tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32898567138233101422024-03-12T21:45:11.491-07:00Wellywood WomanThe Development Project's blog— For women who make movies. And for the people who love them. Globally.wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.comBlogger387125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-27521852801664765112021-07-09T01:52:00.022-07:002021-12-12T15:08:08.020-08:00Wellywood Woman Leaves For Other Gardens<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO3wK3iHMN3KHS9DSSOIj-aWObvyQuyE-gXFBgkQJhmdvNAqiyesKxJ6li5LiuEA6MPdI_sM0NpBcanCST6tnJ-wV5bHLD5jF4VlLZRP327dwU2Wofp4kcD54fAq0XRvf_D3glSsefdzTF/s200/Tinkerbell+ID+high+res.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO3wK3iHMN3KHS9DSSOIj-aWObvyQuyE-gXFBgkQJhmdvNAqiyesKxJ6li5LiuEA6MPdI_sM0NpBcanCST6tnJ-wV5bHLD5jF4VlLZRP327dwU2Wofp4kcD54fAq0XRvf_D3glSsefdzTF/s0/Tinkerbell+ID+high+res.jpg" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Time to turn 'Wellywood Woman' to compost, take it to new gardens, real and metaphorical. Time to go. <div><br /></div><div>Blogger's been unsatisfactory for a while, since format changes caused some intros to drop out; and other ugly problems.<p>So I've taken posts that I still love, and that readers have loved, to my Medium publications (which I enjoy looking at and you may find useful or even entertaining).</p><h3 style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://medium.com/womeninfilm-databases-festivals" target="_blank">#womeninfilm, #festivals & #databases</a></b></h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigqmaHkxPtmABP8ctFVL2MrArurxLJmKQgcqjTfBenL3MSlQyw42VXl03fv5OUw5chO2y4A8gvXkwXJUfS_Ab3mJGwOkj2o2_zQBIH_EeXs1jafw1uDkjA6TbUHJ-hRGhVjIZXHUMb6q8fBkxVguRHwo6J7cwUDUcAkFA3vYMKvuPi4vH3FvcBpuXfpA=s2048" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEigqmaHkxPtmABP8ctFVL2MrArurxLJmKQgcqjTfBenL3MSlQyw42VXl03fv5OUw5chO2y4A8gvXkwXJUfS_Ab3mJGwOkj2o2_zQBIH_EeXs1jafw1uDkjA6TbUHJ-hRGhVjIZXHUMb6q8fBkxVguRHwo6J7cwUDUcAkFA3vYMKvuPi4vH3FvcBpuXfpA=s320" width="240" /></a></div><div><br /></div>Festivals truly matter for #womeninfilm. Some are for women. Looking for a list of women’s film festivals? Women's experience of and activism at Cannes? Are you working above or below the line and looking for your specialist #womeninfilm databases? <a href="https://books2read.com/womens-film-festivals-handbook" target="_blank"><b>This is for you</b></a>. </div><div><br /><h3 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://medium.com/womens-film-activism" target="_blank"><b>Women's Film Activism</b></a> </h3><p class="graf graf--p" name="b8fb" style="text-align: left;">Podcasts, interviews & analysis from the global #womeninfilm movement since 2009, with lots about Aotearoa New Zealand of course. So many activists I love and whose work I admire in this publication. May they always be remembered!</p><h3 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://medium.com/women-filmmakers-interviews" target="_blank">Women Filmmakers: Interviews</a> </h3><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB4cGBbdHPlEQFWDryEw_rWSo0k_u_E_x1IcB2PRPKn1UQfHprlff_bGHLZyCEEVk_u75m0on0c7DrT6kLKaVIzFjcUmmx3JGSEnrckD3Xyp7_7SoHe0Addk80YE_nuGp32pjlzOuerN0Z/s400/Marian+Evans.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB4cGBbdHPlEQFWDryEw_rWSo0k_u_E_x1IcB2PRPKn1UQfHprlff_bGHLZyCEEVk_u75m0on0c7DrT6kLKaVIzFjcUmmx3JGSEnrckD3Xyp7_7SoHe0Addk80YE_nuGp32pjlzOuerN0Z/w200-h200/Marian+Evans.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div>More women whose work I love, telling me and others about their filmmaking practices and philosophy. From Aotearoa and other places.</div><h3 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://medium.com/wellywood-woman-diary" target="_blank">Wellywood Woman Diary</a></h3><p style="text-align: left;">What I'm reading. What I'm watching. What I'm doing. Most of these posts could go in one of the other publications. But they also reflect my daily life, especially my writing life. So they're here.</p><h3 style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://medium.com/spiral-collectives" target="_blank">Spiral Collectives</a></b> </h3></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqYhCD0KaR4zp0FCdjZinvmFKCKRl6ZODjvX6lI5o2BQrAmSVTncwKcWYKMuTYlWfXkez7vZZXWzu9eniBDdQwqR8CZBPiYyXLtBCBBYxHoxr3SL7-tilawxESNTvioChm3rnV04uZK1rV/s1017/little+Spiral+logo+in+case+handy.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1017" data-original-width="1000" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqYhCD0KaR4zp0FCdjZinvmFKCKRl6ZODjvX6lI5o2BQrAmSVTncwKcWYKMuTYlWfXkez7vZZXWzu9eniBDdQwqR8CZBPiYyXLtBCBBYxHoxr3SL7-tilawxESNTvioChm3rnV04uZK1rV/w197-h200/little+Spiral+logo+in+case+handy.jpeg" width="197" /></a></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A selection of posts from the Spiral Collectives, operating in Aotearoa New Zealand for more than 45 years.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Poet and activist <span><b><a href="https://medium.com/spiral-collectives/in-the-beginning-there-was-heather-d2ebbf4dd63c" target="_blank">Heather McPherson</a></b></span> founded Spiral in 1975. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Key <b><a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/women-together/spiral" target="_blank">Spiral</a> </b>information is available alongside details of its associated organisations, <a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/women-together/womens-gallery" target="_blank"><b>Women's Gallery</b></a> and <b><a href="https://nzhistory.govt.nz/women-together/kidsarus-2" target="_blank">Kidsarus 2</a>,</b> at Anne Else's <b>Women Together</b> project for Manatū Taonga, the Ministry of Culture & Heritage; and in <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_(publisher)" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></b>, thanks to @chocmilk.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Extensive Spiral, Women's Gallery and Kidsarus 2 collections are held at the <b>Alexander Turnbull Library</b>, National Library of New Zealand, Wellington Te Whanganui-a-Tara.</span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In a <span><a href="https://www.ketebooks.co.nz/all-new-books/from-the-centre-patricia-grace" target="_blank">recent review</a></span> of Patricia Grace's memoir <i>From the Centre </i>(2021), Emma Espiner wrote– </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you consider the history of New Zealand writing, it is both frightening and inspiring how influential the Spiral collective has been. This is the group who published Keri Hulme’s </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Bone People </i><span style="font-family: inherit;">and J.C. Sturm’s </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The House of the Talking Cat</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">, among other brilliant works which were unable to find support elsewhere. A group of women from the collective published Grace’s famous children’s story </span><i style="font-family: inherit;">The Kuia and the Spider</i><span style="font-family: inherit;">. From the time this book was published, Grace always insisted on reo Māori versions of her children’s books.' </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p></div></div><div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfZrtJVzKq-bCQV61y9DCJ4_gago-L_0-sF6eBhOUqGZkhFj4oKuN6xEDyscuqG_Mk88l7Gpi9ajHRUoutUTb6YHiRy0429Q15K2bbJKHZmdC90-6YwM_Vpidl92BmfEFXN0bgnrk-B9u/s800/1*m5zm739d4DtF3UOhIZMsOQ.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="800" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyfZrtJVzKq-bCQV61y9DCJ4_gago-L_0-sF6eBhOUqGZkhFj4oKuN6xEDyscuqG_Mk88l7Gpi9ajHRUoutUTb6YHiRy0429Q15K2bbJKHZmdC90-6YwM_Vpidl92BmfEFXN0bgnrk-B9u/s320/1*m5zm739d4DtF3UOhIZMsOQ.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: inherit;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(117, 117, 117); color: #757575; font-size: 14px;">Kete– </span><span class="dx gn" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(117, 117, 117); color: #757575; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600;">Kura Walker</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(117, 117, 117); color: #757575; font-size: 14px;"> née </span><span class="dx gn" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(117, 117, 117); color: #757575; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600;">Rua</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(117, 117, 117); color: #757575; font-size: 14px;"> Photograph– </span><span class="dx gn" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(117, 117, 117); color: #757575; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600;">Arekahānara</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(117, 117, 117); color: #757575; font-size: 14px;"> Design– </span><span class="dx gn" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(117, 117, 117); color: #757575; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 600;">J Terre</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(117, 117, 117); color: #757575; font-size: 14px;"> </span><span class="go" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(117, 117, 117); color: #757575; font-size: 14px; font-style: inherit;">Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa!</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><h3 style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://medium.com/dispatches-north-nigeria" target="_blank">Dispatches: North Nigeria</a> </h3><div><p>Changing Lives. One at a Time. Kano, Maiduguri, Chibok, Baga. #BokoHaram. Almajirai. #BringBackOurGirls. Orphans. Imagination. Hard Work. Hope. Via poet, artist and activist Fiona Lovatt and pretty amazing. To be updated.</p><p style="text-align: center;">*********</p></div><p style="text-align: left;">My love and warm thanks to all those who answered my questions with such care and often in great depth. Not that easy by email. If only there'd always been Zoom, with its RECORD & TRANSCRIBE functions! </p><p style="text-align: left;">And to those who allowed me to crosspost or republish their writing, who wrote specially for this site, commented here or by email, often looooong after I published a post. And to those who amplified what's here. To those whose friendships started here and nourished and continue to nourish me.</p><p style="text-align: left;">A special thank you to Matthew Hammett Knott for<a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2014/03/heroines-of-cinema-why-dont-more-women-make-movies-marian-evans-on-bridging-the-gap-between-theory-and-practice-28702/" target="_blank"> this story about me</a> on <i>Indiewire</i>: it's the best survey of the conceptual framework I worked within.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Gosh it was all a lot of hard work. And often a lot of fun. And I'm glad it's over.</p><p style="text-align: center;">********</p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Facebook</b> </p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Development.the.movie" target="_blank">Development</a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/screenswomen" target="_blank">Screens & Women: Books, Festivals, News, Opportunities</a> (used mostly as a personal tab space)</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Twitter</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/7r4sm" target="_blank">@7r4sm</a> home stuff etc & Spiral</p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://twitter.com/devt" target="_blank">@devt</a> screens & screen activism</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>instagram</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">@<a href="https://www.instagram.com/wellywoodwoman/" target="_blank">spiralcollectives</a>: women artists, writers & filmmakers, with Aotearoa New Zealand emphasis (used to be @wellywoodwoman).</p><p style="text-align: center;">********</p></div></div>wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-49829154854294368082020-10-25T00:27:00.004-07:002020-11-18T14:03:06.184-08:00Sister Galvan<p>An interview with film-maker Marian Evans</p><p>by Heather McPherson (2004)</p><section class="section section--body" name="54ee"><div class="section-content"><div class="section-inner sectionLayout--insetColumn"><p class="graf graf--p" name="00b2"><span class="markup--em markup--p-em"><b>H McP:</b> You’ve chosen this medium — film-making — subsequent to being an artist and publisher. Can you talk about why?</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="e707"><b>ME:</b> I’d often thought about making films. But I’d never felt enough of an artist to make super 8 films on my own like, say, Joanna Paul. Especially as I tend to think in long, costly, sequences. Digital film-making changed everything. The wonderful thing about digital technology is that it offers infinite possibilities for portraying someone’s life and ideas.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="c4d7">We’re no longer limited to either a film or something written, something on the Internet, an audio oral history or a video one, an emphasis on still or moving images. We can mix it all up and use multiple authorship to get what we want, using autobiographical or biographical sources. I find that exciting because it makes it possible to make a film about someone now, and include all the past stuff on an extended DVD. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="9474"><b>Sister Galvan</b> doesn’t do justice to Galvan’s complex life and work before the last period of Galvan’s daily life, ten years after he decided he wanted 'power out of his life' and left a problematic work environment and an unsatisfying domestic arrangement. And there’s only a tiny bit of his interactions with the next generation.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="fbf2">But his DVD will include, alongside <span class="markup--em markup--p-em"><b>Sister Galvan</b></span>, Galvan’s own writing — he had a vivid and idiosyncratic way of writing about art and social issues and wrote from the 70s about New Zealand art, as well as keeping a diary — and audiotapes, especially those we made about his gay life in the 60s and 70s and his memories of the legendary Rodney Kennedy. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="76b0">I like thinking of people in bed with their laptops, watching <b>Sister Galvan</b> and having the opportunity to flick to something Galvan wrote, or to an Internet reference, or more detail. For instance there’ll be more about Richard Grune, the gay artist who made absolutely stunning images of the concentration camp he was in. Galvan discovered him on the Internet and talks about him very movingly in the film.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b249">We can also add pictures of Galvan working with various artists and craftspeople, <span class="markup--em markup--p-em"><b>Kaleidoscope</b></span> tapes that include him. And the full story of the loss of his dog Puka. As we filmed we got caught up in that story in real time and it deserved its own movie. Finally, I’d like to include tributes from others.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="2244"><span class="markup--em markup--p-em"><b>H McP: </b>What is Penn doing in the film?</span></p><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetLeft" name="95f4"><img class="graf-image" data-height="225" data-image-id="1*aWovUKvuS3uu43Q1oAijdA.jpeg" data-width="300" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*aWovUKvuS3uu43Q1oAijdA.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Penn and Galvan outside City Gallery Wellington</span></figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="cbbf"><b>ME:</b> Because Galvan loved young people and they loved him, I chose to involve young men in the film. Gary Morris, who’s made 24 films himself, did some of the camera work and all the editing. Paul De Lean, who then went off to study at Swinburne, did the rest of the camera work. I knew that their conversations with Galvan were very different than mine and wanted to include a young man as interviewer and because Penn’s my son, and he’d been enjoying film and journalism at school, he was the obvious choice.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="4fad">I’ve had feedback that the representation of Penn as the visible member of the younger generation in the film is problematic. Although Penn and Galvan were very close, that doesn’t come across visually in the way that we expect a close relationship will. When I look at the footage I see an eighteen year old who could be described as unengaged or not listening, as I remember students also appearing to be when I was teaching. But because I know Penn well I can also see him thinking hard and completely engaged. And I see Galvan communicating vigorously <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">for the camera</em> rather than <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">with </em>Penn. One person thought Penn was possibly a young lover of Galvan’s and by implication a bit deferential to an older man; Galvan in fact always liked older men. Some people found Penn’s presence intrusive.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="1802">There’s no doubt that the transparency and sense of relationship I wanted is there in the sound track. The woman who transcribed the sound track before she saw the film — and who found the visual expression of the relationship problematic when she later saw it — had a better sense of the relationship between Galvan and Penn than those whose first encounter with the material included the visual images. So I may have failed in not directing Galvan and Penn differently because their relationship didn’t come across visually. But is this also because we have conventions about how interviewers <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">should </em>look and respond? Is it about our visual expectations? Should I have 'trained' Penn to look like a TV interviewer? I don’t know yet.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="0884">This year I’ve been reading Bresson on the use of 'models' as actors, not wanting people to 'act'. I’m wondering how in a documentary people would accept the visual relationship between Penn and Galvan as being an authentic representation of their (warm) relationship and having its particular, useful, significance, just as the verbal relationship has on the soundtrack. But this would require them to modify the way they behaved for filming purposes. I do know that Penn asked questions that as an older woman I might not ask, for instance about Galvan’s testicles, and that the other young men filming appreciated those questions. As have young men viewing the film.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="acf0"><span class="markup--em markup--p-em"><b>H McP: </b>How do you see your role in choosing your subjects of filming: as a social historian, a personal biographer, an empathizer with endangered marginals — all of the above?</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="509e"><b>ME:</b> Being a mother and a daughter was especially significant in the process, as I found out recently. As you know, I’m doing the scriptwriting course at the International Institute of Modern Letters this year. We did an exercise the other day, intended to help us find our own uniqueness as writers. I found that my focus is on motherhood and remembering. If I were to stand on a roof-top and shout a single message to a crowd, hoping to make them cheer (as required in the exercise) it would be 'remember your mothers'. To an intimate partner the message would be 'remember your mother'. Or if I had to whisper a one word message, it would be 'remember'.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f391">Given that in some ways I’m not the greatest mother in the world I was surprised. But then I remembered <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Mothers</em> about being a mother and being a daughter, the show I selected with Anna Keir in 1980, and sent round the country with an associated programme. I thought of my law thesis about the New Zealand jurisprudence of shared and equal parenting rights and responsibilities and its consequences for mothers — and how these laws obscure the gendered hierarchy of care for children and reinforce gender inequities. I remembered writing for Spiral about my own mother who mothered me badly but whom I came to love when I cared for her as she was dying. I remembered our — yours, mine, other feminist artists’ — difficult search for cultural grandmothers and how I’ve felt dependent on my peers to be cultural mothers. I realised that the feature film I’m writing in class is essentially for Simone, an eight year old who appears briefly at the beginning and end of the film, that my TV series proposal I thought was a thriller is also about motherhood.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="21e2">My first film project, with Irihapeti Ramsden, was called <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Something for the grandchildren to hold</em>. She and I talked often about mothering and the next generation, and her cultural safety theory is of course ultimately about making sure that everyone is safely nurtured.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="15bb">And, as Galvan says in the film, he missed being a parent, and he wanted to be reincarnated as a mother. Certainly he 'mothered' many artists in the best possible way. He also loved children and young people and they loved him, right until the end. Shortly before he died he gave a young friend art classes over five weeks for him and some of his mates. I hear the classes were wonderful.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="22c6">For me, the next generation is the reason for making films, another aspect of my own practice as a mother. If — like us when starting out — the next generation doesn’t have the opportunity to know its cultural forebears, locally and globally, it won’t benefit from their accumulated experience and wisdom. Galvan’s early work on Parihaka is just one fine example of his concern to learn and teach about difficult aspects of the history of this country. But he was also deeply concerned about making and analysing art and about details, like giving art objects space to radiate their own excellence when on display, or providing exhibition labels that were easily accessible to everyone. He never ever stopped questioning and thinking.</p><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetLeft" name="6249"><img class="graf-image" data-height="228" data-image-id="1*LBjLUbF51zKazM59PQG3ug.jpeg" data-is-featured="true" data-width="300" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*LBjLUbF51zKazM59PQG3ug.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Galvan and the inula from a cutting in Rodney Kennedy’s garden</span></figcaption></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="0237">And I found that the three young men who worked with me and who had never heard of Galvan just blossomed from spending time with him. He gave them so much. They were transformed by the experience. Other young men who see <b>Sister Galvan</b> also respond strongly and positively. One story Galvan himself told me was of sitting at the Wellington Railway Station in the freezing cold and having the young man on the coffee stall run over to say “You’re Galvan, I saw your film. It was wonderful and it changed my life.” That young man had responded to the gay parts of the film particularly, but the enthusiasm has come as often from straight young men as from gays. And from young women.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="19f9"><span class="markup--em markup--p-em"><b>H McP: </b>What is your position on the selective decisions/interventions/insertions of the maker?</span> <span class="markup--em markup--p-em">i.e. do you or/and Galvan decide on the content?</span> <span class="markup--em markup--p-em">Whose decisions — if either — would override?</span> <span class="markup--em markup--p-em">It may seem that only Galvan’s comfort boundaries operate — do yours?</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="e56d"><b>ME:</b> Hmmmm, as you would say.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="7e0f">None of it was scripted, nothing in the film at all, we just started filming. I asked questions about what interested me and Penn asked questions about what interested him. I’d also done some audiotapes and reading to make sure I had the right basic info to start from and a sense of the shape of Galvan’s life. But once we’d finished the interviews I tried to shape the material in a way that ensured that the basics introducing Galvan were in the first part and after that each of the more important aspects of his present life — identified by him — received equal attention.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="315d">I’ve learned from a number of these projects that it’s important to start with as few preconceptions or expectations as possible and that each project has to be carefully negotiated. There are oral historians and documentary makers who have standard contracts and release forms for their “subjects” who relinquish their copyright in the material generated and who often begin from the understanding that there will be no ongoing relationship after an interview is finished.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="00b7">My view is that although this may be appropriate for others, it can’t work for me. For a start, anyone I interview owns the copyright in their contribution to our interview, outright or in equal shares, depending on what we jointly decide. What they choose to contribute is their intellectual property, not mine, though I may “use” it to make another piece of intellectual property.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="338f">Galvan talking about McCahon does so from years of careful looking and rigorous thinking that I had nothing to do with. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="2e09">Why should I alone benefit from the use of that if others pay to watch and listen to him? It’s possible to make money from documentaries and if they are about individuals I think those individuals should receive a negotiated, proportionate, benefit.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f89d">Galvan didn’t want to have anything to do with shaping the movie or DVD, so we agreed that he’d see the film for the first time at its first public showing. Partly because of this I think but also, typically for him, and because he wasn’t going to be around for long, he wanted Spiral and the young men involved to benefit financially, rather than him. Unfortunately, because TVNZ wanted so much money for the use of their 87 seconds’ footage, we’ve only recently, thanks to GABA, been able to buy the rights to it. Until we distribute the film there won’t be any money to complete the DVD and certainly no financial benefit for Spiral to pass on. And as the DVD’s not a biography 'for the page' and the film is designed to be read with the other material rather than for TV or theatrical release, the project’s ineligible for many funding resources.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="bf60">My choices when editing were based on using the strongest material available to illustrate an aspect of Galvan and I didn’t think about the comfort zones of others. If I had, I’d have got in a terrible tangle. Boundaries were not something we discussed. Galvan and I abandoned our boundaries in a way that sometimes happens in sex where you just trust what’s happening without too much thought. We had an intense curiosity in the process, in each other’s questions and responses. There was never any question he didn’t want to answer and he was embarrassed just once, when I asked him “What about your mouth?”</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="4122">We talked a lot about sex and about prostate cancer and had many conversations that we didn’t record. It felt important to get the essence of the significance of sex in Galvan’s life. And there’s no doubt it was huge: I am still amazed when I imagine him having meetings in the institutions where he worked and then whipping out at lunchtime for sex in the local public toilets, instead of having a sandwich. I hadn’t realised that that went on and of course still goes on.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="882f">There’s so little documentary material about prostate cancer and about dying and death and there was enough material to do a whole film about either, but the prostate interviews were hard to edit and although we added some of Galvan’s CAT scans to cover some of the cuts, it’s not as easy to watch as I’d like, and that may exacerbate a viewer’s discomfort.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="f3d9">As far as ongoing relationships are concerned, the time that the people share with me is precious and if we’ve both valued that, it can only enhance our lives if we later choose to spend time together without the recording machines, building on the relationship we’ve developed. The relationship is an equal relationship, because we take time to negotiate the power balance at the outset, with a proviso that the initial agreement can be renegotiated. Penn as a young heterosexual did, now I think about it, have a less 'equal' relationship and this may explain some of the visual problems.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="7cff">It would be a different relationship and a different work if I had harvested Galvan’s story and taken it home to do what I liked with, without the initial negotiation and the assumption of shared ownership . Galvan asked me to include what he wanted — the shower scene — and told me I was to feel free to ask any question I wanted and to film anything else I wanted. He seemed to lack vanity. I don’t think I would have his trust or his courage, because I’ve always found it hard to look at photos of myself and to articulate aspects of my life in a way that satisfies me.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="5173">The relationship we created meant for example that long after the film was done I went out to the Wairarapa for a day after Galvan developed dysphasia and lay with him under his duvet while he rested, each of us with a book to read. He was very tired. All afternoon we watched the leaves dropping outside, with little conversations about things like why the coloured leaves dropped more slowly than the green ones and why the trees had different rhythms. Making himself understood was a struggle by then. But his mind was still working in the same way as usual apart from no longer having the capacity to find words easily and to form sentences. He was a bit disappointed that the Douglas Wright book I’d told him about had had to go back to the library. He’d hoped I would read it to him. But in spite of that, it was a lovely time.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="a66e">Our ongoing relationship meant that Penn and I participated in Galvan’s dying, too. And that was special. Being there when the beautiful woman in the cancer ward shaved his hair off and being aware of how much cultural safety has affected the care given in hospitals, in the way that kind of thing is done. Holding his woolly hat and glasses while he had the stunning custom made net mask put over his head to hold it still for radiation and then seeing the radiation on the TV screen. Hearing his second mother sing and talk to him the night before he died, sharing his care with his friends, keeping his mouth clean and lubricated, holding his hand. Seeing one friend kiss him lingeringly and lovingly on the lips and noticing Galvan’s response: the sleeping queen woke briefly, experiencing pleasure. If it hadn’t been at such short notice and if I hadn’t also wanted to be involved in his physical care I would have filmed the entire process. And he would have been happy with that. One of the best things about working with him was that he wanted all aspects of his life to be included and trusted me to do the best I could. He would also have been delighted to know that while he slept we watched Taika Waititi filming among the rubble of an old hospital building, out the window.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="377e">And from his dying and the hospital I’ve been given so much to think about. You and I both now live alone, our health somewhat compromised. I know from my thesis research that single mothers have a shortened life span, because of their single motherhood and not just as the result of the ongoing poverty that accompanies that status. Our marginalisation as lesbians has probably also affected our health. How will we be cared for? The nurses were so good at the hospital and even made sure Galvan was cared for by male nurses, realising he would like that. But they were overworked and the environment they work in made me feel ill. I don’t want to end up in a similar place, without resources, eating the horrible food, or at home feeling alone and unwanted as Galvan certainly did over the years he was sick. After he first saw the film he told me that before we started working on it he had decided to suicide. I don’t want that for you or anyone I care about either, but we are all so busy and you and I (as an example) living in different cities and without great energy or resources won’t be able to provide much care for each other.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="11e4">Galvan felt utterly embraced, possibly for the first time in his life, over his last months, by the group of people in Greytown who cared for him, including his friend Ian with whom he stayed often and his friends Juliet and the other Marian, as well as others. But although Ian stayed in Wellington to care for Galvan until the end, it wasn’t possible for the others to do so. And I was surprised — that apart from one former lover from out of town who happened to be in Wellington and another who came when he wasn’t at work, one friend from the art world, his wonderful second mother and a couple of visitors Galvan decided he didn’t want — there was no outpouring of love and support. Earlier one group had sent him a digital camera, and that thrilled him [2020: no iPhones then!]. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="4769">But towards the end, there was this silence and inaction, followed after his death considerable numbers of people wanting to participate in a send-off, who rang about the funeral and emailed to get copies of <b>Sister Galvan</b>. So many people knew he was ill and did nothing to help. No enquiries about what Galvan or his carers needed. I know he was 'difficult' as well as loved. But why did those people not even try?</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="01f7">And I read in an obituary for Irihapeti that towards the end of her life she felt isolated, emotionally and intellectually, and realised that I stopped ringing or going to see her at times when I felt I might be intruding. I think we need to talk more about living and dying and how to offer support, even if it is just to drop off or post an interesting book or image, rather than making assumptions. I know I’d like support while I’m living rather than people acknowledging me when I’m dead. And I’ve spent a bit of time thinking “Who I’d like lingering kisses from as I die, or to give me strength to live?” Strangely, I thought of Barb Macdonald who when she was alive would have liked to kiss me lingeringly and because at that time I wasn’t into lingering kisses on a casual basis I missed out. That kiss was certainly life enhancing for Galvan. It’s an issue to be considered, along with all the other touching and caressing: he loved me caressing his feet, even when his oedema was very severe.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="fc3a"><span class="markup--em markup--p-em"><b>H McP: </b>The wonderful shower scene and Galvan’s commentary which runs from the ‘aging body’ to the ‘old auntie” stereotype and details of what mother said on cleanliness…is there also a minor sub-text of “How to keep healthy”?</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="0836"><b>ME:</b> No, no sub-text there, simply Galvan being as and saying what he wanted. The second time he saw the film he told me that the shower scene ran for twelve minutes and he had expected it would be twelve seconds, but he liked it. One young Swiss woman found it hard that Galvan used a single face cloth for all parts of his body. I defended him, since he washed and rinsed the face cloth between parts, but from her point of view that was an extremely unhealthy practice. His mother I think has a strong presence in the film (there’s that mother theme again) which neither of us really thought about at the time but one of the first 'test' viewers remarked upon and really liked.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="27b4"><span class="markup--em markup--p-em"><b>H McP: </b>I was fascinated by the unexamined — as in the 8 year old being inducted into homosexual sex and the throw-away “I didn’t like it much at first but then I grew to love it”. To me this suggests this homosexual was ‘made’ not ‘born’ — does this resonate with</span> <span class="markup--em markup--p-em">you — does it matter? A defecting film watcher who said that “any sex, not just homosexual sex” was too much for him also talked about “’triumphalism’ — a need to be seen as ‘winning’ or I am who I am regardless of others’ boundaries.” I’d interpret this more as a kind of compensation as in — if this is what I am then I will be it flamboyantly. You as maker seem content to leave in the contradictions — Galvan’s quest for ‘inner’ spirituality with the need to embody or identify with symbols/markings, his pragmatic reaction to the dog’s skeleton compared with previous distress — without wanting to tie things up. Is this a commitment to being post-modern or how the work unfolded or….?</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="43f6"><b>ME:</b> O dear, this is where I reveal my naivety. As I’ve said, I just began and went on, without a theoretical basis. </p><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetLeft" name="3f1c"><img class="graf-image" data-height="171" data-image-id="1*apxP0HqfAzlgD_toY42lSA.jpeg" data-width="300" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*apxP0HqfAzlgD_toY42lSA.jpeg" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="9a72">Now I’ve learned about films as ‘journeys’ I can see that the film is based around various kinds of journeys: Galvan’s life and the work within it until the present, his bicycle rides to and from his office, the sexual journey, abruptly terminated by his castration, his spiritual journey, the tattoo trip and the travelling towards death as his final magic moment. Also in there are my journey and the journeys of the young men working on the film.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="98a2">Several people have asked why I didn’t pursue the issue of Galvan’s sexual experience as an eight year old. They were mostly shocked. I guess if he had been a woman I may have asked at the time. But my sense was that the question was redundant. When I asked him about the sex as abuse – after people asked me — his response was much as I expected: that in the larger scheme of things his introduction to sex with another person may have been ‘abusive’ but that it didn’t matter at all. What is perceived as abusive towards an eight year old may have introduced Galvan to sexual practices that suited him rather than ‘turning him into a homosexual’.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="0ac1">Furthermore, I see sexual and physical abuse as subsets of psychological abuse, which may itself cause physical ill health and I’m sure Galvan was abused psychologically, all his life. It’s important to remember this and see the abuse of him as a child within this context. Being ‘out’, as Galvan was in the days before homosexual law reform, and intensely sexual as well intensely intellectual, creative and political, I imagine he was scary for a lot of people. As are most visionaries. And there’s no doubt some people saw him as an unpredictable whirlwind of energy they needed to control, if only because implementation of his many excellent ideas blew out their budgets. Consequently I suspect some people responded abusively to him, overtly or subtly. Over the years, this kind of abuse could have been more damaging than the earlier sexual abuse. Maybe Galvan was recognising this when he said he wanted power out of his life and stating that if he had still been working at Te Papa he would have died long ago.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="a58f">Galvan was a mass of contradictions and happy to own them and to live with them. His tenderness for Puka, his weeping over the corpse was as real as his concern to enhance Puka’s skull by having it covered in silver for use as a sacred object. One viewer was appalled that he could take the head and do nothing with the body, but my sense was that although he found seeing the whole body upsetting, it was immaterial to him whether it was buried or deteriorated as it was, concealed under a tree where people rarely passed. He also knew that Puka’s spirit was long gone from the body and as he was so fond of saying “It (the removal of the skull) didn’t matter”. He was pragmatic about his own body as well, straight to the crematorium without ceremony. I can’t quite believe that I won’t see those stunning tattoos any more.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="2993">Flamboyance. He could act the queen anytime he felt like it and it was wonderful when the Queen’s Birthday gun salute over Oriental Bay started just as I learned he was being cremated in the Wairarapa. What is flamboyance? Passion? Honesty? Transparency? The thing about his queenliness, which is how flamboyance is often understood, was that it persisted even when he was in his swandri building a chook house. I loved his refusal to tamp himself down for others’ comfort, although it was sometimes hard. It was awful when he shouted “GO AWAY!” to me at the hospital at a moment when I couldn’t help him because he was desperate for medication. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="2993">But I know that he wanted to behave lovingly to those around him, was distraught if he felt he had hurt or caused offence and always made amends. In my own experience he changed his behaviour when I explained that something offended me; he did not offend again. He knew that it wasn’t acceptable to treat people badly and sometimes, like the rest of us, did not realise he had offended. Some of his behaviour may have been learned, resulted from others’ abuse of him; perhaps he never acknowledged the connection. But in the end I found it possible to accommodate Galvan’s responses, positive and negative, however powerfully expressed, because they were just part of his honesty, part of his flamboyance. Honesty may only be painful when it hits us in the ego I guess, or challenges our world view in a way that makes us feel uncomfortable. And our last interchange before he died was utterly loving.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="5a9b"><span class="markup--em markup--p-em"><b>H McP: </b>Would you approach making this film the same way another time?</span></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="c5a9"><b>ME: </b>I’d do it more consciously in the technical as well as the emotional sense. I know now more about what digital film-making is capable of and where my own strengths lie. I’d perhaps try to direct Galvan and Penn and the camera more and I’d also persist more with the spiritual stuff. I think you can tell that although they were very important to Galvan I found it hard to relate to his spiritual practices. And the limitations of time, skill and money meant that the spiritual images were weak. I wish I’d been around when he made great petrol circles and set them alight. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="c5a9">But yes, as an exercise in creating something that conveyed who and what Galvan was I’d approach it the same way: research, negotiation, careful looking and listening, trust and, of course, love. </p><figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetLeft" name="78c4"><img class="graf-image" data-height="228" data-image-id="1*mrgG0fbotfruofB6J-818g.jpeg" data-width="300" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*mrgG0fbotfruofB6J-818g.jpeg" /></figure><p class="graf graf--p" name="7c7a">The outcome was no more important than making sure that the process warmed and enriched each of us. It looks a bit corny written down, but that’s how it was.</p></div></div></section><section class="section section--body" name="8369"><div class="section-divider"><hr class="section-divider" /></div><div class="section-content"><div class="section-inner sectionLayout--insetColumn"><p class="graf graf--p" name="b25b">2020: <i>I was clearing my files onto a hard drive for deposit at the Alexander Turnbull Library when I found this old interview. I'd forgotten about it. </i></p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b25b">Poet and Spiral founder Heather McPherson’s own last days were hard, too. In late 2016, when Cushla Parekowhai, her car packed with Heather’s archives, also for the Turnbull Library, kindly drove me from Auckland to Wellington, we visited Heather at a rest home in Hamilton. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="b25b">She asked me if I’d help her die because her quality of life was so poor. And later, I wrote about that in the catalogue for the exhibition <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">This Joyous Chaotic Place: He Waiata Tangi-ā-Tahu </strong>(2018–2019, Mokopōpaki and Spiral), about Heather and her peers. </p></div></div></section><section class="section section--body" name="1cd6"><div class="section-divider"><hr class="section-divider" /></div><div class="section-content"><div class="section-inner sectionLayout--insetColumn"><p class="graf graf--p" name="da33">Here’s a short version of <b>Sister Galvan</b> that I used when teaching. Youtube removed it because of the nudity included in his shower scene.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="da33">
<iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="483" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/75298510?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="640"></iframe> </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="da33">I never made the DVD, because for years after Galvan died I couldn’t look at anything that reminded me of him. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="da33">And, someone with accesss to a studio we used wiped the hard drive with all the footage on, although the original mini-DVD tapes are in the Alexander Turnbull Library. Maliciously, I believe, because they also set the hard drive to be unusable until some far distant future time.</p><p class="graf graf--p" name="ea85">I still miss him. </p><p class="graf graf--p" name="ea85">More about Sister Galvan <a href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/p/sister-galvan.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p class="graf graf--p graf--empty" name="0452"><br /></p></div></div></section><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-2547011624436395762020-09-03T20:09:00.001-07:002020-09-03T20:20:21.874-07:00Rouzie Hassanova & Annie Collins in Conversation<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIedbF7MpS0C9cXf2Vpb9WiReJWDTDmBTFf8P4jtYaLD6zgwf6qxrtu9dGUscwEMifHOSAzl3zTVMfer3mHWjL4tNTcqxM7vP099OHOHqB_bRESyyRjrUYk0nM_urmCYxBmTvf8-ZBMAd0/s700/1*DrDa4AvTEkRXhbxpLkw7bQ.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="466" data-original-width="700" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIedbF7MpS0C9cXf2Vpb9WiReJWDTDmBTFf8P4jtYaLD6zgwf6qxrtu9dGUscwEMifHOSAzl3zTVMfer3mHWjL4tNTcqxM7vP099OHOHqB_bRESyyRjrUYk0nM_urmCYxBmTvf8-ZBMAd0/w625-h416/1*DrDa4AvTEkRXhbxpLkw7bQ.jpeg" title="Rouzie Hassanova introduces Radiogram" width="625"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Rouzie Hassanova introduces her <b>Radiogram (photo: Adrienne Martyn)</b></span><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="27a7" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">To mark the anniversary of the Christchurch massacre, on 15 March 2019, Green MP Jan Logie hosted a screening of <a class="cb dg ke kf kg kh" href="https://medium.com/directedbywomen-aotearoa/rouzie-hassanovas-radiogram-448197258760" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg preserveAspectRatio=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 1 1\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(41, 41, 41, 1)\" /></svg>"); background-position: 0px 50%; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Rouzie Hassanova’s <span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram</span></a>, organised by #directedbywomen #aotearoa.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3cd5" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">It was just before New Zealand’s first Covid-19 lockdown, in March 2020.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4289" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">We got together for a drink and a snack at Backbenchers, along with our lovely photographer <a class="cb dg ke kf kg kh" href="https://www.adriennemartyn.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg preserveAspectRatio=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 1 1\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(41, 41, 41, 1)\" /></svg>"); background-position: 0px 50%; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Adrienne Martyn</a>, and then crossed to Parliament’s Beehive theatrette. (Since then New Zealanders have become very familiar with this venue, where almost-daily Covid-19 press conferences are streamed, with the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, other Ministers and the Legendary Dr Ashley Bloomfield.)</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e941" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Lorna Kanavatoa welcomed us all in the voice of the mana whenua, Taranaki Te Ātiawa, and introduced Jan as ‘one of our local Porirua people who we’re so proud of having amongst us and who speaks on our behalf’.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e941" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><br></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipeP0jSWoETY_Lxn2UdGlwcX7q2j3uR50YpUy8u05IldTS6Sx6HiBglFSJWzJpwQcUrxXeX998ywgw_qgDwNhFLlVpiFFbnkUcA_pQ3Rf_ntFoKGMi3rVFS4ptRI15kFVC3VYN35AXebpU/s500/1*4oH4HHW-zGW26eAw8s8u2A.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="338" data-original-width="500" height="423" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipeP0jSWoETY_Lxn2UdGlwcX7q2j3uR50YpUy8u05IldTS6Sx6HiBglFSJWzJpwQcUrxXeX998ywgw_qgDwNhFLlVpiFFbnkUcA_pQ3Rf_ntFoKGMi3rVFS4ptRI15kFVC3VYN35AXebpU/w625-h423/1*4oH4HHW-zGW26eAw8s8u2A.jpeg" width="625"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Jan Logie speaks from the heart (photo: Adrienne Martyn)</span><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4da7" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">When Jan spoke, she reminded us that before March 15 2019 ‘members of the Muslim community had been raising alarms for us for months and that they hadn’t been heard, about rising levels of hatred and violence that they were seeing’.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f64a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">And she continued: ‘<span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram</span> is a film about a father who decides to walk almost 100 kilometres to the nearest town to buy a new radio for his rock and roll obsessed son. And the film celebrates the strength of the human spirit, family, friendship and the power of music, and is based on a true story from 1971, set in a predominantly Muslim community in Bulgaria under the communist regime, where religious expression and Western music are forbidden. And so there are many themes in this story that feel relevant today, about the human spirit and how we create communities and enable people to live free lives, for everyone within our communities’.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="31f6" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Jan also referred to why <span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram</span> hasn’t been seen more widely: ‘In 2016 there was research done that looked at all of the films across the world that have been distributed in any form. And only 16 percent of those were by women. Which is pretty shocking. But then, actually, those that made it to theatre release was only two percent. So gatherings like this are subversive. This is at some level, almost an underground railway for women’s film. And I think it is on all of us to to push for more opportunities for, and more pressure, for the diversity of stories to be told and to be told in the same range of places’ (1).</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5b6c" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Rouzie then introduced <span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram</span>.</p><h2 class="lt lu hw cn eh lv lw jl lx ly jp lz ma jt mb mc jx md me kb mf cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="fe1f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 26px; letter-spacing: -0.022em; line-height: 32px; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em;">The Q &A</h2><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj mg jl jm jn mh jp jq jr mi jt ju jv mj jx jy jz mk kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="fa79" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">After the screening, Jan introduced Rouzie and legendary editor <a class="cb dg ke kf kg kh" href="https://medium.com/spiral-collectives/annie-collins-editor-extraordinaire-e631bf1c26c8" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg preserveAspectRatio=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 1 1\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(41, 41, 41, 1)\" /></svg>"); background-position: 0px 50%; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Annie Collins</a>, there to question Rouzie. Rouzie’s young daughter Emily joined them at first and Cushla Parekowhai joined them at the end of their conversation, enriching the discussion with another dimension. Jan and Lorna then closed the evening.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d03b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Soundtech’s beautiful (unedited) recording of the event, which includes everything except the film and Lorna’s closing remarks, is <a class="cb dg ke kf kg kh" href="https://archive.org/details/rouzie-hassanova" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg preserveAspectRatio=\"none\" viewBox=\"0 0 1 1\" xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(41, 41, 41, 1)\" /></svg>"); background-position: 0px 50%; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a6ab" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">This is a lightly edited transcript of Jan’s post-screening introduction, Rouzie and Annie’s discussion and some of the audience questions at the end.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1a83" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Jan Logie </span>It’s an extraordinarily beautiful and moving film. [Applause.] And I’d like to welcome up Rouzie and Annie Collins... I think we can all, after sitting through that, understand why it’s won awards around the world and acknowledge what an incredible achievement that is, particularly as a first feature film and how lucky we are to have Rouzie living in New Zealand. [More applause.] … </p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1a83" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">I’m really looking forward to the conversation between Rouzie and Annie Collins, who I suspect is known to most people in the room. But in case there’s somebody who isn’t as familiar with the film industry, Annie is one of New Zealand’s leading film editors who has edited I understand over 50 films, around 50 films. Maybe you haven’t done the adding up, but when when I was scanning through, it was a very, very long list, and of some very important films for us as a country, including the <span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Poi E</span> video which for me is personally very important. And [Merata Mita’s] <span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Patu!</span>. So I’m really looking forward to the dialogue between the two of them. </p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1a83" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">And hopefully [Emily’s] face will cheer up when you get to sit next to your mum, because that was quite amazing, wasn’t it? Aren’t you proud of your mum? Yeah. So I welcome you up onto the stage. All of you.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1a83" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><br></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitTgmE_U9iYDoxR8WpmfbD5yin-JTM9vhvuGGbbElGOkgENXvjJuVOBQHsnBDPp_wfhBCp86Z7WMzx3UdPsRa9M92CNA75xblu7U0TuILXL0XVR03mqPVyEAfNz24toOXfub9dLQsq7E7m/s500/1*yUfPc9FUGHRRcyoh5gto3A.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="375" data-original-width="500" height="469" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitTgmE_U9iYDoxR8WpmfbD5yin-JTM9vhvuGGbbElGOkgENXvjJuVOBQHsnBDPp_wfhBCp86Z7WMzx3UdPsRa9M92CNA75xblu7U0TuILXL0XVR03mqPVyEAfNz24toOXfub9dLQsq7E7m/w625-h469/1*yUfPc9FUGHRRcyoh5gto3A.jpeg" width="625"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(117, 117, 117); color: #757575;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">Annie Collins, Rouzie, Emily (photo: Lorna Kanavatoa)</span></span><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="dc43" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Thanks very much, Jan. [Emily joins the panel.] We thought we were going to have a third person on this panel anyway, so I think it’s just right. Kia ora tatou katoa. My feeling is that the introduction or the choice of this film on this day, after the Christchurch massacre commemorations is actually, for me, a perfect film. It’s… It is just the right film.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="cfd6" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Thank you. I mean, for me, it’s very difficult to judge that because you know, it’s it’s what happened last year, it’s it’s it’s it’s horrible. It’s something that, you know you never want to see and you don’t want to experience and it’s you know, there’s nothing I can say. Thank you. And I didn’t know if a film is fitting to mark the anniversary because film is an expression, it’s an art, especially my version of the story is an expression of what I feel my granddad and my dad were going through at the time. I wasn’t alive at the time, so it was very…</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="30bc" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">You know, I had to consult myself with a lot of relatives and a lot of you know, friends and family and people in the village and, and from all different perspectives, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, because I didn’t want to offend anyone. I wanted to make a film that celebrated Muslim culture and introduced it in a very relatable kind of way. It was very important to me that I wanted to let people in and understand us rather than feel a distance from us. So when Jan, thank you for the invite and Marian mentioned that they wanted the film to be shown here to mark the anniversary my first reaction was no way a film can take anything away from what happened. But then I was encouraged that it is fitting because it allows people to understand. It allows people to relate and and and include and feel like they know the culture a little bit better after that.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a4e9" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Mm hmm. Bulgaria has a huge history to it, and do people here who haven’t been there know where Bulgaria is? (Laughs.) I had to Google to find it.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f16b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>A lot of people do. Yeah, but we are north of Turkey. That’s the best way to describe it. And north of Turkey and Greece. And south of Romania, yeah. So we’re just all Balkans really. We’re all the same. I feel like… I’ve been to Turkey many times. I’ve been to Greece. I’ve been around most of the Balkans. And I feel like we’re one big family just living in different kinds of countries. The food is the same. The people seem to have the same customs and similar kind of understanding of life and everything. So I feel like we’re one big family. We just end up being in different countries.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ea19" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Mm hmm. Because you’ve got about five countries surrounding you, haven’t you? And the Black Sea.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6ca3" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>On west I mean, on east, sorry.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2987" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Yeah. And… (Laughs.)</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2693" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>It’s all very confusing.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="70bc" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>And what that means it seems to me is that there is constant incursions into and shifting of borders and boundaries all through the centuries. And so the country is just continually…</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a6e9" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>It’s very hard because it’s on that route into Europe. So if you’re coming from the Middle East or immigrating from that region or even from Africa, you can still come through Turkey and Greece and Bulgaria. Sometimes it’s a good choice, but they usually choose to go from Macedonia and Serbia. And somehow that’s why I think the Balkans are [in a] very important position geographically because there’s so many people who have gone through. And that’s why Bulgarians are so different in terms of how we look, because it’s been taken over, empires after empires after empires. I mean, we were under the Ottoman Empire for five hundred years. So we’re very influenced by the Muslim community and the culture. But the Muslim community is a minority there. So it’s interesting and the same with Greece. But we’ve also been in the Roman Empire. I mean, so many empires have taken us over. So we are big mix of lots of nationalities and lots of colours and lots of heights and colours of hair and all sorts.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b927" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>One of the things that really interests me within <span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram</span>is that there are quiet little essences of the things that people do when they colonise, when they take over another country. And one of them is spirit. You got to break the spirit of people. So you take the religion or you change the religion.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0967" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yes. Yes. Yes. That’s the first that has to go yet. Yes.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="bfbe" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>And the thing about names. It’s so, so crucial. My dad who came out from Scotland had this little saying which I didn’t understand for decades, which was ‘It’s a wise child knows its own father’. Interesting. And your name is gone. Who are you?</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="bfbe" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><br></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0rsMIf3YSvPZkiz46uD1sZyeHy2YT3_LJV-TvTXLsEczpoDqF22038fvRQs4qmms76gQyUkgsDda2J-_K1FnZbQ877g8v5zv9gjAKVyrV8HMHAAjg1DIk-CEcPaGDFyCFeZ5hurtsSim_/s700/1*5TWe-hEvdkzdlU-6rz_VDg.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="700" height="479" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0rsMIf3YSvPZkiz46uD1sZyeHy2YT3_LJV-TvTXLsEczpoDqF22038fvRQs4qmms76gQyUkgsDda2J-_K1FnZbQ877g8v5zv9gjAKVyrV8HMHAAjg1DIk-CEcPaGDFyCFeZ5hurtsSim_/w625-h479/1*5TWe-hEvdkzdlU-6rz_VDg.jpeg" width="625"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Annie & Rouzie (photo: Adrienne Martyn)</span><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="772c" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Well, they knew that with Muslim religion the name is the one of the biggest and, you know, kind of things that if they take away, that really breaks them or breaks the unity within the community. Because in Muslim religion, this is what I know from my grandparents and my parents, if you change your name, then Allah on the other side when you die doesn’t know who you are. So you can’t be judged. You can’t be tried, as you say. So Allah would not know if you should go to heaven or hell, which means you’re stuck forever in the in-between.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d1ee" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">And that’s the worst nightmare for Muslim people. They’d rather be in hell if they’d been, you know, bad people than in the middle, stuck forever, not knowing where they’re going. So the names, it had such a big importance, like bigger than losing your life. A lot of people lost their lives over the change of their names. The film could have been even more dramatic and so on, but I didn’t want to put such an emphasis on it because I wanted to make a film for a family audience and I wanted people to understand, not to be isolated or see it as some sort of propaganda or anything like that. So I was very, very careful how I portrayed that.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8e52" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>I understand that you did run into some trouble at some stage while you were filming, because some of the people around whom you were filming thought you were making propaganda.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2120" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yes. Yeah. Of course, everyone’s open to having their own opinions. And for some people, probably it’s seen as a controversial film because it does reveal Muslim people as human. But this is why I wanted to make it. And we were doing a night shoot. And it was in one of the big scenes in the party secretary’s kind of office. And it was 2 o’clock in the morning, I think. The mayor of the village next door decided to come over and threaten us and tell us to stop shooting because they were against what we were doing: this film should never have been made. And because people were fearful of misrepresentation or, because what happened was during communism there were few stages of changing the names of the Muslim community.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4ca8" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">So we started off from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s. And because there were quite a few people and they were doing it strategically one by one, by hiring their own people to do it. So they were smart about it.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4ca8" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">But a lot of the Muslim community, because now, 60, 70 years later, a lot of the Muslim people have now converted back to Christian religion. So they’ve felt that I was trying to make a film now against them or shaming them, which wasn’t the case at all. So it was very difficult to try and explain that I wasn’t doing that. It was it’s actually a very family story. I’m keeping it close to my family because that’s what happened to them. And I wanted to show something that I’m very proud of, of my culture and my family.</span></p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d2ab" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><br></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLHkIzXyQ4jR8Lt1gxEGFxA40xnxQJhMl00h6ed3avS_ef38btBONReAYD33GZObbdDbInxV0PdFzfAFdxAPHSGQK3M5ZbF0qUYloDX3JBeTHscxrcnBUaXCagHqoIbV4NLWMiTRk56jm4/s500/1*ICTSlG0aB1FrRyTXcb78Vg.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="369" data-original-width="500" height="461" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLHkIzXyQ4jR8Lt1gxEGFxA40xnxQJhMl00h6ed3avS_ef38btBONReAYD33GZObbdDbInxV0PdFzfAFdxAPHSGQK3M5ZbF0qUYloDX3JBeTHscxrcnBUaXCagHqoIbV4NLWMiTRk56jm4/w625-h461/1*ICTSlG0aB1FrRyTXcb78Vg.jpeg" width="625"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Annie & Rouzie (photo Adrienne Martyn)<br></span><div style="text-align: left;"><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6ae3" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>I think that’s one of the things which I feel about the film, is that it’s very authentic and you don’t get that authenticity unless you are a person of that culture, because the authenticity doesn’t come from the big stories and the big speeches, it comes from the tiny details of family life.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2ec1" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">And only somebody who knows and comes from that culture actually understand which details are the important things that give you the clues.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d2b4" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>I mean, that’s right. But I have to admit it took a lot of cast and crew encouragement because I feared that there will be a lot of backlash. I mean, I’ve experienced discrimination, racism myself. And so I was very scared. Even at financing stage we had a lot of people against the movie. They misread the script. There was a lot of things said in public that shouldn’t have been said. But we just tried to rise above it. But my producer [was] Gergana Dankova.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="fc02" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">You know, it’s very difficult when you’re trying to make an authentic film and you’re a first time filmmaker and you’re a woman and everyone is looking at you and everyone is questioning you and saying, are you going to do something that will misrepresent my country or my people? And are you going to offend me? And then, you know, it took a lot of encouragement. I needed encouragement from the cast. And thank God they were with us on the journey because they were very dedicated. And being professional actors they they were the ones who inspired me to speak the dialect in the film.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="51ca" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>So you had written in what language?</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e570" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>In a clear, a little literary, kind of Bulgarian, which is not the language they speak in the mountains. In the mountains they speak a bit of a mix of Turkish and Bulgarian. It’s kind of strange. Yeah.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f85e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>So when did that change occur?</span></p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f85e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span><span>Two days before the shoot. (Laughter.) So this is what I’m saying: I didn’t have the guts to write it like that because it wouldn’t have gone through the financing process. I knew that and I didn’t have the guts to direct it like that. But it took the actors to say, “Hold on. Let’s do this right.” And I was like, “Yes, why am I not doing this right? Why am I even thinking about getting them to speak clean Bulgarian when they don’t in the mountains?”</span></span></p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f85e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG29FwG4Dz225-xTwmKGH9iLwTRjJ5e5bLVwSoEq-EwyL6cnm6D5MnTuuG1EyfgHDjYQMpE5xvadIk3CeEzWhS_i6kpq6r4KiK_PBkbps3Oc4Xkm9BE0ETMIEWTXTpcQO2EITNuJHzYd7y/s500/1*_bjfBwJ4EVgVjFIffd12eA.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="500" height="419" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG29FwG4Dz225-xTwmKGH9iLwTRjJ5e5bLVwSoEq-EwyL6cnm6D5MnTuuG1EyfgHDjYQMpE5xvadIk3CeEzWhS_i6kpq6r4KiK_PBkbps3Oc4Xkm9BE0ETMIEWTXTpcQO2EITNuJHzYd7y/w625-h419/1*_bjfBwJ4EVgVjFIffd12eA.jpeg" width="625"></a></div><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ff92" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>So it’s like these two these two languages, there’s two versions of the script. There’s a script that the funders can read and give you money for.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="60a6" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yeah.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a219" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>And there’s a script that actually you shoot.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1bd7" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yeah.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="bda4" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>And in many ways they shouldn’t be the same script.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9407" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Well, in our situation, yes. And also it took us almost five years for the project to get the money from Bulgaria because of that problem. We had a lot of… We faced a lot of difficulty in getting the money. And the only reason why we got 100,000 euros from the Bulgarian National Film Centre is because there was money left in the budget in 2015. And we were the next project on the list that just about made it. And so they called my producer and they said, right, we can’t give you 700 that you wanted, but we can give you 100. Can you make it? And so then she called me and I said, “I think we can”. And so then we I called some friends in Turkey and I offered them the Turkish rights and I said, I need another 25 so we can actually shoot the movie, because that’s what we needed to actually go into production. And then that’s why it took us two years to finish editing because we had nothing left. So we had to do it as and when and favours. And… You know.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="785d" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Yeah, I know. (Laughter.) So you actually had a co-production with Poland?</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0708" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yeah. That was just equipment.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="23d4" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>So, just equipment for the shoot.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4cbe" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yeah. So we had four Polish guys arrive in a massive truck with all the camera, lighting, sound. It was all given to us. Well we had it for free, but of course that was part of the co-production agreement is that they will come in. But it was great because obviously we do not have money for any of the equipment…</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="74ab" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>That’s pretty interesting that you you get a co-production with Poland.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f6cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>It is very interesting because now they’re kind of going a little bit the other way. They’re becoming quite right and quite isolating to other cultures and religions. But, you know, we had we had the greatest luck of meeting these two producers that really liked the script and and the team behind really wanted to kind of be part of the experience and make something together, so…</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b4ce" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>I wanted to ask you a little bit more about the cast and directing them, etc., because for for me, the performances that are up on screen are faultless.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2475" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>I see a lot of mistakes, but anyway…</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="12a1" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>That’s not just really great actors. You can direct great actors really badly and come up with a heap of what you don’t want. It’s also director.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="19f0" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Well. Thank you. I was very conscious that I wanted the actors to feel like they were one of the people in the village. So three days or four days before the shoot, I had them stay with some locals. And I had them separate, in different rooms. And I had them basically do exactly what the locals were doing, going to pick the tobacco, milking cows, scything the hay, you know, loading the trucks. You know, every single thing that is in the movie, they did it. And at first they were a little bit uncertain because in Bulgaria, they’ve never really done such an exercise before. But for me, it was very important that it looks authentic on screen. And they loved it. And maybe this is the reason why they then encouraged me to change the language because they spent that time. And they started seeing how easy it was, an important part of the life, how people spoke. So…</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3064" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>That’s a process that you put them through.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="812a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yeah.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b593" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Which was quite unusual I take it, for going onto a film set.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ccca" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>It was, especially because we didn’t have any money. So it was unusual. They didn’t expect it. They felt out of comfort, their comfort zone, because these are guys…everyone in the movie is incredibly famous in Bulgaria. So they, they’re like stars. So they didn’t really expect any of that kind of living in someone’s house with basics like not even proper toilets, you know. And just kind of with the animals. But they loved it at the same time. They loved it because it was different.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="fe2c" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Is your background from one of those sorts of villages?</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d419" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yeah, I’m basically one of those little girls that was in the tobacco fields. It’s the same village that I grew up. And that’s the house, we shot in the same house of my granddad. Everything in the movie is pretty much one to one with what I remember from back then.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="11c6" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>More authenticity isn’t it?</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8116" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Well, I was very proud. I remember being on the tobacco fields when I was four or five years old and it was so hot and I was so tired because we had to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning to go there really early. And, you know, when you’re a kid, you want to play. But I had to do all this work and I was praying for rain so I can just kind of sit and not do anything. But, you know, at the same time, I remember all the songs. I remember how people got together. And they were always some sort of…</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b94c" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Everything was connected with music in a funny way. We sang songs when we were happy and we sang songs when we were very sad. And so for me, it’s something that I grew up with and I really wanted to show to the whole of Bulgaria to see, because when I …when the summer was over, I was back at school and that was in the middle of Bulgaria. And my classmates didn’t know what I was up to. And and and I felt different, but I couldn’t really explain. So, yeah, I just basically wanted to tell everyone how proud I am of who I am. Yeah.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d805" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>So if you come from a wee village, that village we saw, how on earth did you start making films? It’s not the easiest sort of thing to do.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="adba" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Well, no. Well, so long story. But don’t know how to say it short. I applied when I was 18. I applied for a lot of universities. A lot of Bulgarian universities. International universities. Because I spoke English, I went to a special kind of course, to speak, to learn English and special school, to get really fluent. And I wanted, I really wanted to study, you know, a world class kind of education, to have that. But when an opportunity came that one university in London offered me a position, a place, I jumped at it because… my name is Muslim. So at the time, I felt that I didn’t have the same opportunities as my classmates if I stayed.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9e2e" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The option of leaving and trying somewhere else like the U.K. was amazing. And I felt instantly welcomed. And nobody cared. Nobody nobody cared about my name or the fact that I had a Muslim background. Everyone was like, just come and do this. And I now felt very included. I instantly found friends. And not that I didn’t have friends in Bulgaria. I did. But for my future, I felt that was the best opportunity because my family, you know, they were repressed. And so they pushed me out of the door, basically. And then film.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="623d" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Film took a lot of time. I would say eight to nine years, but it’s something that I wanted to try. And I don’t know, I guess I’m a little bit crazy that I always make films even though I never have money, but it just started off with a short, going to university, which got a distinction. And then I got encouraged to keep going. And then I made another short out of my own. And then another one. And then another one. And then the feature took about nine years. So a long time.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c928" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Is it nine years for one film? I mean, it’s not unheard of here in this country either. But, so. (Laughter.). But it’s it’s it’s a huge patch of your life to put in to put into one thing but that you put into this film, that’s…</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="cf45" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>I mean, I, you know, when you start making something, you never think it’s going to take that long. You always think, Oh, we’ll make it. And it’s going to be straight out and it’s going to have a life, and so on. But I was really passionate about telling this movie, and there was a lot of people, of course, encouraging me to make it into a thriller, into an action. And and all sorts.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6549" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>You need a car chase.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="352a" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yeah, I know. Next one. But it wasn’t the kind of film I wanted to make, actually. I was trying to stay very close to a Turkish director who is one of my biggest influences. And his name is Semih Kaplanoğlu. And so I was going for that kind of very poetic, but also like very authentic. And I wanted to basically show something that was real and not fake.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="204f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>One of the things that just grabs me about <span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram</span> is a couple of things. It’s how you had figured out the essence of what information you want to seem to give. But the most important thing that you’ve figured is what emotion you want to give with the information. And that’s, that’s that’s a quality not many filmmakers have.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="204f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkAqJwfPuev-R0p4zT4s2IkHtuBKgTFpFuVPCTKr-Y9f1Q1_f7RfUPuyA3O2TUbhfeYPP0Esz9dWaRgtWFKJDV_glJbNIyeb_E4-f_o3kfb_LYr_6Ro4qwKjkhKzIDwVjsjgqUfnq2iUBh/s500/1*tXmzyaCN8rT6l_pMygVilA.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="333" data-original-width="500" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkAqJwfPuev-R0p4zT4s2IkHtuBKgTFpFuVPCTKr-Y9f1Q1_f7RfUPuyA3O2TUbhfeYPP0Esz9dWaRgtWFKJDV_glJbNIyeb_E4-f_o3kfb_LYr_6Ro4qwKjkhKzIDwVjsjgqUfnq2iUBh/w625-h416/1*tXmzyaCN8rT6l_pMygVilA.jpeg" width="625"></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Annie & Rouzie (photo: Adrienne Martyn)</span> </div><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="f046" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Well, there were a few occasions that I can recall where, because of that, because I was a little bit obsessive about it. There were some some scenes that we reshot three times and there were some scenes that we did 17 takes. On one camera set up. So that’s obsessiveness, because I was so… I really did not want melodrama. And I didn’t want over the top performance. And sometimes the actors took ages to get into the rhythm. And of course, there’s a lot of other distractions, sometimes planes are flying above or someone’s phone rings and it’s Oh! And then I’ve got to reset and reset and… But that’s my passion. If I’m doing something, I want to do it right. And so I’ll keep trying until I get the best take. And and hopefully then someone like you can fix it if if I haven’t got it. (Laughter.)</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="417f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">But I must say, if it wasn’t for my editor, the film would have been completely different. So editors take a lot of credit for it. And I’ve worked. So I started working with a Polish editor at the beginning and it was very clear he just didn’t get the emotion that I was after. He cut the movie like a tele-feature. And I literally cried and I said, this is not the film I shot. And so then I, then we had to stop, because we had no money. And then suddenly I had to find a new editor. And I found this amazing lady, Natasha Westlake, in London, who we didn’t pay a lot. We did it over the weekends. I was heavily pregnant. But she got it. She got the music and the emotion and and we didn’t spend a lot of time, in fact, because I left her to do it.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9c83" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Oo, that’s interesting.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="cab2" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>But from then on, I knew. I knew. I knew that we’d got a movie. I knew that I did it OK. Like it wasn’t all lost.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8e89" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>And the interesting thing, eh, that that combination of people who do get it and then the film itself talks back to you and tells you it’s in the right hands and you don’t have to run around worrying about it so long as you just take your time and sit and look and listen at what’s going on.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a582" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>And then being open to editors talking to you, because one third of the script is actually not even in the movie. So it was heavily edited. It was heavily edited in post.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d1a4" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>I was going to ask you about it because the other thing that really grabs me about it is the sparseness of it. It’s almost shorthand in some ways, and it takes a lot of guts to cut a film like that. To leave off the bits and pieces where people walk indoors and outdoors and, you know, get themselves from one place to another and how did they get there and why are they doing that and all this sort of stuff? And people want to have it all explained, but actually, they don’t need it. Yes they’re in a truck. Somebody gave them a lift and they’re in a truck. They get there.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="aecd" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Well, that’s how that helps when you have an editor like Natasha, who was just exactly saying those things to me. She was like, you don’t need to explain it. Don’t worry about it. They will get it. Trust your film. Trust your vision. And and that constant kind of reminder was amazing because you do doubt yourself. You’ve written that script millions of times over and over and over. I could… I could recite every single word on it. And you see every single cut. And and so you you do see only the mistakes. You don’t see the good stuff. And so, yeah, it helps other people being there, encouraging you and helping you through the way.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3bfe" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Have you ever cut a film with that sort of sharpness before? With that brevity?</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5f7c" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>No, no. That was my first time, yeah.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="445f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Well, that must have been very exciting for you.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3313" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yes, it was it was very challenging, but it was good. It was a good challenge, you know. It was very healthy. I learnt a lot.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8af1" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Yes. It’s always the nice thing about working on a film isn’t it. It’s not just what you give to it. It’s what It’s what you get back.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="15de" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yeah.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1372" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Yeah. One thing that I have been thinking about because I’ve actually watched it twice in the last two days now and it’s a thing about when you’re from that place and you are you are pulling up these these details that give you the authenticity and really tell your story with that sort of brevity. Somewhere along the line, you actually have to know yourself. And you have to turn and look inside yourself.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="419c" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>I don’t know what you mean, but…</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c184" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>In order to know those things, you have to have really examined yourself.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2a99" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Oh, yeah. And especially my family. I had to examine my family and that was not easy at all. And some hate me for it. But, you know, it’s, it’s interesting because even the family, it’s not… You know, in Muslim culture, we are quite humble or anyway, the Pomak people in the village in that kind of community, they’re very humble people.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="9104" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">So when it came to like premieres and events and speaking and stuff like that, they didn’t really want to be part of it. And and because they didn’t want the kind of how do you say, to draw attention. But, yeah, it was challenging to talk to them and to ask the hard questions so I could be truthful, especially because the bad guy Serahev, is a Pomak. He is like the Muslim guy that turned Christian, that then betrayed his own people. And that is something that you know, it happened. It was historically correct. But it’s not something people were easy to talk about. And weren’t happy to admit that they have people like that within them.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e9cd" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>It’s a terrible exposure.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1356" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yeah. Yeah.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="376f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Hard stuff. Hmmm. The sound work on it. It is a beautiful soundtrack on it, and I’m not just talking about the use of music. Music in itself is a simple element in many ways. It’s the knitting of the richness of the sound behind the music. It may be what I’m thinking of are actually composed elements.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3e91" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>They are. Yeah.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ff12" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>But the knitting of it altogether, it is a beautiful soundtrack. Who was doing the sound design? Was that Polish?</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="41fa" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Well, again, we had a very similar experience with the sound when we had a Polish company start. And then I had to make a very difficult decision. And, you know, again, I just felt like I couldn’t find the right people to work with at the beginning. And that makes it really hard for producers, for me and for everyone involved and for the co-production, of course, that became slightly tricky towards the end because of it.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="d0be" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">But they just, again, didn’t get the movie. The team in Poland, they added so much sound, so many effects that actually it was laughable. It felt like a farm movie and not a drama. And I just couldn’t believe it. And then and then I had to take that away from them and again, find a very amazing group of young, well, not young, young like me, I guess, but sound design guys that did it for very little money and they did the whole sound mix as well. So they were incredible. They did it in literally one month, but that’s working weekends because we didn’t have the money. So it was incredible. They recorded everything in their little tiny studio. They knew exactly what I wanted. And again, I hardly even went there because by then my daughter was born. So if I went, she had to come with me and all that.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="499f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>I would have felt very, very torn if I was in that situation. Twice you’d had critical stages of the film totally misinterpreted. And then when you do get somebody who looks like they get it and can do it, you’re actually away. You leave it in their hands. I don’t know if I’d have the courage to do that.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="4112" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Well, I mean, they give you a first cut. You have to allow an editor and you have to allow a sound team to have a go at it first. Otherwise, there’s no point if you’re gonna be there dictating, telling everyone what to do. So. You just know instantly when they give you the first version of their version of the film that they’ve seen, you just know. It’s like that that that easy.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c2a3" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>So your process there was to just like put the footage in Natasha’s hands, perhaps the assembly that you’ve been given, and you said ‘Take it. See what you can do with it’.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1d09" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yeah. And give her two weeks and and then see the cut.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="02f0" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Come back and have a look.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8345" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Yeah. And then it’s like you either get it or you don’t. And you then start polishing, polishing, polishing it.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="0dfa" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>Yeah. Yeah. It’s quite a quite a… when creativity works it’s quite a loose business. How are we doing for time? Any questions from anybody?</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="6836" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">audience question </span>How was it received in Bulgaria?</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="c75f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>So in Bulgaria, we had a small release because the cinemas didn’t want to book it on a wide release. We had it on 10 screens. It was released. I mean, critically by the reviewers and stuff like that it was received very well because they they understood what I was trying to say. But we released in the hottest weekend, so it was bad timing. But it’s done OK, I mean, for what it is for that kind of level of film. And, you know, it’s not for everybody. It’s not for the mass audience of Bulgaria. It did OK. And then it got released in Turkey. And I think it had a limited release in Poland as well.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a4ff" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">audience question (inaudible, about scriptwriting)</span></p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1981" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Well, it’s interesting with this example, because now I’m trying to write something else and I’m definitely doing something. You know I have a very different kind of structure of writing. With this particular story because it was a short and then the Scripteast Development Lab heard about it because we were nominated for this award. And then they just heard about the pitch. They heard the pitch and they just came and met me.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="00d2" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">And we had a very quick coffee and they said ‘This needs to be a feature’. And I just, I was a bit like, it can’t be. I don’t even know how to where to begin. And they said, ‘L’ook, we give you, we’ll extend the deadline for another two weeks if you can give us a feature film script. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s a development lab. Anyway, we’ll help you develop it. Just give us a script, 90 pages.’ (Laughter.) So, yeah.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="da60" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">So I took two weeks off my work and I sat down and… I didn’t even write a treatment. I just wrote the biggest probably pile of crap. But they just saw the potential of it and then accepted it. And it took about, well, it took eight years of development. A lot of drafts, 14 drafts. I mean, it took a lot of development labs. It took script editors. It took… We had financing for development from Media, [now called Creative Europe]. We went to EAVE, we went we went to so many events just to try and get as much feedback as possible. And I was very green in this writing process. But it was an incredible school.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a7fc" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Annie Collins </span>And then you dropped a third of it.</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="5bc1" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>And then I dropped a third of it. (Laughter.)</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="3a4f" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">audience (inaudible question about New Zealand filmmaking)</span></p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8645" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="ji lr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova </span>Here is very different. (Laughter.) Number one. Europe is very crowded. It’s very competitive. You are up against thousands of film makers, super, super talented. And so, well, it’s just so much harder to get finance. Incredibly hard. Here I haven’t really started doing much. We’re just doing a little short now with Fran Carney over there, which we are prepping for a May shoot. And it’s a kind of cute little story set here in New Zealand about immigrants again. But so far, it’s been a completely different experience. It’s because everyone is so welcoming and and people are so happy to be helping and giving you advice and… or being involved in the project. It just feels, it literally feels like a breeze, to me anyway. You don’t have to beg and ask… I mean it just feels so much easier. But I’ll tell you, in a few months, if that changes. (Laughter.)</p><p class="jg jh hw ji b jj jk jl jm jn jo jp jq jr js jt ju jv jw jx jy jz ka kb kc kd fa cp" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8645" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTB9zNFQwd0LX6sW7M0O_vhegxd_zVIi3rnOMYhMLHkDxucSpkR-CSR21bB3XvZ9zR7aAXEniNuuQBGn-t7FStDyu6NS9nkPdWFVgBqEQlBog0ZzYzdXPpMi1oRqZijWtkQdsdpEWxoOif/s700/1*D5yW1i3owawPLqXQ_zsf2A.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="700" height="408" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTB9zNFQwd0LX6sW7M0O_vhegxd_zVIi3rnOMYhMLHkDxucSpkR-CSR21bB3XvZ9zR7aAXEniNuuQBGn-t7FStDyu6NS9nkPdWFVgBqEQlBog0ZzYzdXPpMi1oRqZijWtkQdsdpEWxoOif/w625-h408/1*D5yW1i3owawPLqXQ_zsf2A.jpeg" width="625"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Cushla Parekowhai joins in (photo: Adrienne Martyn)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRNlGz1oZDhEwz1jShKStOINKfHa0oRhFYq3MqMjXl2mslj6yUngssKtXsFqkZKGoLv04W-2SK7KgA-USoS827RAY4UqtJjVGv8QTG9CZPqjbWBFGslN0Y6UwoFe14NdSti_j9iivmbP7F/s700/1*e4ViWQNH_drL7dwBSK1HwA.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="456" data-original-width="700" height="406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRNlGz1oZDhEwz1jShKStOINKfHa0oRhFYq3MqMjXl2mslj6yUngssKtXsFqkZKGoLv04W-2SK7KgA-USoS827RAY4UqtJjVGv8QTG9CZPqjbWBFGslN0Y6UwoFe14NdSti_j9iivmbP7F/w625-h406/1*e4ViWQNH_drL7dwBSK1HwA.jpeg" width="625"></a></div><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Lorna closes the evening (photo: Adrienne Martyn)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br></span></div></div><span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><a href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2020/09/rouzie-hassanova-annie-collins-in.html#more">Read more »</a>wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-53789024876051349292020-06-15T22:07:00.001-07:002020-06-15T22:07:48.463-07:00Women in Comedy Scholarships <article style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div style="box-sizing: inherit;"><section class="gd ge gf gg gh" style="box-sizing: inherit; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="n p" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; justify-content: center;"><div class="z ab ac ae af gi ah ai" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 64px; max-width: 680px; min-width: 0px; width: 680px;"><figure class="ia ib ic id ie if fr fs paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; clear: both; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><figcaption class="it iu ft fr fs iv iw bw ex fz by cb" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkAz5DCWh754o6UxM6b-McUw9yYxuP2p3VVrroXI5N1sX2w9S1aybW11-W5o686EwdrvEWsr4luKRDc0M17WlpDvO_aQbB0qE8yaI0MXcF6dDJbEMrTVG8Y7ZPnFi7cC2arCQEbi4sqQb6/s1200/unnamed.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="1200" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkAz5DCWh754o6UxM6b-McUw9yYxuP2p3VVrroXI5N1sX2w9S1aybW11-W5o686EwdrvEWsr4luKRDc0M17WlpDvO_aQbB0qE8yaI0MXcF6dDJbEMrTVG8Y7ZPnFi7cC2arCQEbi4sqQb6/w625-h326/unnamed.png" width="625" /></a></div><font size="1"><br /></font></figcaption><figcaption class="it iu ft fr fs iv iw bw ex fz by cb" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #757575; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 20px; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><font size="1">L-R: Becky Kuek, Madeleine Sami & Jacki van Beek, Ana Scotney, Paloma Schneideman, Abba Rose Dinah Vaiaoga-Ioasa, Florence Noble</font></figcaption></figure><p class="ix jl ap bx iz b ja jb jm jc jd jn je jf jo jg jh jp ji jj jq jk gd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="1e13" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The New Zealand Film Commission has provided a Gender Scholarship every year since 2015 (in previous years for cinematographers, directors, wāhine Māori directors and Pacific Island screen writers). And this year, five $10,000 scholarships have been awarded to women in comedy, selected by uber-multihyphenates Madeline Sami and Jackie Van Beek (remember e.g. their <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">The Breaker Upperers</span>?) from 120 applications by a range of comedy creators, working in print, stage, film, television and online.</p><p class="ix jl ap bx iz b ja jb jm jc jd jn je jf jo jg jh jp ji jj jq jk gd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="7c14" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">“We were absolutely blown away that over 120 amazingly talented and hilarious women applied for the gender scholarship! The calibre and variety of talent from producers to writers, performers and directors was inspiring and made it extremely challenging to choose the final five recipients,” said Jackie and Madeleine.</p><p class="ix jl ap bx iz b ja jb jm jc jd jn je jf jo jg jh jp ji jj jq jk gd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="e574" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">After reading and watching their submitted work, Madeline and Jackie as ‘the Patrons’ (perhaps more appropriately ‘Matrons’) spoke with each shortlisted woman to discover more about her and her aspirations.</p><p class="ix jl ap bx iz b ja jb jm jc jd jn je jf jo jg jh jp ji jj jq jk gd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2f6b" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">“Our five recipients have all demonstrated the ability to create exceptional work. Each has a distinct and original voice and clear vision for their comedy content. We are super excited to support these women and can’t wait to see what they produce in the future.”</p><p class="ix jl ap bx iz b ja jb jm jc jd jn je jf jo jg jh jp ji jj jq jk gd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a082" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">The scholarship award will allow each of the recipients time to concentrate on writing, making and collaborating on comedy content, and building industry connections to assist with developing sustainable careers.</p><p class="ix jl ap bx iz b ja jb jm jc jd jn je jf jo jg jh jp ji jj jq jk gd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="8347" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;">Here’s more about each of them. Warm congratulations to them! And look out for their work!</p><p class="ix jl ap bx iz b ja jb jm jc jd jn je jf jo jg jh jp ji jj jq jk gd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ebb9" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="iz js" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Abba Rose Dinah Vaiaoga-Ioasa</span> began her career by following her love for science and worked in the Engineering industry as a Process Engineer gaining a lot of valuable project management experience. Abba-Rose has only been in the screen industry for just over three years but has already produced and associate produced four independent feature films; <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Three Wise Cousins </span>(2016), <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Hibiscus & Ruthless </span>(2018),<span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> Same But Different: A True New Zealand Love Story</span> (2018), and <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Take Home Pay</span> (2019). She is currently developing more screen content, building her knowledge of the screen industry, and developing her skills as a professional content producer.