Tea Topics: ‘Those Dashing McDonagh Sisters’ with Mandy Sayer

Join award-winning novelist and narrative non-fiction writer Mandy Sayer as she shares her insights from her entertaining and inspiring biography of three sisters who transformed Australian cinema.

The trailblazing McDonagh sisters were the first women in Australia to form their own film production company. Between 1926 and 1933, while they were in their mid-twenties, these sassy sisters produced four feature films and a number of documentaries. The youngest, Paulette, was at the time one of only five women film directors in the world.

Together, the sisters transformed Australian cinema’s preoccupations with the outback and the bush – and what they mocked as ‘haystack movies’ – into a thrilling, urban modernity. Their personal lives were just as adventurous, and their suitors included an internationally famous magician, a wealthy rubber broker, a defrocked Anglican priest, and a number of silent film stars.