What I Think About Movies I've Seen

Emily Hagins wrote, directed, shot, and edited a feature-length movie named Pathogen, in which an infection spread through the water turned people into zombies. I saw Pathogen a few years ago at the first annual Dismember the Alamo zombie film festival, and although it's far from a masterpiece, I've also seen zombie movies that are a lot worse. However, there is one thing that distinguishes Emily from other film makers: at the time she completed Pathogen, she was twelve years old (and was younger than that when she started writing it).

Zombie Girl: The Movie is a documentary that follows Emily and her family over the course of auditioning, shooting, and editing Pathogen. Emily was definitely the driving force behind the movie, but her family was very supportive of her throughout the process. Her father played a role in the movie, and her mother helped with make-up and props, and also served as chauffeur for Emily and many of the actors who were of the same age. It's a very interesting documentary because it covers not only the work that goes into creating a movie, but also the mistakes and uncertainty of a first-time film maker and the reality of being a 12-year-old clashing with her parents from time to time. Emily lives in Austin, and in the course of covering the making of Pathogen, Zombie Girl included interviews with various familiar faces in Austin's movie scene, including Harry Knowles (founder of Ain't It Cool News), Tim League (founder of the Alamo Drafthouse), and C. Robert Cargill (a local critic), among others.

Emily (now 17) went to the screening that I attended, along with one of the Zombie Girl directors Erik Mauck. They introduced the movie and answered questions afterwards. After completing Pathogen, Emily also wrote and directed The Retelling and is currently working on a third movie. Erik has since written, directed, and edited a movie called Straight to the Bone (which I saw at this year's Austin Film Festival), and is now working on another documentary.