Melanie Rodriga (née Read; born 30 September 1954) is a New Zealand-Australian film maker, lecturer, and author.
Early life Born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Rodriga was the third child of Daphne Mary (Billie) and Albert Thomas (Bertram) Read. She is of Eurasian (Malay-Chinese-Portuguese) ancestry on her mother's side and British ancestry on her father's side. Her father was a pianist arranger of the British Dance Band Era, playing with Bert Ambrose and Henry Hall, among others."British Dance Bands 1912-1939" by Brian Rust and Edward Walker Storyville Press London 1973. pp. 13, 19, 136 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.
Early career Rodriga's career began in Sydney in 1974 at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 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.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."Witches, Faggots, Dykes and Poofters" by Scott McKinnon in "Making Film and Television Histories: Australia and New Zealand." Rebecca Beirne, James E. Bennett Eds. pp225-230 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. Biography from NZ On Screen
Later career Rodriga's first feature-length film, Trial Run (1984),Trial Run starred Annie Whittle and was edited by Finola Dwyer.Finola Dwyer It was the first film in New Zealand to be written and directed by a woman. "New Zealand's Cinema of a Perilous Paradise" by Ian Conrin In Horror International Steven Jay Schneider, Tony Williams Eds. Wayne State UP p115 Whittle's character 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.Trial Run in "Decade of New Zealand Film: Sleeping Dogs to Came a Hot Friday" by Nicholas Reid John McIndoe Ltd Dunedin 1986 p. 99 Together with Gaylene Preston's Mr Wrong, Trial Run marked a turning point in New Zealand cinema. According to Barbara Cairns, "From this moment on, the centrality of the white, male hero, or anti-hero ... was if not displaced, then constantly undermined." Cairns argues 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."Reframing Women: A History of New Zealand Film" by Deborah Shepard Harper Collins 2000. The film is frenetic and has some fine comic moments, while having a serious feminist subtext.Women's Companion to International Film, Annette Kuhn and Susannah Radstone Eds Uni of California Press, 1994. p 335-336 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 three Australian Film Institute Awards 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 2015 the feature film 'Pinch' (w/d Jeffory Asselin) which Rodriga executive produced, won best feature at the WA Screen Awards.
Academics
Rodriga has a PhD from Murdoch University in Perth, where she ran the Graduate Screen Program].
Personal life Rodriga's sexual orientation as fluid. She is a lesbian and queer as of 2018. She has written that she disagrees with "the assumption that sexuality is biologically or genetically driven" and believes in "allowing young people the freedom to make up their own minds about their sexual preference(s)."
Filmography Year Title Type Notes 1976 Curiosities Short film Director, writer 1977 Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Sailor Documentary Editor The Man who Broke the Bank Documentary Editor 1979 Witches and Faggots, Dykes and Poofters Documentary Editor 1980 Wild South Documentary Editor 1981 Them's the Breaks Documentary Director, writer, producer, and editor Second Sight Documentary Director, writer, producer, and editor 1982 Hooks and Feelers Short film Director, writer 1984 Trial Run Feature film Director, writer 1985 The Minders Short film Director, editor 1986/87 Marching Girls TV Director 1988 Send a Gorilla Feature film Director. Nominated for 3 New Zealand Film and TV Awards 1991 New Zealand Rivers Waikato Documentary Director, editor 1993 Standing in the Sunshine Documentary Director 1994 Once a Convent Girl Documentary Director TrueLife Stories: The Pip Brown Story Short film Director, writer The People Next Door Documentary Director, writer 2002 Teesh and Trude Feature film Nominated for 3 Australian Film Institute Awards; director, producer and script consultant 2010–2011 myPastmyPresentmyPastmyPresent Feature film Director, writer, editor and producer
References
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