Goddamn Brownies

The AFI Dallas film festival is already underway. Tomorrow I go to pick up my press pass and I'm going to make it to a couple of films over the next week. The one I'm most excited about is definitely Grace, which I'll be catching tomorrow at midnight. Aside from going to the theater to check out the flicks, I have a couple of screeners to watch before interviewing the filmmakers behind them. Tonight I watched the first of the two, a documentary called Zombie Girl The Movie.

This doc follows a, then, twelve year old girl named Emily Hagins around as she makes her first feature length film, a zombie effort called Pathogen. I met Emily and her mother, Megan, at Fantastic Fest a couple of years ago and they are really cool people.

After watching this I cannot help but feel like I waste my time. This girl was juggling school and making a feature, practically by herself. At that age I remember just wanting to play video games, skateboard and goof around. Once people find something they really like to do they wish they would have started sooner, I know I do. If I would have gone straight into the film production world directly from high school, or even college, I cannot imagine where I would be in the industry. That does not mean I would really be in LA or NYC as a big shot, but I would be much further along in the field. Luckily, Emily will not have this problem.

I highly recommend you try to find time to catch Zombie Girl The Movie either tomorrow night, or Saturday night in Dallas. For other screenings check out zombiegirlthemovie.com,and Emily's site, Cheesy Nuggets, has all the info on Pathogen and her new film The Retelling.