Acclaimed Australian painter spotlights art of human rights

MELBOURNE -- Angus McDonald is a Sydney-based artist and filmmaker who has been painting professionally for over 30 years. This year, his portrait of Marcia Langton AO (Order of Australia), an Aboriginal writer and academic, marked the seventh time he featured as a finalist in Australia's most prestigious portrait competition, the Archibald Prize. But this year, McDonald was also the subject of another Archibald contender -- a portrait by his friend, the Kurdish Iranian artist Mostafa Azimitabar.

There was a neat synchronicity to these midyear developments, since Azimitabar was one of the subjects of "Freedom Is Beautiful," the first feature documentary produced and directed by McDonald, which was released in 2022 and is now streaming on Australian screens.