Alter Ego
noun:
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1. another side of oneself:
a second self.
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The Documentary
LOGLINE
You might be very surprised at what goes on behind the doors of respectable, New Zeland suburbia...
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A window into the lives of New Zealanders who have an ALTER EGO and a journey into their amazing fantasy worlds.
SYNOPSIS
In Auckland 2012, French photographer Jocelyn Janon opened a photographic exhibition featuring portraits of New Zealanders who live double lives, whose dual identities - their alter egos - are as authentic as the people they are in their 'normal' selves and the other as them embodying their alter ego:
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Heath runs a decorating business by day and has created a serial killers graveyard in his Avondale back yard.
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Patrick is a quiet office worker who performs at night as Patty, a chaotic, anarchic drag queen / clown.
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Abigail is a mum at home with two kids and a Horror / Gothic / Fetish artist / model and expressionist.
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Janons Intention with the exhibit was to point out that many New Zealanders simply do not fit the stereotypical images of Kiwis that we usually see in the media:
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"I'm wanting to show that people are not all like that... the project evolved from there."
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After seeing the exhibition, film director Simon Pattison was inspired to investigate the stories in more depth, to really delve into the expression of the alter ego. This is a feature documentary that portrays the lives of New Zealanders living a double life and it tells the stories from the subjects' point of view using cinematic devices and techniques to explore their fantasy worlds and allow an audience to experience them too. It also asks the question, what is it like to live this double life and at what cost, if any?