{"id":2166,"date":"2018-10-13T10:53:45","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T21:53:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/?p=2166"},"modified":"2018-10-13T10:53:45","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T21:53:45","slug":"short-film-fulfils-a-life-long-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/2018\/10\/13\/short-film-fulfils-a-life-long-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Short film fulfils a life-long dream"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lydia Peckham as Andy, in short film Virgo.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cNever underestimate your ability to live your passion,\u201d says Massey University media studies graduate Adelaide McDougall, who has just written and directed her first short film, Virgo.<\/p>\n

Narrating a day in the life of a young architect, Andy, who is striving to forge her path through a male-dominated world, Virgo highlights the gendered micro-aggressions Andy receives in the workplace.<\/p>\n

The film shows how these constant slights, while seemingly small, pile up until they derail Andy\u2019s ability to do her job. In the film, Andy gets her revenge – but it is the real-world nature of the subtle antagonisms leading up to that point that McDougall wants to highlight. They reflect her own experiences, and those of many of her friends and colleagues who contributed anecdotes to the scriptwriting process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really lucky with the experiences I\u2019ve had, and I\u2019ve met some truly wonderful people who have supported me non-stop along my film industry journey,\u201d McDougall says.\u00a0\u201cHowever, what fascinated me was the small moments – the off-hand comments or jokes, made by both men and women – that support gender inequality, sexism and ageism that are still prevalent in many industries.\u201d<\/p>\n

“…what fascinated me was the small moments – the off-hand comments or jokes, made by both men and women – that support gender inequality”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

McDougall was inspired to start gathering stories from friends, co-workers and family. \u201cI found that absolutely everyone, male or female, has a story to tell where they have felt under-valued or side-lined by a passing comment, while the person delivering it isn\u2019t even aware that they are speaking in such a way.\u201d\u00a0Her dream is that this film will shed light on \u201cthe seemingly insignificant moments, the inappropriate joke that left you feeling small, all the moments we brush off\u201d so as to \u201cfacilitate people to make little changes in each day of their lives that will lend to a bigger cultural change in our society\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Adelaide McDougall.<\/p><\/div>\n

Making a socially significant film has been a life-long dream for McDougall. \u201cI\u2019ve always believed that my path is to help people \u2013 to help them see life through a different lens. For me, my medium for this passion is film. A tool that I believe is very powerful in facilitating this.\u201d<\/p>\n

After university she worked largely in producing for commercials and television in New York and New Zealand, but never lost sight of the goal of making her own work. She started writing the script while still living in New York, and saved $4,000 of personal funds to create Virgo\u2019s budget. She also asked for, and received, a lot of support from film industry contacts and collaborators. \u201cI am honestly awestruck by the generosity and support that I have received from all kinds of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDougall graduated from Massey in 2013 with a Bachelor of Communication majoring in media studies. She then worked in New York City at a film production company, and after returning to New Zealand had art department and production roles with Paramount Pictures\u2019 Ghost in the Shell, television production company Robber\u2019s Dog, and on Westside (Season Four) with South Pacific Pictures. On the side, she also produced a wide range of music videos, including for David Dallas, Die! Die! Die!, Suntory Time, and Evan Klar for EMI Australia.<\/p>\n

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Lydia Peckham as Andy in Virgo.<\/p><\/div>\n

Virgo was McDougall\u2019s final project in New Zealand, as she has now relocated to Vancouver, Canada and is currently working on a film as a Director\u2019s and Producer’s assistant. She will continue to write scripts and make her own films with her new connections there. McDougall will also feature as a panellist on the Massey University youth creative activism conference, Create1World<\/a>, beaming in from Vancouver to share her creative activism experiences with Kiwi young people at the Wellington event.<\/p>\n

Virgo was written and directed by Adelaide McDougall, produced by Greta Cervin, with Tammy Williams as DOP. It stars Lydia Peckham, James Gordon and Tania Anderson. If you want to find out just how Andy got her revenge, check out Virgo at https:\/\/vimeo.com\/277757273<\/a>. Adelaide is happy to answer any questions via direct mail to her Instagram @adelaidehelena.\u00a0 You can also see a great interview with her at The Twenties Club\u00a0http:\/\/thetwentiesclub.co.nz\/portfolio\/an-interview-with-26-year-old-filmmaker-adelaide-mcdougall\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cNever underestimate your ability to live your passion,\u201d says Massey University media studies graduate Adelaide McDougall, who has just written and directed her first short film, Virgo. Narrating a day in the life of a young architect, Andy, who is striving to forge her path through a male-dominated world, Virgo highlights the gendered micro-aggressions Andy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1,91,100],"tags":[186,85,25,72,189,103,188,117],"class_list":["post-2166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dmp","category-expressive-arts-subject","category-media-subject","category-news","tag-create1world","tag-creative-activism","tag-creative-writing-2","tag-digital-media-production","tag-directing","tag-film","tag-graduate","tag-media-studies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2166"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2183,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2166\/revisions\/2183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}