MelanieRodriga (née Read)
- Director
- Editor
Australian-raised Melanie Rodriga (née Read) moved to New Zealand in 1977, and worked as an editor. After adapting Keri Hulme story Hooks and Feelers, she wrote and directed feminist thriller Trial Run in 1983. In 1988 Rodriga was a best director finalist for pioneering TV drama The Marching Girls. Rodriga now lectures in film at Perth’s Murdoch University and continues to make and develop films.
Screenography
Biography
Melanie Rodriga’s Trial Run (1984) was the first narrative feature to be written and directed by a woman in New Zealand (though the Yvonne MacKay-directed, Ian Mune scripted Silent One narrowly beats Rodriga as first Kiwi feature directed by a woman).
Awards
1988 Listener New Zealand Film & Television Awards
Nominated for Best Director: for The Marching Girls, episodes 1, 3 and 7
“A lot of people would like to think [women’s films] can conveniently be put into one category, which is radical and inaccessible. But even ‘feminist’ films have a vast range. ”