Cushla Dillon: Accidental acting and award-winning editing…

Cushla Dillon was a newbie editor when she worked on the TV series and film Topless Women Talk about Their Lives. Dillon won an NZ Film editing award for her work on the movie, then went on to cut an impressive list of documentaries, shorts and feature films. Notable documentaries she has worked on include The Price of Peace and The Confessions of Prisoner T. Dillon’s feature credits include Orphans & Kingdoms, The Price of Milk and Snakeskin (which she edited with Marcus D'Arcy). 

In this ScreenTalk, Dillon talks about:

• Getting an unexpected acting role on short film Peach
• How her lack of experience was almost an advantage when editing Topless Women Talk about Their Lives
• Her admiration for the cast of feature film When Love Comes
• How music helped her find the magic at the heart of Harry Sinclair’s The Price of Milk
• Budget pressures on film After the Waterfall
• The importance of making a compelling argument for Teina Pora in documentary The Confessions of Prisoner T
• Finding the unusual "balance of power" between the characters in the movie Orphans & Kingdoms
• The deeper meaning in music documentary Shihad - Beautiful Machine

This video was first uploaded on 16 May 2016, and is available under this Creative Commons licence. This licence is limited to use of ScreenTalk interview footage only and does not apply to any video content and photographs from films, television, music videos, web series and commercials used in the interview.

Interview, Camera and Editing – Andrew Whiteside