Selected Work

Rendered Obsolete investigates AI, 3D scanning, digital likeness and labor through the stunt professionals whose bodies are their livelihoods.

The project began as Amanda Kari McHugh’s graduate capstone investigation into how emerging technology is reshaping the stunt industry. She continued reporting the story after graduation, and is now developing it as a narrative audio project through What Now? Productions.

Terry McHugh grew up working on his family’s Christmas tree farm, learning the trade from his father. As he approaches 65, he wants to establish a farm of his own on 4.97 acres in upstate New York — and he needs a barn to service it. Because he is .03 acres short of a zoning requirement, the project becomes caught in town moratoriums, changing acreage rules, zoning proceedings, legal fees and local-government roadblocks. Fraser firs take roughly twelve years to mature, making every year of delay consequential for someone pursuing this dream at retirement age.

Filmed by his daughter, the documentary follows Terry’s wife Emma, their neighbors, the changing seasons, town meetings and the community effort behind the farm — a story about pursuing a dream later in life, retirement and reinvention, land-use regulation, tradition and persistence.

Amanda Kari McHugh: Director / Producer / Cinematographer / Co-Editor. Production began in 2014 — What Now? Productions’ first feature documentary.

Created at a time when standardized film-set COVID procedures were not yet widely established, Amanda developed the production around its own safety practices and secured locations and resources through direct outreach.

What Now? Productions then took the film beyond production. Without a traditional distributor or PR agency, Amanda directly pitched drive-in theaters, built a digital audience, conducted media outreach and created the project’s press campaign.