Clare Moore.
Currently she has just finished post production on a feature documentary about a chimpanzee called Cobby: The Other Side of Cute, and is in development for various projects, including her next feature film Kate Kelly, a ‘ghost western’ about Ned Kelly’s sister; and an untitled ‘Female Horror Anthology’ project with Unicorn Films.
The Kate Kelly project was selected for Frontiéres Co-Production Market at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival in July 2016.
She has also collaborated with visual artist Michael Vale since 2002, principally on the feature film project Le Chien qui Fume (currently in development with Screen Australia & Film Victoria support). They have also made several short films & videos together culminating in a film award from Asolo Film Festival, Italy, for best film on art, and worked with installation art (The Innocents Westspace, Melbourne 2011).
COBBY: The Other Side of Cute had it's world premiere at the San Francisco Documentary Festival in June, follwed by kansas International Film Festival and screenings in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.
Donna is a Senior lecturer at Deakin University in the Film &TV Department.
Career highlights
Lost Gully Road -
Nominated Best Direction in a Feature film under 1 million dollars - Australian Directors Guild, 2019
Best Feature - La Femme International Film festival, Los Angeles 2018,
Best Feature - Insolito de Cinema, Peru, 2019
Best Feature - South Texas Underground Film Festival - 2019
Official Selection Monsterfest 2017, Revelation Film Festival, 2018
Nominated Best Original Score, Ozflix awards 2018
COBBY: The Other Side of Cute
Official Selection SFDocfest, 2018
Official Selection, Kansas International Film Festival, 2018
Official Selection, revelation Film Festival, 2019
Flyville - Durden & Ray, Los Angeles and Strange Neighbour, Melbourne (as part of Slippery Stories) 2016
California -Mars Gallery solo show March 2015, Sydney video Contemporary September 2015
Johnny Ghost -
Special Jury Prize, Hamilton International Film festival, Canada 2013
Best Female Director, Berlin Independent Film festival, 2013
Film with Most Heart, Pollygrind Film festival. Las Vegas, 2012
Best Feature, South Texas Underground Film Festival 2012
Special Jury Prize, Melbourne Underground Film Festival 2012
Best Screenplay, Melbourne Underground Film Festival, 2012
Best Editing, Minneapolis Underground Film Festival, 2011
Official Selection, Portobello Film Festival, London, 2012
Official Selection, Portugal Underground Film Festival, 2012
Official Selection, Stranger with My Face Women in Horror Film Festival,2013
Official Selection, RxSM Film Expo, Austin, Texas, 2013
Official Selection, KIlof Film Festival, Poland, 2013
Official Selection, No/Gloss Film Festival. Leeds 2013
Research interests
ghosts, memory, Australian female Gothic
Units taught
screenwriting, Honours program
Knowledge areas
Cinema Ghosts, Horror, Australian Female Gothic
Conferences
Screening Melbourne 2017
Awards
Early Career Teaching Award 2015
Projects
Lost Gully Road - feature film
Cobby - feature documentary
Le Chien qui Fume - A Smokey Life (with Dr Michael Vale) feature film (development)
Untitled Horror Anthology - feature film i(n development)
Kate Kelly - feature film - (in development)
California - video installation
Flyville - video installation
Publications
Donna Mcrae
(2023), Touring festival - various venues around Poland including Warsaw: Royal Castle, The Amphitheatre at Łazienki Royal-Park, Królikarnia Palace, Park Żeromskiego & accompanying events in Gdańsk, Łódź, Bydgoszcz, Lublin, and Wrocław., JR1
Mocking masculinity: Comedy and Subversion in Women-Directed Vampire films
Donna Mcrae, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
(2022), pp. 1-20, Spoofing the Vampire: Essays on Comedy and Genre in Vampire Films, Jefferson, N.C., B1
Say a Spell : Summoning the Ghosts of Post Punk Melbourne
Donna Mcrae, Alexia Kannas
(2021), pp. 1-1, Punk Identities, Punk Utopias: Global Punk and Media, Bristol, Eng., B1
The Stranger With My Face International Film Festival and the Australian Female Gothic
Donna Mcrae
(2020), Women make horror : filmmaking, feminism, genre., Chicago, IL., B1
The Cutopia Paradox: anthropomorphism as entertainment
M Vale, D McRae
(2016), Vol. 7, pp. 128-143, Ecozon@ : European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, Alcalá de Henares, Spain, C1
Who's knocking in my little house? Ursula Dabrowsky's Inner Demon (2014)
D Mcrae
(2016), pp. 1-1, Senses of Cinema, Melbourne, Vic., C1
Funded Projects at Deakin
Other Public Sector Funding
Ladies of the Cemetery>
Dr Donna Mcrae
Kingston City Council
- 2020: $1,885
- 2019: $3,000
Dawn
Dr Donna Mcrae
DITRC Creative Partnerships Australia MATCH Lab
- 2021: $5,000
Industry and Other Funding
Cobby - The Dark Side of Cute
Dr Donna Mcrae
Research My World Pozible
- 2015: $10,686
Other Funding Sources
Dawn
Dr Donna Mcrae
Pozible
- 2021: $24,218
Supervisions
Katherine Murray
Thesis entitled: CRADLE TO CRYPT: Women in Australian and South Korean Horror Cinema
Master of Arts, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Kristina Kraskov
Thesis entitled: Ethics in the Suburbs: An Exegesis of the film The King of Frankston
Master of Arts, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Jeremy Martino
Thesis entitled: Writing the Cold War Espionage Thriller: Looking at History through a Filmic Lens
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Bryan Ott
Thesis entitled: They Sound Human: Crafting Post-Feminist Women in Contemporary Western/Horror
Doctor of Philosophy, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Rohan Jones
Thesis entitled: Preparing for ¿Action!¿: an investigation into actor-direction for the screen
Master of Arts, School of Communication and Creative Arts
Matthew Burns
Thesis entitled: Cinema and the Art of Dying
Master of Arts, School of Communication and Creative Arts
. Su Hnin Htut Aung
Thesis entitled: Representation of Ghosts and Spirits in East and Southeast Asian Cinema
Master of Arts, School of Communication and Creative Arts