Featured Filmmaker: Christena Hampson

“My sister is my hero.”

-CHRISTENA HAMPSON

Meet Christena Hampson. An actor, choreographer, writer, and now gearing up to be a first time film director. The film: A true story with a personal connection.

Canadian-born Hampson originally went to university for medicine. While she may have had the brains for it, she didn’t have the stomach. Her true love was drama and dance, and helping people through the arts. She quickly repositioned herself into a more suitable educational stream, majoring in Drama. The stage has always been an exciting place to her, and through her twenties she both acted and danced in performances such as The Nutcracker. At the same time, she was developing behind the scenes as a producer and choreographer. Over the last twenty years she has built a thriving dance centre that teaches dancers of all ages and backgrounds, and continues acting (recently appearing in the hit tv show Fear They Neighbour on Discovery Investigation).

Compassion has always been a part of her journey, both in developing young dancers and creatives, as well as at home with her family. Christena’s sister Angela has special needs. Born in the mid-70s, Angela’s childhood challenges shed a light on the weaknesses in the “system”. As a baby, doctors wanted to send her to an institution, said she’d never walk or talk, and later she encountered alienation in the school system. Fortunately for Angela, her mother Dawn was a fighter. Dawn worked hard in her humble way to see her daughter breakthrough the barriers and shift the system toward integration, for the benefit of Angela and the future of children with special needs.

Her family’s struggles have inspired Christena’s emotional new feature film, My Lala, currently in development at The Shooting Eye. Jeremy Major will produce.

We’re excited to bring it to you. Stay tuned and follow its progress from script to screen, and support the making of this film.

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