Documentary filmmaker and former South Australian Film Corporation (SAFC) board member Gabrielle Kelly has died after a battle with cancer. She had just turned 71.
Kelly was a founding board member of Screen Australia predecessor Film Finance Corporation Australia and chaired the first Australian International Documentary Conference, while also serving on the board of the SAFC from 2006-11.
In a post on its website, the SAFC said it was “deeply saddened” to hear of Kelly’s passing, with chair Mike Rann describing her as an “accomplished documentary filmmaker who spent her life campaigning for the environment, for climate action and for social justice here and overseas”.
“Gabe infused all her work with passion and humanity,” he said.
“She was tireless in pursuing ideas that work to improve people’s lives and the health of our planet. Everyone who met Gabrielle, or worked with her, felt better about the world and its possibilities.
“She played a major role in making the Adelaide Thinkers in Residence program such a success. We will all miss her talent, her drive and her positive energy.”
After starting her career as a high school teacher, Kelly began writing and presenting national children’s television in the late 1970s before becoming involved in the documentary sector, producing and directing Prophets and Loss in 1989 and Greenbucks in 1993, both centred on climate change.
Outside the screen industry, Kelly was a director of the Adelaide Thinkers in Residence program and founded the SAHMRI Wellbeing and Resilience Centre.
She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2022, telling IF at the time that her work had always been “fuelled by a sense of purpose”.
“I work to build a better world and I think that the film and internet industry have a role to play, so I have often had roles that build and strengthen those industries,” she said.
“I think practitioners in the creative industries and all industry innovators generally have to be part of the financing structures and must help the industry they are in, to advance and modernise.
“I have always done that as a board member, or chair or committee member on top of my day-to-day work, in SA and nationally. Industry structures need new blood and new ideas, which I have always contributed.”
Kelly is survived by her daughters Jordan and Rowan, stepson Lewis, stepdaughter Eliza, and five grandchildren.