Trump v the swamp Mike Baird Ninja Warriors Leaks flood the White House Why I quit politics TV’s hit machine brothers OCTOBER 2017 POWER 2017 Who’s got it, who’s lost it, and who’s behind the scenes 8 LEAH PURCELL Actor, playwright, director Because: She allows white audiences to see from an Aboriginal perspective. Her radical adaptation of Henry Lawson’s The Drover’s Wife broke new ground for Australian theatre. Among its string of awards was the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for best drama, whose judges described it as “a declaration of war on Australia’s wilful historical amnesia”. Purcell, a Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Murri woman, uses the full arsenal of drama to tell new stories. In 2016 she co-directed Cleverman, which screened on ABC TV and meshed Aboriginal dreamtime stories into contemporary sci-fi genre. She also co-directed The Secret Daughter, which screened on Seven Network last year and has now been signed for a second series. Starring Jessica Mauboy, it marks the first time a commercial network has put an Indigenous Australian as the lead in a drama series. Season one was the second-highest rating drama for the year. What the panel says: She’s an Indigenous woman with a very political view. The Drover’s Wife was an incredible achievement and will make for a brilliant film. She also has two mainstream TV series on air and she’s winning every single award. – Graeme Mason The Drover’s Wife told the story in a completely different way to which it has been told before. – Gabrielle Trainor She is a true penetrator and a true outlier. – Rachel Griffiths And don’t forget she’s also an actor with her perfromance in Redfern Now second to none. – Graeme Mason OCTOBER | THE AFR MAGAZINE 57 THE PANELLISTS Rachel Griffiths Graeme Mason Ann Mossop Russel Howcroft Louise Adler Lisa Havilah Gabrielle Trainor Academy Award- Chief executive officer of Head of strategic events at Chief creative officer at Chief executive of Director of Carriageworks, Chairman of the National nominated and multi-award Screen Australia. University of NSW. PwC; panellist of Gruen Melbourne University Sydney. Film and Sound Archive winning actor. on ABC1. Publishing; president of and the Barangaroo the Australian Publishers Arts and Culture panel; Association. AFL commissioner. 8 LEAH PURCELL Actor, playwright, director Because: She allows white audiences to see from an Aboriginal perspective. Her radical adaptation of Henry Lawson’s The Drover’s Wife broke new ground for Australian theatre. Among its string of awards was the NSW Premier’s Literary Award for best drama, whose judges described it as “a declaration of war on Australia’s wilful historical C L U A amnesia”. Purcell, a Goa-Gunggari-Wakka Wakka Murri woman, uses the full arsenal of drama to tell U T R L new stories. In 2016 she co-directed Cleverman, which screened on ABC TV and meshed Aboriginal dreamtime stories into contemporary sci-fi genre. Story l MATTHEW DRUMMOND Group portrait l PETER BRAIG She also co-directed The Secret Daughter, which screened on Seven Network last year and has now been signed for a second series. Starring Jessica Mauboy, it marks the first time a commercial network has put an Indigenous Australian as the 1 CARL AND MARK FENNESSY 2 AFL WOMEN’S 3 THE MURDOCHS 4 WALEED ALY lead in a drama series. Season one was the 5 RACKA RACKA 6 NICOLE KIDMAN 7 MEGAN DAVIS AND THE REFERENDUM COUNCIL second-highest rating drama for the year. 8 LEAH PURCELL 9 REBEL WILSON 10 LEIGH CARMICHAEL What the panel says: She’s an Indigenous woman with a very political view. The Drover’s Wife was an incredible achievement and will make for a brilliant film. She also has two mainstream TV series on air and she’s winning every single award. ”Is there anyone missing?” the chairman addresses the inaugural cultural power panel. (For the past 16 years, just – Graeme Mason table, gesturing to a screen on stage that lists the nominations one panel has decided overt, covert and cultural power. But The Drover’s Wife told the story in a completely for the Australians who wield the most cultural power. The who, these days, has time to be across all three?) Lunch is actor in the group fires her opening shot. about to be served in the theatre-cum-private dining room at different way to which it has been told before. “Rupert absolutely has to be on this list, and to ignore him Sydney’s Restaurant Hubert and seated around the table is an – Gabrielle Trainor is a naivety or wilful aspirationalism,” says Rachel Griffiths. advertising man, a publisher, an AFL commissioner, the chief She is a true penetrator and a true