Emily Hagins is the writer/director/producer/editor of the low-budget zombie film PATHOGEN, and received a grant from the Texas Filmmakers Production Fund for the post-production work on the film. This would make Emily worthy of notice on its own, but in addition to all that, she did it when she was 12 years old.

CONvergence is pleased to welcome the now 14-year-old Emily Hagins as our youngest-ever Guest of Honor.

Emily was born in Philadelphia, PA and moved to Austin, TX when she was 8 months old. Since the age of about 7, she has enjoyed seeing movies multiple times in the theaters and earned the nickname in second grade of "The movie girl". At age 9 she saw THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING and was inspired to make her own movie.

Working with a camcorder, Emily made several shorts starting in the third grade, including one featuring a Care Bear assassin who targeted Barbie dolls.

In fourth grade Emily decided she wanted to make a feature film but couldn't decide on what it should be about. She began writing several screenplays and at in 2003 at age 11 Emily attended the BUTT-NUMB-A-THON film festival in Austin and saw her very first zombie movie: UNDEAD.

"I used to be scared of horror movies until then," she says. "I realized that horror movies could also be funny. I decided that I wanted to make a feature film and it was going to be a zombie movie."

By the end of May 2004, Emily had finished the screenplay and was ready to start filming. Not only did she write the screenplay and direct the film, she did the camera work, co-produced, edited the film.

Emily's middle school was used as the principal shooting location, and parents pitched in to hold boom microphones (and occasionally play flesh-eaters). Dolly shots were improvised using rolling office chairs. Summer break ended during post-production, so Emily's mother Megan helped with some post-production chores.

The filmmaker and her mother are careful not to overhype the end result. No one should go in expecting a polished feature, they insist; for outsiders, the impressive thing is simply that a filmmaker so young and with limited resources tackled such a project and saw it through.

Meanwhile, Emily is enthused about getting behind the camera again. More cannibalism and viral mutations, one wonders? "I definitely want to make other kinds of films," she insists. The only genre that doesn't appeal to her, she says, is the "chick flick."

Emily's story is an inspiration to anyone with dreams of realizing their creative ambitions. We look forward to having Emily with us at CONvergence to share her story and her film. Visit the official Pathogen web site at http://www.cheesynuggets.com.