Shine Awards: Farmer-turned-filmmaker Leila McDougall shines light on rural mental health issues
Farmer turns filmmaker to shine a light on mental health issues.
Leila McDougall is a farmer, fashion designer, teacher, charity organiser and mental health advocate – and soon she will be able to add filmmaker, screenwriter and actor to her resume.
After growing up on the land and witnessing the devastating impact mental health problems can have on rural communities, Ms McDougall started a charity to encourage people in rural areas to speak up about their challenges.
When the Covid pandemic hit, she used the spare time cooped-up at home to come up with a grand scheme.
That inspired plan has led Ms McDougall into the world of filmmaking.
Her movie, Just A Farmer, which delves into mental health, is going through the final editing stages and is set to be entered into the prestigious Sundance Film Festival.
A native of Walcha in the Northern Tablelands of NSW, Ms McDougall’s first career aspiration was to be a fashion designer in the hope that she could boost the fortunes of her family property by making trendy clothes out of wool.
She moved to her husband Sean’s family farm near Tatyoon, about 180km west of Melbourne, where she became a teacher and a mother of two.
Noticing the mental health struggles among farmers around her, in 2014 Ms McDougall started a not-for-profit charity called Live Rural to raise funds for mental health initiatives.
“We started raising money to run mental health first-aid workshops in the area and farmer mental health workshops,” Ms McDougall said.
“I’d just ring all the farmers and make them come in and get health checks. I’d ring them and say ‘you’re coming’ and I think they just came along to shut me up.”
Setting her sights on filmmaking, Ms McDougall quit her job as a teacher and poured more than $1m of her own money into turning her idea into reality.
“I wanted to make something for people to watch that raises awareness of mental health and the importance of talking about it and human connection,” Ms McDougall said.
“Being a schoolteacher, I see that our kids are just losing the ability to connect on really authentic and genuine levels, and I wanted to create a show that could do that.”
The film deals with suicide and the devastation it leaves behind for families and communities.
“The characters are so real, even though they’re not based on anyone real,” Ms McDougall said.
“It’s a heartbreaking story but there’s hope and resilience and it shows how families and the community can come together to get through this horrible thing by talking to one another.”
The movie was directed by Chopper star Simon Lyndon and features actors Robert Taylor, Damian Walshe-Howling and Susan Prior as well as members of the local community.
For her work advocating for mental health resilience in rural communities, Ms McDougall has been nominated for the Shine Awards, a joint initiative between rural newspaper The Weekly Times and Harvey Norman, which celebrates the achievements and contributions of women across rural and regional Australia.
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