Melanie Rodriga
Encyclopedia
Melanie Rodriga (born 30 September 1954) is a Perth-based New Zealand
-Australian film maker, lecturer
and self-identified radical lesbian feminist.
, Malaysia, Rodriga was the third child of Daphne Mary (Billie) and Albert Thomas (Bertram) Read. Her father was a pianist arranger of the British Dance Band Era, playing with Bert Ambrose and Henry Hall (bandleader)
, among others. The family moved from Malaysia to Sydney
in 1961, and lived in the eastern suburb of Vaucluse
. Rodriga graduated from Kambala CofE Foundation School for Girls in 1972. She then traveled to England where she studied filmmaking at Ravensbourne Polytechnic, Bromley, Kent.
, where she was trained in production management and film editing
for both drama and documentary. Her first film as writer/director was the 1976 experimental short Curiosities. In 1979 she edited Witches and Faggots, Dykes and Poofters. This was one of the first documentaries about the lives of gay and lesbian people in Australia set against the backdrop of the first Sydney Mardi Gras and the arrests that followed. In 1980, having moved to New Zealand
, Rodriga began writing and directing her first three short films: Second Sight, about Sally Rodwell and Deborah Hunt of theatre group Red Mole, Them’s The Breaks, a documentary about street kids, and Hooks and Feelers, a short feature based on the Keri Hulme
story.
and was edited by Finola Dwyer. It was the first film in New Zealand to be written and directed by a woman. In the film Rosemary Edmunds (Annie Whittle) has an assignment to photograph a group of rare penguins. She relocates to a remote cottage which appears to be haunted by a previous occupant. Conceived by Rodriga as a feminist thriller,and seen by some critics as a feminist form of "Kiwi Gothic," Trial Run was feminist in its work practices as well as its ethos: twenty of the twenty-nine people on the production crew were women. Together with Gaylene Preston's Mr. Wrong, Trial Run marked a turning point in New Zealand cinema. According to Conrich and Murray in New Zealand Filmakers "From this moment on, the centrality of the white, male hero, or anti-hero ... was if not displaced, then constantly undermined." Conrich and Murray argue that Rodriga's Trial Run was the more daring of the two films as it focused "not on the unknown, external danger to women, which the thriller uses most potently, but on threats within the family." In 1986/87 Rodriga directed three episodes of the seven part TV series Marching Girls. This pioneering series was conceived by actor-writer Fiona Samuel as a response to the lack of challenging female roles in New Zealand television.
Rodriga’s next feature, Send A Gorilla, was conceived and developed with three of her Marching Girl colleagues. Set on Valentine’s Day, the film was a feminist critique of the commercialisation of Romance. The film is frenetic and has some fine comic moments, while having a serious feminist subtext. In the 1990s Rodriga focused on TV drama and documentary (and changed her surname to Rodriga early on in the decade). The People Next Door (1994) was New Zealand’s first prime time documentary dealing with gay and lesbian culture. In 1997 Rodriga moved to Perth, Western Australia. While teaching screen production and screenwriting at Murdoch University, Rodriga directed her third feature film, Teesh and Trude
(2002) starring Linda Cropper
, Susie Porter
, Peter Phelps
and Bill McCluskey. Teesh and Trude tells the story of a day in the life of two working class single mums in Perth, Western Australia. The film was nominated for 3 [Australian Film Institute Award]s in 2003. Critics were divided by the film's gritty social realism:
In 2010, Rodriga wrote, directed and produced her fourth feature film myPastmyPresent, shot on location in the Margaret River
region of Western Australia
. myPastmyPresent is a young lesbian love story with Buddhist themes shot with an entirely undergraduate crew. It played at the 16th Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
in Perth
and, as of 2011, is in the final year of a PhD
there, while at the same time being senior lecturer
in Media Studies
.
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
-Australian film maker, lecturer
Lecturer
Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...
and self-identified radical lesbian feminist.
Early life
Born in Kuala LumpurKuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...
, Malaysia, Rodriga was the third child of Daphne Mary (Billie) and Albert Thomas (Bertram) Read. Her father was a pianist arranger of the British Dance Band Era, playing with Bert Ambrose and Henry Hall (bandleader)
Henry Hall (bandleader)
Henry Hall was a British bandleader. He played from the 1920s to the 1950s.-Biography:Henry Hall was born in Peckham, South London and served in both the Salvation Army and the British Army...
