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Still waiting for the call to stardom that never came

By Erin O'Dwyer

10 April 2005 - Three years ago Dannielle Hall's wistful face captured hearts - and the world's attention - in the Australian road movie Beneath Clouds.

Her star rose overnight for her portrayal of Lena, an Aboriginal girl fleeing a small country town. She won the prestigious best new talent award at the Berlin Film Festival. But then, nothing.

She has not acted since, and works four days a week as a bookkeeper in the tiny NSW town of Quirindi.

"I miss acting," she said last week. "It was a lot of fun."

Unlike Lena, she has not fled the bush.

In the months after Beneath Clouds premiered in Berlin, Hall travelled around Australia and overseas promoting the film.

Her name was spoken in the same breath as actors Judy Davis and Rachel Griffiths. But eventually the interest waned.

In a year when a dozen new indigenous talents were unearthed - think Rabbit-Proof Fence and Australian Rules - there was criticism that young Aborigines were being given one-off leading roles without any guidance as to how to pursue their careers.

It is a criticism that has currency for Hall.

Now 21 and expecting her first child next month, Hall said she has hardly been overwhelmed with offers, and has been sent only one script.

The major milestones in her life have been falling in love, and moving from her home town of Wee Waa (population 2000) to her partner's home town of Quirindi (population 3050), where she does the books for the local Aboriginal Corporation.

Yet she is happy with her life and characteristically circumspect about her career. She hopes she may still see her name up in lights.

"I still get on the internet and look at the acting schools and the new movies," she said.

"At first I wanted to go to Sydney but I didn't want to settle in one place. Maybe after the baby . . . that's what I've been thinking."

Hall was drawn from obscurity in 2002 by first-time indigenous director Ivan Sen, who saw her in a video clip made by students at Tamworth TAFE.

Co-star Damian Pitt, also untrained and untested, was signed up after Sen spotted him on a street in Moree.

At the time Sen said he was drawn to Hall's ability to project emotion, and Pitt's raw, relentless spirit. But all three have since faded from view - Pitt is living with his partner and their toddler in Coffs Harbour, and Sen has shunned the spotlight.

Hall remembers her time on set with shining eyes. Her most special memories are of the different people she met and the places she saw, including central NSW towns such as Gunnedah and Rylstone.

Even heavily pregnant and with her work mates watching on, Hall is a natural in front of the camera. It is clear that she misses acting.

But ultimately she is just pleased for the experience, and proud of her contribution to the identity of her people and her country.

Source: The Sun-Herald

related links :

• Great black hope
  June 2002 - Ivan Sen has been hailed as the Great Black Hope of Australian cinema - the indigenous director most likely to follow in the footsteps of Peter Weir, Fred Schepisi and Baz Luhrmann.
• Indigenous filmmakers honoured
  May 21, 2002 - Indigenous stars of film and television have been honoured in a prestigious awards ceremony at the Sydney Opera House.
• Aboriginal Stories Enrich AFI Entries
  18 September, 2002 - An unprecedented four feature films competing in this year’s AFI Awards tell stories centred on Aborigines or Aboriginal themes, including one, Beneath Clouds, written and directed by Aboriginal filmmaker Ivan Sen (pic), enriching and expanding the body of Australian film making.
• Just don't call me an Aboriginal artist
  April 16, 2001 - Meet Tracey Moffatt and you sense it straight away: beneath the chatty, congenial veneer, a manic gleam, a taste for mayhem. Her photographs, which have made her easily the best-known Australian artist in the world toda
  
• Dream time for our film-makers
  January 28, 2001 - Some of Australia's finest film directors are scrambling to make films of Aboriginal stories. And now many predict the ailing local film industry could be in for an Aboriginal-led recovery.
• In black and white
  Certain to collect a few Australian Film Industry (AFI) awards later this year – possibly even best film – The Tracker is a powerful new Australian drama set deep in South Australia, circa 1922.

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