As I have a young son who with his friends tries to make movies on smart-phones, the finished products ends up looking like something with kids just running and screaming.
So I watched this with him as it tells the story of a young girl Emily Hagins who was always interested in making movies and at the age of 10 writes a zombie film and by the age of 12 starts shooting the film called Pathogen on a minuscule budget but loads of enthusiasm.
I wanted to show him that if a girl around his age could write and direct a film, he also needs to focus and write his ideas down and realise it so he and his friends can make a structured film over time.
Emily has to balance school, the hazards of film making and her generally supportive parents but at times her mother could interfere a little too much.
However the documentary was only intermittently entertaining and the running time was too long. I also wondered when the documentary was actually filmed as the shooting of Pathogen took place over many months because Emily had to breaks for school work took priority as well as other reasons for delays.
If you end up thinking that parts of the footage has been enacted for the documentary then it is not a good sign or either that, when Emily was writing and making Pathogen then there was a documentary crew in tow at the same time.
It was nice to hear from the likes of Harry Knowles. It was good to see how determined Emily is and that she did finish Pathogen, won a grant for that film, show it as film festivals and she has gone on to make other films.
The documentary though did not grab me unfortunately.
So I watched this with him as it tells the story of a young girl Emily Hagins who was always interested in making movies and at the age of 10 writes a zombie film and by the age of 12 starts shooting the film called Pathogen on a minuscule budget but loads of enthusiasm.
I wanted to show him that if a girl around his age could write and direct a film, he also needs to focus and write his ideas down and realise it so he and his friends can make a structured film over time.
Emily has to balance school, the hazards of film making and her generally supportive parents but at times her mother could interfere a little too much.
However the documentary was only intermittently entertaining and the running time was too long. I also wondered when the documentary was actually filmed as the shooting of Pathogen took place over many months because Emily had to breaks for school work took priority as well as other reasons for delays.
If you end up thinking that parts of the footage has been enacted for the documentary then it is not a good sign or either that, when Emily was writing and making Pathogen then there was a documentary crew in tow at the same time.
It was nice to hear from the likes of Harry Knowles. It was good to see how determined Emily is and that she did finish Pathogen, won a grant for that film, show it as film festivals and she has gone on to make other films.
The documentary though did not grab me unfortunately.