</p><p class="ix jl ap bx iz b ja jb jm jc jd jn je jf jo jg jh jp ji jj jq jk gd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2848" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="iz js" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Ana Scotney</span> is part of some of Aotearoa’s most original, radical and groundbreaking comedic productions. Credits include a break out role as Sepa, the hard done by girlfriend in feature film <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">The Breaker Upperers</span>, a performer in comedy <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">D.O.C.ing</span> with Tom Sainsbury and Chris Parker, which was nominated for the FRED award at the Comedy Festival in 2017, and as Maria in hit improvised comedy series <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">The Educators</span>. Scotney also works as a designer and animator on cartoon animated series <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Aroha Bridge</span>produced by Jess Hansell, AKA Coco Solid. Upcoming films include Ainsley Gardiner and Briar Grace Smith’s adaptation of Patricia Grace’s <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Cousins</span>, and New Zealand director Michelle Savill’s debut feature film, <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Millie Lies Low</span>.</p><p class="ix jl ap bx iz b ja jb jm jc jd jn je jf jo jg jh jp ji jj jq jk gd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="2766" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="iz js" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Becky Kuek</span> is a multi-genre writer and director with a strength for crafting fast, witty comedy fuelled by a compelling underlying story. After a 10+ year career as an actor, Becky transitioned to writing and directing when the desire to have more input in projects became impossible to ignore. Immediately following a year of editing, writing and voice acting for animation heavyweight, Mukpuddy, Becky received funding to create, write and direct NZ’s first Asian animated TV series, <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Tales of Nai Nai</span>, and assembled and led a talented, diverse team of local writers, artists and actors. While animation has been a career-launcher for Becky, her sights are firmly set on writing and directing live-action film and TV.</p><p class="ix jl ap bx iz b ja jb jm jc jd jn je jf jo jg jh jp ji jj jq jk gd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="b9b1" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="iz js" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Paloma Schneideman</span> is a screenwriter, director and musician based in Tāmaki Makaurau. Her university graduate film <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Mine</span> premiered at the NZIFF 2015. The music videos she co-directs under alias Connie Ca$h have over 100,000 views online and counting. She was also guest director on season 2 of acclaimed comedy web series <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Baby Mama’s Club</span>. Her short film, <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Memory Foam</span> premiered at NZIFF 2019 and Show Me Shorts Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor (Alison Bruce). Paloma is currently developing her debut feature film script, <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Big Girls Don’t Cry</span>.</p><p class="ix jl ap bx iz b ja jb jm jc jd jn je jf jo jg jh jp ji jj jq jk gd" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="ab68" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #292929; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; line-height: 32px; margin: 2em 0px -0.46em; word-break: break-word;"><span class="iz js" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Florence Noble</span> began her career writing amusing copy and directing radio ads. Leaving copywriting behind, she moved into television and film. Noble created the online sketch comedy <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Blind Pilot,</span> and since then has collaborated with Nick Boshier (<span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Bondi Hipsters, Beached Az</span>) on numerous projects, including the 2014 Emmy award winning Australian comedy,<span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">#7DaysLater </span>for ABC2 and viral sketch comedy <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Meanwhile On Earth.</span> She turned NZME’s low budget drama <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Waiheke Republique</span> into a comedy and directed it, making all six episodes in four days. Florence’s short film <span class="jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Things Are Going Really Well </span>did the festival circuit including the LA Comedy Festival, Sweden’s Norrkoping Film Festival and the Melbourne International Film Festival, where she attended the 2015 Accelerator Program.</p></div></div></section></div></article><div class="dv dx jt dr ai ju jv jw" data-test-id="post-sidebar" style="box-sizing: inherit; opacity: 0; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: calc(159px); transition: opacity 200ms; width: 1309px; will-change: opacity;"><div class="n p" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; justify-content: center;"><div class="z ab ac ae af ag ah ai" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 64px; max-width: 1192px; min-width: 0px; width: 1181px;"><div class="kc n kd" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-direction: column; width: 131px;"><div class="dx" style="box-sizing: inherit; pointer-events: none;"><div class="ke kf kg n" style="box-sizing: inherit; 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top: calc(133px); transform: translateX(406px); transition: opacity 200ms; width: 188px; will-change: opacity;"></div><div style="box-sizing: inherit;"><div class="lf if n kd p" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); display: flex; flex-direction: column; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; justify-content: center; margin-top: 40px;"><div class="n p" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; justify-content: center;"><div class="z ab ac ae af gi ah ai" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 64px; max-width: 680px; min-width: 0px; width: 680px;"><div class="n lg" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap;"></div><div class="n o lg" style="align-items: center; box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap;"></div><div class="lh r" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-top: 25px;"><ul class="bl bm" style="box-sizing: inherit; list-style: none none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="cg li hx fi" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: inline-block; list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-right: 8px;"></li></ul></div></div></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /></div>wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-13921063206256198892020-03-01T18:53:00.000-08:002020-03-01T19:07:56.263-08:00Bea Joblin and her Births, Deaths & Marriages<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-jzr_DjTaEe5JJ92f6rseYnCj14JhH0Zj54wSPWcQnjBMWkqnHqHj7wYochjxYK42ZPZshinxTNruBVttVwqEWQpZHStaouakCSUsSmVrksFJAPbSONqT2lMb5_a9u4CD_3fz4mrTjcyT/s1600/1*yWref4G-IRQWrpq8DFrS5g.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="351" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-jzr_DjTaEe5JJ92f6rseYnCj14JhH0Zj54wSPWcQnjBMWkqnHqHj7wYochjxYK42ZPZshinxTNruBVttVwqEWQpZHStaouakCSUsSmVrksFJAPbSONqT2lMb5_a9u4CD_3fz4mrTjcyT/s400/1*yWref4G-IRQWrpq8DFrS5g.png" width="280" /></a></div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Births, Deaths and Marriages</span> was a highlight of last year’s New Zealand International Film Festival for me, one of only two local features selected by the festival. It is a heart-warming, funny tale about an Irish family in the Hutt Valley, shot when Bea Joblin its writer/director/producer was 20.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbUs548wjlRZEyHV_P3kXams0YhgeDRlROn34pDHogs8bV3WFcwc6CDN9WWCs5nViOY742Y84PHU6UcFnbbToWUkKTPC7kp8gXJdhZB83yC317n1XPyGovmYfPEb6C9n6_QNHP1t9r9l4p/s1600/1*9jOKPwW1qCelpC03aar1FQ.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="896" data-original-width="1600" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbUs548wjlRZEyHV_P3kXams0YhgeDRlROn34pDHogs8bV3WFcwc6CDN9WWCs5nViOY742Y84PHU6UcFnbbToWUkKTPC7kp8gXJdhZB83yC317n1XPyGovmYfPEb6C9n6_QNHP1t9r9l4p/s640/1*9jOKPwW1qCelpC03aar1FQ.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Bea on set, centre, with Sophie at right</span></td></tr>
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Bea describes <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Births, Deaths & Marriages</span> as being ‘shot in 2014 for about $4000, in a state house in Upper Hutt…a fictional home video set in a family home where the camera is held by one of the characters as they record a weekend in their family’s life. The film is a celebration of working class women and the dirty, overcrowded chaos of life’. It was funded by the New Zealand Film Commission at post-production.</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Births, Deaths & Marriages</span> is about to be released into cinemas in New Zealand (see below). It’s also screening at festivals in Australia.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz5bN1ZxbyEmivURNRSna4Qo8AcozAsMpFZJxmIOxoMsJSjfQN8hGPRv0GMFIb3QLkV8JnqGHN04srVI1225va6f1UciuRQaGMfeMOKRhXyHV35g9L4DjQkGQTHMtjlJQc9XKA79lt1HPI/s1600/Bea+%2526+kotiro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1440" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz5bN1ZxbyEmivURNRSna4Qo8AcozAsMpFZJxmIOxoMsJSjfQN8hGPRv0GMFIb3QLkV8JnqGHN04srVI1225va6f1UciuRQaGMfeMOKRhXyHV35g9L4DjQkGQTHMtjlJQc9XKA79lt1HPI/s640/Bea+%2526+kotiro.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Bea and kōtiro Piata</span></td></tr>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">@devt</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;"> Why and when and how did you start to make films?</span></div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea Joblin</span> I started making films when I was 10, my parents bought my grandma’s old camcorder off her when she was upgrading and gave it to me for my birthday. As an aside my grandma filming my whānau on her camera throughout my childhood was the inspiration for this film. I first entered the 48 hour film festival at 12 years old, and did that for three years then stopped altogether. I made my first actual webseries at 19, and haven’t stopped since then, although I have moved very slowly over the last few years finishing this project.</div>
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All in all since age 19 I’ve made three webseries [including <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The Hutt Valley Dream Project </span>and <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">CNT Live</span><span class="ij" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">, </span>‘the show that talks about what matters to women, where the only thing missing is yoU!’] a short, a short doco and a feature, although I have co-directed, executive produced or co-written a few more. I haven’t owned a camera since my grandma’s one fell into disrepair, I have always borrowed other people’s. I’m not a videographer, I’m a writer and director, so access to a camera was always a secondary aspect to my desire to make film, it always started with a script for me!</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt</span> When did you realise that mainstream filmmaking didn’t show you stories about females and ‘others’? Was there a moment of revelation?</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea</span> It was a slow process throughout my teen years that began as a feeling I couldn’t describe…but somehow the media I watched never made me feel uplifted or empowered in my identity as a female. I had to imagine myself into the mind of the male protagonist to emotionally connect to the story, because all the females were one-dimensional and functional to his story, and there was no truth or relatability or resonance in their own experiences that I could relate to, or journey with. And now I’ve been taught how much worse that feeling would have been for POC or LGBTIQ young people, and still is. I couldn’t articulate why this lack of representation was problematic because those terms weren’t being used in that way yet! The feeling was always there but it didn’t become conscious as an issue until I had the feminist education to know I was allowed to feel it, and to want something more. My fire about authentic female representation grew from there. I try to stay aware of the fact that for LGBTIQ and POC people this lack of representation was even worse, and continues to be worse than it is for cis white women.</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>Whose work influenced you at the beginning?</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea </span>Ruth Jones (and James Corden)’s <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Gavin and Stacey</span>, and <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Green Wing </span>(Victoria Wood), combining domesticity or at least professional banality with absurdity, that is, hyper-realism with the hyper-bizzareness of our emotional and relational realities.</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>When and why did you decide to work low production values into your narratives?</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea </span>There was no other option. I felt, particularly as a female, I had to make things without formal support before I would be even considered by funding bodies. I had never seen a young woman with no track record yet get any support to establish her career. And you need some funding to make something with normal production values…Low production values as an intentional aesthetic choice gives you the ability to make work without waiting forever for cash!</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>In her new book, <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The Wrong Kind of Women: Inside Our Revolution to Dismantle the Gods of Hollywood</span>, Naomi McDougall-Jones notes that all of the women who’ve been nominated as Best Director at the Oscars come from filmmaking families. In New Zealand we have film/theatre ‘dynasties’ too. To name a few: the Mitas and the Murphys; the Grace whānau; Libby and Oriwa Hakaraia; three generations of Campions and Harcourts; Gaylene Preston and Chelsea Preston-Crayford; Elizabeth McRae, her daughter Katherine McRae and her grand-daughters Etta, Elsie and Sally Bollinger (etc). What has your family history meant for your own development?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-oGorc2CM-YKPqdMq8xkSHAHv5lOLD6iI2PHhEi5kEs9NuiQ0L-G5AWBVJdvQCIPsae_jy-vOZI7HvMKwhxcq_vmhn94crJEseoJ5CWheUoB2U-0f3yxgl0ydEXW9qFrsusyjUoq3mvSj/s1600/Bea+and+Geraldine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1177" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-oGorc2CM-YKPqdMq8xkSHAHv5lOLD6iI2PHhEi5kEs9NuiQ0L-G5AWBVJdvQCIPsae_jy-vOZI7HvMKwhxcq_vmhn94crJEseoJ5CWheUoB2U-0f3yxgl0ydEXW9qFrsusyjUoq3mvSj/s640/Bea+and+Geraldine.jpg" width="470" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">Bea and her Mum, Geraldine</span></td></tr>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">Bea </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">Just my self-made Mum, </span><a class="bm cv im in io ip" href="https://www.nzonscreen.com/profile/geraldine-brophy" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); letter-spacing: -0.004em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Geraldine Brophy</a><span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">, who left school at 15 and never went to drama school. She made a brave choice to follow her vocation and paved the way for me. She began the dynasty! She has helped me a huge amount, I have privilege in this industry that comes from who she is. Her practical support (being in my stuff) and emotional support (telling me I can do it, as well as modelling the doing of it), has helped me immeasurably.</span></div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>Is feminism part of your family, too?</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea </span>Yes, mum definitely lives her life in radical opposition to power imbalances or oppression that she perceives. She modelled amazing feminist values, particularly body love, self belief, assertiveness, creative expression, balancing career and family. I am more of a garden variety intersectional feminist, or trying to be from within my white feminist bias….I’m trying to learn and listen!</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Births Deaths and Marriages</span></div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>What gave you the idea for <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Births, Deaths & Marriages</span>?</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea </span>My mum’s parents were working class Irish immigrants who moved to NZ in the 1970’s, so the cultural context is identical, but the relationships and characters in the film are very different, and come from my own head!</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>I understand from your <a class="bm cv im in io ip" href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/standing-room-only/audio/2018733339/births-deaths-and-marriages-with-bea-joblin-and-sophie-lloyd" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Radio NZ interview</a> the other day that originally the <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Births, Deaths & Marriages</span><span class="ij" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> </span>script was 200 and something pages. With so much material, why did you decide to make it as a feature rather than a web series?</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea </span>I didn’t properly understand the difference between webseries and feature film processes when I started this, I just think I wanted to be as ambitious as possible and felt I had made two webseries already so in my wee 20 year old brain a feature was the obvious progression…hilarious! It’s been the most beautiful learning experience of sticking with something massive and seeing it through to the very end, and picking up so many new skills along the way.</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>Sophie Lloyd was your co-producer and editor. It’s quite unusual for an editor to be a producer as well. How did you meet and decide to work on <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Births, Deaths & Marriages</span>?</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea </span>We went to high school together but weren’t in the same circles…but at age 19 we reconnected over my first webseries (which she edited).</div>
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For <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Births, Deaths & Marriages</span>, as I was a lone producer, I had no team with me, Sophie was the only other person in the process once the shoot finished, so she just became the co-producer. Because she put so much damn time and heart into the film, she became its other parent! We work well together, and know each other’s tricks, so I hope we work together again, once we take a breath from this process.</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>You wanted to be independent of funding bodies, I think (see Bea’s interview with Louise Hutt, below). But then,<span class="ij" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> </span><a class="bm cv im in io ip" href="http://robinmurphyproductions.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Robin Murphy</a> and <a class="bm cv im in io ip" href="https://www.noted.co.nz/money/money-small-business/kiwi-web-series-pot-lucks-themes-find-universal-attraction" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Ness Simons</a> became involved as executive producers. How did that happen and how did that change things?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">L-R Ness Simons, Robin Murphy</span></td></tr>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea </span>I didn’t want to be independent so much as knew my chances of support were very low, due to my lack of experience, my gender and the nature and content of my work not being the patriarchal norm. Once Ness and Robin came on we all fully committed to the cinema release pathway, which we knew required some support from a funding body, but NZFC gave us our funding a matter of weeks before we were due to screen at the NZIFF. It was John McKay from POW Post and Robin and Ness that actually took the financial risk on us, it was their commitment to start the process to get us ready for the NZIFF, and somehow raise the money later to pay for that, that was the actual investment. So even at the very end we didn’t have any actual funding bodies ‘involved’, as by the time NZFC gave us our post finishing grant the film was basically completely finished!</div>
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Robin and Ness have advocated for us hugely. As women their position in the industry has been hard won, and they’ve used it as soon as they could to start supporting others. I also know that they both regularly donate to Pledgeme and Boosted campaigns for work with female, queer or POC content, because they want to see people’s stories being told. I know there are a lot of rooms we just wouldn’t have got in to without Robin advocating for us. Their involvement changed the possibilities for the film.</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>It took five years to finish <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Births, Deaths & Marriages</span><span class="ij" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">. </span>Why did it take so long? I know you had a baby, which is probably one reason?</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea </span>Mainly the money needed for the sound design, and all the time I spent trying to get newbie sound people to do it for free…lots of foolhardy dead ends pursued by me! Then the amazing Gareth Ruck and I needed a long time in between him working and being an awesome dad, and me working and being pregnant/ having a new baby, to do a temp sound design on the whole thing, which took about a year. We needed that so that when we showed it to prospective producers, enough of the concept was coming through via sound design as well as picture that they could see what I was aiming for! Then once we showed it to Robin and Ness we had to re-edit the picture as they felt it could be a lot stronger, and I’m so happy we did as the film became a lot better! Then getting the money to do the sound for real. But yes having a baby slowed it down, and I did intentionally take a break to gift myself and Piata that sacred time without distraction.</div>
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In the first year or so after shooting my major mental health battles slowed it also, but a lot of it was down to the challenges of no budget filmmaking which require a lot of perseverance, waiting for the right people and timing, finding creative ways to do things, working around people’s 9–5 jobs, etc.</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>I was blown away by your beautiful mihi at the NZFF. Te reo is an important part of your life, and <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Births, Deaths & Marriages</span><span class="ij" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> </span>is partly about the intersections between Māori tikanga and Irish ways of doing things?</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea </span>I do have a strong commitment to being an ally to Te Reo and to Kaupapa Tiriti ways to working, but I try to remain open to what that means and looks like as things evolve. I fear as a Pākeha working in these spaces that I will get confused about my role or fail to stay in my lane, which could mean me doing more harm than good!</div>
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I am trying to stay an active listener in the ever evolving indigenism movement, as well as in the bicultural and multicultural communities I have the privilege of being in, because I want to make sure I’m hearing the new thinking on how Pākeha can genuinely support decolonization, both at a political intellectual level, i.e. paying attention to indigenism as a movement, and also at a personal and community level, i.e. what are the real people that I know and work with saying is needed and most useful.</div>
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It’s not straight forward or static, walking the line of supporting diverse stories without speaking for people is complex, I believe, and requires deep listening to others and to yourself and your behavior.</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">More about practice</span></div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt</span> Do you have favourite role?</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea </span>I love writing, it’s a simple, pure joy. Directing is much more complex and can be frenetic, but has an excitement too….its much more demanding for me. Producing is deeply scary, almost spiritual in the zen-like way you have to stay calmly committed across much greater expanses of time through extreme uncertainty. Its satisfying in a slow burn, more grounded way. Acting is the least loved child….I barely ever do it!</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>Your work makes me laugh. It’s so clever and funny. And full of heart. I think it demonstrates profound confidence as well as a lot of hard work and practice. What influenced your capacity to be so funny and confident?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">L-R Fran Olds (Hugh) and Ben Childs (Dean)</span></td></tr>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">Bea </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">A funny question…I don’t feel confident anymore in the way the 20 year old who made this film was confident…she had ignorance and naivety on her side, which I think are essential ingredients for achieving the impossible!</span></div>
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As for the humour in the film, I think we as people are so absurdly beautiful and I think most of how we have been taught to organize our relationships to each other is so counterproductive and ineffective…I analyze relationships between people a lot and see the tragicomedy of how we try and fail to love well…its just observing and reflecting that is makes the laughter happen.</div>
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Something I find so healing about writing, it’s a place where I’m the benevolent omniscient eye that can see how hard these ridiculous people are trying to relate, and all the challenges and obstacles or barriers to connections that each of them is working with. It feels good to take an objective compassionate eye to it all, and see lovingly where everyone is coming from. In real life you can’t do that so easily as you end up caught up in your own perspective!</div>
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I think the alternative style of the film is confident, both in the cinematography, the content, and the structure of the story. It’s a bold rejection of the status quo, but that comes naturally to me as my mum taught me to go against whatever the ‘rules’ were, whatever the institutions said was the ‘right’ way to create art. It’s all about resistance for us Irish catholic feminist witches!</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">@devt </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">I’ll never forget seeing about 40 people walk on stage at the end of your NZFF screening and realising the extent of their commitment to a very young feature filmmaker, as unpaid workers. What do you think attracted them to the project? How did you learn to run a set the way you do?</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Births, Deaths & Marriages premiere New Zealand International Film Festival 2019</span></td></tr>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">Bea </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">Love connected us and attracted them! They all know I respect them and will hold them in a space of aroha and care, because I make that clear from the start. Whether it’s my own mother, or someone like Ariadne Balthazar who came on the week before shooting to replace another actor, you engage with them in a manner which makes clear that you want them as people and as artists to have the most positive experience possible. Perhaps a lot of cast and crew are used to feeling that a director or producer wants them to carry out their vision, at any cost to them, whereas I wanted them to weave themselves into a collaborative vision with me, so I think in that sense there is more for them to gain.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">L-R Ariadne Balthazar (Tam), Fran Olds (Hugh)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">And perhaps less to lose...because particularly as a woman when I walk on to most film sets I think, ‘I wonder how much misogyny I’ll be fielding today? How many microaggressions?’ And same for men, particularly the more junior ones, having to put up with harsh treatment from older people who are trying to ‘harden them up’, which is unnecessary, and wrong. I think I made it clear that I didn’t give myself authority to decide that anyone else should be mistreated for any reason. I was going to do everything in my power to manage things as respectfully as possible.</span></div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Today</span></div>
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@devt What’s it like to have <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Births, Deaths & Marriages</span> being widely distributed here, accepted for more festivals and to be taken very seriously as a filmmaker?</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea </span>I am intentionally quite emotionally disconnected from it, so that I don’t take on the negative feedback, or feel hugely invested in people’s response. When creatives say they enjoy the process, not the accolades, it’s true. People can hate it, and love it, and not notice it, whatever, if you open yourself up to taking any of that on you’ll be emotionally and mentally affected by something that’s actually imperosnal and kind of incidental and also fleeting and fickle.</div>
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I weirdly don’t feel yet that I am being taken seriously as a filmmaker because I still see myself and my film as what I / it started as; a baby little renegade making a funny little film. Maybe once the release is done, and I’ve stopped working on the film for the first time in 6 years, I’ll reflect and realize I am a real filmmaker!</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt</span> Autonomy is important to you. But I think some of your views about funding etc have changed as a result of the <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Births, Deaths & Marriages </span><span class="ij" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"></span>experience. What will you do differently next time? Will there be a ‘next time’ soon?</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Bea </span>Autonomy doesn’t mean isolation, I know that I need people and that I couldn’t have done this without so many people, Sophie, Robin, Ness, Gareth, John, all the cast and crew, and friends like Anita Ross and Tess Jamieson-Karaha who just emotionally supported me not to give up!</div>
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But giving your fledging idea over to a funding institution who prioritise lots of things that aren’t artistic integrity or authentically diverse representation, that is still an uncomfortable idea. This film would never ever have been made if I had waited for a funding body to think it, or I, was a smart risk. So I didn’t have total autonomy here, I shared power with who I chose to share with, but not a funder. And next time, though I won’t do it again without money, I really hope that doesn’t equate to handing major creative control to whoever funds it.</div>
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….But for sure, next time will be different, I’m too old now to make things for no money!!!</div>
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As for next time…I’m making a music video with local musician and fellow mum Keely Turuwhenua, I want a small scale project next! Next feature film will be slow coming, as this one was, but that’s what I like! It gives me time to honour my role as mum and to work in an organic way. It’s you Marian who said to me first, women’s lives and therefore film careers are often cyclical, not linear, and that is more than ok.<br />
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<span class="bs" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">Births, Deaths & Marriages </span>social media</span></h2>
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<a class="bm cv im in io ip" href="https://www.facebook.com/birthsdeathsandmarriagesfilm/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Facebook</span></a></div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; font-weight: 700; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;"><a class="bm cv im in io ip" href="https://www.instagram.com/birthsdeathsandmarriagesfilm/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><b>instagram</b></a></span></div>
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<span class="bs" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: inherit;">Births, Deaths & Marriages screenings</span></h2>
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<i>Tuesday 3 March</i><br />
Lighthouse <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Petone</span> Q&A with Bea and Sophie<br />
<i>Wednesday 4 March</i><br />
Rialto <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Auckland</span> Q&A with Bea and Sophie<br />
<i>Thursday 5 March</i><br />
Lumiere <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Christchurch</span> Q&A with Bea and Sophie</div>
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<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Opening</span><br />
<span class="ij" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Thursday 5 March</span><br />
Rialto <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Auckland</span><br />
Lumiere <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Christchurch</span><br />
Rialto <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Dunedin</span></div>
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<span class="ij" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Saturday 7 & Sunday 8 March</span><br />
Lighthouse Cuba, <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Wellington</span></div>
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<span class="ij" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Thursday 12 March</span><br />
Focal Point <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Fielding</span><br />
Shoreline Cinema <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Waikana</span>e (Q&A with Bea and Sophie 12 March)<br />
The Gecko <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Motueka</span><br />
Screening Room <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Masterton</span><br />
<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Akaroa</span> Cinema</div>
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<span class="ij" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Saturday 14 March</span><br />
Len Lye Cinema <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">New Plymouth</span></div>
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<span class="ij" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Thursday 19 March</span><br />
Café Whakamax W<span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">hakatane</span></div>
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<span class="ij" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Thursday 26 March</span><br />
Village Theatre <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Takaka</span><br />
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<section class="eo ep eq er es" style="box-sizing: inherit; word-break: break-word; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="n p" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; justify-content: center;">
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Bea’s filmmaking philosophy, in Louise Hutt’s <span class="hk hw" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Online Heroines</span><span class="ij" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> </span>(2016 ).</div>
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-72686736828291553432020-02-09T13:39:00.002-08:002020-02-10T16:45:41.527-08:00Rouzie Hassanova & her 'Radiogram'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<img class="lm nq ec t u gx ak hg" height="400" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/570/1*jRzga-p6bg0c5JGidpMK_Q.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: 400px; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 400ms 0ms; vertical-align: middle; width: 570px;" width="570" /></div>
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Rouzie Hassanova’s award-winning <a class="bo dc kt ku kv kw" href="https://www.radiogrammovie.com/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram</span></a> is #directedbywomen #aotearoa’s first screening for 2020, at Parliament on 16 March.</div>
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<img class="s t u jr ai jx jy ck pw" height="561" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/21/1*NLqCnhdap_QRUOpnD8PVMA.jpeg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 561px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition: visibility 0ms 400ms; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 393px;" width="393" /></div>
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It will be hosted by Jan Logie MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Justice, a visionary and very effective politiciant. In particular, Jan’s an outstanding advocate for those affected by violence and discrimination, including women in the screen industries, through her support of the <a class="bo dc kt ku kv kw" href="http://www.swag.org.nz/" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Screen Women’s Action Group</a>, as well as #directedbywomen #aotearoa’s programme. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Jan, Rouzie and legendary editor Annie Collins. If you’d like an invitation, please get in touch ASAP: radiogramscreening [at] gmail.com!</div>
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Based on a true story from 1971, <span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram</span> is<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span>set in a Muslim community in Bulgaria under the Communist regime (1946–1990), where religious expression and western music are forbidden. It’s about a father who decides to walk almost 100km to the nearest town to buy a new radio for his rock ’n’ roll obsessed son and it celebrates the strength of the human spirit, family, friendship and the power of music.</div>
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<figcaption class="av bj ka kb kc hd dl dm kd ke aq ez" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;">Alexander Ivanov (Ahmet) and Alexander Hadjiangelov (Ali)</figcaption></figure><br />
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I can’t remember how Rouzie and I met. But I remember an exciting long walk with her around the beachfront in Oriental Bay, not long after she arrived in New Zealand with her Kiwi family, after 20 years living and working in London. At the beginning of the walk I knew she was an award-winning writer/director of several short films and a feature. But by its end I’d learned that she is so much more: she has extensive experience within post-production, international film finance and distribution, production and drama development. And a lot of fun. And it was no surprise when she later became the Development Executive at the New Zealand Film Commission (currently on maternity leave).</div>
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And it was no surprise, when I first saw <span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram</span> among a small test audience in 2018, that the audience loved it for its writing, its story, its direction and its performances (it has won multiple awards). <span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram</span>became one of that year’s #directedbywomen #aotearoa screenings and played to a packed cinema, followed by a brilliant Q&A with Rouzie and fellow writer/director <a class="bo dc kt ku kv kw" href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/hang-time-casey-zilbert-9c38b001fd4c" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Casey Zilbert</a>.</div>
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This Parliamentary screening comes the day after the first anniversary of the massacre at two Christchurch mosques.</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt:</span> As someone from a Muslim background — perhaps the only one in this country who’s made a feature film — you hope that, because of last year’s tragic events, audiences will approach<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> Radiogram </span>with a desire to understand and relate to the Muslim community. Why did you choose to tell this story in particular?</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie Hassanova:</span> The story was inspired one day over a coffee, when I heard my grandfather recall how in the 70s he risked his life to get a radiogram for himself, for his son, for everyone in the village.</div>
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Years after I heard that story, I wrote a short film script, which got nominated for the <a class="bo dc kt ku kv kw" href="https://www.filmprize.de/en" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Robert Bosch Award</a> and following that I was encouraged to develop it into a feature film by the East European lab called ScripTeast. The story took a long time to form into a screenplay because I was too close to my family and wanted to stay loyal to all of them. But in film you have to be honest and consider the audience at the same time. The script took eight years of development.</div>
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What appealed to me was the universal theme of a father risking his life to make his son happy. And having grown up hiding behind a Christian name and discriminated against for being Muslim, I wanted to share a story about my community that I’m so proud of and let the viewer inside so they can relate and understand. After all people are all the same, we believe in the same God who we call different names. I am not sure if the film is fitting with last year’s tragic events, but I hope that its human story will allow the audience to see Muslims as everyone else.</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt:</span> One element of the story is that the regime compelled members of the community to change their names, a very specific kind of oppression. Was it only Muslims who had to change their names?</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie:</span> Bulgaria is predominantly a Christian Orthodox country with an over 1300 years old history. Ruled by the Ottoman Empire for 500 years, Bulgaria naturally has a healthy Muslim population. There are a few different Muslim communities, but the main ones are Pomaks, whose origin is debatable, and Turks living in Bulgaria. All of them were the subject of different assimilation campaigns — 1912, 1940s, 1960s, 1970s and the mid ‘80s.</div>
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Communist ideology is about creating one nation, where everyone is the same (equal) — status, education, wealth, etc. It prohibits any religious expression, influence or individualism that would threaten its power. As part of equalising the nation under the Communist regime, the assimilation process included changing the names of individuals within communities that were deemed ‘different’. This is why the government first targeted the Romani, who easily adopted their new names. Then it was the Pomaks, who are dispersed and hidden in the Rodopi Mountains.They had to change their Arabic names to ethnic Bulgarian ones and to achieve that the Communist party paid their own people to get the job done, so it was hush hush and away from the public eye.</div>
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They didn’t expect to be met with resistance, but there was plenty. People lost their lives rather than change their names. This is because in the Muslim religion if you adopt a new name, Allah will not know who you are when you die and won’t be able to judge your sins from good deeds, and thus you will end up stuck in the middle forever.</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt:</span> How, if at all, had things changed by the time you were growing up? Were you able to listen to anything you wanted to?</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie: </span>The last assimilation process started in ‘84 targeting the Turkish Bulgarian community and lasted till the fall of Communism in ‘89. At first, people protested peacefully, but when they were forced to change their names, it got out of hand. Those that resisted were met with bloody violence, others chose to starve to death, while most packed their bags and left for Turkey. This did not go unnoticed internationally and some argue that it led to the fall of the regime. I was nine years old at the time and remember it well. We were filled with hope that we will be accepted as true Bulgarians, after all we were born there. But unfortunately the fear remained, this is why a large part of the Muslim community chose not to restore their Muslim names. On the plus side as soon as the Wall fell in Germany, and Communism collapsed in East Europe, we could listen to any music we wanted to. This is when I heard Michel Jackson for the first time.</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt:</span>What were the challenges and the surprises and the pleasures of making <span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram</span>? Were any of them specific to your being a woman writer/director?</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie:</span> We struggled to get finance from Bulgaria, because of the project’s Muslim themes and characters. And although many people encouraged me to make a thriller / action, I wanted to tell a family film. I didn’t want to add a rape scene or a sex scene because that would sell tickets. I wanted to tell a story that would be easy to relate to and stay true to my family and the Muslim spirit. I wanted to show that my family is like everyone else’s, that regardless of religion and status, they represent every family around the world, that Ali represents any person under oppression.</div>
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There were also plenty of challenges because of our limited production budget of €125,000. From finding the cast and crew that would agree to work for little to no fees, to reworking the script the night before the shoot so it accommodated the lack of extras. We also faced some threats from locals in the middle of the night, who were worried we’re making a propaganda film. But this is when a great producer like mine, Gergana Stankova, can do amazing stuff to make it work and spare you any concerns.</div>
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Being a woman and a first time director had its effect, I was constantly tested and challenged by the much more experienced crew, but sometimes you need to remind everyone that this is your story, your vision. Don’t get me wrong, I often asked for feedback and ideas from everyone, as I am a firm believer in collaboration. But there were a couple of occasions when I had to show I had balls.</div>
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What was fantastic was having experienced cast that encouraged me to be true to the community and suggested we change the dialogue to the local dialect for authenticity, just two days before shooting. I am very grateful for their encouragement and trust, as this changed everything, including their own performances.</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt: </span>You’ve said that <span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram </span>is about a man looking for a sense of freedom in a world of oppression. What does a ‘sense of freedom’ mean to you as a filmmaker, a woman, a woman from a Muslim background living in New Zealand?</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie:</span> Freedom is a different feeling for everyone. It comes from within, from your heart. This could be having a family, winning a race, escaping a war zone, or simply listening to the music you love. When your identity is oppressed, anything that gives you a sense of freedom is enough to keep you going through the tough times. What I wanted to show with the movie is a slightly different view, that a name is just a name and identity is about about knowing who you are and staying true to your self and your beliefs. And as a woman director, who has not done a film since <span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram</span>, my current sense of freedom are my two daughters, a short film I am hoping to film later on this year and music, lots of music.</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt:</span> I love the music in <span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Radiogram</span>! Was it easy to get the rights?</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie:</span> That took years, I am not joking. To clear music rights takes such a long time when you have a limited budget. In the end we cleared only the publishing rights for most of the tunes and got musicians to record them for us, which was cheaper.</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt:</span><span class="lp" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> </span>What’s next for you?</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie:</span> Besides the short film which I mentioned, I am in the middle of writing three different ideas and slowly going crazy because of lack of time. Having kids has been a much bigger challenge than any film I have made. :)</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt:</span> Tell me about the short film?</div>
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<span class="kh kx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Rouzie: </span>The short is about teen sisters (immigrants), who get stuck on their way home and are forced to hitchhike home, only to be picked up gang members. It’s another true story, but this time it’s something that happened to me and my sister. The film is about judging on appearances, about manaakitanga.</div>
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The hardest thing I have had to accept is that I am unable to do as much as I would like to. My family and other general life obligations mean that my time is constantly interrupted or completely stolen. This has definitely affected my ideas and abilities.</div>
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-73691821561704035422019-10-28T14:17:00.000-07:002019-10-28T14:29:09.294-07:00The Power of Illusion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="ts" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">This month’s Power of Inclusion (POI) Summit, organised by the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) and Women in Film and Television New Zealand (WIFT) with support from Disney, was widely criticised by local filmmakers for its cost, which excluded many of us (1), especially those outside Auckland and those affected by school holidays. Like the conditions for our writers outlined in Mandy Hager’s </span><a class="bl cs mg mh mi mj" href="https://medium.com/spiral-collectives/valuing-our-writers-eed5f9e0fc7" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="lt mf" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"><span class="ts" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Valuing Our Writers</span></span></a><span class="ts" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> article last week, this issue highlighted artist poverty in Aotearoa New Zealand, almost always more severe for those from groups who already experience the effects of the wage gap, often in association with unpaid work (2).</span></div>
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<span class="ts" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">I shared the general concern about the POI costs and signed a widely-circulated letter that outlined alternatives to promote more inclusion. So I was delighted last week when Anita Rossbach, a Wellington-based </span><a class="bl cs mg mh mi mj" href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2015/08/anita-ross-cloud-piercer-film-fatales.html" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="ts" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">film-maker</span></a><span class="ts" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> with a background in human rights, provided a detailed analysis of the NZFC/WIFT meeting she attended with the organisers of the letter. Warm thanks to her for this reprint, with some Notes added by me, Marian.</span></div>