outlier. “And Lachlan, particularly with the influence of radio in of a visual and performing arts venue, a film and TV executive, – Rachel Griffiths shaping cultural discussion, I think cannot be ignored.” It’s an academic and an actor. The amuse-bouche to start: a And don’t forget she’s also an actor with her the start of The Australian Financial Review Magazine’s forthright discussion about the means of (cultural) production. perfromance in Redfern Now second to none. – Graeme Mason OCTOBER | THE AFR MAGAZINE 51 OCTOBER | THE AFR MAGAZINE 57 CULTURAL POWER CULTURAL POWER The Murdoch family has been a fixture on the than anyone in Australia (with the possible exception of If Rebel’s star keeps rising, she’ll one day join Nicole AFR Magazine’s power lists, bouncing back and forth between vlogger/singer/songwriter Troye Sivan). Racka Racka are an Kidman, who’s firmly entrenched herself in Hollywood’s 1 overt and covert power depending on the year in question. In acquired taste; to get the drift imagine putting sci-fi films and inner sanctum. In May she had four projects shown over four CARL AND MARK FENNESSY recent years they’ve vanished, more by force of sheer repetition computer games into a blender and turn it up to Quentin days at Cannes and she’s on every other magazine cover. But CEOs of Endomol Shine Australia than conscious design. But our panellists, who all draw their Tarantino levels of gratuitous violence – while leaving the lid it’s what she’s doing behind the scenes that caused the panel livelihoods from drawing eyeballs, agree that the facts cannot off. When George Miller of Mad Max fame spent time with to put her on the cultural power list: optioning books for film be ignored: with interests in newspapers and news sites, cable them at a recent symposium organised by Screen Australia and TV series to be made by her production company Because: Australians watch the first Asian-born actor moved TV, radio, book publishing and film and TV production, the and Google, he surmised that Racka Racka isn’t the future of Blossom Films, retaining Australian writers, supporting an average of three hours of into Neighbours’ Ramsay Street. Murdochs wield serious cultural clout. “They touch just about the entertainment industry, it’s the now. edgier filmmakers and creating the roles for women that she free-to-air TV a week, and What the panel says: Mark everything you can imagine across the entire cultural wished had existed at the start of her own career. “I feel like there’s a good chance that and Carl are creating what landscape,” says Screen Australia chief Graeme Mason. Facts I’m in a position now where I have a little bit of power; I what they’re seeing comes from people watch on television at are facts. Despite what you read on Facebook. would like to throw it behind people that need it,” she told Endemol Shine Australia. This the moment across genres. Cultural power, for the purpose of the AFR Magazine’s The New York Times. year the Fennessys will have They had two of the biggest power issue, is the ability to define what it means to be By the time lunch is served at Restaurant Hubert (crudités, 15 shows broadcast across shows up against each other Australian. But social media info bubbles make it harder for chicken fricassee, pinot noir) and panellists are reaching for Seven, Nine, Ten and SBS, with Ninja Warrior on Nine and cultural icons to cut through and across. “You just get deeper food metaphors, the conversation has shifted from the people straddling genres from comedy MasterChef on Ten. They’ve got and deeper into your stuff and as a result there’s no peripheral who make the content that Australians consume daily, to the and drama (Offspring, Blue Offspring and then they’ve got vision around what else might be going on,” says Gruen outliers who develop our palate. “Every now and then Murder, Wake in Fright) through Survivor replacing MasterChef. regular Russel Howcroft. someone makes us eat something new and that changes the to observational (Gogglebox) – Graeme Mason Which is why the panel leapt upon the moments that made diet moving forward,” says Griffiths. and reality (Survivor, Married MasterChef has done a huge us all look up and stare. Australian Ninja Warrior drew in an One of those people in 2017 is Leah Purcell. When Purcell at First Sight). Australian Ninja amount to change who we see average of 2.5 million viewers across the three weeks it was a little girl, her mother would read her Henry Lawson’s Warrior took four years of on television, normalising that screened on Nine Network. The TV show’s format might be The Drover’s Wife, the legendary tale of bush stoicism.