Experiencing Interruptions?

DEFACEMENT (PG)

An insecure woman puts herself through agonizing and exhausting rituals trying to feel pretty enough to leave home--a heart-wrenching parable on the beauty industry's impossible standards.

  • Maura Conry
    Director
  • Maura Conry
    Writer
  • Maura Conry
    Producer
  • Maura Conry
    Key Cast
    "Woman"
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Genres:
    Drama, PG Rated, Silent
  • Runtime:
    2 minutes 16 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    March 12, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16.9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    Yes
  • Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art
    Overland Park, Kansas
    United States
    May 1, 2018
    Spring 2019: Date to be announced.
    First film added to the Permanent Collection
  • Kansas City Artist Coalition: Gallery Video Installation
    Kansas City, MO
    United States
    December 7, 2019
    December 2019
    Video Installation Opening: Four Short Films
Director Biography - Maura Conry

As a first-time film student, in a first-time class, taught by a first-time teacher, in a first-time filmmaking program, at Johnson County Community College, I began my quest to study film. Non-traditional is what the college calls students (over 60+), who enroll in credit classes and study, elbow-to-elbow, with other entry level classmates. The creative arts have always been my constant pursuit from earliest childhood to the present.

I have been a Roman Catholic nun, a psychotherapist, a social worker, and a pharmacist to name a few of my past lives. My unique life history provides fodder for my art, and floods it with symbolic and psychological overtones. Long ago I gave up my vows as a Roman Catholic nun to study art and have been at it ever since. My creative process springs from a deep space within me which i call my “Spiritual Submarine.”

Education:
2018-20 Johnson County Community College: Film and Media Studies, Overland Park, KS
1968-2020 Life Long Learner: Fine Arts, Theater, Improv, Acting, Digital Imaging, Storytelling, etc.
2000-06 Richard Alan Nichols: Theater Arts and Acting, Uta Hagen Techniques, Kansas City, MO
1968-72 University of Houston: Fine Arts, Houston, TX
1974-84 Kansas City Art Institute, MO, Fine Arts Extension Division, Kansas City, MO
1996-98 University of Kansas, Social Welfare, Lawrence, KS
1958-64 Loyola University, Pharmacy, New Orleans, LA

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

At 78 years of age, I realized that filmmaking was a way to pull together the many different facets of my creative process. Most of my past work has been two-dimensional, painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, and of course, experimental and mixed media. In the performing arts, I have studied acting, theater, and improv and even did a little stage work. Yes, that is me in the silent video, DEFACEMENT.
My fascination with filmmaking lies in the medium’s ability to encompass all the creative arts. The visual arts, performing arts, literary arts, auditory arts, as well as the technical arts are integrated in a single piece. My work includes visual components intertwined with psychological themes. Pattern is always to the forefront, used to bring focus and visual surprise to the content of the piece. I seek to grab the eye, delight the ear, and fascinate the mind.