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<span class="ts" style="box-sizing: inherit;">By</span><span class="ts" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;"> </span><span class="ts" style="box-sizing: inherit;">Anita Rossbach</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRKLWONcUIHgVZ-qAQyNuysiMkzBqVzuhZAuoGe8XieskhaOWMnvmoNtLR3EfoCVADbdXgbYR9KE58XOe8u3su3pZRTRZ-apOtz-Ft5WGB4xvNbwGYLdyBTcBsl4g4q0Ac-MPrhwq00rR1/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-10-22+at+3.51.47+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="615" data-original-width="602" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRKLWONcUIHgVZ-qAQyNuysiMkzBqVzuhZAuoGe8XieskhaOWMnvmoNtLR3EfoCVADbdXgbYR9KE58XOe8u3su3pZRTRZ-apOtz-Ft5WGB4xvNbwGYLdyBTcBsl4g4q0Ac-MPrhwq00rR1/s320/Screen+Shot+2019-10-22+at+3.51.47+PM.png" width="313" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.541176); font-size: xx-small; letter-spacing: normal;">Anita Rossbach</span></td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">Kia ora koutou katoa,</span></div>
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I wasn’t going to say any more publicly about POI Summit after having been involved with engaging the NZFC/WIFT prior to the summit to address what has always been an exclusivity issue to this inclusion event. What I’m going to say is this:</div>
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The very nature of the POI Summit was exclusive by its ticket pricing alone but also because its intended audience very clearly wasn’t us. ‘Us’ meaning film industry workers and other creatives from New Zealand, especially those of us who are more often than not excluded for various reasons from work, from being ‘in the room’ and from making key decisions about how to make our industry better from a systemic, business and creative perspective.</div>
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I know this event was always intended to be exclusive, not just because I am able to reason just that from the information that was available about POI from the very start, and not just because I know what exclusion feels like from lived experience but because I was in the room with the NZFC and WIFT to discuss this very issue.</div>
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Again, I wasn’t planning on saying any more this publicly but to be honest, after the response by the NZFC to Amanda Jane Robinson’s piece, I don’t think it’s the right thing to do to stay quiet about this any longer. The NZFC’s belittling and dismissive response is the very definition of the type of behaviour within our industry that leads to systemic exclusion of certain voices.</div>
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I guess, you will want a disclaimer. I didn’t attend the summit. I was lucky enough to have paid work at the time. At the time of the meeting with the NZFC/WIFT, I already know I wouldn’t be able to attend for that reason.</div>
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The background to the meeting is as follows:</div>
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Two wonderful women filmmakers wrote a letter to the NZFC. Two drafts of the letter were passed around their networks for feedback which was included in the final version. A not inconsiderable number of diverse filmmakers contributed to the letter’s wording and signed their names to it. The letter outlined our concerns about the exclusive nature of the event, while also providing reasoning and suggestions on how to make this event about inclusion actually more inclusive. I have also heard that others made phone calls and send emails but for whatever reason, it was our two fearless leaders who got the invitation to a face to face meeting with the NZFC, with a WIFT representative also in attendance.</div>
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The filmmakers asked those of us who had signed the letter if we also wanted to attend said meeting. I went along for moral support because I knew our query was important and because I took the NZFC’s apparent willingness to listen as a good sign. My account of what followed comes from memory and from the notes I took during the meeting.</div>
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Our very first question to the organisers was about their intention behind the POI because we wanted to understand how it came that an event about inclusion made so many of us feel so excluded.</div>
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We were told that the summit was ‘intended to position New Zealand as a hub for, and as a leader in the global discussion around inclusion.’</div>
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At no point during our meeting was the NZFC or WIFT able or willing to explain what that ‘leadership’ was intended to look like.</div>
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In fact, the desired outcomes for the summit, we were told, were largely economic. We were told that these desired outcomes were driven by:</div>
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International delegate participation to attract overseas production to New Zealand as a filming destination;</div>
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High profile international delegates attracting wider media coverage than similar conferences held in New Zealand (Big Screen Symposium etc), again to position NZ as a filming destination for overseas productions;</div>
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Profiling New Zealand’s film sector and positioning NZ as a ‘key leader’ in the inclusion debate to drive overseas engagement with the NZ film sector.</div>
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It became clear to us that the primary intention for the Summit was to achieve economic outcomes for the wider NZ film sector by creating positive, international media coverage and thus attracting more overseas productions to invest in NZ.</div>
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At no point was anyone willing or able or even interested in providing answers to how these economic outcomes are connected to achieving a more inclusive NZ film industry. In fact, none of these outcomes have anything to do with ‘inclusion’, let alone meaningful, systemic change.</div>
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TICKET PRICES</div>
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When we started with the obvious economic barriers due to high ticket pricing alone, the NZFC explained that the ticket prices reflected what their budget could get away with in order for them to break even. It seemed really important that we understood that the Summit was not intended as a commercial event or to make a profit and that ticket prices were already lower than ‘similar international events’.</div>
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We pointed out that whether the event was commercial or not was not what concerned us and that we were equally critical of high ticket prices for ‘similar international events’. Event ticket prices are only one barrier for many of those in our industry who are systematically excluded from the work that would enable us to be able to afford attending such events (3).</div>
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The only response we got was that there was nothing that could be done because the event had to somehow break even. We pointed out that the Disney Company, being one of the main sponsors, could surely be persuaded to help make this event actually inclusive.</div>
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INTENDED AUDIENCE</div>
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We were then provided with the expected breakdown of attendees.</div>
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1200 delegates (4) of which:<br />
300–400 WIFTI (Although it’s an organisation for women, it is still somewhat exclusive by its nature given that women who traditionally earn less in the industry have to be able to afford being members. That’s simply a fact.)</div>
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200 international film industry (Not us.)</div>
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400 NZers who you’d also usually find at the Big Screen Symposium. (Also a fairly exclusive bunch, given that it’s largely the same attendees every year.)</div>
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Any remaining: wider New Zealand/related industries such as tourism (clearly also not a category that was specifically concerned with inclusion)</div>
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The Aotea Centre as the venue choice and the glamorous branding for the summit, we were told, was intended to attract high profile international visitors who could help achieve the summit’s economic premise and who wouldn’t come if the event wasn’t seen to also be ‘high profile’.</div>
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We pointed out that this approach and the intended audience by its very nature did not seem to include us. I think it was at this point that I called the POI Summit ‘exclusive by design’ and was first met with shocked silence, then immediate and categorical dismissal.</div>
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DISCUSSION OF SOLUTIONS</div>
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We continued the meeting by discussing the suggestions made in our letter regarding how to make the summit more accessible to New Zealanders.</div>
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Again, we were told, ticket prices are already lower than comparable industry events overseas, or similar events here but in different industries, so the listed prices — $495+GST standard, $350+GST student/new filmmakers — were the best that could be done.</div>
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We were reassured that the intention was there to find solutions to the financial barriers and it was acknowledged that these solutions should have been on the table from the get go at the inception of the summit idea.</div>
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However, the NZFC had no actual, practical solutions to the exclusive nature of the event worked out and was relying heavily on our suggestions while constantly pushing back.</div>
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They suggested that 100–150 free or low priced tickets could be made available and they had a vague idea of how to achieve this financially. They were looking into different approaches: sponsored tickets and pay it forward (buy one, gift one).</div>
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We agreed that sponsored tickets would be nice but since they were an afterthought, they would only make this event accessible to a lucky few. We also pointed out that the pay it forward system, while a nice thought, meant that the burden of making this event more accessible would fall squarely on the shoulders of other New Zealand industry attendees, many of whom would only just be able to afford the tickets themselves. I mean, we’d be kidding ourselves to expect the 200 or so international delegates to cough up more money to make an event they were attending for its high profile more accessible to some poor schmucks here in New Zealand.</div>
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The NZFC and the WIFT representative were also still unclear on how to deliver those tickets and asked for our thoughts. Our suggestion was to hold a blind lottery and to target specific applicants in the marketing for the lottery (i.e. people who actually face financial and other barriers).</div>
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At the same time both the NZFC and WIFT representatives consistently pushed back against the very idea of free or cheap tickets itself.</div>
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Their arguments went like this:</div>
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If tickets are free or too cheap the event is devalued and loses its attractiveness to high profile international attendees. That obviously would have undermined the economic raison d’être for the whole summit.</div>
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People will apply for tickets even though they are financially able to pay for tickets themselves. We asked whether there was empirical proof that this is an issue and more importantly, why those who genuinely can’t afford the ticket prices should be punished for other people’s bad behaviour. Neither one of those questions was answered.</div>
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Instead the next argument was that in their experience, too many of the people granted free tickets won’t show up. We asked again whether there was empirical proof from other events whether this was an actual problem.</div>
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We also pointed out that ticket prices are not the only financial barriers. Taking time off paid work, travel and accommodation costs and child care were just some of the other financial barriers that came into play even if tickets were only $10. We didn’t get around to discussing any of those barriers in great detail because we were too gob-smacked by the attitude of the WIFT representative who derisively shouted over the top of everyone that there would always be people who could afford buying take-away coffee every day and those who couldn’t.</div>
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We skipped ahead and continued to explain that there were also other barriers that hadn’t been addressed during the event’s planning such as accessibility and actually feeling like you’re wanted at such an event (like clearly being part of the target audience for instance).</div>
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I should point out that we weren’t simply there to make our displeasure known but continuously offered ideas for solutions to both financial and other barriers. These included a combination of the following.</div>
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More cheap tickets should be made available to a wider range of people (and actually cheap, not the ridiculous existing student ticket price). This didn’t happen but the NZFC followed through on their 150 free tickets. The tickets were not distributed by lottery but as far as I’m aware by a non-transparent system of applications and selections through various industry bodies. Even the free tickets had an ironic dash of exclusivity about them (5).</div>
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We also suggested live streaming of events (with closed caption videos to be made available as soon as practicable after the event) for those missing out on tickets or unable to attend for other reasons. Live streaming was immediately shot down because of commitments to overseas and other media. I do believe some of the summit’s events were videoed though and are available online in some form.</div>
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We also pointed out that the speeches and discussion panels were not even the important part. We explained that for the marginalised voices being discussed during the summit, the most important thing was to get in the room, and to belong in the room. It was all about not only being part of change but being allowed to lead the change.</div>
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As such we suggested a volunteer programme that would allow those able to help out at the event as ushers etc to gain access to at least some of the summit’s programmes. (Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think this happened and if it did it was certainly not widely advertised as an option.)</div>
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We also suggested day passes and session passes but there was a fear that people who had already bought tickets to the whole summit would be alienated. We followed this up by suggesting that current ticket holders could for example be given the option to share their passes with other people who want to attend sessions they are not interested in. None of these suggestions were taken seriously or followed up on.</div>
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Generally speaking if probably not surprisingly, there seemed to be a complete lack of understanding that it was the people in need of change who should be allowed to lead that change, and that the very first requirement was to Be. In. The. Room.</div>
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One thing that really annoyed me personally during the entire meeting was the repeated insistence that the NZFC/WIFT representatives felt that it would indeed be a shame if ‘we’ missed out on tickets. We had to keep reminding them that we were not there to claim a ticket (6).</div>
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If it is not yet clear to you just how important it is for marginalised voices to be in the room in a meaningful way at any and all industry events and indeed be integral to those bodies planning the events, read other accounts of how the POI summit was designed and delivered, like the one by Amanda Jane Robinson. Find Julie Zhu’s and Heperi Mita’s speeches. Talk to your industry friends who would have loved to go to the event but couldn’t and listen to the ‘whys’.</div>
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I walked out of the meeting with the NZFC with the overwhelming, gut wrenching feeling that the POI Summit was never meant for ‘us’, for those voices who it purported to include and care about. Indeed, the whole event was exclusive by design. There, I said it again.</div>
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The idea of ‘inclusion’ for the POI Summit was almost entirely used as branding in order to achieve economic outcomes but has no real meaning for making the NZ film sector in any way more inclusive.</div>
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The fact that the NZFC does not understand the difference between unwaged filmmakers being ‘part of [the inclusion] conversation’ through free tickets offered as an afterthought and marginalised voices being a central and continuous presence in the inclusion debate, is truly disheartening.</div>
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From the NZFC’s disgraceful shut down of Amanda’s and others’ lived industry experiences, it becomes crystal clear that the NZFC as a whole has failed to learn the most important lessons an event such as the Power of Inclusion Summit should have taught them.</div>
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Prop the doors open, heck rip them off the hinges. Listen first, think second, speak last.</div>
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<div style="font-size: 21px;">
Ngā mihi mahana,</div>
<div style="font-size: 21px;">
Anita Rossbach</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.022em;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Notes</span></b></span></div>
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</section><section class="jn jo jp jq jr" style="box-sizing: inherit; word-wrap: break-word;"><div class="v w" style="box-sizing: inherit; display: flex; justify-content: center;">
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(1)<br />
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">Anonymous (2019) in Newall, '</span><a class="bl cs mg mh mi mj" href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/features/further-thoughts-submitted-about-the-power-of-inclusion-summit/" rel="noopener" style="letter-spacing: -0.004em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Further thoughts about the Power of Inclusion</a><span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">'</span></div>
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A Māori woman filmmaker’s mostly positive response to the POI.</div>
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Barnett, John (2019) in Newall, <a class="bl cs mg mh mi mj" href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/features/discussion-around-the-power-of-inclusion-continues/" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Discussion around the Power of Inclusion continues</a> <span class="lt mf" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Flicks </span>14 October<br />
A veteran producer has his say!</div>
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<a class="bl cs mg mh mi mj" href="https://twitter.com/chazharris" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Harris, Chaz</a> (2019) <a class="bl cs mg mh mi mj" href="https://www.facebook.com/199789623393963/posts/2691150770924490" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Power of Inclusion</a> <span class="lt mf" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Faceboo</span>k 17 October<br />
A Wellington-based gay creator of film and print IP (<span class="lt mf" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; font-weight: 700; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;"><a class="bl cs mg mh mi mj" href="https://mailchi.mp/d4556c4d3cbe/soulfirechronicles" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Soulfire Chronicles</a> </span>out any day now!) who inter alia makes these points: ‘To my film industry peers, I ask this: do we really want an NZFC that tries to silence dissent from the very filmmaking community its funding exists to provide support to? An NZFC that wields power to create fear, silence and keep everyone in their place, instead of working with us to create systemic change?</div>
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I want an NZFC that will listen, that apologizes when they get things wrong, and that commits to doing better. That’s the only response that was needed. With all that said, that same power is diminishing. The media landscape is changing and there are more buyers open to content from underrepresented voices and filmmakers in Aotearoa than even a year or two ago. The NZFC is no longer the only show in town, and that’s a good thing for all IP creators to remember.’</div>
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Mita, Heperi (2019) <a class="bl cs mg mh mi mj" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKcqJVzc0Jc" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Heperi Mita at the Power of Inclusion Summit</a> <span class="lt mf" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">New Zealand Film Commission</span> 3 October<br />
Hepi’s contribution reminds me of the late Irihapeti Ramsden’s graceful and powerful delivery of harsh cultural truths-with-a-light-touch.</div>
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Newall, <a class="bl cs mg mh mi mj" href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/features/discussion-around-the-power-of-inclusion-continues/" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Discussion around the Power of Inclusion continues</a> <span class="lt mf" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Flicks </span>14 October</div>
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Newall, Steve (2019) <a class="bl cs mg mh mi mj" href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/features/further-thoughts-submitted-about-the-power-of-inclusion-summit/" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Further thoughts about the Power of Inclusion</a> <span class="lt mf" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Flicks </span>21 October<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: , "georgia" , "cambria" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;">New Zealand Film Commission (2019) in</span><span class="gd gu" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: , "georgia" , "cambria" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-weight: 700;"> </span><a class="bn cu gq gr gs gt" href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/features/the-highs-lows-and-woes-of-the-power-of-inclusion-summit/" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The highs, lows and woes of the Power of Inclusion Summit (UPDATED with [NZFC] response</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: , "georgia" , "cambria" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;">) </span><span class="gd gu" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-family: , "georgia" , "cambria" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-weight: 700;">Flicks</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: , "georgia" , "cambria" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif;"> 9–11 October</span></div>
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Robinson, Amanda Jane (2019) <a class="bl cs mg mh mi mj" href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/features/the-highs-lows-and-woes-of-the-power-of-inclusion-summit/" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The highs, lows and woes of the Power of Inclusion Summit (UPDATED with [NZFC] response</a>) <span class="lt mf" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Flicks</span> 9–11 October</div>
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Zhu, Julie (2019) <a class="bl cs mg mh mi mj" href="https://www.pantograph-punch.com/post/julie-zhu-power-of-inclusion-speech" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">I’m Sick of Words Like ‘Diversity’, ‘Inclusion’ and ‘Representation’</a> <span class="lt mf" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Pantograph Punch</span>, 15 October<br />
An extension of Julie Zhu’s contribution 3 October <span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">to the POI. </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">(2)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3k5Kynq80NTHd0nE3lyMX6ddJiuXEDPd-gp0l_gVCuABqQjC1XesdTb5A2cvCIL3aNh5QXfbbYpkXboklTVNOEX8CM6tpCR9pTyHPZlA-JlsXR9r7brCzXU9XxR77cl85EKA9P2669Ant/s1600/1*GCAgZR0UwKkGVMYspNzJpg.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="99" data-original-width="694" height="57" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3k5Kynq80NTHd0nE3lyMX6ddJiuXEDPd-gp0l_gVCuABqQjC1XesdTb5A2cvCIL3aNh5QXfbbYpkXboklTVNOEX8CM6tpCR9pTyHPZlA-JlsXR9r7brCzXU9XxR77cl85EKA9P2669Ant/s400/1*GCAgZR0UwKkGVMYspNzJpg.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.541176); font-family: , "lucida grande" , "lucida sans unicode" , "lucida sans" , "geneva" , "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal;">From the </span><a class="bn cu gq gr gs gt" href="http://cevepnz.org.nz/Gender%20pay%20gap/gender-ethnicity.htm" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176); color: inherit; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); letter-spacing: normal; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Coalition for Equal Value Equal Pay</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.541176); font-family: , "lucida grande" , "lucida sans unicode" , "lucida sans" , "geneva" , "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal;"> (NZ)</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.8);"><span style="font-size: large;">(</span></span><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.843137); font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">3) It’s not hard to find three current examples of other highly priced events that exclude many filmmakers: the </span><a class="bn cu gq gr gs gt" href="http://www.spada.co.nz/2019-spada-conference/registration/" rel="noopener" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="gd gu" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">SPADA</span> two-day conference</a><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.843137); font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">, like the POI at Auckland’s Aotea Centre, has early-bird prices ranging from $225 student-$500 for non-members; </span><a class="bn cu gq gr gs gt" href="https://www.miramarcreative.nz/creative-futures-home" rel="noopener" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="gd gu" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Creative Futures</span></a><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.843137); font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em;"> is $280 for two days; and it’s $287.50 for a two-day Stephen Cleary workshop entitled </span><a class="bn cu gq gr gs gt" href="https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/wgtn-workshop-power-gender-and-new-story-structures-with-stephen-cleary-tickets-73376995569" rel="noopener" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="gd gu" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Power, Gender & New Story Structures</span></a><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.843137); font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">. Something needs to change.</span><br />
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.843137); font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.843137); font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">(4) Ultimately </span><a class="bn cu gq gr gs gt" href="https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2019/10/power-of-inclusion-summit-welcomes-local-international-filmmakers-to-or-kei-marae.html" rel="noopener" style="font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">there were 700 delegates</a><span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.843137); font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">.</span><br />
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<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.843137); font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">(5) It wasn’t a blind lottery. Although I had no intention of attending the POI, I applied for a balloted place because I was interested to see what the application involved; it required applicants to declare which marginalised group(s) they belonged to. As someone commented on Anita’s original post, questioning the legality of this: ‘…[It] would have them feeling like they are only going to be deemed worthy of a ticket if they disclose their marginalisation’. Only one person I know of won a balloted place.</span><br />
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<span style="color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.843137); font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em;">(6) This accords with persistent reports of NZFC attempts to ‘manage’ those who make principled objections to the organisation’s practices by appealing to their self-interest; and playing on almost every filmmaker’s fears that if they speak out they will be forever blacklisted.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">#directedbywomen 2019</span></td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">I acknowledge that because some international filmmakers visited Wellington after the Summit ended, </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">the POI and therefore the NZFC/WIFT also made possible this year’s </span><a class="bn cu gq gr gs gt" href="https://medium.com/@devt/directedbywomen-aotearoa-2019-d42245e622c5" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); letter-spacing: -0.004em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">#directedbywomen #aotearoa programme</a><span style="letter-spacing: -0.004em;">, funded by LMC and The Magic Fridge. It was a rich and beautiful visit and I’m very grateful for it.</span></div>
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-48952049846872828692019-10-15T19:37:00.000-07:002019-10-22T15:05:10.832-07:00Ghazaleh Golbakhsh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqiBOyi_ulhslzo61jc6sebcFgNbLd5bsIJKs1Eiiza3S6ii69YhEhKufi-MxjXDEr-4x22A-lNzqskZ5wuIKpqe9ZGZ-pxTEMonhPmiOzRNlz-Hl4dN4U_2c2LiuvscvpV-41gxjqYLQ3/s1600/TWR+director+Ghazaleh+Golbakhsh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqiBOyi_ulhslzo61jc6sebcFgNbLd5bsIJKs1Eiiza3S6ii69YhEhKufi-MxjXDEr-4x22A-lNzqskZ5wuIKpqe9ZGZ-pxTEMonhPmiOzRNlz-Hl4dN4U_2c2LiuvscvpV-41gxjqYLQ3/s400/TWR+director+Ghazaleh+Golbakhsh.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
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Ghazaleh, an Iranian New Zealander and multihyphenate filmmaker, came to Aotearoa aged 6. Her Masters in Documentary thesis film, <span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Iran in Transit</span>, premiered at the International Student Film Festival in Tel Aviv after winning the festival’s Alternative Competition and won the Outstanding Student Film award at the Beijing Student Film Festival in 2013. </div>
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Ghazaleh then used a Fulbright General Graduate award for further post-graduate studies in film production and screenwriting at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, became an intern for Sundance and was elected as the Women of Cinematic Arts Student Board co-chair. As an emerging filmmaker she was selected for the first Commonwealth Writers Film Lab in Auckland. Her fifth short film, <span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The Waiting Room</span>, has just been selected for the International Exile Film Festival in Sweden.</div>
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Four years ago, when I last <a class="bm cz ny nz oa ob" href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2015/09/ghazaleh-golbakhsh-waking-dream.html" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">interviewed her</a>, Ghazaleh’s feature screenplay <span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">At the End of the World,</span> a coming of age road trip comedy, had been shortlisted for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, reached the Top 10% in the prestigious Nicholls Fellowship and was selected for the <a class="bm cz ny nz oa ob" href="http://script-to-screen.co.nz/?t=writers-lab%20Writers%E2%80%99" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Writers’ Lab Aotearoa </a>run by Script to Screen.</div>
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With two other other emerging filmmakers, Nicole Van Heerden and Mojan Javadi, Ghazaleh set up the Waking Dream Collective and a film company, Waking Dream Productions.</div>
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt</span> Four years ago you were starting your PhD and working hard with the Waking Dream Collective. And now you’ve just received New Zealand On Air (NZOA) funding for your <span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">This Is Us</span>, a project to commemorate the March 15 terror attack in Christchurch *and* a Copyright Licensing New Zealand (CLNZ) and New Zealand Society of Authors (NZSA) Research <a class="bm cz ny nz oa ob" href="https://www.copyright.co.nz/about/news-and-event/winners-announced-for-the-clnz-nzsa-research-grants-2019" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Grant for a collection</a> called <span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The Shah of Grey Lynn and Other Stories. </span>Congratulations!</div>
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Ghazaleh</span> I can’t believe it’s been four years already! Interestingly enough, a lot of things suddenly happened for me this year so it really has been a case of when it rains, it pours. </div>
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">This is Us</span> was originally the brainchild of <a class="bm cz ny nz oa ob" href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/shuchi-kothari-8ea51ff6ceb" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Shuchi Kothari</a> and myself. Shuchi was definitely the reason I applied for the grant to begin with as she, like myself, is passionate about inclusivity, that is representation from diverse communities not only onscreen but behind the screen as well. If we want to tell truly authentic stories then we need to tell them ourselves.</div>
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The project is a series of micro documentary films profiling various Muslim New Zealanders on what they love the most. The series will be part of Radio New Zealand’s (RNZ) ongoing coverage of the Christchurch attacks, particularly in the lead up to the one year commemorations. We are all go with the project now and I’m very excited and humbled to have such an important project selected. There are definitely challenges with it but overall it is very much a passion project for everyone involved and anyone we discuss this with agrees about its importance.</div>
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>I loved the Waking Dream Collective’s recent Facebook post about the funding announcement: ‘Proud to have a project by Ghazaleh Gol be one of these selected. Proud to have an all WoC crew too.’ Is it still unusual?</div>
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Ghazaleh</span> I think RNZ and NZOA appreciated the idea of communities telling stories about their own communities, so they were really supportive with our project particularly with the team we have. Shuchi is our EP (and one of my own personal mentors) and Anahera Parata is our producer. We also have a young fellow Iranian-Kiwi Sara Shirazi as our lead researcher and the fantastic Amie Bentall as our editor. I am always keen to encourage women, particularly WoC, to be in my teams. Again, it goes back to my mantra of having representation in as many important places as possible. It’s funny you ask if its unusual. I actually had some backlash from someone in the industry about this.</div>
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They believe that women are suddenly on equal par with men so we should stop this nonsense of pushing for more women in leadership roles like producers. I stopped being in contact with this person. There are definitely some faux-woke men out there who really don’t get what this is all about. It should not be an unusual thing to have an all-women crew. In fact, I hope for the day when gender does not come into it but until that day we need to still make a blatant point of pushing for more women and PoC and other minorities to take on roles in the industry.</div>
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>What difference is it making to the work, to have an all WoC crew?</div>
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Ghazaleh</span> I feel that sometimes depending on the story or context, or even the people (such as the talent) involved, it can help if there are more women in the crew. For example, I remember getting feedback on my feature about a specific male character. Nearly every man who read it, didn’t believe this guy would exist. Nearly every woman who read it, said they knew a guy just like that. So I think it can help. For me, it’s more of a political reason as I think we still need far more WoC in the industry, in front and behind the screen.</div>
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt</span> You’ve almost finished your PhD now, <span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Monsters, rebels, slackers: Exploring duality in Iranian diasporic cinema 2007–2017</span>, which includes the <span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">At the End of the World</span> screenplay as its creative component, alongside an exegesis. How has it developed?</div>
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Ghazaleh</span> In the early 2000s there was a ‘mini-boom’ of women’s memoirs from Iranians in the diaspora. Books like <span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Reading Lolita in Tehran</span> did phenomenally well worldwide. From here we got a number of films made by namely women directors in the diaspora that looked at Iranian stories, with the predecessor being Marjane Satrapi’s <span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Persepolis</span>. Much of this is because of and in some cases a reaction to world events such as 9/11, the war on terror and the ongoing media focus on Iran as an ‘axis of evil’. Many of the filmmakers wanted to present their own stories of what it means to be Iranian, but one who lives outside of Iran. This spoke to me directly as most of my work also looks at this. My screenplay is a love/hate letter to New Zealand — there are times I hated being ‘different’ here and yet it is because of that, that I learned to tell stories so I now love that I am ‘different’.</div>
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As immigrants, particularly 1.5 and 2nd generation, we are living almost in an in-between. We are neither solely Iranian nor Kiwi but we are both and that is OK. Many of these films and my own screenplay are a celebration of this hybridity.</div>
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The challenges have been the back and forth between academic writing and the more creative writing of the screenplay. It’s also difficult when you’ve been working on the same story for so long to not get a bit lost in it so it’s great that I’ve had some amazing people to help with getting it back on track. It’s being produced by Ainsley Gardiner and Georgina Conder, as part of their company Miss Conception, which made <span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The Breaker Upperers</span> and is now shooting <span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Cousins. </span>And alongside Shuchi and Ainsley, script editor Emily Anderton has helped me go back to the basics of story. We’ve been lucky to have been supported by the New Zealand Film Commission with development funding.</div>
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>I was surprised recently to understand from an academic that they believed that post-graduate work by filmmakers, with a creative component, isn’t as serious and citable as academic-academic work. What do you think?</div>
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Ghazaleh</span> I’m not surprised to see this to be honest. Even when I first applied for my PhD, the university was a bit sceptical, citing reasons such as not finding relevant examiners etc as reasons. I think it’s still seen as a relatively new discipline though it has been a staple in universities in the UK and Australia so I don’t know why we are so slow to adapt it.</div>
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I think it’s the way of the future — which is cheesy but I believe that much of academia is desperately outdated and we need to fight to upgrade it to fit in with what is going on in the world, particularly with its links to industry. I did a leadership course through the Uni and the NZ Leadership Institute and one of the major concerns for many of the participants (all doctoral students from various schools and disciplines) was how to get a job in the ‘real world’. Many didn’t want to stay in academia but felt that this link to industry was really challenging. The creative component for me is such a link and it just makes sense.</div>
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I definitely benefitted from having that luxury of a scholarship and time to really work on things I liked as opposed to working a dead end job just to make ends meet. I also benefitted in that sense of security — I admire people like Shuchi and my former supervisor Annie Goldson in that they work within both academia and industry. It’s a great place to mentor people too.</div>
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt</span> I enjoyed your great <a class="bm cz ny nz oa ob" href="https://www.villainesse.com/girl-power/diversity-vs-representation-why-hollywood-still-needs-learn" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Diversity vs representation: Why Hollywood</span><span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">still</span> <span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">needs to learn</span></a> article around Oscar time this year. Do you see/experience similar problems here in New Zealand? Some positive changes?</div>
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<figcaption class="at bh oe of ke gw di dj og oh ao fh" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Ghazaleh on set for <span class="ao nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The Waiting Room</span> with Matt Johnson (1st AD) and Leigh Elford (DP)</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Ghazaleh</span> Thanks, I always get angry around awards season as I find them ludicrous. Yes, the answer is definitely yes. We still have a way to go in terms of gaining more representation behind the scenes, particularly in television, but I think NZ is at least trying. I do like what the UK is doing, in that they have actual programmes, funds and even quotas and it would be great to have that. One of the biggest challenges I noticed was that people from certain backgrounds just never think about this industry as a viable option. So that’s why it becomes important to have people from their community in places of leadership. Visually if you can see someone like you in that position then you’re more likely to envision yourself there.</div>
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<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt</span> Are there Waking Dream Collective projects you’d like to write about? Your own plans?</div>
<div class="nj nk cj ap nl b nm nn no np nq nr ns nt nu nv nw" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="a5fa" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em; line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em;">
<span class="nl nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Ghazaleh</span> I do have some exciting things that will hopefully pan out soon but I’m not at liberty to mention them just yet. Waking Dream is on a bit of a hiatus as the three of us are very busy with our own individual works at the moment but we are keen to really get back into it soon. I’m also really happy that the <a class="bm cz ny nz oa ob" href="https://www.facebook.com/pasc.nz/" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Pan-Asian Collective</a> is now up and running — it’s such a valuable organisation and one that was much needed, with some excellent people running it. I have high hopes for them and can count myself as a proud member.</div>
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<figure class="mg mh mi mj mk ix di dj paragraph-image" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); clear: both; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; margin: 56px auto 0px;"><div class="mw mx bj my ac" style="box-sizing: inherit; cursor: zoom-in; position: relative; transition: transform 300ms cubic-bezier(0.2, 0, 0.2, 1); width: 680px; z-index: auto;">
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<img alt="" class="m n o na ac ng nh sb sc" height="1080" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/30/1*TUvSCugNZB35t-0iF0TMaA.jpeg?q=20" style="box-sizing: inherit; filter: blur(20px); height: 306.25px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transform: scale(1.1); transition: visibility 0ms 400ms; vertical-align: middle; visibility: hidden; width: 680px;" width="2398" /></div>
<img alt="" class="om on m n o na ac ml" height="1080" role="presentation" src="https://miro.medium.com/max/2398/1*TUvSCugNZB35t-0iF0TMaA.jpeg" style="background-color: white; box-sizing: inherit; height: 306.25px; left: 0px; opacity: 1; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: opacity 400ms 0ms; vertical-align: middle; width: 680px;" width="2398" /></div>
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<figcaption class="at bh oe of ke gw di dj og oh ao fh" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.541176); font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.4; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; margin-top: 10px; max-width: 728px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Marjan Gorgani and Roxie Mohebbi in <span class="ao nx" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The Waiting Room</span></span></figcaption></figure><br />
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<a class="bm cz ny nz oa ob" href="https://twitter.com/baronessghaz" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twitter</a></div>
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<a class="bm cz ny nz oa ob" href="https://www.wakingdream.co.nz/" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Waking Dream Collective</a></div>
<div class="nj nk cj ap nl b nm nn no np nq nr ns nt nu nv nw" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="acd2" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em; line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em;">
<a class="bm cz ny nz oa ob" href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1710439/" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Ghazaleh on imdb</a></div>
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-49557881938007992462019-09-24T15:43:00.004-07:002019-10-28T18:07:53.233-07:00#DirectedByWomen #Aotearoa 2019<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/@devt/directedbywomen-aotearoa-getting-with-the-suffrage125-programme-f861b6fbbe68" href="https://medium.com/@devt/directedbywomen-aotearoa-getting-with-the-suffrage125-programme-f861b6fbbe68" target="_blank">#DirectedByWomen #Aotearoa</a> is back, this time in collaboration with Wellington’s <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/242118849902767/" href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/242118849902767/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Emerging Women Filmmakers Network</a>; and generous assistance from those listed in the credits! </div>
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The multi-dimensional programme celebrates the visits of Maria Giese, Hope Dickson Leach and Nasreen Alkhateeb to Wellington, after they participate in the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://powerofinclusion.co.nz/" href="https://powerofinclusion.co.nz/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Power of Inclusion Summit</a>. Thanks to <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://maorilandfilm.co.nz" href="http://maorilandfilm.co.nz/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Māoriland</a>, Maria and Nasreen will also attend a screening in Ōtaki.</div>
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<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/director-activist-maria-giese-update-on-women-directors-the-aclu-the-feds-bdb6a8fcb115" href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/director-activist-maria-giese-update-on-women-directors-the-aclu-the-feds-bdb6a8fcb115" target="_blank">Maria Giese</a> is the Nipmuc/US director who initiated the ongoing Federal investigation into Hollywood’s discrimination against women directors.</div>
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<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://hopedicksonleach.com/" href="http://hopedicksonleach.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Hope Dickson Leach</a>, UK director, co-founded <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.raisingfilms.com" href="http://www.raisingfilms.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Raising Films</a> — an organisation that advocates for parents/carers working in the screen industry, and develops practices to support them.<br />
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<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://allmediastorytelling.com" href="https://allmediastorytelling.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Nasreen Alkhateeb</a>, US director, leads diverse broadcast, digital and film storytelling projects that empower new voices and advocate for gender/racial/ability rights and climate change issues.</div>
<figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetLeft" name="380e"><img class="graf-image" data-height="3456" data-image-id="1*3RADczz-E5UPHCQB4QGsXQ.jpeg" data-width="5184" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*3RADczz-E5UPHCQB4QGsXQ.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Nasreen in Greenland for NASA</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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THE PROGRAMME</h3>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--h4-strong">Sunday 6 October </strong></h4>
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<b>3 to 5pm-ish</b><span style="font-weight: normal;">Women Directors’ Afternoon Tea with Maria and Nasreen. They’d like to hear about local directors’ lives and practices; and to share stories from their own lives and work, in a ‘domestic’ setting.</span></h4>
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Free. More details: directedbywomen2019@gmail.com</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3b1hK5uaSMAFfMZwmTCMIRIhnRix18979NwAS3Y1g_GgSm8EAX_t85Vl-XhU5YemiJxVXjPgbc1ZdqdOp8_YKLg7wVJZhvlUmJJJoJpDaNV9-LdQ2nyf6AmhH3RA8zvY9-WtMIPIUiJ3R/s1600/31870753_1969880266659702_8892078085210374144_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3b1hK5uaSMAFfMZwmTCMIRIhnRix18979NwAS3Y1g_GgSm8EAX_t85Vl-XhU5YemiJxVXjPgbc1ZdqdOp8_YKLg7wVJZhvlUmJJJoJpDaNV9-LdQ2nyf6AmhH3RA8zvY9-WtMIPIUiJ3R/s1600/31870753_1969880266659702_8892078085210374144_n.jpg" /></a></div>
<b>Monday 7 October</b><br />
<b>6pm</b><br />
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Half the Picture</strong><span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">, directed by Amy Adrion,</span> screening in Beehive Theatrette, followed by Q&A with Maria, Hope, Nasreen and host <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/NewshubNationNZ/videos/239278620321978/?v=239278620321978" href="https://www.facebook.com/NewshubNationNZ/videos/239278620321978/?v=239278620321978" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Jan Logie</a>, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Justice, Domestic and Sexual Violence Issues.<br />
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Half the Picture</strong> celebrates the groundbreaking work of female film directors and investigates the systemic discrimination that has, for decades, denied opportunities to far too many talented women in Hollywood. It features Maria Giese alongside directors such as Ava DuVernay, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Jill Soloway and Lena Dunham. Free. All welcome. RSVP to directedbywomen2019@gmail.com by Oct 3 required.<br />