, among others. The family moved from Malaysia to Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
in 1961, and lived in the eastern suburb of Vaucluse
Vaucluse, New South Wales
Vaucluse is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Vaucluse is located north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government areas of Waverley Council and the Municipality of Woollahra....
. Rodriga graduated from Kambala CofE Foundation School for Girls in 1972. She then traveled to England where she studied filmmaking at Ravensbourne Polytechnic, Bromley, Kent.
Early career
Rodriga’s career began in Sydney in 1974 at the Australian Broadcasting CorporationAustralian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
, where she was trained in production management and film editing
Film editing
Film editing is part of the creative post-production process of filmmaking. It involves the selection and combining of shots into sequences, and ultimately creating a finished motion picture. It is an art of storytelling...
for both drama and documentary. Her first film as writer/director was the 1976 experimental short Curiosities. In 1979 she edited Witches and Faggots, Dykes and Poofters. This was one of the first documentaries about the lives of gay and lesbian people in Australia set against the backdrop of the first Sydney Mardi Gras and the arrests that followed. In 1980, having moved to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Rodriga began writing and directing her first three short films: Second Sight, about Sally Rodwell and Deborah Hunt of theatre group Red Mole, Them’s The Breaks, a documentary about street kids, and Hooks and Feelers, a short feature based on the Keri Hulme
Keri Hulme
Keri Hulme is a New Zealand writer, best known for The Bone People, her only novel.-Early life:Hulme was born in Christchurch, in New Zealand's South Island. The daughter of a carpenter and a credit manager, she was the eldest of six children. Her parents were of English, Scottish, and Māori ...
story.
Later career
Rodriga’s first feature length film Trial Run (1984) (1984), starred Annie WhittleAnnie Whittle
Annie Whittle is a British-born New Zealand singer and actress who has appeared on such shows as Shortland Street, where she played Barbara Heywood for four years and has had a singing career that has spanned three decades....
and was edited by Finola Dwyer. It was the first film in New Zealand to be written and directed by a woman. In the film Rosemary Edmunds (Annie Whittle) has an assignment to photograph a group of rare penguins. She relocates to a remote cottage which appears to be haunted by a previous occupant. Conceived by Rodriga as a feminist thriller,and seen by some critics as a feminist form of "Kiwi Gothic," Trial Run was feminist in its work practices as well as its ethos: twenty of the twenty-nine people on the production crew were women. Together with Gaylene Preston's Mr. Wrong, Trial Run marked a turning point in New Zealand cinema. According to Conrich and Murray in New Zealand Filmakers "From this moment on, the centrality of the white, male hero, or anti-hero ... was if not displaced, then constantly undermined." Conrich and Murray argue that Rodriga's Trial Run was the more daring of the two films as it focused "not on the unknown, external danger to women, which the thriller uses most potently, but on threats within the family." In 1986/87 Rodriga directed three episodes of the seven part TV series Marching Girls. This pioneering series was conceived by actor-writer Fiona Samuel as a response to the lack of challenging female roles in New Zealand television.
Rodriga’s next feature, Send A Gorilla, was conceived and developed with three of her Marching Girl colleagues. Set on Valentine’s Day, the film was a feminist critique of the commercialisation of Romance. The film is frenetic and has some fine comic moments, while having a serious feminist subtext. In the 1990s Rodriga focused on TV drama and documentary (and changed her surname to Rodriga early on in the decade). The People Next Door (1994) was New Zealand’s first prime time documentary dealing with gay and lesbian culture. In 1997 Rodriga moved to Perth, Western Australia. While teaching screen production and screenwriting at Murdoch University, Rodriga directed her third feature film, Teesh and Trude
Teesh and Trude
Teesh and Trude is an Australian drama directed by Melanie Rodriga, and was adapted from an original stage-play by Wilson McCaskill. The film was produced and shot entirely in Western Australia with Production Investment Funding Support from ScreenWest and Lotterywest...
(2002) starring Linda Cropper
Linda Cropper
Linda Cropper is an Australian television actress.Her credits include the lead role in Melba as well as roles in Palace of Dreams , an ABC mini-series, Edens Lost, Ring of Scorpio, Bordertown, Wildside, Water Rats, All Saints, White Collar Blue and The Pacific, and more recently she has starred in...
, Susie Porter
Susie Porter
Susie Porter is a multiple award winning Australian television and film actress.-Television:Susie Porter began her acting career in one episode of House Gang, a short lived television program. She then had small roles in other Australian television programs in the late 1990s, including Big Sky,...
