Graduate Diploma Documentary, 2013; Graduate Diploma Screenwriting, 2012
Larissa Behrendt is a writer-director and author with a passion for telling the stories of Indigenous Australia. She has a legal background, is an experienced researcher and is involved with several arts organisations and educational programs. She is also the host of Speaking Out on the ABC National Radio network.
Her short film Under Skin, In Blood screened at the Sydney Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival in 2015. Another short, Clan, won Best Documentary at the Canberra Short Film Festival and the Shorts Film Festival in Adelaide the same year.
Larissa wrote and directed the Walkley-nominated documentary Innocence Betrayed, which aired on NITV in 2014, and won the Australian Directors Guild Award for her documentary After the Apology, which premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in 2017. Her 2018 short film Barbara was nominated for AACTA and Dendy Awards, while her documentary Maralinga Tjarutja screened on the ABC in 2020.
Larissa directed the powerful documentary Araatika: Rise Up! which screened at Sydney Film Festival in 2021 and on NITV and SBS. In the same year she co-produced In My Blood It Runs which screened on ABC TV.
Larissa is Distinguished Professor at the University of Technology Sydney and at the Director of Research and Academic Programs Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research.
AFTRS HIGHLIGHT
I can look back now and see that it was the people I went through AFTRS with that were the highlight.
CAREER HIGHLIGHT
Winning the ADG award for best direction in a feature documentary for After the Apology—but also building a career telling stories that I feel it’s important for Australia to hear.