Ballad For A Girl In Pain a short film

Ballad For A Girl In Pain is a short film written and directed by local filmmaker Amanda Jane Robinson. The film follows Roxy, an adrift young woman, as she attempts to externalise her pain the night after a traumatic breakup. 

Ballad is about the melodramatic complexities that come with being a young woman today. Through Roxy, I ask the question: what does an independent woman look like before her independence?

Ballad For A Girl In Pain is Amanda's final project for her Masters in Screen Production at the University of Auckland. It is being produced by Tom Augustine, Julie Zhu, Puteri Raja Ariff, and Evie Mackay. We are excited to welcome Melbourne cinematographer Amy Dellar as our Director of Photography.

We are thrilled to have an incredible cast featuring newcomer Grace Kayes-Moller as Roxy, as well as 2018 Toi Whakaari graduate Tara Erenskjold, Will Hall (Westside, Nothing Trivial, Shortland Street) and Dahnu Graham (The Gulf). 

Your contribution will go towards paying actors, feeding cast and crew, and production design that will increase the quality of the film. Any additional contributions over and above our goal will go towards entering this film into festivals, which often have high entry fees.

Every little bit makes a difference, both practically and as a show of support for local filmmakers. Thank you!

THE TEAM

Amanda Jane Robinson (writer, director, art director)

Amanda Jane Robinson is a writer and filmmaker currently completing her Masters in Screen Directing at the University of Auckland. Her written work has been published in Metro, Vice, The Spinoff, and Flicks, and her films have been exhibited at Shaanxi Normal University, Auckland Art Gallery, Basement Theatre, and Studio One Toi T?. She is also a film critic and freelance art director for music videos and short films. Amanda is particularly interested in stories of women's interiority and places a strong focus on aesthetic and tone. 

Amy Dellar (director of photography)

Amy Dellar is a cinematographer from Melbourne, Australia. She recently won the Best Cinematography award for short film 'Jupiter' at Melbourne Queer Film Festival. She has completed two feature films in the last two years, amongst many short films. She has a passion for storytelling and turning words into moving image. 

Tom Augustine (producer)

Tom is a critic and filmmaker who most recently won the New Zealand Writers Guild 'Seed Advanced' grant to write his first feature. Tom has directed numerous shorts and music videos, including 'Take It Down' for Kiwi hip-hop artist JessB. He is also a freelance writer for Shortland Street and New Zealand Herald's Canvas Magazine. In 2015, Tom won the Geoff Evans Memorial Prize for his short film Long Time Coming.

Julie Zhu (producer, assistant director)

Julie is a filmmaker, producer, photographer, and storyteller with a focus on championing marginalised and underrepresented voices. She has worked on a number of short films including short documentary 'East Meets East' for Loading Docs, and 'Myth of the Model Minority' for TVNZ On Demand. She is currently working on podcast series 'Conversations With My Immigrant Parents' for Radio NZ.

Puteri Raja Ariff (producer)

Puteri is currently an Animation Producer with award-winning animation house Cirkus, where she works on various campaigns for New Zealand brands. She has also been involved in a number of short films and music videos. Most recently she production managed Someday Stories' 'Repugnant' and the JessB music video for 'Take It Down'; and was also involved in Chillybox's winning 48hours films '(Time) Travel Centre' and 'PepTok'.

Evie Mackay (associate producer)

Working as a photographic producer for some of the top commercial and editorial photographers in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, Evie Mackay naturally progressed into production for film. Her clients have included Clemenger BBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi, GQ Magazine, Vogue, The Naked & Famous, David Dallas, Marlon Williams, Aldous Harding, and Tiny Ruins. 

Jake Mahaffy (university supervisor)

Jake's micro-budget, self-made films have been screened around the world at film festivals and independent venues such as Venice (Orizzonti Prize for Best Film - 'Free In Deed'), Sundance, SXSW (Grand Jury Prize), Rotterdam, Leeds, AFI, Stockholm, Edinburgh, Moscow, Ljubljana, Boston MFA, MoMA (NY) and others. He founded two new filmmaking programs at two universities as an Associate Professor of Film and Art in the United States and now coordinates the Screen Production program at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.