Ian Darling

Biography

Darling’s first documentary in 2001 Woodstock for Capitalists was a film featuring investors and philanthropists Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger and won the CINE Golden Eagle Award. His next film in 2004 Alone Across Australia about extreme adventurer Jon Muir was voted one of the 20 best adventure films of all time by Men’s Journal Magazine and won over 32 international awards. In The Company of Actors was a 2007 film that followed the Journey of the Sydney Theatre Company cast of Hedda Gabler from rehearsal room in Sydney through to opening night in New York. The cast featured Cate Blanchett, Hugo Weaving and Robyn Nevin. The Oasis was a multi-award winning documentary that was filmed over 2 years about Australia’s homeless youth. The film had a strong social and education outreach campaign which led to the most significant national inquiry into youth homelessness in 20 years. The Oasis was named one of ‘Australia’s Top 50 Philanthropic Gifts of All Time.’ The Oasis became the inspiration to Darling filming two docu-dramas Polly and Me (a harrowing tale of child abuse and neglect, seen through the eyes of an 8-year-old girl), and Wall Boy (a runaway forced into teenage prostitution and the courageous outreach worker who attempts to rescue him). The Soldier was a documentary on Ken Depena, a devotee of the Salvation Army since 1949 who featured in The Oasis, the film garnered a 'Special Mention' at the Antenna Documentary Film Festival. Paul Kelly - Stories of Me based on prominent Australian singer songwriter Paul Kelly opened at the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2012 and won the Film Critics Circle of Australia Best Documentary Award. Stories From the Inside looked into a group of young first time offenders in Port Philip Prison. Suzy & The Simple Man an environmental love story featuring Suzy and Jon Muir, discusses sustainability and survival in a remote country community. The film premiered in 2016 at the Sydney Film Festival and had sold out screenings at Melbourne International Film Festival.

Darling is the founder and patron of the Documentary Australia Foundation (DAF), a not for profit organisation which encourages collaboration between philanthropic grant makers, charities and documentary filmmakers and winner of the Stanley Hawes Award in 2013. He was Chair of the Documentary Australia Foundation from 2006 to 2011. Ian Darling is Chair of Good Pitch² Australia, a not-for-profit event hosted in Australia by Shark Island Institute and Documentary Australia. The three Good Pitch events raised more than $14 million in philanthropic grants for the funding of 19 social impact documentaries and their impact campaigns. Ian Darling is Chair of The Caledonia Foundation (since 2001), a private foundation focusing on the education, training and welfare of disadvantaged young Australians. He was the founder and Managing Director of the Caledonia Investments group from 1992 to 2003. He is Patron of the Kangaroo Valley Upper River Hall ArtsLab , a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Social Impact, a member of Impact Partners New York, Ambassador of Antenna Documentary Film Festival and Patron of Human Rights Arts Film Festival (HRAFF). Ian Darling was Chair of the Sydney Theatre Company (STC) and STC Foundation from 2006-2010. He appointed Cate Blanchett and Andrew Upton as Co-Artistic Directors in 2008 and after leaving STC as Chairman, his position was replaced by David Gonski. He has been a member of the Advisory Board of The Salvation Army and Chair of The Oasis Youth Support Network, and a Director of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).

Ian Darling holds an MBA from the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland, a BA from the Australian National University and has studied at the New York Film Academy.

Filmography

Awards

Recipient of Australia's Leading Philanthropist Award from Philanthropy Australia in 2017. Recipient of the AbaF Business Arts Leadership Award in 2008, and one of the AFR Magazine Influential Australians 2008. His photographs have been finalists in the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, the National Photographic Portrait Prize, the Sydney Life Photography Prize and his portrait of Jon Muir is represented in the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.

Good Pitch Australia

Shark Island Institute and Documentary Australia Foundation host Good Pitch² Australia, and brought the first of these events to Sydney in October 2014. The 2015 event was held in September and the last in a trilogy of events was held at the Sydney Opera House in November 2016. The community partners for the event are Philanthropy Australia and Pro Bono Australia. Since 2014, more than $14 million has been raised in philanthropic grants for the funding of 19 social impact documentaries and their impact campaigns, forging priceless pro bono support and 300+ powerful strategic partnerships between community groups, the corporate sector, NGOs and policy makers. Supported documentaries include: That Sugar Film, Frackman, Gayby Baby, Zach’s Ceremony. Good Pitch is a BRITDOC project in partnership with Ford Foundation and the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program.