Librarians are Weird

Zombie Girl: The Movie poster

Emily Hagins is a twelve-year old girl (thirteen by the end of the film).  Emily Hagins is also making a feature length zombie movie.  Zombie Girl: The Movie (2009) (available free to stream from SnagFilms until Thursday, August 20, 2009) is a documentary about the making of that movie that was shown at Comic-Con this year.  Emily reminds me a lot of myself and how I would have been if I had the opportunity to make a movie earlier in my life.

Videographer Emily Hagins

In an industry that still is male-centric behind the lens, Emily makes me proud as a feminist and a videographer.  Here is this little girl that starts out with a dream and she makes it happen.  She is having the opportunity to make her own zombie movie and she makes mistakes, but she also works hard and doesn’t give up.  I am passionate about videography and the power it has as a medium for the people.  This is exactly the kind of movie that I think anyone, kid or adult, that wants to make a movie would benefit from watching, but specifically anyone that wants to build a collection for a media literacy program centered around videography.

Emily shows her mom footage

The documentary is about much more than a zombie movie (Pathogen, 2006).  It is about that passion we all hope to have.  It is about a girl with a vision and parents that support her every step of the way, but it isn’t all sunshine and roses.  As with any movie, especially a super-low budget indie, there are problems — including long nights, an overworked mom, re-shoots, and lame-o people that actually turn down the chance to be in a zombie movie.  The documentary is also framed by interviews with not only the people involved in the video, but also people that can put into context the significance of the availability of videography to the masses.

Emily Hagins frustrated with editing "Pathogen"

The great thing about this film, in terms of adding it to your collection to promote media literacy, is that it does go through the good and the bad. Making a movie sounds fun, and it is, but it also is a lot of hard work (especially for the independent videographer that also has other responsibilities and limitations). The beginning of the film is about how Emily got started and what she has done. As the movie progresses we see the successes and fun as well as the very real stresses for anyone setting out to make a movie.

And as I know, you are all dying to see what Emily came up with.  Here is the trailer to Pathogen, which is available from www.cheesynuggets.com/pathogen.html for purchase for $8.00 plus shipping and handling.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get my copy!

One of the stars of "Pathogen"