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Tuesday 8 October</h4>
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10.30am</h4>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Raising Films Discussion with Hope Dickson Leach</strong> at Southern Cross 39 Abel Smith Street. Look out for the table with the metal slinky on it.</div>
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What are the issues for parents and carers who work in the screen industry in Aotearoa? Do we need a local Raising Films (<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/raisingfilmsaus/" href="https://www.facebook.com/raisingfilmsaus/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">there’s one in Aussie</a>)?</div>
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Free. All welcome and children very welcome. No RSVP necessary.</div>
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7pm</h4>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Half the Picture</span><span style="font-weight: normal;"> screening at </span><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.facebook.com/MaorilandFilm" href="http://www.facebook.com/MaorilandFilm" rel="noopener" style="font-weight: normal;" target="_blank">Māoriland</a><span style="font-weight: normal;">, 68 Main Street, Ōtaki, introduced by Maria and followed by a Q&A with Maria and Nasreen.</span></span></h4>
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This screening will be presented by Ngā Pakiaka — the Māoriland Charitable Trust’s group of rangatahi film leaders (aged 14–24), from across Aotearoa.</div>
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<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2019/oct/half-the-picture" href="https://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2019/oct/half-the-picture" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Tickets</a>: $6. All welcome. Doors open 6.30pm.</div>
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<b>Wednesday 9 October</b><br />
<b>2pm</b><br />
<a href="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*DYX7QXdykEzFf7aHzsZylw.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" class="graf-image" data-height="300" data-image-id="1*DYX7QXdykEzFf7aHzsZylw.jpeg" data-width="600" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*DYX7QXdykEzFf7aHzsZylw.jpeg" /></a><br />
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<a href="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*DYX7QXdykEzFf7aHzsZylw.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br />
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">This Changes Everything </strong>screening<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"> </strong>at the New Zealand Film Commission’s Hayward Cinema, Ghuznee Street. Q&A with Maria to follow.<br />
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<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.filminquiry.com/this-changes-everything-2019-review/" href="http://www.filminquiry.com/this-changes-everything-2019-review/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">This Changes Everything</strong></a> is a documentary that examines and reflects upon the gender disparity within the entertainment industry. It includes numerous interviews by female directors, producers, talent, and highlights Maria’s activism.</div>
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Free. Limited seating, please RSVP to directedbywomen2019@gmail.com ASAP. If there is enough interest, a 4pm screening may be added.</div>
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<b>AFTER-THOUGHTS</b><br />
<br />
It was a beautiful, rich, visit. Though another time I aim to a) have a smart phone to hand and b) a dedicated photographer: the images below mostly come from the visitors' social media!<br />
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Various inspiring combinations of Hope Dickson Leach, Maria Giese and Nasreen Alkhateeb attended screenings of Amy Adrion’s <b>Half the Picture</b> or Tom Donohue’s <b>This Changes Everything</b> and Q&As.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifEzJkwPOImL18iJ80364yV_vL_zX1VFc6dxS02r4HnDiccTd22hjf8QusojLsmfUm4tkmWh0N_0Mks1yUKVx_MkaDtDCk4z_Nil5SASqI_l25XciV3mVFwyH3n_ce1TOSARKy_wYgiLrb/s1600/infront+of+Parliament.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifEzJkwPOImL18iJ80364yV_vL_zX1VFc6dxS02r4HnDiccTd22hjf8QusojLsmfUm4tkmWh0N_0Mks1yUKVx_MkaDtDCk4z_Nil5SASqI_l25XciV3mVFwyH3n_ce1TOSARKy_wYgiLrb/s320/infront+of+Parliament.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">A group of filmmakers on their way from Backbenchers to Parliament for the screening</span></td></tr>
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Parliament's screening of <b>Half the Picture</b> was preceded by a warm welcome from and a beautiful speech by <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/members-of-parliament/logie-jan/">Jan Logie</a>, the Under-Secretary for Justice (Sexual and Domestic Violence Issues) and the evening's moderator. <br />
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Everyone had a good time...<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
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Tonight I went to NZ parliament for a screening of Half The Picture and a discussion on the terrible under employment of women in the film industry. I got really angry and yelled about systemic exclusion and unlawful hiring practices. How was your day? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/raisingfilms?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#raisingfilms</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/womendirect?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#womendirect</a> <a href="https://t.co/EOKb9qNpYj">pic.twitter.com/EOKb9qNpYj</a></div>
— hope dickson leach (@hopedickle) <a href="https://twitter.com/hopedickle/status/1181131401552203776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHR-3d1tVpr48Uo88xv28j1eDA6lm1a9tXAoiZylKlLToGuGRPsBGbk-Ok63E8yS4uac0evkMgdo6ILUL95r1QbLoCkaUzPFEM6TqD5pW5-lg2s6IUNclIchQoP3A6UFU8kzxNvti7A2KF/s1600/1*rJu4mBbxwkikdLZJV4uNVA.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="393" data-original-width="800" height="158" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHR-3d1tVpr48Uo88xv28j1eDA6lm1a9tXAoiZylKlLToGuGRPsBGbk-Ok63E8yS4uac0evkMgdo6ILUL95r1QbLoCkaUzPFEM6TqD5pW5-lg2s6IUNclIchQoP3A6UFU8kzxNvti7A2KF/s320/1*rJu4mBbxwkikdLZJV4uNVA.png" width="320" /></a></div>
Māoriland's generous hospitality is legendary (& their continuing practice of screening #directedbywomen films in at least half their programme: book your travel now for 2020!) and we had a great night there with <b>Half the Picture </b>thanks to Ngā Pakiaka and Madeleine de Young & co and to writer/director and moderator Oriwa Hakaraia from Ngā Pakiaka, Nasreen and Maria.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf4NsLUFrZ7hK4lhKeu3W1mtZ4Blip2XONRcPCcYYbZgwGBsOEVfwD8Nnm3ohn_Vu4x8WKXE561wWX015UQ1GWf6EAQaxp9SVEk6romRvCchcOKfSva0mlDbGG9oKj4eTySrTsYtvvFe8r/s1600/Maria+Nasreen+Oriwa+Hakaraia+8+October+2019.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="602" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf4NsLUFrZ7hK4lhKeu3W1mtZ4Blip2XONRcPCcYYbZgwGBsOEVfwD8Nnm3ohn_Vu4x8WKXE561wWX015UQ1GWf6EAQaxp9SVEk6romRvCchcOKfSva0mlDbGG9oKj4eTySrTsYtvvFe8r/s320/Maria+Nasreen+Oriwa+Hakaraia+8+October+2019.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Maria, Nasreen and Oriwa at Māoriland</span></td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.047999996691942215px;">At Park Road Post,</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> there was a great lunch and tour, thanks to Vicki Jackways; and a couple of days later a well-attended</span><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> staff screening of </span><b style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">This Changes Everything</b><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> with Maria and Hope, with a high proportion of men in the audience, always a good thing.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUQNqkY2GTVgaBliYxs47i4gP1nquZA-duB5MTFI96S68dJkI-BosHvo1ATIgWRr0YxdqT8MbjdbCtRBOsqn5NLSHm9RU2AtnTyCADh-t9dhxERbnXNlVTUgQOzwc5dy0D1njJ9oh61QS5/s1600/Park+Road+Post+9+October+2019.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUQNqkY2GTVgaBliYxs47i4gP1nquZA-duB5MTFI96S68dJkI-BosHvo1ATIgWRr0YxdqT8MbjdbCtRBOsqn5NLSHm9RU2AtnTyCADh-t9dhxERbnXNlVTUgQOzwc5dy0D1njJ9oh61QS5/s320/Park+Road+Post+9+October+2019.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">At Park Road Post</span></td></tr>
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.047999996691942215px;">Thanks to Rouzie Hassanova, </span><b style="letter-spacing: -0.047999996691942215px;">This Changes Everything</b><span style="letter-spacing: -0.047999996691942215px;"> also screened at the NZFC’s Hayward Cinema with Maria and Nasreen, followed by an interesting conversation, after a delicious and entertaining lunch with a large group of NZFC staff.</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: -0.047999996691942215px;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">There were other dynamic meetings, too: with local filmmakers in groups and as individuals; with a group interested in starting</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> </span><span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">Raising Films</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.003em;">in NZ.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy-ycva2gSvU6IT8qTepDb-LetKZq-LLCxrMd-JcrSyXpsd348nKqTmzVuMAMIH2Dq3f8HcnYgN2qb_b9tKpcnA3wLOm4hyphenhyphenVY6ui8dR49aDvY_dX6ZD6_DCXbjMNJVBrHoXsUo_VQGOmVc/s1600/Raising+Films+meeting.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="769" data-original-width="1026" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy-ycva2gSvU6IT8qTepDb-LetKZq-LLCxrMd-JcrSyXpsd348nKqTmzVuMAMIH2Dq3f8HcnYgN2qb_b9tKpcnA3wLOm4hyphenhyphenVY6ui8dR49aDvY_dX6ZD6_DCXbjMNJVBrHoXsUo_VQGOmVc/s320/Raising+Films+meeting.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Hope at the Raising Films meeting, withe Emerging Women Filmmakers' Pachali Brewster to her right.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">And producer/director Jaimee Poipoi interviewed</span><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> </span><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6tZ5mioBFQ" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6tZ5mioBFQ" rel="noopener nofollow" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; color: inherit; font-family: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"currentColor\" /></svg>"); letter-spacing: -0.003em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Hope</a><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">and Maria (coming soon, along with more from Hope’s interview!) for her</span><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> </span><span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">Five Quick Questions</span><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.003em;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">series.</span></div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--h4-strong">Warm thanks to–</strong></h4>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="512a">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">LMC & The Magic Fridge, </strong>for their continued support.</div>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="925a"><img class="graf-image" data-height="202" data-image-id="1*OJFoGRkkZ0j_eWqWvKjndA.jpeg" data-width="320" height="126" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*OJFoGRkkZ0j_eWqWvKjndA.jpeg" width="200" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="735b"><img class="graf-image" data-height="320" data-image-id="1*BBzrVJbclay6reSDmj8MSw.png" data-width="268" height="200" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*BBzrVJbclay6reSDmj8MSw.png" width="167" /></figure><figure class="graf graf--figure" name="735b"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/wiftnz/" href="https://www.facebook.com/wiftnz/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">WIFT NZ</strong></a><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"> </strong><span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">& the</span><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"> </strong><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/nzfilm/" href="https://www.facebook.com/nzfilm/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">NZ Film Commission</strong></a><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">, </strong>who brought these women over here for the Summit and offered a fine welcome in Wellington.</figure><br />
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<img class="graf-image" data-height="353" data-image-id="1*6Qy5ciim0d7Qiq92VhUHzg.png" data-width="800" height="141" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*6Qy5ciim0d7Qiq92VhUHzg.png" width="320" /></div>
<br />
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f215">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">WIFTNZ </strong><span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">for assistance with the <b>Raising Films</b> event.</span><br />
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Warm thanks too to Jackie McAuliffe; Lorna Kanavatoa; Jaimee Poipoi; Melissa Clark-Reynolds; Pachali Brewster from Emerging Women Filmmakers; and Polly Stupples, for their vital and very generous support, without which this couldn't have happened as it did; and to those who brought their energy, ideas and other kind contributions to the Women Directors Afternoon Tea.</div>
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& ngā mihi nunui to Kohine Ponika’s whānau for this kete, always.</div>
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-86477949176228540092019-09-16T15:55:00.000-07:002019-09-16T16:08:18.754-07:00Isabel Coixet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="lh li bf av lj b lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="863d" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em; line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em;">
Isabel Coixet, based in Barcelona, has made 14 feature films, many of them award-winning. Her <span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Elisa & Marcela</span>,<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"></span>about two women who married in Spain — in 1901 — when one of them adopted a male identity, was in 2018 the first Netflix film selected to compete for the Berlinale’s Golden Bear.</div>
<div class="lh li bf av lj b lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu" data-selectable-paragraph="" id="21aa" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137); font-family: medium-content-serif-font, Georgia, Cambria, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 21px; letter-spacing: -0.004em; line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: -0.46em; margin-top: 2em;">
Isabel has her own production company, <a class="cb bx lw lx ly lz" href="https://www.facebook.com/misswasabifilms/" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Miss Wasabi</a>, which makes narrative films, documentaries and commercials; and is also an activist — a member of <a class="cb bx lw lx ly lz" href="https://cimamujerescineastas.es/que-es-cima/" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">CIMA</a>, the powerful Spanish group that in 2010 kickstarted this iteration of European women’s film activism when it brought together women working in the audiovisual sector in Europe to create <a class="cb bx lw lx ly lz" href="https://medium.com/@devt/the-compostela-declaration-2010-f4bd8cdf3a38" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the Compostela Declaration</a>. Later, Isabel became Honorary President of the <a class="cb bx lw lx ly lz" href="https://www.ewawomen.com/" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">European Women’s Audiovisual Network</a> that grew out of the declaration. She was also a member of the Cannes Camera d’Or Jury, led by Agnes Varda, in 2013.</div>
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I interviewed Isabel by Skype, at the Te Auaha cinema in Wellington, on September 19 2018, the 125th anniversary of New Zealand women getting the vote, after we screened <span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The Bookshop</span>, her 2017 feature that won Goya Awards for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.</div>
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I think it was the first time anyone tried this kind of Q&A in New Zealand. It was certainly the first time I’d tried it, inspired by So Mayer’s <a class="cb bx lw lx ly lz" href="https://vimeo.com/202107573" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">interview of <span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Cameraperson</span>’s Kirsten Johnson</a> at the BFI. And I couldn’t have done it without the strong support of New Zealand Film School’s then-head tutor, Ness Simons, best-known for <a class="cb bx lw lx ly lz" href="http://www.potluckwebseries.com/" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Pot Luck</span></a>,<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span>the beautiful, funny and multi-award-winning webseries.</div>
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I had a feeling Isabel would be just right for this experiment. And just wonderful. And she was. My warm thanks to her and to Ness; and to Tilly Lloyd for the question about class (I'm sad I missed her excellent question about the cardies in <b>The Bookshop)</b>.</div>
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I started by asking Isabel about how she came to make<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> The Bookshop.</span></div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>About fifteen years ago I was in London and I went into a bookstore and it was there on the table. It was a new edition. But you know I have to say I had never heard of Penelope Fitzgerald. But I love books. I love bookstores. And — I don’t know — there was something when I read the explanation and the back cover. And I just went home and I started the book and you know it was four o’clock, and then I finished it like at nine. And I was really mesmerized by it. I mean I can’t really explain it logically. I can now but at that moment I was just, I was fascinated. I thought this woman [Florence, <span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The Bookshop</span>’s protagonist] is me. If I was a widow at that time and my dream was to open a bookstore, all these things that happened to her would happen to me. That’s the truth. I’m an avid reader and as a film director I’m a reader before being a film director. So when I’m reading I’m really reading, I’m not looking for material. I’m not saying ‘OK this will make a good movie or not’. Not at all. OK, sometimes when things are really really really obvious but not even then. When I read I really immerse myself in a book and when I’m looking for material I’m not looking for material in books.</div>
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@devt<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span>So you had quite a strong identification with the character.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>Yes. And also it was about her style. I think Penelope Fitzgerald has this really sharp and dry vision of the world. And I really like that. It’s not a sentimental book. In fact the book is hard. It’s much more hard and harsh than the film. But I really like it. Even I like the elements that I had to get rid of when I adapted the book like you know the supernatural presence in the bookstore. I thought that was a really incredible thing. I really liked that but then I had to get rid of it and that was hard. But I couldn’t find a way to give that presence or place in the film. I really regret that. I tried several times, you know, but it never felt it belonged to the film.</div>
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@devt I read in <a class="cb bx lw lx ly lz" href="https://www.ewawomen.com/interviews/en-events-interviewing-ewa-president-isabel-coixet-html/" rel="noopener" style="background-image: url("data:image/svg+xml; background-position: 0px calc(1em + 1px); background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 1px 1px; box-sizing: inherit; color: inherit; http: //www.w3.org/2000/svg\"><line x1=\"0\" y1=\"0\" x2=\"1\" y2=\"1\" stroke=\"rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.84)\" /></svg>"); text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">an interview</a> that you did with Francine Raveney that the protagonist is one of the characters in all of your films that you felt closest to. And I wondered if, as a part of the adaptation, you were seeing a bookseller as a metaphor for a filmmaker and the kinds of challenges that you had and the courage you had to find to continue as a filmmaker.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>You never know… not a very conscious way. I found out later. I mean after after I worked for years on the adaptation for instance I spoke with Tina. Tina is Penelope Fitzgerald’s daughter. The Christine character is based on her. She told me a million things about that time when Penelope was working in a bookstore in a little town. She just worked there for six months. And that experience was the source of <span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The Bookshop</span>. But at the same time it’s true, you know, I found in my path to being a director, suddenly a couple of other people, and the butcher tell you things about what you should do or what you shouldn’t do. Everybody’s giving you advice, especially if you’re a woman. It’s like everybody feels entitled to tell you what you have to do or what you shouldn’t do. And since my nature is — you know, inside I’m a seven year old. So I resist people giving me orders or advice or even wisdom.</div>
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@devt<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span>I also read that this was a story about defeat, about what happens to big ideas in a small society. And later in the article that I read the journalist writes that in the film a creative person is crushed by cruel and small minded parochialism. So when you were doing that were you also thinking of times that you’d been crushed by parochialism in the film industry for instance?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>Yes, in the film industry. But in life too. I mean in Florence we have two things. We have this woman who has had a sheltered life. And when she enters again into the world of let’s say business or work or real life she’s not prepared at all. But she is there, out there. I think in relationship to myself I realise even if I’m really much more prepared than Florence it’s exactly the same, because you know when you really think what you’re doing is right. Not just right, it’s natural.</div>
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For her, she’s very conscious this is a really small dream. She doesn’t want to change the world. She is just ‘OK, that’s what I want to do’. And even this little piece of independence, little piece of really creating something for yourself, even that, as tiny as it is, everybody feels she can’t do it. She’s not allowed to do it. They will not let her do it. And I think in the end she is really aware of what’s happening.</div>
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I think for me, even now I’ve done 14 feature films, even now I can see this mentality of ‘you’re not doing what you’re supposed to do’. I remember I started saying I want to be a filmmaker when I was 7. And even now after all these years out there I hear people say ‘Why do you do that?’ And they make you feel like you don’t belong to the world where you’re supposed to belong. But it’s OK. I manage.</div>
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@devt I reckon! Is the story about class as well?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>It is. And one of the things John was always telling me, John Berger [1926–2017], he was always telling me this is this is a classic class story, especially in England where … everywhere your class and your gender are the base of every fight and every everything that is out there in your world. One of the things the Violet character is furious about is that Florence doesn’t belong to the class and their class are only ones allowed to take positions about the world. And that little disruption in their order, it’s the beginning of a tragedy, of Florence’s tragedy.</div>
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@devt So when you dedicated the film to John Berger, was it because it was part of a conversation that you had with him?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>I met John 22 years ago. And since that moment, for me he was my mentor. He read every script I directed or I wrote. We worked together on an exhibiton based on one of his books, ‘From A to X’ and he knew I was trying to do a film based on <span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The Bookshop</span> and in that process there were lots of interruptions. A bunch of things. And some of them they were completely stupid like, you know, you go to a meeting and see this person say, ‘But why, why does the film has to end you know on this horrible note? Why doesn’t [wealthy recluse Edmund] Brundish lend her the money to buy another book store in another town?’</div>
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You’re in meetings with all these people with money, the financiers, and they’re telling you the story you should tell instead of the story you want to tell. And I was telling John that’s what happened. He always said, ‘There’s a person in this world who has to do this book. It’s you. Because you really fill the screen and also you know how to really tell Penelope Fitzgerald’s story at her core. But also doing something personal.’ And he was always telling me, ‘Go on. Yes, you should do it. You must do it. You have to do it.’ And he died. I’d just showed him like half an hour of the film. He really liked it. And then one week after [that] he died in Paris and, and you know I felt I had to dedicate the film to him. And this is the second film I have dedicated to him. There is another one called <span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">The Secret Life of Words</span>.</div>
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@devt So over those 22 years was he your primary mentor?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>Yes, he was my mentor. He was a mentor for a lot of people I have to say. One of the many many many many beautiful things about John was that he was always supporting people. He was always giving, it was not advice, when he talked to you about a project he was always putting himself in your shoes. He was always directing you but in an incredibly wise way. I mean photographers, sculptors, playwrights. He knew many many many people and he was never afraid to collaborate with people, to give texts and drawings and poems and everything he had, cheese, wine. He was an incredibly generous person, for me he was the most generous person in the world. He still is and every year in Madrid all the Spanish friends he had, we have meetings and you know, we just talk about him.</div>
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@devt And did he affect how you portray women?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>Well I have to say we never talked specifically about that. Of course I read all his books and of course he has a million of them. And even now, one week ago there was this new collection of texts. About encounters. I don’t remember the name of the collection but it’s just out in the bookstores now. It is just little stories about people he met randomly, in trains in bars, in a square, in Rome. But we talked about framing people, not just framing or looking at women.</div>
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@devt I get the sense that you adore actors and they adore you. And I wonder what thoughts and advice you have about working with actors.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>The life of a director is complicated enough. So one of the things I always say is you have to work with the best people for every role. You can’t hire an actor because he or she is a cool or they have followers on Instagram. First of all if you have an instinct to work with an actor, look at all her work or his work. Be very informed about everything they’ve done. And then once you have seen everything you will have a sense of what she or he is good at, the places they will never go. You really have to have a sense of that person. And then once you have seen that, go to a pub and have a beer or wine or whatever and have a sense of that person. Because you have to work long hours with these people and if you don’t really like the person, the actor as a person, it will show. And if that shows in your work then it’s no good.</div>
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I’m not a fan of rehearsals at all. I think really good actors don’t need it. With Bill Nighy [who played Edmund Brundish] for instance, I think we had like one day of rehearsals and mainly it was trying the costumes and how to wear them. I was very specific about the way he wanted to work because for me these specific physical traits are really important, the way people move, how they take the space when they enter a room, the way they look or they don’t look to the eyes of the people. For me, all these physical traits make a real person and in that real person you have to find the character.</div>
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In this case, working with Emily was fun and I love her. I think she’s an incredible person. She’s talented, she’s intelligent and she’s very humble. That’s not very common. And from watching all her films even when she has a small role, there was a truth I love. And I thought why is this woman not doing like films as the main character? And I sent her the script through with the help of Patricia Clarkson and she knew the book, she loved the script and you can have a very fun conversation with her really and for me that’s key.</div>
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@devt And you had quite a fun time with Patricia Clarkson too by the look of it.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>(laughing) It’s very difficult not to have a fun time with Patricia. She’s a force of nature. She’s very passionate about everything and she’s a drama queen. And I… you know I found this part of her character very amusing. This is the third time we worked together and you know I would love to work with her again because she’s amazing. And also she can play anything and everything.</div>
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@devt<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span>And I noticed that you work a lot with English and American actors and maybe not so much with Spanish ones. But the crew seemed to be very Spanish and I wondered what reason you have for working so much in English.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>I was living in the States when I wrote <span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Things I Never Told You</span>. And for me was very natural, it wasn’t a plan. It wasn’t like, ‘Okay now I’m going to work with American actors or with the Canadian or English’. I work in Canada and the States, in Ireland, in Japan. For me, someday maybe I would love to do a film in New Zealand or Australia. You never know. I think one of the reasons I think films are fascinating is because you can really go into the culture of a place when you do a film. And I’m zelig, you could throw me in Japan and I’m Japanese.</div>
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@devt And you see yourself as a global citizen?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>I don’t know, I think the world would be a better place if we didn’t have so many borders and flights and national pride. I guess as a global citizen, we can’t have a national pride, because we’re destroying our planet. So I don’t see the pride there but you know maybe if we see ourselves more as a human race than just, you know, Australian and Spanish and Italian, maybe things will be better. I don’t know.</div>
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@devt One of the things that I thought was interesting about you was that you started in advertising, which was your film school and your way of earning freedom. And is that the primary way that you’ve built a sustainable career?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>Yes. Yeah. I was going to the university and I needed a job. I really needed a job if I wanted to keep studying. When I was a kid I dreamed of making movies, not about making commercials, but by chance I found a job in an advertising agency and I was quite good. So I keep working there but my dream was my primary goal.</div>
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And I think film schools are great. Every time I go to a film school and I do a class I think it’s great to see people sharing their dream. In my case there was no one when I was growing up. I never shared that dream with the people around me. But you know anyway I was very focused and even when I was having a successful career in an advertising agency I never, never forgot what I was supposed to do. And the moment I could, I left the agency.</div>
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I have to say working on commercials I had the opportunity to work with amazing DOPs. I remember the first shoot I went on. The agency was doing a commercial for a car. I don’t remember the car. But I remember the day, okay. They asked me, ‘Do you want to go on the shoot?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah’. And I went on the set and it was John Alcott there.</div>
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John Alcott was the DOP of Stanley Kubrick and he was there in Spain doing a commercial. He didn’t see very well but I saw him moving his face to one of those big lights and and just from the heat he felt on his face he knew how to light the set. And just watching this guy at work… I never took the courage to talk to him. But I spent the whole day — three days — looking at him working and I learned more just seeing him work than in any film school in the world. That’s why I say that was my film school.</div>
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@devt It is that story also why you are often your own DOP?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>I am not my DOP. I’m a camera operator. My DOP is Jean-Claude Larrieu. He’s a French DOP I met doing a commercial in Paris. And you know, since that day we started talking about the films we love and the characters we love, the type of lighting we love, photography, sculpture, books, and he’s my best friend now and we have done seven films together. And also we work in a way that he takes care of the lighting and I take care of the camera and that works perfectly.</div>
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And I know that that’s not the norm. Directors normally they are in a chair looking at the monitor. I like chairs and I like lying down a lot, but on set what to do in a chair? So I love to be behind the camera. I love to feel the actors really being much more relaxed, because I’m the person who’s really capturing what they do. And to me that’s my way. You know that’s my path to filmmaking.</div>
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@devt And so how do you balance the directing the actors with being behind the camera? I’m not sure I could think both things at once. It’s just normal for you now?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>I do it. It works. I don’t think it’s that difficult. You talk to them at the same time, when they’re performing for the camera. So you know, they they know what I’m going to do. We rehearse in terms of, ‘Okay you’re going to say this here and then you turn to the other actor and then the camera’s going to…’. I think it’s a choreography. If you know what you want and you have good people with you it’s kind of easy. For me I have to say it’s easier than wasting energy explaining what I want to a cameraperson and then… No. I think it’s better… I can think and I can chew gum at the same time. Not three things but two, two I can manage.</div>
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@devt<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span>You’re very unusual doing that aren’t you, or are there lots of people in Europe who do who operate their cameras at the same time directing?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>Yeah. It’s kind of unusual, I think since film schools are so you know, ‘You’re the director, you do that’. They are so, you know, every person has this thing to do on set. They never teach people how to do it so they don’t do it. But I learned to do it and I’m doing it. And there’s another director, Steven Soderbergh, an American director… But no no no, it’s a pity because it’s really fun.</div>
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@devt And producers don’t mind? They don’t say you can’t do your job if you are also the camera operator?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>They complain. You know. But this is what I do. And then unions have to sign a million things. And in the States, you’re working in a union film and you’re not supposed to do it. But they do it anyway.</div>
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@devt I read an article the other day about Nicole Holofcener who’s done a film for Netflix, as you have, and found it very freeing, because they pretty much left her alone. Did you have a similar experience?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>Yeah. And I loved that. The film, <span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Elisa & Marcela</span>, I’m editing now is a film for Netflix and I have to say once they approve a script and they see what’s your vision for the film, they let you do your job. And I think that’s amazing. And for me, I think for lots of directors, it’s what you want.</div>
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Lots of producers, they got famous because they have their way to put their prints in a film. But I always remember that Jack Nicholson film when he’s peeing on the floor and saying, ‘Hey I’m just marking my territory’. I always you know I see myself as Jack Nicholson in that film, trying to protect my territory. And if I have to pee on the floor I will. And the good thing about Netflix is that you don’t have to go to the extreme of peeing on the floor because they know they’re amazing at marketing films, they’re putting things out there on the platform but they they admit they don’t know how to make films and that’s why they hire directors.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>And so did they hire you for this film or did you take the idea to them?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>I took the idea to them.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt</span> Why did you choose them for this particular one?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>Because before that I tried … Let’s say this is a project I tried for many many many years to do. And this is a real story of two women who got married in Spain in the north of Spain in a really really rural area in 1901. And let’s say 10 years ago when you go to a producer and say, ‘I want to do a film of these two women,’ you can’t imagine the rejections I had. I have a collection of rejections. Two years ago I took the same script, exactly the same script, to Netflix and they love it and they say, ‘Yeah sure, go ahead’.</div>
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@devt Oh wow.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>Yeah…</div>
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@devt<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;"> </span>So when’s it coming out?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>Next year. I’m still editing. So now after you finish I’m going to go to the editing room. And I guess March next year, something like this. [2019: <span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Elisa & Marcela </span>is now available on Netflix.]</div>
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@devt Well I don’t want to keep you from the editing room but I do want to ask you a little bit about being a woman director and your activist life as president of the European Women’s Audiovisual Network and working with CIMA before then; and why you bother when you’ve got such a rich life and you’re getting your work done.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>I have to say I’m not as involved. I try to do things I really believe in. And when I hear things like the director of the Venice Film Festival said they just found one woman, an Australian director, for the official selection. When they say they can’t find another film worth being in the official selection that’s bullshit. That can’t be, I’m sorry. It’s not like you select like 20 fucking masterpieces. I mean this, saying that if we do 50:50 they will not be as good.</div>
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Come on! Every fucking male filmmaker is not making a masterpiece. I’m not saying every female filmmaker is making masterpieces. It’s not that. I’m just saying, ‘Please, let’s have a little equality here’. So that’s why I was signing this letter to the director of the Venice Film Festival. I try to do very specific things. From my production company, one of the rules is there are a bunch of producers and production companies producing films made by men. What I want to do, if I produce something, a short film or a feature, it has to be a female. I think for me this is the real activism.</div>
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And when I heard for instance Reese Witherspoon, this actress was doing these things like <span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Big Little Lies</span> and all this [2019: The second season of <span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Big Little Lies</span> is directed by Andrea Arnold]. I’m like, ‘But the director?’. I mean you’re producing in the name of female empowerment but the directors are men. For me, that’s not activism that’s just bullshit.</div>
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So for me activism is lots of practical things. If I see someone struggling to make a documentary and they just need a little bit of money and push to finish it. And for instance this filmmaker I know she’s doing a documentary about the cleaning people, women in towns in Spain. If she needs help I’m going to help her. That’s for me it’s activism.</div>
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It’s not big speeches. If the director of the Venice Film Festival is saying bullshit in the press you say ‘What you’re saying doesn’t make any sense. Just come on. Have more women there, at least be aware that the women filmmakers of the world will not agree with you’. That’s my activism and that’s my way to be the world.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>And is it also about having women on your crew?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>Yes. And I think in <span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Elisa & Marcela</span> all the key people in the film were women including my camera assistant and even grips and it was really a female crew.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>You could find women to do sound?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>No. And the director of photography, Jennifer Cox, is this very young director of photography. I produced one of her short films and I think she’s very talented. It was let’s say an 85 percent female crew and we managed and we finished the film on time. I think the film looks amazing and we can do things, you know!</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>Do you think that a film about women with such a large proportion of the crew being women you actually get a different kind of film?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>No. But in the film everything has a special touch. And in this case I thought, since the story… you know we have these two girls falling in love and we have a bunch of sex scenes I think it will be much easier to do it with a female crew and it was. It was really very kind of mellow. Yeah. Mellow and no people screaming and it was a very very relaxed time. And I don’t know if you had a blind test you could say this film was made by women. But for us in terms of atmosphere to work in it was easy, great and fun.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>Did you have women there who had children as well? I don’t know if it’s come to Europe, the whole thing of having a child care on set or different hours because of people having children to care for?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>There were lots of women with kids and I know how you manage these things. You juggle with everything. We did it in summer so I think most of the children were on summer camps and things like that. It was the only way.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>Because you’d been a mother yourself as a filmmaker haven’t you?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>Yes. [Long pause.] And it is exhausting. You see they never they never they never ask a male filmmaker if they have kids or they don’t. It’s not relevant.</div>
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When Steven Spielberg has like seven kids and nobody asks him ‘So how do you manage with your seven kids to make all these movies you’re doing?’ It’s another backpack you have as a woman. But as always in life you manage.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt</span> So just to wind up, we have Ness here who runs the the New Zealand Film School. And I wonder what advice you have for students who are at film school now and Ness may have another question.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>For me as a director, one of things I feel is more difficult is to really be free, at least in your mind. Total freedom in life, it’s you know, kind of unattainable, but you have to be free in your mind. When you face a film or a script or a little story you want to tell, just first of all you have to know the work of the people who have made amazing films before you. I’m talking about the classics to everything… Sometimes in film schools now I’m really astonished because they just don’t even know the first films of Martin Scorcese or Coppola or Agnès Varda.</div>
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And I think you have to know these things, the films before you. You have to in a way be in your mind and be free. You have to have all these things, all these films of the past and present. But you have to have to in a way to be honest about what you think, what you feel and what you do and what you say, too. The moment you have a nice vision about who you are and your point of view about the world then you do something meaningful. That’s all. And also another advice. Never follow the advice of another film director. (Shared laughter.)</div>
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@devt And is your advice any different to women who are starting out in film?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>It will be the same advice, but multiplied by five because, girls, listen, it’s going to be more difficult for you. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. It’s just you will have to work much more, let’s face it. I think our goal is just to make women more relaxed about what they have to do. And just make our lives a little easier. That’s all. It’s our mission.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>Thank you so much. I’ll just check whether Ness has got anything more.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Ness Simons </span>Which women filmmakers have inspired you as a filmmaker?</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet </span>Agnès Varda [1928–2019]. Her life, her persona. I know her very well. We have been together on a jury in Cannes, for the Camera d’Or. And I have to say I spent eight days with Agnes Varda and I have to say that was like six years ago, and she’s a force of nature and I think she is the most inspiring, not just in film and just being a person in the world. She’s curious about the world, she’s really free in her mind. And I I I love I love all her films. And she has done things that were never never valued at the time. And she’s still there doing things. And I mean she’s my hero. Wonder Woman, Agnès Varda.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">@devt </span>Well, you’re my hero now. Thank you. Have a good day editing. Bye.</div>
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<span class="lj lv" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-weight: 700;">Isabel Coixet</span> Bye.</div>
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-49149451208432080892019-08-31T21:14:00.004-07:002019-08-31T23:14:08.484-07:00Three New Screen Laureates! <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Sima Urale receives the Burr/Tatham Trust Award</span></span></td></tr>
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Just announced! Three celebrated screen storytellers have been awarded prestigious arts laureateships from the Aotearoa New Zealand Arts Foundation. Here they are!</div>
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Sima Urale</h4>
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Filmmaker <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/sima-urale" href="https://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/sima-urale" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Sima Urale</a> is influenced by her Samoan heritage and her experience of living in urban New Zealand. Her films include <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">O Tamaiti</em>, <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Still Life</em>, <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Coffee and Allah </em>and <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Apron Strings</em>. This year, she won the New Zealand Film Commission’s annual gender scholarship for Pacific Island screenwriters, with a sample script from her feature film, <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Solo</em>, which <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/news/2019-gender-scholarship-recipients-announced" href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/news/2019-gender-scholarship-recipients-announced" rel="noopener" target="_blank">according to the assessors</a> “is breathtaking in its fine detail and slow build-up of nuanced tension. The work of an expert screenwriter at the height of her powers. The voice is original and authentic with detail that can only come from lived experience.” </div>
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Sima started her career as an actor, quickly realised she wanted to write and create her own work and credits her distinctive aesthetic to her start in theatre and love for art. She says “I’m really privileged to do what I do … I always feel thankful because I get to tell stories and express myself in the most public way … I have a say about society. If I’m angry about something, I can write about it and tell a story.”</div>
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Sima mentors other filmmakers, citing one of her most fulfilling experiences as teaching a Samoan entrepreneur. “A guy wanted to start doing commercials and had never done anything like that. So I showed him how … with a little camera and a group of village men. Every year I went back it got bigger, I upskilled them and showed them different techniques. He grew a really big company. It’s really fulfilling training the discipline to other people that don’t have the option of going to film school. You’re making an impact.”</div>
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Her goal is to “make films until the day until the day I die. It doesn’t matter if I had a big hit last year, you still need to get the next one off the ground … we’re constantly learning until the day we die.”</div>
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Sima has been the recipient of several international awards, as artist in residence at Hawaii University, McMillian Brown Center at Canterbury University, and the COCA arts residency at Massey University. Sima is currently developing various feature length projects with producers and hopes to embark on another feature film in the near future whilst taking care of her elderly mother.</div>
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Coco Solid/ Jessica Hansell</h4>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="807c"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1330" data-image-id="1*kY3v7OJWxGObYvnGI8_rgQ.jpeg" data-width="1330" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*kY3v7OJWxGObYvnGI8_rgQ.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Coco Solid/ Jessica Lee Hansell receives the award for mixed media</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/coco-solid" href="https://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/coco-solid" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Coco Solid aka Jessica Lee Hansell</a> is a musician, writer and artist. Her work includes documentary <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Heaven’s Gate</em>, TV series <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Ahikāroa</em>, animated TV series <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Aroha Bridge</em>, and her album <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Cokes</em>. </div>