, Peter Phelps
Peter Phelps
Peter Phelps is an Australian actor, singer and writer. He is notable for his role of Peter Church in the television drama, Stingers and Trevor Cole, in Baywatch...
and Bill McCluskey. Teesh and Trude tells the story of a day in the life of two working class single mums in Perth, Western Australia. The film was nominated for 3 [Australian Film Institute Award]s in 2003. Critics were divided by the film's gritty social realism:
-
- This is a story that won't appeal to viewers who live similar lives or take refuge in sudsers such as Neighbours, which looks like a sugar-frosted Cinderella fantasy compared with this. Strong humanity and even a faint sense of optimism emerge in the final reel as the women assert themselves against the innate bullying and objectification that has been their lot and downfall. It isn't Ken Loach or Mike Leigh but it's in that ambit and the acting is very gritty - Linda Cropper's Trude and Susie Porter's Teesh radiate desperation that is almost palpable and Peter Phelps, as the blustering no-hoper Rod, delivers a penetrating observation of a type that is frighteningly accurate. (Doug Anderson, The Age Newspaper)
In 2010, Rodriga wrote, directed and produced her fourth feature film myPastmyPresent, shot on location in the Margaret River
Margaret River
Margaret River is a river in southwest Western Australia. Although small and unremarkable, it is the eponym of the iconic town and tourist region of Margaret River, famous for its surfing, caves and wine....
region of Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. myPastmyPresent is a young lesbian love story with Buddhist themes shot with an entirely undergraduate crew. It played at the 16th Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival
Academics
Rodriga has a BA (Hons) from Murdoch UniversityMurdoch University
Murdoch University is a public university based in Perth, Australia. It began operations as the state's second university in 1973, and accepted its first students in 1975...
in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
and, as of 2011, is in the final year of a PhD
PHD
PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
there, while at the same time being senior lecturer
Senior lecturer
Senior lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a faculty position at a university or similar institution. Especially in research-intensive universities, lecturers lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...
in Media Studies
Media studies
Media studies is an academic discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history and effects of various media; in particular, the 'mass media'. Media studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly from its core disciplines of mass...
.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Curiosities | short film | director Film director A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:... , writer |
| 1977 | Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Sailor | documentary Documentary film Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record... |
as editor |
| 1977 | The Man who Broke the Bank | documentary | as editor |
| 1979 | Witches and Faggots, Dykes and Poofters | documentary | as editor |
| 1980 | Wild South | documentary | as editor |
| 1981 | Them’s the Breaks | documentary | director, writer, producer Film producer A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The... and editor |
| 1981 | Second Sight | documentary | director, writer, producer and editor |
| 1982 | Hooks and Feelers | short film | director, writer |
| 1984 | Trial Run | feature film Feature film In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie... |
director, writer |
| 1985 | The Minders | short | director, editor |
| 1986/87 | Marching Girls | TV | director |
| 1988 | Send a Gorilla | feature film | director. Nominated for 3 New Zealand Film and TV Awards New Zealand Film and TV Awards The New Zealand Film and TV Awards were awarded in New Zealand from 1986 through 2003, and were supplanted by the New Zealand Film Awards.-Film Awards:In 2003 film awards were given in the following categories:*Best Film*Best Actor*Best Actress... |
| 1991 | New Zealand Rivers Waikato | documentary | director, editor |
| 1993 | Standing in the Sunshine | documentary | director |
| 1994 | Once a Convent Girl | documentary | director |
| 1994 | TrueLife Stories: The Pip Brown Story | short drama | director, writer |
| 1994 | The People Next Door | documentary | director, writer |
| 2002 | Teesh and Trude Teesh and Trude Teesh and Trude is an Australian drama directed by Melanie Rodriga, and was adapted from an original stage-play by Wilson McCaskill. The film was produced and shot entirely in Western Australia with Production Investment Funding Support from ScreenWest and Lotterywest... |
feature film | Nominated for 3 Australian Film Institute Awards Australian Film Institute Awards The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award, known as the AACTA Award , is an accolade presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts . The awards recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry and television industry, including directors,... ; director, producer and script consultant |
| 2010–2011 | myPastmyPresent | feature film | director, writer, editor and producer |
Reviews
- Film Ink Review of Teesh & Trude by Drew Turney
- SBS Movie Show Review of Teesh & Trude
- Variety Review of Teesh & Trude by David Stratton