IT SEEMS to be divine intervention that saw Western District farmer, Leila McDougall – with no budget and no prior experience – write a script, take an acting class and knock on doors to create a pre-emptive picture of life on the land in 2025.
And the Tatyoon wife, mum of two, former teacher and Mrs Australia is bringing her work and her good mental health messages to Casterton, personally, tomorrow night.
‘Just a Farmer’ was written by and stars Ms McDougall and brought together some of Australia’s best-known acting names, in a no-holds-barred and confronting movie.
Filmed on the family’s south-west property, adding to the authenticity of the project, JAF follows the journey of Alison, a farming woman who’s left alone to manage the farm, her kids, an alcoholic father-in-law and their life after her husband, Alec, takes his own life.
It’s a film designed to spark conversation, first and foremost, about a subject that’s ‘taboo’ but current across southern Australia, as farmers face the inequity and struggles of rising costs of living and doing business, drought and feed shortages.
If you did not get to A Night off the Farm on Friday night, or you could do with another one, Pilmore Rural Contracting and Meridian Ag, with the support of local businesses and the Department of Ag, are inviting local farmers and business operators who are doing it tough, for a feed and a free screening of Just a Farmer in the Fox & Lillie building tomorrow night.
Ms McDougall will be there to chat with attendees about her experience – both on the farm and with the movie – and there will be a question and answer session with the film creator and Dr Julie Rouse, after the show.
“We just thought with the way things are going, a good friend of mine over the border took his own life, just recently, everyone’s doing it tough and this is just really relevant now,” livestock contractor and farmer, Rob Pilmore said.
“So I went to (Meridian Ag’s Andrew Speirs) and we got lots of sponsorship and support to put this night together.”
Operating their family farm, Ms McDougall and husband Sean have long been advocates for promoting good mental health for farmers and farming families and in 2014, they founded Live Rural, which includes the annual event ‘Mellow in the Yellow’.
In addition to hosting guest speakers who, openly and honestly, bring the issues of farming pressures and resulting mental health issues to the table, the event provides an opportunity for district farmers to just get off the farm, even if only for a short time: “We all meet in the crop … a time to chat, a
time to laugh, to dance until you drop.”
With increasing rates of depression and suicide in Australia’s most remote and vulnerable farming communities, Ms McDougall determined the need to take the message to a broader audience.
“I was trying to work out how to spread the message on a large scale, a national scale – well, international now – and what better way to do that than through a movie and storytelling,” she said, when presenting her production at Hamilton’s Sheepvention, last year.
“Storytelling is the oldest form of education and passing on knowledge … a movie was the idea, to get (viewers) engrossed in the story, connecting with the story and going on a journey with the characters.”
The credits list for ‘Just a Farmer’ includes names well-recognised by Australian audiences, including Damian Walshe-Howling, of Blue Heelers and Underbelly fame and director, multi-AFI Awardwinner, Simon Lyndon, best-known for his role as Jimmy Loughnan in the 2000 movie, Chopper.
“I did an acting class at the acting school where Damian teaches and we have become friends since then, I think because we have got similar personalities … he’s been really helpful and I roped him into being a part of the film through that,” Ms McDougall said.
The Fox & Lillie Building will be open from 4.30pm tomorrow night for the catch-up, with Just a Farmer screening from 7pm.
Registrations for the event are encouraged to help with catering – see details on page 4 of this edition.
