Maya Newell is an Australian filmmaker, known for the feature-lengthdocumentariesGayby Baby (2015) andIn My Blood It Runs (2019). She works atCloser Productions inAdelaide,South Australia.^[1]

Newell had intended to studyinternational relations or medicine, but at the age of 17 won ascholarship to attendSydney Film School for a year.^[2]

Newell made several documentaryshort films before her feature-length films.^[1] While still a student at the film school, she made a documentary calledRichard (2007), about a passionatetoymaker with whom she made friends while filming. After he killed himself during the making of the film, she wrestled with the ethics of completing the film, but decided ultimately that it was a way of helping to invokeempathy.^[2]

Gayby Baby observes the lives of four children whose parents arehomosexual, examining the ways in which the sexual identity of their parents may have affected them.^[3] The impetus for the film was her own experience of growing up with twolesbian mothers, and she felt it was important to represent the child's perspective of being raised in such a family. During the making of the film, there was a public debate aboutmarriage equality in Australia (which ultimately led to a successful plebiscite on the matter^[4]).^[2] The film was later shown onfree-to-air national broadcasterSBS TV as well asFoxtel.^[5]

Newell and co-producer Charlotte Mars founded their own production company during the making ofGayby Baby, called Marla House, self-described as "a production house that revels in telling stories that are transporting, nuanced and a little bit subversive".^[6]

In My Blood It Runs, directed by Newell and produced by her,Sophie Hyde, Rachel Nanninaaq Edwardson, andLarissa Behrendt, was made in collaboration withArrernte andGarrwa people in theNorthern Territory. It had itsworld premiere at theHot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival inToronto in April/May 2019. The film follows the story of 10-year-old Dujuan Hoosan, a healer and hunter, as his family tries to give him an Arrernte education alongside the western education system.^[7] Dujuan gets into trouble and was almost imprisoned once, and the film highlights theAge of criminal responsibility in Australia, which is (as of 2021^[update]) 10 years old. As a twelve-year-old, the boy was the youngest person ever to make a speech to the UNHuman Rights Council about youth incarceration.^[8][9]

In My Blood It Runs premiered atHot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival,^[1] where it was nominated in the "Best International Documentary" category in 2019. Other award nominations includedAACTA Awards,Durban International Film Festival Best Documentary,Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, the Documentary Foundation Australia Award at theSydney Film Festival and Best Documentary Feature atWarsaw International Film Festival.The film was screened onABC TV on 5 July 5.^[2] In 2021, the film was made available for showing in schools in theUK.^[10]

In 2022, Newell debuted her long-awaited documentary short about transgender advocateGeorgie Stone, titledThe Dreamlife of Georgie Stone, atTribeca Film Festival.^[11]

• Cao, Claire."In My Blood It Runs: An Interview with Maya Newell".Melbourne International Film Festival.
• "Doco of the month: In My Blood It Runs - PBA".Pro Bono Australia. 15 May 2020.
• "Interview: Maya Newell, Director of 'In My Blood it Runs'".Reconciliation SA. 27 February 2020.

• Maya Newell atIMDb
• "About – In My Blood It Runs".In My Blood It Runs. 22 October 2020.

• Australian film producers
• Film directors from Sydney
• Australian women film directors
• Australian women film producers
• Living people

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