Danielle MacLean is an Australian filmmaker. She is known for her writing on television series such asLittle J & Big Cuz,8MMM Aboriginal Radio andRedfern Now.
MacLean is of theLuritja andWarumungu peoples of theNorthern Territory of Australia.[1]
MacLean started work atCentral Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) Productions as a production assistant, later moving on to writing and directing, working underErica Glynn. She originally wanted to be astills photographer.[2]
She lived inCentral Australia working on a TV documentary series calledNganampa Anwernekenhe[3] which means "ours" in thePitjantjatjara andArrernte languages The series started in 1987 and comprised 187 half-hour episodes.[4] which was shot in the bush communities and broadcast onImparja Television.[3]
In 1997, she was supported byScreen Australia's Indigenous unit to act as both writer and director of a short drama film,My Colour Your Kind, about analbino Aboriginal teenager attending a convent boarding school inAlice Springs.[2] The film was selected for showing at several internationalfilm festivals, and nominated for several awards.[3][5]Steven McGregor was producer on the film.[6]
She left CAAMA in 1999, becoming a freelance writer and director.[3]
In 2001 she wrote and directedFor Who I am – Bonita Mabo, a documentary aboutBonita Mabo.[3]
She wrote and directedQueen of Hearts, a drama, released in 2004.[3]
In 2012 MacLean wrote an episode of the acclaimed drama series,Redfern Now. In the same year, she wrote and producedCroker Island Exodus a documentary film which screenedSydney Film Festival and theMelbourne International Film Festival, and was broadcast onABC Television.
MacLean wrote and directedBlown Away, released in 2014, an hour-long documentary aboutCyclone Tracy which caused extensive damage toDarwin in 1974. The film shows previously unrecorded responses by Indigenous Darwinians to the disaster. The film features AuntyKathy Mills, DrElla Stack, GeneralAlan Stretton, MayorTiger Brennan, Prime MinisterGough Whitlam,[7][8] publisher and writerSophie Cunningham, and politician (later NT Human Rights Commissioner)Dawn Lawrie.[9]
She wrote three episodes of theIndigenous Australian comedy series,8MMM Aboriginal Radio, which aired onABC2 in 2014.[3]
She wrote episode 5 of the second series ofMystery Road,[2] which went to air in 2020.[10]
MacLean collaborates frequently with Steven McGregor, and has also worked withWarwick Thornton, her cousinBeck Cole,Trisha Morton-Thomas and sound recordist David Tranter.[2][7] She directed one of the segments of the anthology filmWe Are Still Here, which premiered as the opening film of the 2022Sydney Film Festival.[11] McLean also wrote for the Australian TV drama mini-series,True Colours, which was produced for SBS Television and NITV and aired in 2022.[12]