Donna McRae

New reward added on Sunday 23rd May ! another Michael Vale painting !!!!  NOW SOLD OUT !

*** Michael Vale drawings are now sold out ! ***

***Michael Vale painting is now sold out! ***

DAWN is a supernatural thriller about a neurotic spinster who must make amends for a forgotten incident in order to rid herself of a childhood ghost. Now that her mother has died, Dawn lives alone in the family home, surviving on a small inheritance and social services. When a new neighbour moves in her 12 year old daughter plummets Dawn into a world of painful memories. She’s reminded of Harriet, whose death she has never taken responsibility for. As her life spirals out of control, Dawn needs to make amends for something that she did many years ago.

Dawn is the 3rd microbudget feature film written and directed by Donna McRae, after Johnny Ghost (2012) and Lost Gully Road (2017).  This film has a message about aging, and how we all want to be comfortable in our own homes. It will be fun, but chilling, and something that we don't get to see very often. Dawn is a larger than life character, reminiscent of the great psycho-biddy characters from the 1970's. 

This will be the third instalment of the ghost of memory films that Donna has made.  Donna's films are part of Australian Female Gothic, these are genre films made about women by women and from a specific place, both physically and metaphorically: the dark heart of colonisation that lies beneath Australian personal and political everyday life. Filmmakers that work in this area draw these stories from this deep well of uneasiness and anxiety of living in modern Australia.

This crowdfunding campaign is being supported by MATCHLAB, where they will match funds that are being raised. 

We have some exciting rewards - many that are film based. You want to be an extra? Come on down if you are in Melbourne; an Associate Producer? - here's your chance.  If you want to be an Executive Producer, then look no further. There are some neat bonuses to that reward. 

We are also offering an original painting and four drawings from visual artist/production designer Michael Vale. Michael has a close association with Donna and her films, and he has donated some exciting work. So be quick on this one. Michael is represented by James Makin Gallery in Melbourne, Despard Gallery in Hobart, and Martin Browne Contemporary in Sydney. 

It's really exciting to be working towards another film. Making a feature length work isn't easy, so this is why I am reaching out to you to help. By supporting this crowdfunding campaign, you are being a part of a bold new work by a female filmmaker. And I thankyou for considering it.

***Please join the FB page: https://www.facebook.com/dawnfilm ***

Follow me on:

Instagram: donna_mcrae_

Twitter: @donnalmcr

ABOUT ME: 

Donna McRae is undaunted by ‘swimming against the tide’. She works across colour, black & white, long takes and multi-channel video with exceptional fluency. Her particular interrogations of ghosts, 19thC gender roles and post-punk rock‘n’roll offer a surprising and powerful potential. 

Donna first micro-budget feature, Johnny Ghost (2012), won seven awards and two Special Jury Prizes. Her video installations Lamb of God (2012), California (2015), and Flyville (2016) have screened in galleries internationally and she makes collaborative works and music videos with visual artist Michael Vale. 

Her second micro budget supernatural feature Lost Gully Road has worldwide distribution, won Best Feature at three International Film Festivals and is sold to Channel 9. Her feature documentary Cobby: The Other Side of Cute toured the festival circuit and has distribution with LABEL. She is in development with the Acme Film Company on KATE KELLY, a ‘ghost’ western which was selected for Frontiéres co-production market at Fantasia IFF in 2016. She is also working on a five part speculative fiction ghost story called Preservation and a ‘psycho biddy’ ghost story called Dawn. Donna has been nominated for Best Direction in a Feature Film for Lost Gully Road at the Australian Directors Guild awards in 2019. 

Publication highlights include a chapter in Women Make Horror, the award winning edited collection by Alison Pierse, and the forthcoming books The Punk Reader and Spoofing the Vampire, and a chapter in Ecozona with Michael Vale entitled The Cutopia Paradox: Anthropomorphism as Entertainment. 

She lectures at Deakin University.

This crowdfunding campaign will go towards the production of the film - namely wages and some catering. 

It will be a small cast and crew and a small production window, but we need to pay our professionals and feed them !