Sick of acting like a mum? Karla Bogaart creates her own film role.
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From featuring in local ads to a role in Total Control and more than 30 short films, local actor Karla Bogaart is something of a familiar face in Canberra.
Over the last few years, however, she has noticed fewer roles available for women “other than mother”.
So Karla has set about trying to fix the lack of representation—by producing her own short film, Misconception.
Misconception has a strong female lead and delves into the theme of science versus humanity via two scientists attempting to engineer a gene editing breakthrough to eliminate hereditary disease.
Karla plays the role of Claire, who has watched her sister pass away from Huntington’s Disease and has also inherited the disease.
Karla Bogaart created her own role. Photo Robert Coppa.
There are some ethical and moral questions posed in this 15-minute drama which considers how far scientific research should be able to go, and at what cost?
For Karla, the role as a woman in STEM is a far cry from the career she held down while pursuing her acting passion.
She is a chartered accountant.
“Some might say that these interests are quite opposite, and perhaps they are, but I’ve found a way to work in both fields. I completed my studies in the performing arts in 2015 and have since thrown myself into every acting opportunity I possibly could. This has included continuing my training in voice work, movement workshops, accent training, writing classes, and training in Meisner-based acting techniques.
But throwing herself into this creative process coincided with the time when Karla noticed a decline in available roles “other than mother”. So she embarked on more study, this time in producing.
“My continued education and interest in female-driven stories has led me to the production of my short film.”
While Karla is committed to forging the production in Canberra—and has secured permission to film in a genomics laboratory at the Australian National University, among other locations— she acknowledges the usual trajectory of local film makers, cinematographers, directors, and actors is to move interstate to further their career opportunities.
The script has been co-written with Daniel Berger-Alexander and developed using an all-local pool of talent.
“We’ve hosted a few large-scale film productions in Canberra over the years, but I don’t often see many speaking roles for local acting talent as part of that. We have great facilities here and it’s easy for people to move around from location to location. Hopefully we’ll see more use of our beautiful city and its talented cast and crew for interstate productions in the future.”
Karla is grateful to have had access to workshops organised by Set-Ready-Film, a Watson-based initiative supported by Film Plus which brings writers, directors, actors and crew together to test their scripts with the reading and filming of scenes.
Of course, the accountant in Karla also has a chance to perform and she has enlisted The Australian Cultural Fund (ACF) to help raise funds to cover the cost of the shoot.
ACF is a fundraising platform for Australian artists and donations over $2 are tax deductible — and Karla will be the first to tell you that producing independent film content is never cheap.
While sinking her own funds into the project, Karla would also love support for production and post-production costs.
“I am a passionate local, and Canberra is a great location to film with fantastic cast and crew to choose from and we should be showcasing that as much as possible. Having said that we need a viable industry which means (amongst other things) either generating the funding for larger paid productions within Canberra or targeting interstate productions to film here. In terms of my project I’m hoping it provides the team the opportunity to showcase their skills, be involved in a unique story, access a collaborative environment and have future access to work opportunities.
And once the film is competed, Karla has an ambitious film festival strategy including the likes of Sundance, Australian short film festivals, Toronto Female in Film Festival, and the Clermont-Ferrand.
Most importantly, Karla wants to screen it in Canberra!
If you are interested in learning more about the film Misconception, you can follow it here.