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Coco Solid works across many disciplines saying: “I had to work out where I find myself thriving and inspiring others the most … the different realms where that sense of self was strongest and most potent. They happen to be in the creative medium and I try and work just on those.” </div>
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She speaks about her determination to speak truth to power and says her kaupapa is to radicalise every context that she works in. “Whether that’s deluded or optimistic or ambitious, I don’t think about that … I come in with an intention and I see how far I can get.” </div>
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Musically she’s adopted a DIY underground ethos outside industry structures, and cites the autonomy this has given her as high-risk high-reward. Recently she received her Masters in Creative Writing, and was named the 2018 recipient of the Fulbright-Creative New Zealand Pacific Writer’s Residency.</div>
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Jessica sees her success as collective, a victory that belongs to everyone that has championed her on her journey. In a 2018 interview with the Guardian she said: “In my world you’re only as good as those you helped to amplify … Generally Polynesian artists understand our obligations and responsibilities to those coming after us … Our cultures discourage individualistic legacies that western culture rewards: if you tried that you’d get shit-talked pretty fast.”</div>
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A couple of years ago, Jessica created <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/music/15-06-2017/equalise-my-vocals-a-retrospective/" href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/music/15-06-2017/equalise-my-vocals-a-retrospective/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Equalise My Vocals</em></a>, a unique and significant series of events to promote gender conversations and equality in NZ music.</div>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="c525"><img class="graf-image" data-height="420" data-image-id="1*HqU8BNhFM7l3LYauQCAA6Q.jpeg" data-width="750" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*HqU8BNhFM7l3LYauQCAA6Q.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Equalise My Vocals event — from left: Randa, Karyn Hay, Geneva Alexander-Marsters, Lucy Beeler, Melody Thomas, Coco Solid</span> </figcaption></figure><br />
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The three series of the much-loved <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Aroha Bridge </em>are available <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.arohabridge.com" href="http://www.arohabridge.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">here</a>; Jessica is the creator of <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Aroha Bridge</em>, one of the writers and one of the directors. The second series of <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Ahikāroa </em>– written by Jessica and Todd Karehana and directed by Hanelle Harris of <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Baby Mama’s Club </em>and Kiel McNaughton – is available <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.maoritelevision.com/shows/ahikaroa" href="https://www.maoritelevision.com/shows/ahikaroa" rel="noopener" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--h4-strong">Pietra Brettkelly</strong></h4>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="6fc5"><img class="graf-image" data-height="2832" data-image-id="1*2pNUYC3RvGRVBO9XPr1dRg.jpeg" data-width="4240" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*2pNUYC3RvGRVBO9XPr1dRg.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Pietra Brettkelly receives the Dame Gaylene Preston Award for Documentary Film Makers</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/pietra-brettkelly" href="https://www.thearts.co.nz/artists/pietra-brettkelly" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Pietra Brettkelly</a> is a documentary filmmaker who identifies insatiable curiousity as the defining feature of her work. Her work has been featured in the Sundance, Berlin, Venice and Toronto film festivals. Her most recent documentary, <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">Yellow is Forbidden </em>is based on Chinese designer Guo Pei’s journey to become part of the world of Haute Couture in Paris.</div>
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Pietra attributes her creative drive to her parents: “the big thing that my parents gave to me, was this view to wonder at the world, wonder about everybody, and how we all fit together … And to look beyond myself and to wander and wonder.” When she looks back at her career, the catalyst for her work has been her tenacious commitment to gaining access to her subjects, saying: “If I can get in front of anybody, I can convince them.”</div>
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She’s drawn to themes of isolation, the complexity of life, and celebrating the extreme. Describing her work as a calling: “I very rarely get paid …It is bloody hard. It’s really hard. And you know, I feel like I rip out my heart with each film. I hold it in my hand and offer it to investors, to supporters, to the first audience at my first screening, and it is the most exposing thing … So for an organisation, and for a group of my peers, to have said we want to acknowledge you makes me quite emotional. Because this work can be quite solitary.”</div>
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<figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Dame Gaylene Preston applauds Pietra after handing her the award.</span></figcaption><br />
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(Text supplied mostly by the <a href="https://www.thearts.co.nz/">Arts Foundation</a>.)</div>
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-72003942471588779462019-08-22T16:27:00.000-07:002019-08-27T15:22:42.389-07:00Shuchi Kothari<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Shuchi Kothari is a filmmaker and academic, based at the University of Auckland, where she where she convenes the Screen Production programme. She’s written three short films: <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Fleeting Beauty</strong>; <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Coffee and Allah;</strong>and <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Clean Linen</strong>; and two features: <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Firaaq </strong>with Nandita Das, who also directed; and <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Apron Strings, </strong>with Dianne Taylor, directed by Sima Urale. Shuchi was co-creator of <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">A Thousand Apologies, </strong>New Zealand’s first prime-time Asian series; and was the writer and presenter of <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Taste of Place: Stories of Food and Longing</strong>.</div>
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Shuchi is also a producer of most of these projects; and one of the founders of the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/pasc.nz/" href="https://www.facebook.com/pasc.nz/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Pan-Asian Screen Collective</strong></a>. I interviewed her late in 2018, after the first short she’s written and directed, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://shitonecarries.strikingly.com" href="http://shitonecarries.strikingly.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shit One Carries</strong></a>, opened at the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF).</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Marian </strong>How did you feel about <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shit One Carries </strong>opening at the New Zealand International Film Festival?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>It was lovely because everything I’ve written and produced in this country and in India has been accepted by the festival, which has been fabulous, but if they hadn’t accepted this one I would have said, ‘Okay they like me as a writer, they like me as a producer, but they don’t think I can cut it as a director’. As I’d said to writer-director Jackie van Beek — who had looked at my pre-final cut and recommended a really interesting change in the edit — I don’t feel a huge amount of pressure with this film because it was an experiment to see how my writer/producer instincts manifest as a director. I don’t consider myself a director nor am I interested in changing the future direction of my filmmaking life. Plus look at the appalling statistics about women directors around the world, so everyone’s got to do their bit.</div>
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When I began film school in the U.S. in 1990, within the first week I shifted out of the directing major into a writing major. This particular tutor was so full of testosterone. He’d shout at everyone in the studio, saying, ‘you’ve gotta be an asshole to be the director’ ‘you’ve gotta be the goddamned boss’ — just the usual attitude of that time. And I thought to myself ‘I’m not any of these things and I don’t want to be these things’. I left class at the end of that session, went straight to the graduate adviser and asked if I could shift to screenwriting. He happened to be the head of the screenwriting area. He just smiled and said ‘I’m so glad because when I read your application I was hoping that you would come to my side of the department’. </div>
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And I never regretted it. I’ve always loved screenwriting. I produce projects more by circumstance rather than choice. Writing’s where it’s at for me.</div>
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My choice to direct <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shit One Carries </strong>didn’t stem from any unhappiness about the way my writing has been treated by other directors. On the contrary, all the six women directors with whom I’ve worked have interpreted my writing in very interesting ways. As I said earlier, I just wanted to give myself a challenge — how would I do something that I’ve done on the page (in the way that writers do direct on the page) for real on set? It’s more a kind of provocation to myself rather than proving anything and that though terrifying, was liberating.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>And what did you learn?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>As a producer I have been on set a lot. So the machinations of the set weren’t a revelation. What was interesting is that space in performance where the script leaves you. And this was my first time negotiating that space, being very much in that moment. Not at all beholden to what was on the page but only to the emotion that the scene needs to convey. Prior to <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shit One Carries </strong>I’d co-directed a docu-fiction film with Sarina Pearson a couple of years ago, so that was as far as my experience with actors went. Working with actors was my big challenge. And it was great because it meant I rehearsed a lot.</div>
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I did make my job a bit harder because <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shit One Carries </strong>is set in Gujarat, India. I wasn’t prepared for some of the realities of shooting in Ahmedabad. Firstly, casting was not as simple as I thought. Since realism is not the chief aesthetic of most Indian film and television, finding actors who were fluent in the Gujarati language yet not immersed in that heightened or theatrical mode of performance was not easy. So I decided to cast as many non-actors as I could. This meant we had to rehearse a fair bit and with each rehearsal I found myself enjoying the process and loving the casual rawness they brought with them.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>What realities were you unprepared for?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>Let me talk about all the good stuff first. I owe a lot of this film’s success to my Director of Photography, Mrinal Desai. </div>
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I’d worked with him on a documentary earlier and I was determined that if I ever shot anything in India again, I’d go to him first. Besides, it was something <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">he </em>said while caring for his aged father that led me to make <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shit One Carries</strong>. He guided me through my inexperience in a rigorous and gentle manner.</div>
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Because I wanted to shoot the film without any close ups, in wide shots from an observational point of view, I knew it was a risky decision. He shot the whole rehearsal for me two months before the actual shoot, so I could cut a few scenes to see if the emotion held up from a distance. He also brought with him from Bombay a brilliant gaffer and a soundie whom I loved so much that I worked with her again at the first opportunity.</div>
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So that was all good. But my co-producer and I really struggled to get a good production team in Ahmedabad. It is not a hub of filmmaking though lately it’s doing a lot of Gujarati language cinema. For instance films in Ahmedabad don’t shoot sync sound. So we had to get all our sound team from Bombay. Despite regular production in the state, the industry is not professionalized. So things like making call sheets or reading call sheets regularly or just basic health and safety protocols were new for the local team.</div>
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Everyone was enthusiastic, and some non-film friends rescued me, but in terms of that creative and dynamic relationship between the director and Heads of Department of art, costume, make-up, I’d have been better served if I’d shot the film in Bombay, or of course in New Zealand. But I had to shoot it in Ahmedabad. I always imagined a particular type of house in which the whole story unfolds. And that house was in Ahmedabad.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>Why did you set it there?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>The idea of writing about awkward intimacies between adult children and their ageing parents came about at a particular moment. I think my friends and I have hit that age where our parents are dying or passed away or ill. We’ve become <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">their </em>caregivers and negotiating that space of physical intimacy can be difficult. It doesn’t come easily to everybody. Then when you live in one country and your parents in another, it complicates things even further. </div>
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When I was shooting a documentary on Indian textiles and fashion in India, my mother had a fall and was bedbound. Nurses and attendants would come and go but up until that moment I had not experienced my mother’s physical dependence on others. During this period Mrinal Desai was having similar struggles with his bedridden father but on a much more serious level. One time I asked how his day was and he replied, ‘I spent the morning trying to figure out who’s going to wipe my father’s arse’. And this line just stayed with me.</div>
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As soon as I boarded the flight for the long journey from Ahmedabad to Auckland, I began typing that one sentence which then led to this story of a son returning from California to look after his father with whom he has a prickly relationship. This makes caregiving even harder.</div>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="eea4"><img class="graf-image" data-height="619" data-image-id="1*WwnAZPRD1JG4d5s-nXZ3Nw.png" data-width="1462" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*WwnAZPRD1JG4d5s-nXZ3Nw.png" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong class="markup--strong markup--figure-strong">Shit One Carries</strong> still</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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The film unfolded in my mind in Gujarati, and was set in Gujarat. I wanted to commit to that. Language is such an integral part of how you understand a character or how a character understands themselves. <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shit One Carries </strong>has English, Gujarati and Hindi because that is often the linguistic reality of urban Gujarat.</div>
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When I was writing Nandita Das’ directorial debut film <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Firaaq</strong>, characters spoke four languages and often code switched. I’m currently writing another feature set in Ahmedabad that is also multilingual. So I’ve always been concerned about how we express ourselves as multilingual people, as transnationals working and living across places, between places sometimes and occasionally, lost in translation. Places and cultures are idiomatic and therefore some stories more naturally belong to them. </div>
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I did ask myself for a moment if somehow I could transplant this father-son story to New Zealand and then apply for funding to the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC). But it just didn’t translate. The whole layer of caste and hierarchies within caregiving roles that are integral to the film don’t play out the same way in New Zealand. Sure, the awkwardness between father and son is not particularly an Indian or a non-Indian thing. But I did feel that those roles of care such as who washes your body, who cleans your bottom, who gives you an injection, who can cook, and who can give you a cup of tea are often defined around caste-lines in India. So that important layer of the story would have been lost had I transplanted it to Auckland.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>So you had to bypass the usual routes to funding.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>The NZFC’s short film fund is for ‘New Zealand stories’. There are also stipulations around where the money is spent. Even if I did all my post-production in New Zealand (which I did, by the way), the production spend was all in India. The actors were all Indian, the whole crew was Indian except for two New Zealanders who travelled from Auckland: Peter Simpson, a long time collaborator, and Pani, an ex-student who wanted to experience a set in India. Sure, I’m a New Zealander telling this story but there is nothing about the characters that’s New Zealand so I simply wouldn’t have qualified for NZFC funds.</div>
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This is when I decided to apply to the University of Auckland’s Faculty of Arts Research Development Fund. This is a competitive fund that I, as an academic, can access. Also, because I was directing fiction for the first time, it was also part of my professional development as a filmmaker. </div>
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I took nothing for granted. The research committee said they really appreciated the care I’d taken in putting the application together and also in budgeting because I was very <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">very</em>careful to make sure that everything went on to screen but also creatively making things work without having to spend too much switching locations and things like that; just making the containment of the film work to its advantage. I always tell my students this too — when you apply for funds to make films don’t take anything for granted. Filmmaking is a privilege not a birthright. </div>
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I was dead pleased to hear that my application had been successful but I still had to raise another twelve thousand dollars on my own. But thank god for UoA funding because for people like me whose stories may be set here, or just as likely overseas, justifying ‘New Zealandness’ is really painful. I strongly believe that if public funding mandates ‘New Zealand stories by New Zealanders’ we need to deepen our understanding of New Zealanders and widen our definition of New Zealand stories. If you come from other places and become a Kiwi your ‘other places’ have an imprint on you, on your being a New Zealander. I’m a Kiwi-Indian. I am this hyphenated person. Both places carry the other place.</div>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetLeft" name="8230"><img class="graf-image" data-height="240" data-image-id="1*yk7cYG9pmx-Fjlq39OSsnA.png" data-width="400" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*yk7cYG9pmx-Fjlq39OSsnA.png" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong class="markup--strong markup--figure-strong">Coffee & Allah </strong>still</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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I find it very restrictive to think of New Zealand stories as the ones that are only set here. For instance <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Coffee & Allah </strong>was not about Indians. It was about an Ethiopian Muslim woman’s desire to communicate. <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Fleeting Beauty </strong>was about a ‘colonial subject’ rewriting Indian history by painting with spices of her Pakeha lover’s body. In <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Apron Strings </strong>Dianne Taylor and I used food as a metaphor to speak about difference and ‘othering’. </div>
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I think my own difference/otherness is always in dialogue with the work I make. I’m interested in this struggle to belong or not belong; the choices that one makes or is allowed to make; the cost of adaptation, the loss of empowerment, structural racism, our relationship with tangata whenua and so on. And also to acknowledge our varying privilege so we don’t conflate immigrants, migrants, exiles, refugees in one basket of diversity or minority. I always tell my students to render people’s experiences in a nuanced fashion. You know, Zahara the lead actress in <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Coffee & Allah </strong>came here as a refugee, from Ethiopia to Kenya to Auckland. I cannot pretend for a moment that my experience of displacement is the same as hers.</div>
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Having said that, despite the difference in our experiences, there are times when bunch of us hyphenated kiwis share an instant wink and nudge in our collective understanding of a particular phenomenon. So for instance when ten years ago <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">A Thousand Apologies </strong><em class="markup--em markup--p-em"></em>went to air, although pan-Asian in content, the Lebanese and Brazilian communities loved it. Certain moments of exclusion or certain moments of embarrassment or humiliation or familial obligations and pressures connect with many immigrant cultures.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>Because you go to and from India and New Zealand and you were educated in the States as well, do you see yourself also as a global citizen as much as a citizen of New Zealand or India?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>To the extent to which that is allowed. It’s all very well for me to think of California as my third home, in my own head. But since Trump I don’t feel warm and fuzzy about being in America. I still go there a lot for work, and to visit friends. But I don’t feel any joy standing at LAX immigration having to identify myself as this or that.</div>
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I’m working on a feature-length animated film set in Japan. I’ve been traveling to Japan a lot lately. I just love it. I’m discovering so much, learning so much, and have begun to feel this huge attachment to the place. Because I love it so much I practically don’t want to finish writing the screenplay because then I won’t be able to justify being back so often. So I think there is a certain amount of curiosity or wonder, a kind of nomadism that I’m very aware is also privilege. You know it’s not I’m truly homeless, of course not. But I don’t feel that my identification is my nationality or my ethnicity. It’s the connections you have with people and places across the world.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>So how did you connect to Japan?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>I was a big fan always of Miyazaki’s films and Studio Ghibli films, always thought they were much more women/girl focused, three dimensional girl characters, rooted in strong ideas of environmentalism, or courage, or activism. I mean it wasn’t until 2013 that Pixar had its first girl protagonist in <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Brave</strong>!<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"></strong>And even when they had nonhuman films like <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Cars </strong>the anthropomorphized protagonist was a <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">male </em>car. And the ‘girl’ car only batted her long eyelashes. Even with <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Toys </strong>the protagonists were male toys. Same with <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Wallace and Gromit </strong>(Nick Park’s fabulous claymation films) — one guy and his best buddy male dog. </div>
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This gender inequity in American and English animation, combined with my own fandom of Ghibli style animation prompted me to write a screenplay in which a Pixar girl travels to Japan to become a Japanese anime girl. While it celebrates animation, the story is really about bodies and transformation and the kind of message we send out to young women about makeovers. My young protagonist goes get her desired new body but soon realizes that for lasting happiness she needs to transform from the inside. I’ve had the good fortune to work with a script consultant in Tokyo but because we only work with translators it’s all got to be face to face and therefore slow.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>And the work that you do in America? </div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>A couple of things. </div>
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There’s a documentary that I shot in India on the relationship between fashion designers and artisans. Looking at this argument of sustainability not from solely an economic or green perspective, but in terms of relationships. What makes this industry sustainable are the relationships that are forged between artisans and designers. So my collaborator Katherine Sender, who is a filmmaker and academic at Cornell, and I went to India together. We shot the film in 6 Indian cities/towns and since then Katherine and I keep meeting each other in USA or online to work on post production.</div>
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I am my worst enemy. I’m always complaining about being time poor; I get resentful and I think, ‘God, I’d be great to sit on my arse and do nothing’. And yet, instead of finding time to take a beat, something else comes along and I find myself going ‘hmmm, that sounds like so much fun’.</div>
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Also I’m eclectic, you know — working across various forms. But there is a thematic connection. If you put all my shorts and features, television work, and my publications in one basket you will definitely see a common thread. I’m always wrestling with the idea of home and belonging, inclusion, exclusion.</div>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetLeft" name="afce"><img class="graf-image" data-height="240" data-image-id="1*yGwpP1Wq_CIpV2JJzNW07w.png" data-width="400" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*yGwpP1Wq_CIpV2JJzNW07w.png" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><strong class="markup--strong markup--figure-strong">Apron Strings </strong>still, with Laila Rouass</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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It’s in <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Fleeting Beauty </strong>and <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Clean Linen</strong>, it’s in <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Coffee & Allah</strong>, it’s in <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Apron Strings</strong>. It’s in <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Firaaq</strong>, it’s in <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Thousand Apologies</strong>, it’s in <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">A Taste of Place: Stories of Food and Longing — </strong>all narratives of ‘difference’ in one way or another. Then sometimes I walk away from that, like I did for this textile documentary, because if I ever had another career in life it would be making textiles. That’s a big love I have. And Katherine, with whom I shared a guilty Monday pleasure of watching <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Project Runway</strong>together, would often tell me if she had a different career it would be in fashion. When she decided to move back to the USA, we hatched this documentary idea to keep our lives threaded together through our love of textiles.</div>
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The other reason I travel to the US is to work with the Center for Digital Storytelling (now called Story Centre) in Berkeley, that has existed since the 1970s. I’ve both learnt from, and then co-facilated workshops in digital storytelling with the Center’s staff. Later I tweaked or re-calibrated that model to suit the Pacific context with my longtime collaborator and friend in New Zealand, Sarina Pearson. As a Japanese-Canadian wahine born in Hawaii who lives in NZ, Sarina’s understanding of ‘difference’ has always been nuanced. She also happens to be my colleague at the University of Auckland so we been able to work on various projects together for the last 21 years, including some of films I mentioned earlier. </div>
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Lately, we’ve been doing a fair amount of work in the field of digital storytelling with Māori academics, researchers, and clinical practitioners in the School of Nursing. We’ve done a workshop in Kerikeri, one in Napier. We’re coming to Kāpiti soon. It has been a privilege to listen to Māori, often women, speaking of their experiences of whānau care; and customs and rituals around death and dying. This type of work though within the realm of ‘filmmaking’ is also very different. It’s community-based participatory storytelling in which the workshop serves as supportive space within which participants make digital films.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>Do you work with an audience or audiences in mind?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>Films are capital and labour intensive so there is little point in developing projects without a clear sense of your audience. As I tell my students, a script is a blueprint for something that has yet to be made within an industrial context. An artist can paint just for themselves without ever showing their work to anyone. It’s legitimate — the sketch in an artist’s book is their completed work. But most architects design or sketch buildings that are yet to be constructed. Screenwriters write screenplays knowing these are first links in a long industrial chain. You can make a living in the USA optioning screenplays that never get made, but their intention is always to see it fulfilled as a film. Feature writing is a long road and can take something out of you so if I’m not interested in the audience, then I’d rather write in my journal. Of course audience awareness should not be conflated with pandering to an audience.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>So who do you see as the audience for <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shit One Carries</strong>?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>For this type of short it’s different. No one recovers the money they spent on a short film. They are for mana, professional development, or experimenation. You always have some sense of your audience — it’s good to ask what you want to achieve through the short. A festival short may attract a different audience than a short that’s uploaded on Youtube. Festivals attract film buffs that are aware of cinema traditions, cinema history, film grammar. </div>
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For some filmmakers this kind of festival screening is calling card to be taken seriously as a director. I didn’t make <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shit One Carries</strong>to signal myself as a feature director. So while I did care about NZIFF selecting the film, my main focus was making the best film I could make, learn something amazingly new, make myself supremely uncomfortable by taking on something I don’t normally do and hopefully do it well enough that an audience connects with it. And that connection is really all I was seeking. </div>
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During the festival screenings people laughed at so many points in the film, including groans when they were faced with actual shit. If you understand Gujarati then the film works in additional layers. We had a screening at the Auckland Art Gallery and there were about 75 Indians in that room and it was just loud and crazy because they got the Gujarati. It’s a subtitled film and it loses a fair bit in translation. That could just also be because of my limited skills in subtitling. But those who understand the language definitely get a lot more out of it.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>What do you see as the challenges for women screenwriters and directors in New Zealand at the moment, for women in general and in particular for women filmmakers of colour?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>It has been historically hard for women directors. And then it’s that much harder for women of colour. I mean I wish it weren’t and I wish that the narrative was different but it’s just not. So sure, at some level in New Zealand all filmmakers struggle to create their own IP. Small country, small market. But at the same time, there is something systemically faulty if after Merata Mita’s <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Mauri </strong>(1988) the first wāhine Māori-directed feature film is <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Waru </strong>in 2017. Look at the woeful statistics published by New Zealand on Air about Asian creatives. I’m just gobsmacked. We definitely need a public service broadcaster so that certain narratives that ostensibly do not have market value are given an opportunity to find or create an audience. That audience IS out there. It’s us.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>Are things changing?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>We are pushing for change. Very volubly. </div>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetLeft" name="93f4"><img class="graf-image" data-height="399" data-image-id="1*nxeX8zDog2D86un4JIE2hw.png" data-width="600" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*nxeX8zDog2D86un4JIE2hw.png" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Tearepa Kahi, Selina Joe, Shuchi, Roseanne Liang at the launch of the Pan-Asian Screen Collective</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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Selina Joe, Roseanne Liang, Gilbert Wong and I have formed an organisation called the Pan-Asian Screen Collective (PASC). We are a training and advocacy group representing 400 Pan-Asian screen practitioners. We want to increase pan-Asian representation <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">on</em>screen <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">and </em>behind screens. We’ve received funding from NZFC for which we’re truly grateful but a big part of our job is to constantly lobby for equitable opportunities for our members BUT also point out structural blind spots within a system that lets these inequities flourish in the first place. And that troubling word ‘diversity’. Diversity on screen is not about ‘showing different people’ — it’s about the level of inclusivity in an organisation or an environment or within systems of power.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>The system is flawed...</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>We have to ask, not wait to be given. As women we have to work collectively, as POC women we have to work collectively. Somebody in LA once said to me, ‘All your work has been with women directors. Please tell me you hired them because they were talented and not because they were women’. Despite being really pissed off I was able to retort with, ‘Would you ever ask me this question if I’d worked with six men?’ Even the people who call themselves liberal and open, even they end up perpetuating this gender-biased system. We all know that it’s no joke that a white guy can make two terrible films and still be hired to make a third one.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>And those situations are compounded for Asian women?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>In the New Zealand context, because we rely on public funding, it’s doubly complicated for Asian creatives. You could get stuck between a rock and a hard place. For some stories you get ‘Yeah, but how can you make this work for all New Zealanders?’ Whereas for other stories you may get, ‘Yeah, but what’s Asian about this? We’d like you to use <em class="markup--em markup--p-em">your </em>voice’. As an Asian do you always have to perform your Asianness? Who decides how Asian something really is? Or what does ‘all New Zealanders’ mean? We have a lot of work to do.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>What is your screenwriting regimen?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>I’m a full-time an academic therefore teaching always has priority over everything else. My screenplays and films are part of my research programme. This also gives me the opportunity to write spec scripts. The only caveat is that I have to fit that around teaching/semesters. I think teaching screenwriting keeps me sharp about my own craft. I’ve always enjoyed it, being in a classroom and wrestling with students’ stories, especially genres in which I don’t write. For instance, my students interested in genre force me to consider tropes of horror or sci-fi. </div>
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Of course there are times when I fantasize about being a full-time writer. In lieu of that, I create immersive situations in which I can lock myself up and write without distraction. I’m not good at writing for an hour here and half hour there. Writing in hotel rooms, on silent writing retreats — that type of regimen suits me perfectly. That’s what I did with Katherine in San Jose recently. One week we sequestered ourselves in a hotel to work every day from 9:00 to 5:00. No phones, nothing. </div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>Do you have children as well?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>No. That’s a decision I took many many years ago. When I decided to do film and work in different parts of the world, I couldn’t imagine doing that with children. My mother gave up her career to raise us and whether she meant to or not, it set some kind of bar for me. When in doubt, blame ma! I’m joking. I love other people’s children and I love being an auntie but I haven’t regretted not having my own. I know what I’m missing. I’m not blind to that. But no, I don’t regret it.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">M </strong>That’s a wonderful model for people to have out there isn’t it? I think a lot of women are very frightened by that decision.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shuchi </strong>Then there are the Vanessa Alexanders of the world who raise five beautifully talented children while writing, producing and directing television AND ride bicycles across dubious cross country tracks. I think we need to create an environment in the film industry for women so that they feel just as comfortable having children as they do about wanting a career, without compromising either.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">UPDATE</strong> </div>
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Since this interview was recorded, Shuchi has joined Kerry Warkia and Kiel McNaughton, producers of <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Waru </strong>and <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Vai</strong>, to produce <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Kainga</strong>, the third film in the trilogy — this time with 8 Pan-Asian women directors exploring notions of home.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Shit One Carries </strong><span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">c</span>ontinues its international festival journey and recently won the award for Best Regional Film at the 10th Gujarat International Film Festival, in India.</div>
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Shuchi, Sarina Pearson and Peter Simpson have collaborated on a documentary shot in the western Indian desert, <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Rann of Kutchh</strong>, currently being edited by Prisca Bouchet.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Elder Birdsong</strong>, an animated short film by Shuchi and Sarina (funded by Te Arai Palliative Care Research Group) is being premiered at the <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Show Me Shorts </strong>Film Festival.</div>
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The <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Pan-Asian Screen Collective </strong>is being heard — there was a record number of Pan-Asian applications to the latest round of NZFC short film funding.</div>
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-42008060428635680362019-06-23T17:13:00.003-07:002021-06-28T15:50:48.550-07:00'Even Dogs Are Given Bones' & 'Minimum' at Parliament<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><img class="graf-image" data-height="505" data-image-id="1*m5zm739d4DtF3UOhIZMsOQ.png" data-width="800" height="202" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*m5zm739d4DtF3UOhIZMsOQ.png" width="320" /><br /><section class="section section--body" name="02e3"><div class="section-content"><div class="section-inner sectionLayout--insetColumn"><br />
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Thanks to the Associate Minister for Arts, Culture & Heritage, Grant Robertson, and to Jan Logie, Under-Secretary, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Justice (Sexual and Domestic Violence Issues), <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Minimum </strong>screened in Parliament’s Beehive Theatrette during <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/@devt/directedbywomen-aotearoa-getting-with-the-suffrage125-programme-f861b6fbbe68" href="https://medium.com/@devt/directedbywomen-aotearoa-getting-with-the-suffrage125-programme-f861b6fbbe68" target="_blank">last year’s #directedbywomen</a>, following Kanya Stewart’s classic <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Even Dogs Are Given Bones </strong>(1982, for Dyke Productions and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/auckland-womens-community-video-2beebdf6da09" href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/auckland-womens-community-video-2beebdf6da09" target="_blank">Auckland Women’s Community Video</a>), about the women who occupied the Rixen clothing factory in Levin when the owner decided to close the factory but wouldn’t pay them redundancy.</div>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure graf--layoutOutsetLeft" name="c447"><img class="graf-image" data-height="227" data-image-id="1*phPm-hc1BXFnjP2KiefRXA.jpeg" data-width="283" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*phPm-hc1BXFnjP2KiefRXA.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">still from <strong class="markup--strong markup--figure-strong">Even Dogs Are Given Bones</strong></span></figcaption></figure><br />
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It was a beautiful thing when Grant Robertson introduced the evening and asked the <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Even Dogs Are Given Bones </strong>women <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"></strong>to stand up so we could applaud them.<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"></strong>And beautiful to watch the two works — made almost 40 years apart — together; and to watch all the <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Minimum </strong>episodes at once, in a crowded cinema.</div>
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As well as some of the Rixen women, the audience included some of the participants in <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Minimum</strong>; and many participants in the Women’s Studies Association (WSA) annual conference. Because I’d become aware that academic women often choose their reading with regard to an author’s gender but not their viewing, I planned the Q & A to be a discussion between Kanya and Kathleen, to spotlight them as women directors, hear about their processes and experiences and inspire some WSA women to look out for work #directedbywomen. But I hadn’t taken into account the effects of the work.</div>
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I now believe that <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Even Dogs Are Given Bones </strong>and <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Minimum </strong>share a characteristic with Ava DuVernay’s powerful <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">When They See Us</strong>, currently on Netflix. The <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/24/how-when-they-see-us-and-chernobyl-make-us-look?utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_brand=tny&mbid=social_twitter" href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/06/24/how-when-they-see-us-and-chernobyl-make-us-look?utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_brand=tny&mbid=social_twitter" rel="noopener" target="_blank">New Yorker</a> </strong>described <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">When They See Us </strong>as a ‘ bleak, beautiful drama’ whose ‘main concern…is empathy. Not a syrupy, manipulative empathy but a rigorous, corrective one’. I think the responses to those screenings in the Beehive Theatrette demonstrated that Kanya’s and Kathleen’s works were also concerned with ‘rigorous, corrective’ empathy. And because so many of the women represented onscreen were in the audience, I now wish I’d thought to choreograph the Q & A more effectively and to have them onstage too. </div>
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Regardless, Kanya and Kathleen — with <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://vimeo.com/user46563172" href="https://vimeo.com/user46563172" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Lea Dambeck</a>, one of her animators — shone. The audience participated energetically and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://ablackart.com/" href="https://ablackart.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Tara Black</a>, who makes comics and ‘aspires to be a professional notetaker’ documented the discussion. I loved the comments Tara Black recorded. And am thinking today about one of them: ‘the meaning of the thing overrides the craft’, which I understand as ‘the thing’s relevance’. </div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*1cg2MI_RRJnQZbroYE8B1A.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" class="graf-image" data-height="3543" data-image-id="1*1cg2MI_RRJnQZbroYE8B1A.png" data-width="2598" height="400" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*1cg2MI_RRJnQZbroYE8B1A.png" width="292" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Tara Black's notes</span></td></tr>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="320e">‘Craft’ is essential to effective storytelling. But I’d argue that ‘relevance’, and ‘rigorous, corrective empathy’ can be key elements within craft; and are sometimes paramount. They readily transcend the old boundaries between and language about film, video, television and webseries too; and expectations about the screens where viewers will watch them. Again, Ava DuVernay provides an excellent example.</figure><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqsvE-yieqKNO-ELwFC4A_z0zXSo4i7lVYmkG90mSDsrU74qQAYOFscL0zTGd18UAW0ywH2IXXepYcLZQyZnlGqhJb7qmeI2m1BVOuIvpoQJsh_JXX2I8Gf-OMqGHrm7_XuEPm-pxAppSZ/s1600/Image+24-6-19+at+11.46+am.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="504" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqsvE-yieqKNO-ELwFC4A_z0zXSo4i7lVYmkG90mSDsrU74qQAYOFscL0zTGd18UAW0ywH2IXXepYcLZQyZnlGqhJb7qmeI2m1BVOuIvpoQJsh_JXX2I8Gf-OMqGHrm7_XuEPm-pxAppSZ/s320/Image+24-6-19+at+11.46+am.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Melanie Reid’s recent ‘video story’, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/06/11/629363/nzs-own-taken-generation" href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/06/11/629363/nzs-own-taken-generation" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Uplift</strong></a>, about the mechanisms behind one example of ‘NZ’s own taken generation[s]’, much of it shot on family phones as it happened, is another example of a storyteller’s ‘rigorous, corrective empathy’. Powerful, relevant, storytelling grabs us whether it’s recorded as a film or television or web series or on our phones; and whether we watch it on a phone or other device or in a cinema. But it’s a pretty special joy to watch this kind of work in a cinema followed by a Q & A with directors and other participants? It certainly was that night at the Beehive.</div>
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<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/minimumseries/videos/2141984329153075/" href="https://www.facebook.com/minimumseries/videos/2141984329153075/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Jan Logie speaks about the series in Parliament</a> (video) </div>
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-25919625725840763302019-06-20T18:09:00.000-07:002019-06-20T18:15:36.136-07:00The Middle Wife<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Kahra Scott-James and Tanya M. Wheeler are making an ambitious short film, <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Middle Wife</strong>, described by an LA script consultant as ‘<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Northanger Abbey </strong>meets <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Innocents’. </strong>It <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"></strong>explores domestic violence. And they are crowd-funding on <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.boosted.org.nz/projects/the-middle-wife-short-film" href="https://www.boosted.org.nz/projects/the-middle-wife-short-film" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Boosted</a> </strong>for its first stage.</div>
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I know Tanya as a prolific and deeply committed screenwriter, with credits on the short films <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Wrong </strong>and <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Footsteps</strong>, on <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Power Rangers</strong>, the feature <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Umbrella Man</strong><span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">;</span><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"> </strong>and the award-winning <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.resetwebseries.com/" href="https://www.resetwebseries.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">RESET</a> </strong>webseries, which she also produced. </div>
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And I’m learning about Kahra, a writer, a sound designer, re-recording mixer and occasional composer whose award-winning <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.trapfilm.nz/home" href="http://www.trapfilm.nz/home" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Trap</a> </strong>screened at last year’s New Zealand International Film Festival (among many other festivals). She has designed soundtracks for 3D interactive movie creators Brilliant Digital Entertainment (USA/Australia — Warner Brothers/DC Comics), managed an audio post-production studio for several years, working on broadcast, film and animation projects and lectured in sound design and audio post production in New Zealand, Australia and Ireland. And she’s also working on a web series part funded by Google/Youtube and a digital feature film, an academic at De Paul University’s School of Cinematic Arts in Chicago and author of <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Sound Design for Moving Image</strong>, published last year.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="720" data-image-id="1*pfSE4g39C6fr5QxmKITbZA.jpeg" data-width="960" height="240" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*pfSE4g39C6fr5QxmKITbZA.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Kahra at work</span></span></td></tr>
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When I read about <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Middle Wife </strong>and that these two are working together, I invited Tanya to chat.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img class="graf-image" data-height="720" data-image-id="1*ez8YM0tcmkBNKBNuPAiItg.jpeg" data-width="528" height="320" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/600/1*ez8YM0tcmkBNKBNuPAiItg.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="234" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Tanya M Wheeler</span></span></td></tr>
