Nothing to Worry About

As a woman goes about her everyday life, the uncontrollable bleeding coming from her abdomen is ignored by everyone around her. 

Nothing to Worry About is a seven-minute experimental/psychological drama short film about the effect's invisible illness has on individuals. The film follows Cathy, a 24-year-old woman, who has uncontrolled bleeding from her abdomen that is ignored by everyone around her. This film is built around the visual representation of chronic illness. Cathy’s pain acts as a vice which can be used to portray the effects that chronic illness can have on a person. To show this, we will externalize her pain by making it visible, using blood as a visual metaphor. 

 We want to highlight the isolation that comes with invisible illness and how people who experience pain everyday fight through life. We are specifically looking at this through the lense of someone with endometriosis and commenting on the medical neglect that women face while trying to be diagnosed.  

This short film is being created by a team of Honours students from the Degree of Digital Screen at the University of Canterbury. We are a passionate group of young filmmakers who are making this film as our final year project for our degree.  

Crew: 

1st Co-director – Isla Robertson  

2nd Co-director/Writer – Hannah Crisp  

Producer – Freya Carson 

DOP – Ranger Leary 

1st AC – Caleb Gilbert  

1st AD – Evienne Jones 

Lighting/gaffer – Edison Halliday 

Sound – Maddy Sweetman  

Sound assist – Laurie Mauger 

Continuity – Liam Dunstan, Will Hartman 

Production Assistants - Jackson Scarsbrook / Roland Williams

Art department/Costuming - Laurie Mauger  

Art Department/Make up – Siobhan Hoare  

Art Department – Holly Taylor  

Composer – Maxwell Robertson  

Editor/Colourist – Isla Robertson

After self-funding our short films in the past, we have decided to up our production value with the help of our whānau and community.  

Our goal is to raise $1500 and due to Boosted being an all or nothing platform we would really appreciate any donations to help us reach our goal. If you are not able to donate, just sharing our campaign will help.  

We will use the money for: 

• Props, costumes and set design. The film requires a large number of practical effects to help the world come to life. 
• Food for our large cast and crew as we do not want anyone to go hungry on our set.
• Transportation and petrol fees
• A small thank you to our actors who are working on this project voluntarily.
• Submission fees for a variety of film festivals.  

The experimental/psychological drama genre allows us as filmmakers to demonstrate our skills while telling an impactful story. Using blood as a visual metaphor for pain gives the audience a physical element to fully comprehend the impact that endometriosis has on a person. The blood is only visible to our main character and acts as a physical manifestation of her pain. The audience is unsure why people around her don’t react, until we switch to her coworker's perspective, and realise the blood is not actually there.  

Isla Robertson (Director) - 

My intention, and reasoning, for making this film is to bring awareness to, and validate individuals’ experiences, with invisible illnesses, specifically women with endometriosis. I want to educate and evoke a sense of understanding from the audience, as this film reflects the different limitations and day to day struggles for women with endometriosis. The story has been derived from the writers’ personal experiences, making this film very personal and important to share.

Nothing to Worry About is a very personal film that will resonate with many. In Aotearoa one in ten women are diagnosed with endometriosis every year and the average time to diagnose is between seven to ten years. We want to show able bodied people how chronic and specifically invisible illness affects people. We want our audience to leave this film with more empathy and understanding of what these individuals experience.  

This film is important to us as a crew as we all have personal experience with invisible illness. Although this film specifically highlights endometriosis, we all know what it means to live with mental and physical health issues. We want people to feel seen, to know that their pain is valid and to not stop fighting for their health, even when people tell them it's nothing to worry about.