The Stage Within Me (Tauranga Girls' College, New Zealand, 2023) explores the interior world of young people navigating autism and congenital disability. Through sound, performance and quiet moments, the film considers masking, stimming, motivation and the role of music and school in self-expression. It offers an intimate, respectful look at individuality and the creative impulses that shape teenagers. As part of the Focus on Ability International Short Film Festival, this work adds a youthful voice to conversations about ability and access, inviting audiences to listen, reflect and appreciate the many ways people find confidence and belonging.
Hi, I'm Kat Robinson. I go to Tauranga Girls College. I am 16 years, 4 months, and 18 days old. My family is from the UK, but I was born and raised in New Zealand. I love the arts, I love musical theatre, I love music, I love beluga whales and the colour yellow and the smell of rainy days, and I'm autistic. Growing up, knowing that I was different was always pretty difficult. I remember at the start of every single school year, I would be like, okay, this year I'm going to be quiet in class and I'm just going to have one or two friends and I'm just going to focus on my studies and I'm not going to provoke anyone and they won't be mean to me. It's called masking, and it's when an autistic person or a neurodivergent person, but typically autistic person, would like try to mask or disguise their neurodivergence. We always noticed about Kat that again, in retrospect, I didn't pick it at the time, but in retrospect might be kind of symptomatic of the whole spectrum thing. One, I always felt she was very empathetic. She was always very good at listening to people and she did always seem to, and again, I just thought it was a normal childhood thing, but perhaps Kat's was more exaggerated, was the hyper fixation, kind of getting obsessed with one particular thing. We're still going through a twilight phase, but again, as a mid-teen girl, that's kind of just just part of the course anyway, but that is a bit of a fixation. I've always been involved in the arts. I really love singing and playing music and especially acting and theatre. Looking back, I was always performing and masking massively helps, I find, with being able to act and put yourself in other people's shoes because it's what I've been doing my entire life. So in the Adams family, Kat played the grandma. She was amazing at incredible acting and I was the backstage manager, assistant backstage manager, and so I got to see firsthand Kat's amazing acting. Me and Kat also do drama together, where again, amazing actress, always gets all the big roles. She's just amazing, incredible actress. So, so much feeling goes into what she does. In conclusion, in the future, I hope to continue performing as a hobby, but for my ultimate goal, I would say for now, it's to be happy and do what makes me feel fulfilled because to me, success is feeling fulfilled and happy on a day-to-day basis and I will continue to unmask and be myself because being myself is what makes me happy.
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The Stage Within Me
by Tauranga Girls' College - SCHOOL DOCUMENTARIES
