Melanie Hogan

Melanie Hogan (born 8 July 1977) is an award winning film director and producer, known for her works in Australian documentary cinema. Hogan became first known with her directorial debut Kanyini which premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in 2006. The film came out of Hogan’s personal realization that she had not learnt anything about the history of her country, Australia, from an Aboriginal perspective despite studying in Australian Institutions right through to tertiary level. She also lamented the fact that she did not know anything about the world's oldest living culture.

Since 2004 Melanie has made groundbreaking documentaries in remote Aboriginal communities exposing often challenging stories at the highest level.

Her first documentary Kanyini (2006) was distributed in cinemas in Australia by Hopscotch Films. It won the 2006 Discovery Channel Inside Film Best Documentary Award, the Independent Spirit Inside Film Award and the Best Documentary Award at the London Australian Film Festival (2007).

Melanie's other documentary films Yajilarra (2008) and Tristan (2011) both premiered at the United Nations in New York and at Government House with Australia's Governor General, Quentin Bryce as host. Yajilarra received a standing ovation at the UN and stimulated much discussion.

In 2009-2012 Melanie directed, produced, wrote and edited an online project for the Australian Federal Government called the Stolen Generations Testimonies. The site's purpose is to assist the nation to heal from one of its most horrendous chapters. Further testimonies will be recorded in 2014/15.

Melanie is currently working on another documentary set in the remote communities of the Kimberley and writing her first feature film.

Kanyini

Kanyini is her attempt to connect fellow Australians with the story of Australia’s past and present from an Anangu perspective in the hope Australia can move forward in proper friendship with Australia’s Indigenous peoples. The film’s title is ‘Kanyini: 40,000 years of culture, one philosophy that connects us all.’

Kanyini tells the story of one Aboriginal man from Pitjantjatjara country called Bob Randall and the separation he experienced from his country, his family, his traditional lore and his spirituality since he was a young child, as a result of Europeans imposing their superior sense of self and their will on the Indigenous people of Australia. It is therefore also a story of Indigenous wisdom clashing against materialist notions of progress. Despite the fact his people are struggling in a modern world, Bob hopes non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians can walk together going forward, even though they have not done so in the past. As Bob explains, "The Earth is our Mother. That makes you and me brother and sister."

Kanyini is a story that is fundamental for understanding contemporary Australia, for only by knowing our past and our present can we dream of a future that includes everyone. Kanyini won the Independent Spirit Award as well as the National Geographic Best Documentary Award at the Australian Inside Film Awards the year the film was released.

After Kanyini was released, Hogan went on to develop an education program called Yarnup around Australia, which attempted to connect Australian high school students with their local Indigenous elders.

Yajilarra

Still committed to connecting with Indigenous Australians, Hogan then directed her next documentary in the Kimberley in 2008 with the inspirational and courageous women of Fitzroy Crossing. The film’s title was devised by the local women themselves: ‘Yajilarra’ which means ‘to dream’ in the Bunuba language.

The project came about because the federal sex discrimination officer at the time, Elizabeth Broderick, had heard about what the local women had done to reduce the devastating effects of excessive alcohol consumption in their Fitzroy Valley communities and she wanted their heroic story to be told to the world. She contacted Hogan to direct the film.

Essentially the women of the community came together, led by June Oscar AO and Emily Carter, and led a campaign to place a ban on the sale of full strength alcohol in their community. The ban, which was not without controversy, resulted in a 43% reduction in domestic violence reports, a 55% reduction in alcohol related hospital presentations, an increase in school attendance levels and an 88% reduction in the amount of alcohol purchased. The film premiered at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York in 2009 where it received a standing ovation.

Tristan

In 2011 the women asked Hogan to return to the community to make another film about the children who had fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) as a result of women drinking excessively during pregnancy. The film was made to educate the wider community about the dangers of drinking during pregnancy as well as to educate the world about the support such children need in order to live fulfilling lives given their disability. The film’s title ‘Tristan’ brings to life the struggles of a 12-year-old boy living with FASD. It also highlights the efforts by the members of the Fitzroy Valley community to deal with the disease. The film premiered at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in 2012.

Hogan launched another project in 2011: an Online Museum devoted to capturing the testimonies of Australia's Stolen Generations. The museum was launched at Parliament House to commemorate the 4th anniversary of the Apology to the Stolen Generations. Hogan had been capturing testimonies since 2009 inspired by Spielberg's Shoah Foundation. By 2012, 46 testimonies had been collected from around Australia.

Melanie is the CEO of the Hogan Family Foundation. The current focus of the Hogan Family Foundation is the alleviation of domestic violence within Australia, given it is at national crisis levels as well as continuing to support Primary Ethics.