Bachelor of Arts (Film & Television) Producing; 1991
Director and producer Unjoo Moon started off as a journalist at the ABC before studying at AFTRS. Together with classmate Dion Beebe, Unjoo founded production company Deep Blue Pacific upon graduation and moved to Los Angeles, where she attended the American Film Institute (AFI).
Her feature documentary The Zen of Bennett, a portrait of the singer Tony Bennett, was released in 2012, while her 2017 PSA video on gun violence, The Wrong Side of History, has been viewed over 50 million times on social platforms.
Unjoo’s first feature film as both producer and director, I Am Woman, was inspired by the life of Helen Reddy and had its world premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.
She currently sits on the AFI Conservatory Alumni Council and is a board member of Australians in Film. She was recently awarded the inaugural Athena Breakthrough Award, sponsored by Netflix.
AFTRS HIGHLIGHT
Meeting my creative and life partner Dion Beebe in my first year at AFTRS. And when my film hero Peter Weir came to teach for a week. After he watched and discussed my second-year film with directing lecturer Brian Hannant, Brian encouraged me to keep directing and included me in all future directing workshops even though I was a producing student. The head of producing Gilda Biracchi was a fantastic mentor and always encouraged me to look at the global industry as a filmmaker. She was a graduate of the American Film Institute Producing program and I ended up doing AFI’s Masters in Directing program and winning the Franklin J Schaffner Directing Award. We were so lucky to have such incredible teachers!
CAREER HIGHLIGHT
I’m so glad I got to tell the inspiring story of Helen Reddy and show it to her. She got to hear how much audiences all around the world loved and embraced the film before she passed away.