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<span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong" style="font-weight: bold;">ME </strong>What inspired <span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><b>The Middle Wife</b></span>?</span></div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Tanya M Wheeler </strong>It came from the story of a distant ancestor. Her death was so grisly that I imagined that she might have haunted the house afterwards. When I wrote it, I was thinking about the character and her anger and frustration at finding herself in the situation of being an unburied ghost. I wondered what determination she might have shown, as a ghost, to punish the killer, and what she would have wanted in order to pass over.</div>
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I want the audience to think about the optimism of the ending, where persistence pays off for the powerless battered wife. I also want them to think about the motto the short film espouses about domestic violence, ‘Get Help. Give Help.’ People are not alone, and that if they ask, people will help them. </div>
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It is important to encourage by-standers to offer judgement-free assistance before it is too late. People often worry about interfering or don’t know how to help, but being willing to listen or to be a safe space can sometimes be enough. </div>
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Kahra’s mother, Christine, worked in the Domestic Violence prevention sphere for many years and we wanted to make the point that this is not a new social issue, and that by now, almost 110 years after the year in which this short film is set, that we should be doing better and ending violence against women.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">ME </strong>Why a short this time, when you both also work with longer narratives?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">TMW </strong>This tale was so encapsulated that I felt it was best produced as a short film. The New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) pathway towards features is usually paved with short films, so when I teamed up with Kahra, we both wanted to co-produce this as a short film, to test our producing partnership and because we have the same vision for the sound and strong visuals for this script. If we make it as beautifully as we hope, then this could be our next festival darling.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">ME </strong>Did you intend <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Middle Wife </strong>script to be ‘<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Northanger Abbey </strong>meets <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Innocents’</strong>? </div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">TMW </strong>I set it in 1910, because of the origins of the story, but the visual style and tone will definitely have that attention to detail and stillness that a period drama requires. I love it that the script consultant said those things, and described it as a Gothic piece, because in hindsight, it is. It’s all about the character, but I will take the comparisons, because who wouldn’t!</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">ME </strong>What brought you and Kahra together and how do you complement each other?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">TMW </strong>The Combined Guilds Christmas Party at the Longroom in Ponsonby a few years ago brought us together. We were both waiting outside for other people, and ended up chatting. Kahra had just stepped off a plane from Chicago, where she was living. We connected on Facebook and when she returned for the NZ premiere of <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Trap </strong>at NZIFF last year we reconnected in person.</div>
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The friendship grew and we found we had a similar attitude to the work and film industry and wanted to work together on a project. I wrote <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Middle Wife</strong>and saw its sound design potential and asked Kahra if she’d be interested in co-producing because of her great track record on <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Trap</strong>.</div>
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We complement each other because we have similarities rather than differences. Kahra is also a writer, so she understands the screenwriting side of what I do, and we both know that festival distribution is a long haul so we’re not afraid of the hard work of producing, and the admin that comes with it. </div>
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We are both ambitious, and we both want to tell quality stories that engage with audiences on many levels, including the aesthetic appeal to the senses. I really respect Kahra and her intelligent creative vision, and all that she brings to the project in terms of experience, talent and assets. </div>
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I look forward to working with her on <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Middle Wife </strong>and on other projects she has in development like <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">A Box of Nails, </strong>about one of her ancestors and her journey to New Zealand as a widowed settler in Nelson.</div>
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The Sound Design and VFX are particularly meaningful to us on this project because it is the perfect project to bring Kahra and me together as a producing team. <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Middle Wife </strong>requires us both to draw on our skills and elevate them. It is a showcase for what we can do now, and in the future.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">ME </strong>Why are the sound design and VFX so important in this project?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">TMW The Middle Wife </strong>is a ghost story, so there is the perfect opportunity to play with asynchronous existences, that overlap each other, yet are not really there. To play tricks on the eyes and ears and give the sense of the ghost’s existence. There will be scenes where VFX will be required to give the ghost character, Meg, a transparent appearance. We also hope to draw on our wonderful friends in the stunt community to help make our fight scenes look amazing. The sound design will underpin and enhance the narrative; two worlds in one house, then and now, crafting the character’s fears into something you can almost feel through the screen because of the sensory elements.</div>
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This is not a horror film, but the ghost is trapped and she’s emotionally drained by her existence, so the sound and visuals will enhance that journey towards getting justice for Meg.</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">ME </strong>You have no director yet, but you’re already casting. This is a different process than usual, where a director is involved in the casting? Why is this?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">TMW </strong>The casting at this stage is for the roles to be voiced for pre-auralviz. We’re going to create a preliminary soundtrack to combine with a storyboard and create a storyreel for the funding applications. Almost an animatic of the film-to-be. Our hope is that if we get funding that we shoot with the cast who voiced the roles, if they are available for January 2020 shoot dates. Usually a director would be involved at this stage, but Kahra approaches projects from the sound perspective, and we have deadlines for the funding applications that require us to move forward now. As the writer, I have a strong feel for the roles and I love the casting process. So for now we are going it alone to get the ball rolling. We will have filmed the auditions and callbacks, so a director coming on board can see the range of talent available.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="2048">
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="4046">
We have been really lucky with the response, and help, we have had from the actor talent agencies who have come on board and supported our casting efforts for <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Middle Wife</strong>. We’re confident we will find our Meg, Roger and Lizzy characters and that the director will have input before we shoot.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="30a0">
Initially, we thought about co-directing or one of us directing and one producing, but there are all kinds of rules at NZFC about what you can and can’t do, so we are looking for the right director and DOP for this project now. If we end up with a female team, that’s great but honestly, it is all about the connection to the story. If someone has it, then that will help us all work as a team.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="c79b">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">ME </strong>What have you brought from your extensive experience that has been or will be useful?</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="c79b">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="17e8">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">TMW </strong>I think with every filmmaking or writing experience you get better at what you do. More skilled, more efficient, you make fewer amateur mistakes and you have a clearer understanding of how to achieve the vision. So as my most recent project, <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Middle Wife</strong>, benefits from everything I have learned to date. I hope it shows!</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="17e8">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="56ed">
I absolutely LOVE producing. I have only been doing it for a few years and it is hard work, but I love moving projects forward and seeing them through to fruition. </div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="56ed">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="8e87">
As always the hardest part is finding the money. Filmmaking is a wonderful collaboration with talented cast and crew, to create special moments in time and explorations of the human condition, but it involves a lot of people on set and in post and everyone needs to be paid so they can pay their bills. It is important to pay people when you can, and we always try to, even if it is not enough sometimes. It is a token of the appreciation we feel when others come on board and give up their time to be a part of a passion project like this. I want this to have the best production values, the most amazing pictures, fantastic performances, awesome sound and for <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Middle Wife </strong>to be a quality short film that we can take to film festivals to show what Kiwi women filmmakers can achieve.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="8e87">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="92cc">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">ME </strong>What have been the most pleasurable parts of the project so far?</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="92cc">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9b4a">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">TMW </strong>I’m excited about it because I like the script and I like the collaboration with Kahra, because I know she will bring so many layers and nuances to the visual story with the sound design she will create for it. I can’t wait to see and hear it, because we both share the vision that it needs to be visually stunning and sonically cinematic. Crisp and beautifully filmed.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="51dc">
My favourite part has been the excitement it has generated in so many people who have jumped on board or read it and heaped praise upon it. The actors who have read it and said, ‘I have to be a part of this!’ Also the friends, students and colleagues who have leapt on board to help out as production assistants, camerapeople, readers at the auditions, or composers. We are both really blown away by the generosity of the film and friend community we inhabit.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="cc29">
I think that somehow it has turned out to be one of those scripts that people can just see the movie in their heads as they read it and we all see the same movie — gorgeous, elegant, moving and emotionally engaging. It makes me so motivated and so driven to get it off the ground and realise that vision. When you feel like this, nothing you do for the project feels like ‘work’.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="4a2c">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">ME </strong>What’s been challenging?</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4a2c">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="3572">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">TMW </strong>Keeping track of the actors on the audition list for this weekend. Who’s coming and who’s self-taping, and who’s away and not available. I have been fielding floods of emails for over a week now and have scribbled names everywhere and I am fast losing track.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="3572">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="1ebd">
Crowdfunding is also a challenge, I hate begging for money to make something because there are so many worthy causes in this world that it is hard to justify asking for donations to a film. With this crowdfunding campaign on Boosted, we do plan to list every donor in the credits of the short film to acknowledge that this film could not be made without every one of those donors. Being busy with co-producing <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Middle Wife </strong>is not a bad thing to be though, so I can’t complain too much!</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="1ebd">
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="9b0b">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">ME </strong>Do you have some advice for other women developing short films?</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9b0b">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="7240">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">TMW </strong>My advice to any women developing short films right now is to not do it all on your own. Find a friend, build a team, and share the load. It makes it easier to get things off the ground and it shares costs and workload. You can pool your resources and networks and get better traction.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e479">
As a screenwriter I also advise writer/directors to find a qualified writer to be your script consultant and to run a writer’s eye over a script. Input from others is important in a collaborative creative process, and if you write and direct without it, you run the risk of not having your script challenged and polished into the best that it could be.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4d1f">
A writer has a sense of story and character arcs and structure that may benefit your script. They may be helpful in determining which scenes work and which need work. I am grateful to the team that I rely on. I thought the script was pretty much how I wanted it, but after feedback from Kahra and from the LA Script consultant, I made some revisions, and then after a team meeting with the Art Director, Raoul Darlington, I realised his insights needed to be incorporated into the script and I polished it further.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="4d1f">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="79a6">
Never let your ego get in the way of the work. Always try to make it better.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="3983">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">ME </strong>I know your children are central to your life. What have you learned about balancing parenthood with screenwriting and producing?</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="3983">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="46d6">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">TMW </strong>I am a solo mum, with a very hands-on helper of a mother who baby-sits and allows me the freedom to attend seminars, workshops and meetings. I am also very lucky with my two boys, my older son, Lex (16) is a wonderfully intelligent and talented human being, and he helps out with his younger brother, Griffin (12) who is very challenging at times because of severe autism. Having help is what makes it possible to juggle work and family, and I would be the first to say I could not do this alone. I would also add that screenwriting and producing is something I have been able to do largely from home, which makes me flexible and available to the needs of my sons. It also requires a lot of hours, but they see me doing something I have a passion for and they see me being both creative and practical, especially when switching between screenwriter and producer.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="46d6">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e2fb">
I have emerged as a stronger person for having pursued these tough paths in the film industry. Writing and producing are not for the faint-hearted or the workshy, the resilience required to push past obstacles and rejections has to be found deep within.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="370b">
We are lucky in New Zealand because we have organisations such as Women in Film and Television (WIFT NZ), NZ Writers’ Guild, NZ On Air, NZFC, Script to Screen, SPADA, DEGNZ, and publications such as yours that provide training, opportunities, funding, and are making an effort to redress traditional gender imbalances for the industry. Access to the wonderful seminars and workshops that WIFT and the others run, has definitely helped me carve out a career in the industry by providing upskilling and mentorship about how the different aspects of the industry work.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="f65d">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Middle Wife </strong>on <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"></strong><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.boosted.org.nz/projects/the-middle-wife-short-film" href="https://www.boosted.org.nz/projects/the-middle-wife-short-film" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Boosted</strong></a>. Can you help?</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--mixtapeEmbed-strong"><a class="markup--anchor markup--mixtapeEmbed-anchor" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/The-Middle-Wife-A-Short-Film-Project-1472899509517857/" href="https://www.facebook.com/The-Middle-Wife-A-Short-Film-Project-1472899509517857/" title="https://www.facebook.com/The-Middle-Wife-A-Short-Film-Project-1472899509517857/">Facebook</a></strong></div>
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<a class="markup--anchor markup--mixtapeEmbed-anchor" data-href="https://www.facebook.com/The-Middle-Wife-A-Short-Film-Project-1472899509517857/" href="https://www.facebook.com/The-Middle-Wife-A-Short-Film-Project-1472899509517857/" title="https://www.facebook.com/The-Middle-Wife-A-Short-Film-Project-1472899509517857/"><br /></a><a class="js-mixtapeImage mixtapeImage u-ignoreBlock" data-media-id="4c9016627e7241e67a04ca9dcdab658d" data-thumbnail-img-id="0*V4UPBBRXfhxp6kVV" href="https://www.facebook.com/The-Middle-Wife-A-Short-Film-Project-1472899509517857/" style="background-image: url("https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/fit/c/160/160/0*V4UPBBRXfhxp6kVV");"></a></div>
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-87071456866514314052019-06-06T19:55:00.000-07:002019-06-20T15:26:12.310-07:00NZ Update #18.2: Beyond Exceptionality?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It’s all go here in New Zealand, so I’ve had to add this to the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/nz-update-18-beyond-exceptionality-d93af0b444b3" href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/nz-update-18-beyond-exceptionality-d93af0b444b3" target="_blank">last post</a>. And — working around other commitments — I’ve probably missed stuff!<br />
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<section class="section section--body" name="8c11"><div class="section-content">
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="5120">
But it looks like there are more and more reasons to be optimistic about positive change following more announcements: from the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZFF); New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC, our taxpayer-funded film agency); and the New Zealand Writers Guild (NZWG). Some Wellbeing Budget allocations that could help increase opportunities for women, too. Some awards that acknowledge some brilliant women. Two upcoming summits.</div>
<h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="c5ae">
New Zealand’s Best Short Film</h4>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="c736"><img class="graf-image" data-height="432" data-image-id="1*f4hQxOB6BgKn0uvkm_rvVA.jpeg" data-is-featured="true" data-width="768" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*f4hQxOB6BgKn0uvkm_rvVA.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Jane Campion (credit: NZFC)</span></figcaption></figure><br />
<div class="graf graf--p" name="0477">
Part of the NZFF and to be judged by Jane Campion this year. And five of the six <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nziff.co.nz/2019/film/new-zealands-best-2019/" href="https://www.nziff.co.nz/2019/film/new-zealands-best-2019/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">finalist films</a> she has selected are #directedbywomen (or co-directed)–</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="9c1d">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Egg Cup Requiem </strong>directed by Prisca Bouchet and Nick Mayow; <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Hinekura</strong>, directed by Becs Arahanga (also one of the <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Vai </strong>writer/directors; and <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Hinekura </strong>won the Mana Wairoa Te Reo Prize at the Wairoa Māori Film Festival); <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Krystal</strong>, <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"></strong>written by Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"></strong>and directed by Briar Grace Smith (two of the now-legendary <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Waru </strong>women); <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Nancy From Now On </strong>directed by <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"></strong>Keely Meechan; and <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Our Father</strong>, directed by Esther Mauga.</div>
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<h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="a30e">
NZFC announcements</h4>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="40db">
<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/funds/producer-and-director-internships" href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/funds/producer-and-director-internships" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">On-The-Job Development</strong></a></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="5b8d">
For New Zealand and international companies with a film funded by the NZFC that is nearing production and has a budget of more than $500,000— internships, attachments and mentorships on productions for writers, directors and producers, and professional placements with companies for emerging and mid-career filmmakers.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="5b8d">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/news/interactive-development-fund-annoucement" href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/news/interactive-development-fund-annoucement" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Interactive Development Fund</a></strong></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e470">
Lots of interesting women in this list. I’m especially drawn to Lisa Reihana’s untitled project– ‘ Using elements of AR and VR, real and invented interactions between the two indigenous cultures of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand are reimagined and brought to life. Set in an indeterminate future’. And Gaylene Preston’s VR <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Rita Rides Again — </strong>‘Enter paintings by Rita Angus and submerge yourself in her mind, using her own words as she struggles to achieve her breathtaking unique vision. Douglas Lilburn’s compositions mirror her deeply observed painterly trip’.</div>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="2c22"><img class="graf-image" data-height="1200" data-image-id="1*i45UpiydP0FUplx2HzxNxA.jpeg" data-width="900" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*i45UpiydP0FUplx2HzxNxA.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Rita Angus on wall in Wellington CBD (based on a 1947 portrait by Theo Schoon)</span></figcaption></figure><br />
<div class="graf graf--p" name="ceb0">
<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/news/catalyst-he-kauahi-funding-announcement" href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/news/catalyst-he-kauahi-funding-announcement" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Catalyst He Kauahi Funding</strong></a> </div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="520b">
Each project receives a grant of $90,000 towards a short film, and $10,000 towards development of their feature concepts. And all of these are #directedbywomen!</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e79b">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><br /></strong></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e79b">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Topping Out <em class="markup--em markup--p-em"></em></strong>Writer: Michael Bennett Director: Kerry Fox Producer: Juliet Dowling </div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="4f09">
Jovial lingual banter between two Irish scaffolders as they ascend up a London high-rise leads to suspicion, jealousy and precipitous threat towards the top, when the boss senses his young protegé is in love.</div>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="c072"><img class="graf-image" data-height="716" data-image-id="1*UUxJsPcUp3ymwSZftXgO6Q.jpeg" data-width="960" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*UUxJsPcUp3ymwSZftXgO6Q.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu at the Berlinale</span></figcaption></figure><br />
<div class="graf graf--p" name="08ac">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">When We Were Kids <em class="markup--em markup--p-em"></em></strong>Writer/Director: Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu (as well as the writer of <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Krystal</strong>, above in the Best Short Film list; and <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Ani</strong>, which she wrote and directed, screened at the Berlinale and just won the Whenua Jury Short Fiction Prize at the Wairoa Māori Film Festival) Producer: Sarah Cook (who also produced <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Ani</strong>)</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="bbd1">
Piki (13) examines the boundaries of her changing body during a day at the pools with her best friend.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="873e">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Frankie Jean and the Morning Star </strong>Writer/Director: Hannah Marshall Producer: Tara Riddell, Gareth Williams</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="cbe7">
In the early hours of the morning, a plucky, rugby obsessed 8-year-old girl stumbles across a teenager about to end his life.</div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="d635">
<a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/funds/annual-gender-scholarship" href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/funds/annual-gender-scholarship" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Annual Gender Scholarship</strong></a></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="e6bb">
This year it celebrates Pacific Island women screenwriters. Applications close Friday 21 June at 5pm.</div>
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<h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="16ac">
NZWG Seed and Advanced Seed Funding</h4>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="d220">
The image says it all. Pretty nice.</div>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="1633"><img class="graf-image" data-height="788" data-image-id="1*rLtr_9n8RxS2yhXCR7hOOQ.png" data-width="940" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*rLtr_9n8RxS2yhXCR7hOOQ.png" /></figure></div>
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="1e90">
And then there was that Wellbeing Budget.</div>
<h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="f929">
Wellbeing Budget</h4>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="a721">
These details with thanks to <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/concert/programmes/upbeat/audio/2018697484/budget-2019-arts-and-culture" href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/concert/programmes/upbeat/audio/2018697484/budget-2019-arts-and-culture" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Radio New Zealand</a>.</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="3804">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><br /></strong></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="3804">
<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Extra $25 Million for screen grants</strong></div>
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The NZFC’s <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/new-zealand/funding-and-support/new-zealand-screen-production-grant" href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/new-zealand/funding-and-support/new-zealand-screen-production-grant" rel="noopener" target="_blank">New Zealand Screen Production Grants</a> — receive an extra $25 million in 2019–20 to help the creation of local content. The NZFC’s <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/new-zealand/funding-and-support/new-zealand-screen-production-grant" href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/new-zealand/funding-and-support/new-zealand-screen-production-grant" rel="noopener" target="_blank">New Zealand Screen Production Grants</a> — receive an extra $25 million in 2019–20 to help the creation of local content. (No mention of gender equity in its allocation, but that’s a few more features, maybe with larger budgets, so it can only be good? It would have been even better to see a hefty marketing and distribution allocation, to be devoted to building local appreciation of women’s films, a mirroring of a <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ewawomen.com/film-industry-articles/france-committed-gender-equality/" href="https://www.ewawomen.com/film-industry-articles/france-committed-gender-equality/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">new commitment</a> by the equivalent French agency, the CNC, to ‘improving the visibility of films made by women in cinemas through incentives for distribution and promotion’.)</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">I</strong><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">ncrease for Ngā Taonga</strong></div>
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Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision archives New Zealand film, television and sound. It will receive $6.6 million over the next four years to increase the rate of digital preservation following years of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/343410/project-to-digitise-nz-tv-history-lags-behind" href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/343410/project-to-digitise-nz-tv-history-lags-behind" rel="noopener" target="_blank">not being able to meeting its delivery targets.</a> (Great news. Their work is vital.)</div>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">$41 million increase for media and communications</strong></div>
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Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media funding is to increase by $41.680 million over the next four years. Key areas of focus include investing in “national identity and wellbeing” via NZ on Air, and strengthening RNZ by $14.5 million in operational costs and 3.5 million in capital to upgrade infrastructure in the next two years. (Will ‘national identity and wellbeing’ have an intersectional gender focus so broadcasters have to make some changes?) </div>
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And via Māori Development there is $7 million in each of the next two years for Te Māngai Pāho to purchase new and innovative media content, with a particular focus on rangatahi audiences. (No idea what this will mean but it sounds good.)</div>
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Awards</h4>
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Mana Wāhine</strong></div>
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An annual WIFTNZ award, presented at the Wairoa Māori Film Festival. This year, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://falamedia.com" href="https://falamedia.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Whetu Fala</a> won. Whetu has produced, directed and edited hundreds of hours of television, including drama, documentaries, reality series and short films in Aōtearoa New Zealand, in both te reo Māori and in English. She is also an actor; and founding member of many industry organisations.</div>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="1e15"><img class="graf-image" data-height="880" data-image-id="1*WdLzFehyfQfG6Om36vCgAg.jpeg" data-width="543" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*WdLzFehyfQfG6Om36vCgAg.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Whetu Fala (credit: Wairoa Māori Film Festival)</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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<strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Queens Birthday Honours</strong></div>
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They’re archaic. And somewhat random. And often lovely to hear about. </div>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="68cd"><img class="graf-image" data-height="697" data-image-id="1*JK8hu3r5_Xw91qv0oNLehA.jpeg" data-width="1240" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*JK8hu3r5_Xw91qv0oNLehA.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Robyn Malcolm (credit: Chris Skelton)</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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This year ‘Queen’ Robyn Malcolm, who — like Jennifer Ward-Lealand — is always a theatrical Dame to me, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/113149300/actor-robyn-malcolm-surprised-and-delighted-by-queens-birthday-honour" href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/113149300/actor-robyn-malcolm-surprised-and-delighted-by-queens-birthday-honour" rel="noopener" target="_blank">was awarded</a> an MNZM. I love Robyn’s work as an actor. And I love her because she’s our Emma Thompson, our Vanessa Redgrave, a committed activist who has campaigned for change on many political, environmental and social issues; and spearheaded — at considerable personal cost, I imagine — a high-profile actors’ union campaign to negotiate standard contracts for actors in <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Hobbit </strong>films. And she’s a devoted mother. Right now, she’s also on set in Belgrade, Serbia, reprising her role as Mistress Elinor, power-hungry publican of The Nightshade Inn, in the second season of US supernatural fantasy series <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Outpost</strong>.</div>
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And new Dame Fran Walsh, hitherto Fran, Lady Jackson, has now caught up with Sir Peter. Not before time.</div>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="6e03"><img class="graf-image" data-height="423" data-image-id="1*Jvq1HyDvBRfP-3ODJpmOag.jpeg" data-width="647" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*Jvq1HyDvBRfP-3ODJpmOag.jpeg" /><figcaption class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Dame Fran Walsh (credit: Wingnut Films)</span></figcaption></figure><br />
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And she had some great things to say in <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/113140809/fran-walsh-receives-damehood-in-queens-birthday-honours?fbclid=IwAR2FSr_9JirPcS2npVV43sQxwDMTQEB5WsAWOR96M1ZAEViZiyK0hRh4VY0" href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/113140809/fran-walsh-receives-damehood-in-queens-birthday-honours?fbclid=IwAR2FSr_9JirPcS2npVV43sQxwDMTQEB5WsAWOR96M1ZAEViZiyK0hRh4VY0" rel="noopener" target="_blank">a rare interview</a>, with <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Stuff.</strong></div>
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‘She calls Kiwis “born storytellers,” and says “the depth of talent in this country is inspiring.” However, she harbours some concerns about the current state of the industry.</div>
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“I think we should increase the budget of the NZFC and limit their ability to meddle as quasi producers,” she says bluntly. “We need to take more risks in development and understand that there will be some failures along the way and hopefully some successes.</div>
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“The market will always want prescriptive storytelling but subscribing to that model is usually counter-productive. Funding entities don’t like to take risks,” Walsh continues.</div>
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“They naturally want ‘what has worked before’ which doesn’t allow much room for original storytelling in both form and content. Being caught up in projects that follow prescribed structures is a deadening experience where fatigue and pressure combine to exhaust your creativity.” </div>
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Beyond that, she says, “we need to put more energy and investment into young filmmakers” — and it’s not surprising that the woman who wonders if “the absence of a female prime minister” might also be partially to blame for her long wait for a title, also has concerns about female representation in the industry.</div>
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“The reality is that working in film is that much harder for women when you factor in the needs of being a parent, filming on location, the very long hours and the all consuming nature of a project can assume in your life,” she says.</div>
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And if you travel to the <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Women in Film & Television International (WIFTI) Summit </strong>and <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Power of Inclusion </strong>in Auckland in early October, spring-time, you may hear more good news!</div>
<h4 class="graf graf--h4" name="5662">
The Power of Inclusion</h4>
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<figure class="graf graf--figure" name="e762"><img class="graf-image" data-height="559" data-image-id="1*Wvoh1FlZ57q9-q2vhFOMdg.png" data-width="1692" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*Wvoh1FlZ57q9-q2vhFOMdg.png" /></figure><br />
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The <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://powerofinclusion.co.nz" href="https://powerofinclusion.co.nz/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Power of Inclusion</a> </strong>is two days of keynotes, panels, case studies and conversations with speakers from around the world, hosted by the NZFC and WIFTI with support from The Walt Disney Studios and an unprecedented event in the Asia-Pacific region. It follows the WIFTI summit, also in Auckland, on 2 October, for WIFT members only. </div>
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Who would I love to see and hear from at <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Power of Inclusion</strong>?<br />
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First of all, I hope that our Prime Minister — probably the major attraction for international visitors — will announce that New Zealand will no longer be complicit in global discrimination against women directors and directors of colour. <br />
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In the 2018 year our taxpayer-funded International Screen Production Grant, for international projects that film or do their post-production in New Zealand, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/@devt/nz-update-17-2-wellbeing-womens-feature-filmmaking-33083298af8e" href="https://medium.com/@devt/nz-update-17-2-wellbeing-womens-feature-filmmaking-33083298af8e" target="_blank">allocated 98%</a>from almost $108m to projects directed by men, and 97% to projects directed by white people. And I long to hear Jacinda Ardern say that our national commitment to inclusion requires this to change.<br />
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Could she offer an incentive? Perhaps echo <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ewawomen.com/film-industry-articles/france-committed-gender-equality/" href="https://www.ewawomen.com/film-industry-articles/france-committed-gender-equality/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">the announcement</a> made in France late last year, of ‘a bonus of 15% of CNC [the NZFC equivalent] support for films that include as many women as men in the management positions of their film crew’, with an 8 point scale in place to report on the presence of women in key positions?</div>
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Because of the Prime Minister’s international mana, I believe that her message would be heard, understood and widely transmitted; and acted on with enthusiasm.</div>
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I also hope to hear from people who’ve already developed inclusion-oriented practices that bring results. Who experiment. Take risks. Fail sometimes.</div>
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For instance? Because I love collective action and it’s had a powerful influence in this sphere, my list is a mix of collectives and individuals.<br />
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Jill Soloway with her ambition to topple the patriarchy. Amazing Lena Waithe. The Korean producers responsible for ensuring that <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.womenofchina.cn/html/report/171611-1.htm" href="http://www.womenofchina.cn/html/report/171611-1.htm" rel="noopener" target="_blank">90% of their screenwriters are women</a>. Women from Canada’s <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://womeninview.ca" href="http://womeninview.ca/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Women in View</strong></a>, whose initiatives are bold and varied; France’s <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Le Deuxième Regard </strong>that morphed into <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.5050x2020.fr/" href="http://www.5050x2020.fr/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">50:50x2020</strong></a><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"></strong>and whose current site doesn’t fully reflect the depth and breadth of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2013/10/french-feminists-make-history-with.html" href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2013/10/french-feminists-make-history-with.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">their history</a>; the <span style="font-family: inherit;"><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.ewawomen.com" href="https://www.ewawomen.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">European Women’s Audiovisual Network</strong></a>; Francine Raveney, who <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/@devt/francine-raveney-the-european-womens-audiovisual-network-2014-a8686263c64" href="https://medium.com/@devt/francine-raveney-the-european-womens-audiovisual-network-2014-a8686263c64" target="_blank">used to head EWA</a> and is now <span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137); letter-spacing: -0.06300000101327896px;">Project Manager for Gender Issues and for Second Features</span> at Eurimages, the Council of Europe’s 37-member, organisation for film and film funding, where <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/@devt/europes-leap-towards-gender-equality-in-the-audiovisual-sector-b18ba173cb35" href="https://medium.com/@devt/europes-leap-towards-gender-equality-in-the-audiovisual-sector-b18ba173cb35" target="_blank">she led</a> development of its <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://rm.coe.int/eurimages-gender-equality-strategy-2018-2020-aiming-for-50-50-by-2020/1680760bff" href="https://rm.coe.int/eurimages-gender-equality-strategy-2018-2020-aiming-for-50-50-by-2020/1680760bff" rel="nofollow noopener noopener" target="_blank">Gender Equality Strategy</a> 2018–2020. <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Raising Films </strong>in the <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.raisingfilms.com" href="https://www.raisingfilms.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">UK</a> and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://wiftaustralia.org.au/raisingfilmsau" href="https://wiftaustralia.org.au/raisingfilmsau" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Australia</a>; <a href="https://www.wmm.com/"><b>Women Make Movies</b></a>, which has championed women's film for more than 45 years, through production assistance and global distribution.</span><br />
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So Mayer, film critic and activist with Raising Films and Club de Femmes, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/18/ripe-for-disruption-female-film-makers-rally-for-industry-overhaul-bfi-women-with-a-movie-camera-summit" href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/jun/18/ripe-for-disruption-female-film-makers-rally-for-industry-overhaul-bfi-women-with-a-movie-camera-summit" rel="noopener" target="_blank">described</a> by the <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Guardian </strong>as giving an ‘incendiary presentation’ at last year’s <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Woman With a Movie Camera Summit</strong>. Director <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/director-activist-maria-giese-update-on-women-directors-the-aclu-the-feds-bdb6a8fcb115" href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/director-activist-maria-giese-update-on-women-directors-the-aclu-the-feds-bdb6a8fcb115" target="_blank">Maria Giese</a>, who’s using the legal system to take on Hollywood’s failures to include women. The women of the 22-year-old <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.siwff.or.kr/eng/" href="http://www.siwff.or.kr/eng/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Seoul International Women’s Film Festival</strong></a>, an inspiring and intersectional annual event. Multi-hyphenate <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.naomimcdougalljones.com" href="https://www.naomimcdougalljones.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Naomi McDougall Jones</a>, who’s courageously experimenting with ways to increase the audiences for women’s films as well as with much else. <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.seedandspark.com" href="https://www.seedandspark.com/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Seed & Spark</strong></a>, the most successful crowd funder for filmmakers, which provides an excellent and diverse streaming service.</div>
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Brilliant and big-hearted Ava DuVernay. Among individuals who’ve worked over an extended period to achieve inclusion, she and the Swedish Film Institute’s Anna Serner have provided exemplary leadership and results to match. Ava has employed only women directors in every season of <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Queen Sugar. </strong>And she’s built her own house/studio, <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="http://www.arraynow.com/our-story" href="http://www.arraynow.com/our-story" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Array</a>, an ‘independent film distribution and resource collective dedicated to the amplification of independent films by people of colour and women filmmakers globally’, which distributes Hepi Mita’s <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen</strong>. Her most recent success, the powerful <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">When They See Us, </strong>just out <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"></strong>on Netflix, is now screening in over 100 countries and sparking conversations everywhere. Did she enjoy herself enough in New Zealand <a href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2017/02/new-zealand-update-2-letter-to-deputy.html">last time</a> to make time to come back? I hope so.</div>
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But most of all, I hope for a very strong representation of the local creatives who have achieved inclusion through collective and kind practices that are unique to Aotearoa and effectively address many of the problems that face women filmmakers, as described by Dame Fran. Their work is also central to global discussions of inclusion and belonging: Libby Hakaraia of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://maorilandfilm.co.nz" href="https://maorilandfilm.co.nz/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Māoriland</a>; <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/blow-the-conch-louder-a-bold-project-from-pacific-women-film-makers-20190520-p51p8o.html?fbclid=IwAR04EMG4OU3j0Lw6jER6d0glswHfJRfE5mrzA0vcAoWuSU2CNbWgW-Dvdvg" href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/blow-the-conch-louder-a-bold-project-from-pacific-women-film-makers-20190520-p51p8o.html?fbclid=IwAR04EMG4OU3j0Lw6jER6d0glswHfJRfE5mrzA0vcAoWuSU2CNbWgW-Dvdvg" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Kerry Warkia</a> and <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.nowtolove.co.nz/lifestyle/career/kiwi-women-maori-pasifika-representation-movies-tv-41037" href="https://www.nowtolove.co.nz/lifestyle/career/kiwi-women-maori-pasifika-representation-movies-tv-41037" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Ainsley Gardiner</a> and all those who work with Kerry at Brown Sugar Apple Grunt (e.g. on <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Waru</strong>, <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Vai</strong>) and Ainsley at Miss Conception (e.g. on <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">The Breaker Upperers</strong> — with Piki Films — and the forthcoming <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Cousins</strong>). And the people over at Piki Films, especially Jessica Hansell. And all those who — like Jessica with <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Aroha Bridge</strong> — have participated in the wild world of webseries with distinction and very limited resources and in the process transformed onscreen representation here: the Flat3 collective’s many series; Hanelle Harris with <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Baby Mama’s Club</strong>; the many Candle Wasters’ productions; Ness Simons’ <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Pot Luck</strong>. </div>
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This is a perfect time to reflect on the words of <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/james-cook-and-our-monuments-to-colonisation/" href="https://e-tangata.co.nz/comment-and-analysis/james-cook-and-our-monuments-to-colonisation/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">lawyer Moana Jackson</a>, as an expert on Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi (1840) which regulates relationships between the Crown (in <b>Power of Inclusion</b> represented by the NZFC) and Māori–</div>
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‘When many Europeans were still nervously venturing into what Socrates called the “little pond” of the Mediterranean, the peoples of the Pacific were charting the greatest ocean in the world. They mapped its currents, reached for stories in its depths, and established a whakapapa that joined all of its islands together. That is a story worthy of being honoured — but in the Crown commemorations [of Captain Cook’s first visit to New Zealand 250 years ago] it is only being told in the shadowed narrative of someone else.’</div>
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Why this reflection? Because this ‘unprecedented Asia-Pacific summit’ is also the perfect time to honour fully the power and knowledge and storytelling expertise of inspirational Pacific-indigenous #womeninfilm; and indigenous women from Asia and Australia, too. And not in the shadow of Hollywood’s and Europe’s narratives.</div>
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</section></div>
wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-10899886501174667282019-05-19T03:08:00.002-07:002019-06-02T14:21:24.478-07:00NZ Update #18 – Beyond Exceptionality?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu5kgcXmmGKIeFQyHPX0O1DeLb5JEdvPegwMWzoMbK28v3brXYlSvOkay9mFULYX6F0mjiYpGOS-G4linUUzUgcz58A9PSwug-FWpRQJ22lmiFwm-KWhsZFx5a6mSHiroLZm1uFXK-fI_h/s1600/top-of-the-lake-china-girl-bts-jane-champion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu5kgcXmmGKIeFQyHPX0O1DeLb5JEdvPegwMWzoMbK28v3brXYlSvOkay9mFULYX6F0mjiYpGOS-G4linUUzUgcz58A9PSwug-FWpRQJ22lmiFwm-KWhsZFx5a6mSHiroLZm1uFXK-fI_h/s320/top-of-the-lake-china-girl-bts-jane-champion.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-size: xx-small;">I always enjoy this image that accompanied <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/new-zealand-finance-for-film-development-1203215459/"><i>Variety</i>'s announcement</a> of NZ's new International Co-Development Fund, because, thanks to Bluestocking Series, I produced the Complex Female Protagonist cap that Jane Campion wears here!</span> </td></tr>
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Some good news this week. A relief to write about, after my recent dense essays that explore continued <a href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/nz-update-17-1-safety-revisited-7ddb4b620622">risks to the safety </a>of New Zealand women who make films; our <a href="https://medium.com/@devt/nz-update-17-2-wellbeing-womens-feature-filmmaking-33083298af8e">taxpayer over-investment</a> in international projects that white men write and direct; and under-investment in the distribution and marketing of films that New Zealand women write and direct; and new and <a href="https://medium.com/spiral-collectives/whose-wellbeing-53d7f9fe5992">inequitable</a> taxpayer-funded creative worker research that may be used by policy-makers. Whew.<br />
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Individually, these good news announcements don't mean much. But collectively, they may signal that – at last – that women writers and directors are not 'exceptional' in taxpayer-funded projects here. And some of them have established a new, local, ‘normal’ where both writing *and* directing roles are shared — like the multiple women writers and directors of <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Waru </strong>and <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Vai</strong><span class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">;</span><strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong"> </strong>and others working as joint writer/directors in pairs.<br />
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="101d">
At the Berlinale earlier this year, <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Vai</strong>’s Marina Alofagia McCartney <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BerlinaleNATIVe/videos/2352760068293963/" target="_blank">articulated this idea</a> very powerfully, in direct reference to the Pacific, Te Moana Nui a Kiwa–</div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="101d">
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‘To me, this is the opposite of the auteur theory, where the director is the author. Because we’re all [including <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Vai</strong>’s producers] authors…This really is the true nature of the collective. This is Moana cinema.’<br />
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<div class="graf graf--p" name="87ef">
This shift, right here, is something to celebrate I reckon, because, like Shaula Evans (no relation) —</div>
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I get frustrated with people who embrace exceptionalism because when I was younger I too thought I could get ahead in the face of systemic inequality by being 10x better & sometimes I did but slipping through the narrow door isn't enough: we all need to open the door wider.</div>
— Shaula Evans (@ShaulaEvans) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShaulaEvans/status/1127124434572185600?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
It looks like the door’s now opening wider here, though I believe that it’s not yet wide enough and there's another essential step <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/blow-the-conch-louder-a-bold-project-from-pacific-women-film-makers-20190520-p51p8o.html?fbclid=IwAR15TwivI1ylDiJ7oiuTHCzB-FRpQVTGDh8H5seBGUpMnb07PhnBzQ6E1-A" href="https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/blow-the-conch-louder-a-bold-project-from-pacific-women-film-makers-20190520-p51p8o.html?fbclid=IwAR15TwivI1ylDiJ7oiuTHCzB-FRpQVTGDh8H5seBGUpMnb07PhnBzQ6E1-A" rel="noopener" target="_blank">identified recently</a> by <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Waru </strong>and <strong class="markup--strong markup--p-strong">Vai</strong>’s producer Kerry Warkia, speaking about about the women who made these films — <br />
<br />
‘We should be telling these stories…And we should be creating platforms for these women and supporting them. Doors have been closed for so long that it’s not just about opening the door, it’s about going out to find them because they walked away a long time ago.’<br />
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So I agree with Shaula when she says this, too– <br />
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Please don't evaluate systems and institutions by how well they treat you: evaluate them by how they treat the most vulnerable and marginalized people.</div>
— Shaula Evans (@ShaulaEvans) <a href="https://twitter.com/ShaulaEvans/status/1127125678963343360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 11, 2019</a></blockquote>
One of this week's announcements opens the door a little wider to all of you who're working outside New Zealand. One of this week's announcements opens the door a little wider to all of you who work outside New Zealand. Another, from <a href="http://screensafe.co.nz/">ScreenSafe</a>, with the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/screenwomensactiongroup/">Screen Women's Action Guild</a> (SWAG), is a very welcome health and safety initiative.<br />
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The others show that the major agencies – the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) and New Zealand on Air (NZOA), sometimes in association with Script to Screen, seem now to have accepted that there truly are *lots* of skilled women working here whose voices and visions are powerful and relevant, who don't need 'upskilling' and whose projects are worth investing in.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
International Co-Development Fund</h4>
The New Zealand Film Commission has established the <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/news/new-zealand-finance-for-film-development-1203215459/?fbclid=IwAR1Z2gF8CAkEcGQ8NEZ2goOIzGLLnxgSng81a_WBDgLGVwhkKewLnBiVXO4">International Co-Development Fund,</a> to launch on 1 July, with an annual pool of NZ$400,000, providing <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/funds/co-production-development-fund">grants</a> of up to $40,000 for New Zealand filmmakers to work with international partners and develop feature films as official co-productions. If your country has <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/new-zealand/about-us/what-we-do/co-productions">a co-production treaty with New Zealand</a>, think about coming over?<br />
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And if you do come over, you'll be entering a country where your workplace health and safety matters.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
Safety announcement from ScreenSafe and SWAG</h4>
SWAG has been working away on this for a while, in partnership with other organisations, including ScreenSafe. And this poster, just out, summarises where they've got to.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihcU3HyY_PnNl98lR3eMbcWvzXC-Em2IkX_JzPuQTj_2l7_jZkZuUJCd3IU6xhR_WRosbK6JO6fcvSGjRT4g-W8XBJiSStaEB3_XKV-dDAwPhmlT41kF0nzN1C9PPK5-BLYtW2uLcqG480/s1600/SWAG.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1558" data-original-width="1104" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihcU3HyY_PnNl98lR3eMbcWvzXC-Em2IkX_JzPuQTj_2l7_jZkZuUJCd3IU6xhR_WRosbK6JO6fcvSGjRT4g-W8XBJiSStaEB3_XKV-dDAwPhmlT41kF0nzN1C9PPK5-BLYtW2uLcqG480/s320/SWAG.png" width="226" /></a></div>
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I'm thrilled to see bullying mentioned in the first paragraph, because at first the SWAG initiative focused only on sexual harassment. What a delight to see this moving forward.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<b>NZOA funding announcement</b></h4>
NZOA announced funding for two projects. The first, from the amazing women of Flat3 whose webseries work has been delighting me for years now, is 'a dystopian comedy series, <b>Creamerie</b>, set in a post-apocalyptic future where a viral plague has wiped out 99% of men, and Earth has become a planet run by and for women, and three Kiwi-Asian women running a dairy farm...encounter a man!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIiwnSMzWd6kbTpkchE3ogSxZygpr0xMs_SCzg1-mgHLAV-zbSSfROMfAuemniRwE7y-JiCBVKJD-ocXib7QRDhoavKXEoOweyNnY_ybyITDEaltYsms55DN71HSLw_8eXZIt6kardgzE-/s1600/Flat3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="960" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIiwnSMzWd6kbTpkchE3ogSxZygpr0xMs_SCzg1-mgHLAV-zbSSfROMfAuemniRwE7y-JiCBVKJD-ocXib7QRDhoavKXEoOweyNnY_ybyITDEaltYsms55DN71HSLw_8eXZIt6kardgzE-/s320/Flat3.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Flat3</span></td></tr>
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This is the first project that's received production funding from the Diverse Development initiative created by NZ On Air early in 2017, an initiative 'intended to help different creatives bring fresh ideas to screens, widening the diversity of stories reflecting New Zealanders'. A very welcome first. And my first thought was 'I hope they're getting enough money this time', because NZOA didn't fund them adequately for their webseries, nor all those others who made the webseries that revolutionised representation on our screens.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieLsoEM21iVf7qhJCyXRb6J_6RPFVPlR0Cm2iLFaJpSa_bvF9b0ZppdzFwHem3iBLZlWj4XJ_RidycAHRxDxQ-f3HlcYz6WdEyhA88xis-Q4z3ZIVs1CotuCU2sfVcIaEfcAX2vNt6ZP6k/s1600/5e3e4d8df932d7a2f0a7677636e1983f8d149d2c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieLsoEM21iVf7qhJCyXRb6J_6RPFVPlR0Cm2iLFaJpSa_bvF9b0ZppdzFwHem3iBLZlWj4XJ_RidycAHRxDxQ-f3HlcYz6WdEyhA88xis-Q4z3ZIVs1CotuCU2sfVcIaEfcAX2vNt6ZP6k/s320/5e3e4d8df932d7a2f0a7677636e1983f8d149d2c.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Ainsley Gardiner & Georgina Conder, in <a href="https://www.noted.co.nz/culture/movies/nz-film-women-screen-time-four-creatives-on-a-mission/">an article</a> about them and other 'beyond exceptionality' women filmmakers</span></td></tr>
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The other project is <b>Cousins</b>, from Patricia Grace's classic novel, written by Patricia Grace and Briar Grace Smith and to be directed by Briar and Ainsley Gardiner, whose Miss Conception (with Georgina Conder) will produce. <b>Cousins</b> is primarily funded by the NZFC. (And from the NZOA press release I was interested to learn that it has a Rautaki Māori, a Māori strategy, dating from 2002 an amazing sixteen years before the NZFC's!)</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>NZOA and NZFC announcement</b></div>
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<b><br />
</b> Another announcement seems to show that continued debate about inclusion is now making a real difference to decision-making. Look at this image, of the writers (some of whom will probably direct as well) and producers for the ten ideas for series with international and domestic appeal, in the Raupapa Whakaari Drama to the World initiative that NZOA and the NZFC have partnered on.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCgvxpjzEUewH8xOILzcGUEMyeH0PRAa86OOajx6dVmO0fa0vwDlYnvHSmJLBiwNg7tVPoJh3fZD_O6ehhebYF8KV5lruh3y0oQsp3qeCfIo6sYGI3KcaLlYP5lxVL0uMYFyTIN8ZMiF3z/s1600/Full-Collage-with-logos-700x498.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="700" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCgvxpjzEUewH8xOILzcGUEMyeH0PRAa86OOajx6dVmO0fa0vwDlYnvHSmJLBiwNg7tVPoJh3fZD_O6ehhebYF8KV5lruh3y0oQsp3qeCfIo6sYGI3KcaLlYP5lxVL0uMYFyTIN8ZMiF3z/s320/Full-Collage-with-logos-700x498.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">image accompanying announcement of participants in <span style="text-align: left;"><b>Raupapa Whakaari Drama to the World</b> initiative</span></span></td></tr>
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Some of the writers are also producers and/or directors and/or actors on other projects, but of those in this group who I *think* will be writing, eleven are women. There's just one project without a woman writer attached! Extraordinary!<br />
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Yay for Alison McLean, Briar Grace Smith, Donna Malane, Hannah Marshall, Kath Akuhata-Brown, Natalie Medlock, Paula Boock, Pip Hall, Rachel Lang, Roxanne Gajadhar, Shoshanna McCallum. Such a breadth and depth of writing experience in this cohort and it's a delight to see it being acknowledged like this (more details <a href="http://script-to-screen.co.nz/series-drama-lab-participants/">here</a>).<br />
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Each writer/producer team will develop their series with an initial grant of NZ$10,000 and attend a Series Drama Lab, held in conjunction with Script to Screen, where international advisors will give feedback on story and market to assist the teams to further develop their concepts and strengthen appeal to the international marketplace. After that, they'll re-work their projects and four teams will then be selected to receive additional development funding of up to NZ$80,000. Look out world! (And remember to look out for <b>Creamerie</b> and <b>Cousins</b>, too!)<br />
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Great to see NZOA and NZFC working together on this, maybe a precursor of a new body that combines both? I hope so. It would make a lot of sense, but would need legislation, take time. And if they're separate, it also gives each an opportunity to compete with the other; and if they compete over inclusion, I'm all for that!<br />
<b><br />
</b> <b>Script to Screen's The Politics of Representation in Filmmaking</b><br />
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</b> <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">image accompanying publicity for <b>The Politics of Representation in Filmmaking</b></span></td></tr>
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And then there's this Auckland event, on Tuesday. Not to be missed. I think it too is a first for New Zealand, certainly a first entitled <b>The Politics of Representation in Filmmaking</b> with a discussion among writers and directors –<br />
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'Many of us long to see ourselves and our communities represented on screen. Filmmakers are in the unique position of being able to bring to life the diverse characters and worlds we want to see. But with power comes responsibility.<br />
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It can be a hard task navigating the balance between staying true to your story while satisfying the audience’s expectations for your character. Especially if those characters are the first of their kind on screen.<br />
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Please join us to hear from Shuchi Kothari (<b>Coffee & Allah</b>, <b>Apron Strings</b>, <b>A Thousand Apologies</b>), Stallone Vaiaoga-Ioasa (<b>Three Wise Cousins</b>, <b>Hibiscus & Ruthless</b>) and Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu (<b>Waru</b>, <b>Ani</b>) as they share their experiences finding the sweet spot between great stories and responsible representation.'<br />
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And the images in the ad (above) are *all* images of women of colour, each a still from a film made by one of the speakers! Get your tickets <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/responsible-representation-tickets-61844692139">here</a>!<br />
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Script to Screen exists to develop the local craft and culture of storytelling for the screen. It's funded partly by the NZFC and New Zealand On Air and has a vigorous programme that includes the annual Big Screen Symposium. Almost every initiative it manages has had an inclusive group of participants, for a while now. And it's beginning to look like this commitment will translate into more inclusive taxpayer-funded productions before too long. I certainly hope so.</div>
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-26946086435478724832019-05-10T17:22:00.002-07:002019-05-10T23:36:13.917-07:00Mothers Day<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Three mothers-and-film things to celebrate! What a pleasure!<br />
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1. The Mothers Day screenings of Hepi Mita's beautiful, powerful film about his mother: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/mitawhanau/" style="font-weight: bold;">Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen</a>, which I believe is central to debates about women's filmmaking, about women artists of all kinds who are also mothers (and their families); and about activist art-making. These screenings mark the beginning of <b>Merata</b>'s New Zealand theatrical release.<br />
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At some venues the Mothers Day screenings will be accompanied by morning tea and Q & As with special guests associated with the film – Merata's children and others: in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/294254261493914/">Auckland</a> (with Hepi Mita and Chelsea Winstanley); <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/426302857926915/">Christchurch</a> (with Tearepa Kahi); <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/2398284687082787/">Gisborne</a> (with a haka powhiri and Merata's daughter Awatea Mita); Tauranga (with Merata's son Rafer Rautjoki); <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/441419669995248/">Rotorua</a> (with Merata's son Richard Rautjoki and Cliff Curtis). And <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/416419332273408/">Wellington</a> has an <i>afternoon </i>tea with Hepi, who will have had to leap on a plane very fast after Auckland's morning screening, and then, after this screening, will fly on to the Mothers-Day-in-Los-Angeles <a href="https://www.laemmle.com/films/45800">5pm screening</a> and Q&A with Array's Ava DuVernay, Chelsea, Cliff and Taika Waititi!).<br />
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Here's the trailer. I'm off to see <b>Merata</b> again, partly because the first viewing so deeply affected me that I kept missing bits when I tried to sob quietly and then to stop it, quickly.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ApGYLkmpT0E" width="560"></iframe><br />
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If you're in the States or Canada, where <b>Merata</b> is distributed by Array, here's the latest list of screenings there.<br />
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If you'd like to read more, try <b><a href="https://medium.com/spiral-collectives/k%C5%8Drero-ki-taku-tuakana-conversation-with-my-big-sister-d17c22fcf3fe">Kōrero Ki Taku Tuakana</a>/Conversation With My Big Sister</b>, a conversation between Merata and Cushla Parekowhai, where Hepi makes an appearance as a baby. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgNC-tq0wFLPc3hOnSeuMY7MsrjJ27C9cUKZJgGvFB1VivkFgoXKgUiUkzwBOlSbmTgm-mS4w4TEXf_G5HdDCFscOJ2JIjJY-GYl1RdBk0q6sT3uw3ay-emBvDzDh0dVa9v_8kgVM_Sn_d/s1600/merata.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="497" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgNC-tq0wFLPc3hOnSeuMY7MsrjJ27C9cUKZJgGvFB1VivkFgoXKgUiUkzwBOlSbmTgm-mS4w4TEXf_G5HdDCFscOJ2JIjJY-GYl1RdBk0q6sT3uw3ay-emBvDzDh0dVa9v_8kgVM_Sn_d/s400/merata.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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2. And almost at the same time, Jocelyn Moorhouse (writer/director of <i>Proof </i>and<i> The Dressmaker</i>, director of <i>How to Make an American Quilt</i>; and producer of <i>Muriel's Wedding</i> etc) has published her memoir, <i><a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/unconditional-love-a-memoir-of-filmmaking-and-motherhood">Unconditional Love</a>. </i>This too is something to celebrate.<br />
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Jocelyn says–<br />
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'I want to write about being a mother, and about raising four extraordinary kids. Being their parent is like having an intense love affair with four people at the same time. And I want to write about making movies and writing screenplays. I come from a long line of storytellers.'<br />
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<i>Unconditional Love</i> is absolutely engrossing; and endorsed by Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Jane Campion and Rachel Griffith (& me!). And here's Jocelyn talking about it from about 42 minutes in.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3RuOjqhQXzU" width="560"></iframe><br />
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3. And the third motherly thing to celebrate is some change at Cannes, for all parents.<br />
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Sometimes, activism works. And it's a beautiful feeling.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL7xkWOp1lB2mH6WqjhAAEynAHZCkizSOZn40_KjwPPlWy1mu5Dnjr2M4saswNa_uKM98uJLynFaOFEAytpo4mobKrN1R-SN3GSzJ_rhwPUtCLJAlORgBJUaN6ML88210-yxcRiTdSaJHr/s1600/jacir-annemarie-001-smiling-seated-interview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjL7xkWOp1lB2mH6WqjhAAEynAHZCkizSOZn40_KjwPPlWy1mu5Dnjr2M4saswNa_uKM98uJLynFaOFEAytpo4mobKrN1R-SN3GSzJ_rhwPUtCLJAlORgBJUaN6ML88210-yxcRiTdSaJHr/s400/jacir-annemarie-001-smiling-seated-interview.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Annemarie Jacir</span></td></tr>
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Almost two years ago, distinguished Palestinian filmmaker <a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/interviews/wajib-annemarie-jacir-palestinian-father-son-wedding-drama">Annemarie Jacir</a> (<i>Salt of This Sea</i>; <i>When I Saw You</i>; <i>Wajib, </i>who endeared herself to me forever when she said '<a href="https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/interviews/wajib-annemarie-jacir-palestinian-father-son-wedding-drama">laughing is a way to resist</a>') tweeted about her Cannes experience with her small child–<br />
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Annemarie wasn't the only one who was Blocked Out. Annemarie met a producer from Britain who was also told she couldn’t enter with her child and journalist Anna Tatarska told <a href="https://womenandhollywood.com/guest-post-cannes-cant-seem-to-figure-out-how-to-accommodate-working-moms-17c922e3c0d5/"><i>Women & Hollywood</i></a> that she she wasn't allowed to bring her five-month-old baby when she picked up her accreditation; and received no satisfaction when she sought a solution.<br />
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So a group of us got together in a jumble of time zones and composed <a href="https://agnesfilms.com/female-filmmakers/parents-in-the-palais-an-open-letter-to-the-cannes-film-festival/">an open letter</a> of complaint to the festival; lots of people signed it and it was published in several places including the <i>Hollywood Reporter</i>.<br />
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But this year, babies, children and their nannies will be given special accreditation by the festival free of charge at the festival, the first in a series of accommodations of working parents – including breastfeeding stations, thanks to <b><a href="https://www.marchedufilm.com/zh/actualite/le-ballon-rouge-where-kids-are-the-new-vips-2">Le Ballon Rouge</a></b>, set up by the Festival de Cannes and the Marché Du Film, in association with the <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/350503572462750/">Parenting at Film Festivals Collective</a></b>, led by Aurelie Godet, Sarah Calderon and Michelle Carey.<br />
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Parents entering the Palais with children will be given priority access and parents will have access to a kids’ pavilion and changing and feeding area in the Palais de Festival. Kids will even get their own VIP bag that includes a map of other services in Cannes, a list of certified nannies and more. This is a huge change that started with Anna Tatarska's story and Annemarie's courageous tweets and was probably helped by the hard groundwork already done by Raising Films in the United Kingdom and Moms-in-Film in the States.<br />
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Here’s a list of the five key services offered in Le Ballon Rouge; they offer a great model–<br />
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1. Family-Friendly Accreditation Process: Film professionals traveling with babies and young children will have a special accreditation in order to access the dedicated services the Marché is providing, including the Pantiero’s Kids Pavilion and the Palais’ Change & Feeding Corner, as well as two additional badges for nanny + baby (free of charge). Cinando will host on its site the newly-created group Parenting at Film Festivals to better identify the community and its needs.<br />
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2. Le Ballon Rouge Kids Pavilion: located at the Village International Pantiero, this 25m2 tent with terrace will welcome families from 10 am-6 pm daily from the 14th until the 21st of May. There, parents can choose to either spend time with their children, have family-friendly meetings in dedicated areas, or leave their children for up to 6 hours in the care of professional nannies provided by a specialized company. This special service will be offered by a cluster of partners. A small compensation will be asked to parents wishing to benefit from this service.<br />
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3. Le Ballon Rouge Express-Changing & Feeding Corner: a dedicated room for parents and carers for breastfeeding, feeding or nappy-changing, will be open from 9 am-6:30 pm daily from the 14th until the 25th of May in the Palais des Festivals.<br />
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4. Easy Access: priority access to the Marché will be given to parents entering with children at the Palais’ main entrance, Riviera entrance and Pantiero entrance. As the stroller approaches with its dedicated Ballon Rouge flag, staff will help them through security.<br />
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5. Le Ballon Rouge Baby VIP Kit: in collaboration with Parenting at Film Festivals and Cinando, a dedicated bag for children will be offered, with family-friendly map and services in Cannes, Marché access flag, list of certified nannies for after-hours care, and other helpful items.<br />
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I asked Annemarie for a comment. And this is what she kindly sent–<br />
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'I am very happy to hear that Cannes was open to doing something about the situation at the festival in regards to working parents in the industry.<br />
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As a jury member last year in Un Certain Regard, I did feel the festival administration was accommodating to the fact that I am a director with a young child.<br />
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So my child did come 'visit' for a few days which was great for me -- as the festival is two weeks long -- it was important to have a break to spend my evenings with her for at least a few days.<br />
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And I also was pleased that our action on the steps sent a strong message to all. I was surprised how few people understood the huge disparity that exists and that moment on the steps helped make it clear to so many.'<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Annemarie is six rows up on the far right</span></td></tr>
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Le Ballon Rouge is something to celebrate and the 'action on the steps' and Cannes' own action when Thierry Fremaux signed the <b>50:50X2020</b> <b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/may/14/cannes-film-festival-unveils-equality-charter-in-push-for-gender-parity">Charter</a> </b>(since signed by many more festivals) are all good.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9twYthPrEnfABilAdcchNm8uXUEqLhuskWJZ5Hzo-dwkd5WHndmmFEcdHKy_pi6t-HRMapHq-UcLYgNghgg4lGSWC7dZWYOhoSrj2nCyVJYbdM4fDK4fJGE6N4qrxqvwTvDl__1pD8dXr/s1600/4193.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="620" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9twYthPrEnfABilAdcchNm8uXUEqLhuskWJZ5Hzo-dwkd5WHndmmFEcdHKy_pi6t-HRMapHq-UcLYgNghgg4lGSWC7dZWYOhoSrj2nCyVJYbdM4fDK4fJGE6N4qrxqvwTvDl__1pD8dXr/s320/4193.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Thierry Fremaux, the charter and the main Cannes jury last year</span> </td></tr>
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Only 20% of the works in the main competition this year are directed by women (the same percentage as in 2011): <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/mati-diop-being-first-black-female-director-cannes-lineup-1208189?utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral&fbclid=IwAR1z7iOY4uACJC0D0Umr94uSV6QaSR_qruZahJX0f99ppG3V0A_SoXXVu08">Mati Diop's</a> <b>Atlantiques </b>(following her extraordinary <b>Atlantiques </b>short); <a href="https://rm.coe.int/interview-with-jessica-hausner/168091e731">Jessica Hausner</a>'s <b>Little Joe</b>; Celine Sciamma's <b><a href="https://www.cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/371093/">Portrait of a Lady on Fire</a></b>; and Justine Triet's <b><a href="https://mk2films.com/en/film/sibyl/">Sybil</a></b>.<br />
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But 'Festival de Cannes has respected all the commitments relating to the pledge so far,' says French sales agent Delphyne Besse, a member of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Collectif5050/">5050X2020</a>, in a useful overview in the <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cannes-50-50-gender-parity-pledge-one-year-has-festival-delivered-1208187?fbclid=IwAR2sI6LyjtnFpEG1eXKeswp6X_HfbdW-NQSFER68fAaBkD_sKJodRK0AN-s">Hollywood Reporter</a>. 'We are waiting for them to share the data of the submitted films during the time of the festival and we will analyze the figures with them.' (5050X2020 and its sister organisations – Time's Up's U.S. and U.K. branches, Italy's Dissenso Comune, Spain's CIMA and the Greek Women's Wave – have pushed for the data to address one of Frémaux's key rebuttals when pressed on the festival's lack of female representation, that he faces a pipeline issue when it comes to women filmmakers.)<br />
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If we keep celebrating these incremental improvements and those who make them, and keep watching and learning from films like <b>Merata </b>and her features and Annemarie's features, things can only get better, I reckon.<br />
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PS And I just found <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-ca-working-moms-hollywood-20190510-story.html">this</a> Mothers Day article, about working mothers in Hollywood, thanks to Moms-in-Film...<br />
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-57715874816101695492019-04-09T16:46:00.000-07:002019-10-01T03:18:22.899-07:00NZ Update #17.2: Wellbeing & Women's Feature Filmmaking <br />
<b><a href="https://medium.com/@devt/nz-update-17-2-wellbeing-womens-feature-filmmaking-33083298af8e">Over on Medium</a>, </b>there's a prettier, easier, read of this post<b>.</b><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––</div>I get up early on Friday 15 March. I want to complete this followup to <i><a href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/nz-update-17-1-safety-revisited-7ddb4b620622">NZ Update #17.1: Safety Revisited</a> </i>(Update #17.1)<i> </i>– about women's lack of safety in New Zealand in general and in the screen industries in particular – before I leave to support the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/schoolstrike4climatenz/"><i>School Strike for Climate</i></a> gathering in the grounds of Parliament.<br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxnnz0e4DkH5FwM554Eaga1oCSdDCbS8zhxkU-jfISmh4oxBdNK7EODh2bHilCgZOjx8YktfpC54M_Cug6YuPAqaftj2HPLEyKQoumZFLBikkYOfW-MGG1hNPW8wo2MVpwavC38ndRad2/s1600/Sharon+MUrdoch+Climate+Change.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="1200" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxnnz0e4DkH5FwM554Eaga1oCSdDCbS8zhxkU-jfISmh4oxBdNK7EODh2bHilCgZOjx8YktfpC54M_Cug6YuPAqaftj2HPLEyKQoumZFLBikkYOfW-MGG1hNPW8wo2MVpwavC38ndRad2/s400/Sharon+MUrdoch+Climate+Change.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Sharon Murdoch on the School Strike, with – for those of you who aren't NZers – commentary from two MPs & a journo <span style="text-align: start;">(reproduced with kind permission of Sharon Murdoch: we’re so blessed to have her!)</span> </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>I don't quite finish before I leave home. But no problem: climate change activism is urgent, a priority in this summer/autumn when – to give just two examples – not one stick insect has appeared in our garden and very very few honey bees, although there are many flowering plants for them. Today, the sun's intensity is shocking. Like the spring sun when the gaps in the ozone layer first affected us. Only more so.<br />
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I leave Parliament inspired and heartened by those dedicated, super-well-informed, graceful, warm and articulate activists. And moved by Maori Donna Awatere-Huata's brief speech as <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12126881">Māori Climate Commissioner</a>, about the need to consider how our present actions will affect those living in seven generations' time; engaged by her naming of the protest day as the first Mokopuna Survival Day; and delighted by her transmission of the Ka Whawhai Tonu Mātou, Āke, Ake, Ake chant.<br />
<br />
On the bus home, I reflect (again) about how different things might be for our suffering mother earth if indigenous voices and world views and knowledge systems and practices, including those of Māori and Pasifika people, hadn't been so disrupted by injuries from colonisation processes. If indigenous story-tellers – in all their diversity – had been better resourced and their stories – in all their diversity – had been amplified. What if we'd funded Māori women-directed feature films every year during the almost 30 years between Merata Mita's <i>Mauri</i> and <i>Waru</i>,<i> </i>instead of none at all? Because of the complex intersections between artistic identity and other identities, Māori women writers and directors would have explored many and varied themes, issues and questions during that time, in every kind of genre. But at least some of their films would have inspired us to care for our environment a little more wisely? And what if the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZFF) had emulated Māoriland and treasured indigenous filmmakers and indigenous women filmmakers?<br />
<br />
And then I sit down at my desk. And the first reports of the Christchurch terrorism come in. Everything stops, to focus on the victims, to support them and to grieve together.<br />
<br />
Later, I think about re-writing this post as a response to that event. But then I see another Sharon Murdoch cartoon.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXEKBHMwdFyxOPRlwb065OukpH4RrTBKN5N0JX_YLoI8-lS7fqxak-6ulxE6gM_bG-DGdmAeJljH8H2VkXAr84PT3d3Xh4RnL6EGtuB-roV-WTAZ0knFf6LPEE0w_4lU4Ti09KgibKaPJA/s1600/54516470_10213576393632737_3663027373097353216_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="734" data-original-width="1200" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXEKBHMwdFyxOPRlwb065OukpH4RrTBKN5N0JX_YLoI8-lS7fqxak-6ulxE6gM_bG-DGdmAeJljH8H2VkXAr84PT3d3Xh4RnL6EGtuB-roV-WTAZ0knFf6LPEE0w_4lU4Ti09KgibKaPJA/s400/54516470_10213576393632737_3663027373097353216_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Reproduced by kind permission from Sharon Murdoch: what a star she is!</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>And I read a Facebook post from American writer <a href="https://www.latinastorybook.com/">Alisa Valdes</a>: it's strange and illuminating to see 'our' news discussed so widely, from so many perspectives. Alisa wrote–<br />
<br />
'Hollywood is where the modern mythology of hate is incubated...Until the global collective mythological narrative of white male supremacy is changed, script by script, to a lovingly and realistically inclusive story...we are doomed.'<br />
<br />
After I read this I think No, keep this post as-is; it might help to unravel the hate. It might inform and encourage policy changes and New Zealand's taxpayer contributions to 'a lovingly and realistically inclusive story'. It might even help ensure that when taxpayer agencies fund development of visual narratives about the Christchurch massacre and the selection and framing of the voices and images within them they will prioritise filmmakers from groups adversely affected by racism, especially Muslim filmmakers.<br />
<br />
So over several weeks I tidy this up, add and change a few things and some Endnotes (*rare event*), and here it is.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––</div><br />
International Women's Day (IWD, March 8 ICYMI!) was no fun this year. At dawn, I read media reports about sexual violation by entitled white (Pākehā) New Zealanders. A senior academic convicted for one sexual assault on an elderly woman in the rest homes he visited as a musician; and investigated for another. A 'prominent businessman' who has interim name suppression, on trial for sexual assaults on two young men, associated with attempts to 'buy them off', assisted by 'a prominent entertainer'. These men, who ignore what a friend describes as the need for 'eye-to-eye' consent, are close to home – because New Zealand is small, lots of us know who they are regardless of any name suppression; and many people know them personally.<br />
<br />
Later in the morning, in <i>Women & Hollywood</i>'s <a href="https://womenandhollywood.com/sxsw-2019-women-directors-meet-the-team-behind-vai/">interview</a> with the makers of <i>Vai</i>, the Pasifika women's feature to premiere very soon at SXSW (North America) and Māoriland (New Zealand), I read this–<br />
'W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.<br />
<br />
[<i>Vai</i> women]: Movies get government financing most of the time in New Zealand.<br />
<br />
And on the newspaper's IWD front page, our former Prime Minister, Helen Clark exhorts the nation– 'None of us should rest until the serious inequities and injustice many women face around the world are overcome'.<br />
<br />
Collectively, these bits of information propel me to read the latest <i><a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/resources/annual-report-201718">Annual Report</a></i> from the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC), the gatekeeper system that allocates taxpayer funding to films and filmmakers. And then I abandon my plans to work on the glut of apples and pears from our garden and lunch with mates, to have another think about the serious gender inequities and injustices and risks for women that continue to leak into the screen industries, including gender inequity in that 'government financing'.<br />
<br />
And then I wonder if the present government's commitment to its Wellbeing Budget will bring change.<br />
<br />
In case you missed it, here's how Prime Minister Jacinda Adern <a href="https://www.magic.co.nz/home/news/2019/01/jacinda-ardern--our-wellbeing-budget-puts-people-at-its-centre.html">defines</a> the Wellbeing Budget's intent–<br />
<br />
'...our Wellbeing Budget puts people at its centre.<br />
<br />
It requires us to set targets, report on our progress, and create strategies to ensure we’re looking after the wellbeing of our people – because what gets measured, gets done.<br />
<br />
We will continue to measure economic growth, balance our books responsibly, run a healthy surplus, and spend well within our means – but by widening our focus, we will build an economy that is more productive, sustainable, and inclusive.<br />
<br />
It’s a more compassionate approach – and it’s simply the right thing to do.'<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifPVW4HOfSPka7TJm-79KIF_-XuNq4FmkPA3bSRV_19sMEQsg9puUZobmhPTu_zYv_tqiChwfzsSVzBmBuNe2GgIoS-b_MN9VWBiVEtTC_EAYGuufcyF2eGWCR0FzqdOMGAsXNA8OG0fj6/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="186" data-original-width="270" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifPVW4HOfSPka7TJm-79KIF_-XuNq4FmkPA3bSRV_19sMEQsg9puUZobmhPTu_zYv_tqiChwfzsSVzBmBuNe2GgIoS-b_MN9VWBiVEtTC_EAYGuufcyF2eGWCR0FzqdOMGAsXNA8OG0fj6/s320/images.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
At Davos in January, the Prime Minister – who is also the Minister for the Arts, Culture & Heritage – <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12195179">expanded on what</a> this means for those who make Budget decisions– 'If you're a Minister [of the Crown] and you want to spend money you're going to have to prove you are going to improve inter-generational wellbeing'.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">So what needs to change? How can the feature film industry become more 'productive, sustainable, and inclusive', improve inter-generational wellbeing, become more compassionate?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">When I explore the NZFC's New Zealand and International Screen Production Grant decisions recorded in that <i>Annual Report</i>, in conjunction with the NZFC's investment in local films, I can see that radical change is necessary and urgent, because the data shows that the New Zealand taxpayer strongly supports the 'mythological narrative of white male supremacy' that must be changed 'script by script, to a lovingly and realistically inclusive story'. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">And thanks to the Wellbeing Budget's holistic framework I think change is possible. So I'm going to run through the figures, provide some international context for comparison, and suggest some viable principles and practices that this government – led by a woman Prime Minister whose international mana continues to grow – might use to help create that very necessary change not just in New Zealand but globally. (You might have more ideas: I hope so!)</div><h4 style="text-align: left;">Spending Taxpayer Money on Feature Films </h4>The NZFC invests – and takes equity – in the development, production and post-production of local feature films. It also offers those Screen Production Grants, based on Qualifying New Zealand Production Expenditure, projects' actual expenditure on specified classes of items, without taking corresponding equity in the final work. <br />
<br />
The New Zealand Screen Production Grant (New Zealand Grant) is offered to qualifying local, larger budget, projects in which the NZFC has already invested and has equity; and the International Screen Production Grant (International Grant) to international projects that film or do their post-production here, like <i>Avatar</i>, <i>Mulan</i>, <i>A Wrinkle in Time </i>and Peter Jackson's projects.<br />
<br />
The International Grant disburses by far the most money. It's a scheme, <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/sites/default/files/2018-11/NZFC_ANNUALREPORT_2018%20FINAL.pdf">according to the NZFC</a>, that 'encourages international productions to pick New Zealand, and this creates jobs, economic growth – particularly in regional areas – and offers local practitioners the opportunity to upskill'. Its economic benefits and its associated <i>Hobbit Law</i> of 2010 are controversial, and some positive changes would be timely (1).<br />
<br />
In the 2018 year, eighteen international film projects, two of them #directedbywomen (11%) – <i>A Wrinkle in Time</i> and <i>Wonder Woman – </i> received International Grants totalling $107, 838, 992. (Television projects also received funding but I ignored them, partly because they have multiple directors.)<br />
<br />
This is the allocation of that almost $108m according to director gender (2)–<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4YlnrhkvSV2wpFrkKkUmfFzZgdf6RYfOGW0avJhOfbSjUu0OtnbizJCQV5FVnJ9Gn18iSVJO6JHNr5cuztZq2SaSp6F31zTB0rQhp8gz2HWsdlZzx8W4srRTlgEhgKZ_EohJeDghtucT7/s1600/Proportion+of+Int%2527l+spending.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="411" data-original-width="409" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4YlnrhkvSV2wpFrkKkUmfFzZgdf6RYfOGW0avJhOfbSjUu0OtnbizJCQV5FVnJ9Gn18iSVJO6JHNr5cuztZq2SaSp6F31zTB0rQhp8gz2HWsdlZzx8W4srRTlgEhgKZ_EohJeDghtucT7/s320/Proportion+of+Int%2527l+spending.png" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 1. International Screen Production Grant $$ share by director gender 2018 financial year (all Figures based on NZFC <i>Annual Report</i> information unless noted otherwise) </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Because this director gender imbalance in the amount allocated is so large, New Zealand is undoubtedly complicit in global discrimination against women directors; and against other women film workers.<br />
<br />
The extent of this global discrimination has been intensely examined over the last few years. Researchers and funding agencies have studied writer and director genders; gender equity among casts and crews in relation to their employment and payment levels; the inter-relationship of genders of directors, writers, protagonists and crews; how gender intersects with under-represented groups of various kinds; speaking time between genders; corporation commitment to equity; and much more. Here are some research findings and examples of how some positive changes (3).<br />
<h4>Some International Analysis and Change</h4>The French <i><a href="http://www.5050x2020.fr/">50:50 by 2020</a> </i>is an initiative led by the powerful activist organisation formerly known as Le Deuxième Regard, based in France, Europe's most prolific film-making nation. It includes many filmmakers and is perhaps best known for its organisation of the women filmmaker protest at Cannes in 2018, when the festival signed the <i>50:50 by 2020</i> charter. As a result of their work, many major festivals – including Cannes, Berlin and Venice – have committed to having half their programmed films #directedbywomen in 2020.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh91ulLbCpQGDN-g9gvTiG9YcN4kLJlaXBW9vY_1KGKlFyLjTQVkoLhEUdtNwbwXsdHKOEcRqLFySVpFsWouQKZDC-2bxw4dLMFQ6IEb_ZlTNbzxXfuYT5nnAFHI8Qny6D50G6VCozlIGBf/s1600/Wanuri+at+Cannes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="615" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh91ulLbCpQGDN-g9gvTiG9YcN4kLJlaXBW9vY_1KGKlFyLjTQVkoLhEUdtNwbwXsdHKOEcRqLFySVpFsWouQKZDC-2bxw4dLMFQ6IEb_ZlTNbzxXfuYT5nnAFHI8Qny6D50G6VCozlIGBf/s320/Wanuri+at+Cannes.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Protest at Cannes 2018, led by l. to r. Kristen Stewart – and yes! there in the second row behind her, Wanuri Kahiu – L</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454; text-align: left;">é</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">a Seydoux, </span>Khadja Nin, Ava DuVernay, Cate Blanchett and Agn<span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: start;">è</span>s Varda</span> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>These are the principles that guide the <i><a href="http://www.5050x2020.fr/">50:50 by 2020</a> </i>project–<br />
<br />
'We believe that equality restores the balance of power.<br />
<br />
We believe that diversity deeply changes representations.<br />
<br />
We believe that the opportunity to work in an egalitarian and inclusive environment must be seized because we are certain that the equal sharing of power will promote profound creative renewal.'<br />
<br />
Equality, inclusivity and creative renewal are now underway in Europe thanks to inspiration and hard work from the <a href="https://www.filminstitutet.se/en/about-us/swedish-film-institute/gender-equality/">Swedish Film Institute</a> and the <a href="https://www.ewawomen.com/">European Women's Audiovisual Network</a> as well as <a href="http://www.5050x2020.fr/" style="font-style: italic;">50:50 by 2020</a>; and more hard work work by pan-European funding body Eurimages, with a <i><a href="https://www.coe.int/en/web/eurimages/gender-equality">Gender Equality Strategy</a> </i>that aims for 50/50 by 2020 – in the <a href="https://www.ewawomen.com/film-industry-articles/eurimages-nearly-reaching-equal-share/">latest co-production funding round at Eurimages</a>, 44% of the productions funded were women-directed productions and 42% of the funds was disbursed to those productions.<br />
<br />
<i>50:50 by 2020</i>'s activism also inspired the first European points-based financial incentive aimed at improving gender parity in cinema, at France’s National Cinema Centre (CNC), within <a href="https://www.screendaily.com/news/france-launches-gender-parity-production-incentives/5132855.article">a scheme</a> supported by <a href="https://www.cnc.fr/cinema/etudes-et-rapports/etudes-prospectives/la-place-des-femmes-dans-lindustrie-cinematographique-et-audiovisuelle_224715">rigorous statistical reporting</a>.<br />
<br />
This <i><a href="http://www.5050x2020.fr/">50:50 by 2020</a> </i>chart shows the results of gender discrimination in France's feature film industry.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOuKkvXNW1JnjGT9OXX_PzAHoUpmO5Uz1Q2Jo5DHicyFAH0QcfScIMj1nuuDZwcwdmAM2TKnOAsjFJuRy9g5XXHVUcNirHr-Ls71_Hknp6bUYDqx8WhXjJI9-S6dkXrWLEdlK_-JDojMXy/s1600/distribution+of+jobs.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1061" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOuKkvXNW1JnjGT9OXX_PzAHoUpmO5Uz1Q2Jo5DHicyFAH0QcfScIMj1nuuDZwcwdmAM2TKnOAsjFJuRy9g5XXHVUcNirHr-Ls71_Hknp6bUYDqx8WhXjJI9-S6dkXrWLEdlK_-JDojMXy/s320/distribution+of+jobs.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 2. Distribution of jobs behind the camera, via<i> </i></span><span style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.5050x2020.fr/">50:50 by 2020</a></span></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5rcfL13OMgkQy-DiPMpbg_iKc8uAHiLk1Bm4LBXErxVJ1pkQC2uyqejHwchHQtZ8DcBGIwr7AUwrkiUb2JAdciFTrdSTmNejb3kQ0uFM6RMgygZMJNRU-WwWWnJ5TfFM0_XAWYHwXUXos/s1600/Pay+gaps+%2528hourly+salary%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="835" data-original-width="1088" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5rcfL13OMgkQy-DiPMpbg_iKc8uAHiLk1Bm4LBXErxVJ1pkQC2uyqejHwchHQtZ8DcBGIwr7AUwrkiUb2JAdciFTrdSTmNejb3kQ0uFM6RMgygZMJNRU-WwWWnJ5TfFM0_XAWYHwXUXos/s320/Pay+gaps+%2528hourly+salary%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 3. Pay gaps (hourly payments) by gender, via </span><i style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://www.5050x2020.fr/">50:50 by 2020</a></span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Evidence gathered by American academics shows that, as in France, American feature projects – well-represented among those that receive our International Grants – are also less likely to employ women (and therefore more likely to exclude women from the upskilling element of our International Grants scheme).And, as the second of the following charts shows, the majority of these features are also unlikely to provide life-enhancing viewing for women and girls, whose lives are much less often reflected on screen than those of men and boys.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhziZj8cE8woh_OCvHFgufDFEgbXr1RLfO55vTIZyUXFK5iw1D-tiU8oH8OE1fiatINx1ez9e4f6a_XtilUHB4NEsOF3xzcc8Ah1QTf15YqGja_tju7vynlC2cyP0jWgEX5qoieGqrYqW9G/s1600/mdkH2Ka4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="889" data-original-width="607" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhziZj8cE8woh_OCvHFgufDFEgbXr1RLfO55vTIZyUXFK5iw1D-tiU8oH8OE1fiatINx1ez9e4f6a_XtilUHB4NEsOF3xzcc8Ah1QTf15YqGja_tju7vynlC2cyP0jWgEX5qoieGqrYqW9G/s320/mdkH2Ka4.png" width="218" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="page" style="text-align: start;" title="Page 6"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "timesnewromanps";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 4. Comparison of Percentages of Women Working on Features with at Least One Female Director vs. with Exclusively Male Directors </span></span><span style="font-family: "timesnewromanps";">(</span><i style="font-family: timesnewromanps;"><a href="https://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2018_Its_a_Mans_Celluloid_World_Report.pdf">It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World</a>: Portrayals of Female Characters in the Top Grossing Films of 2018</i><span style="font-family: "timesnewromanps";">)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "timesnewromanps";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br />
</span></span> </div></div></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr4nzxs9CrQf8nxEZameUEbE7A2RqNNHmx8bp7sGhikqdWDeAgAUbIideFvzC68g4pj0__B78LOnsB4r4xe5YcE4_fhvY8uRcLT7l6yZ7F0c_vMpq0joNQ2ZesaMInEDalg6t34tlkyg29/s1600/8qmH8AKw.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="607" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr4nzxs9CrQf8nxEZameUEbE7A2RqNNHmx8bp7sGhikqdWDeAgAUbIideFvzC68g4pj0__B78LOnsB4r4xe5YcE4_fhvY8uRcLT7l6yZ7F0c_vMpq0joNQ2ZesaMInEDalg6t34tlkyg29/s320/8qmH8AKw.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><div class="page" style="text-align: start;" title="Page 6"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><div style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><span style="font-family: "timesnewromanps";"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 5. Comparison of Representation of Female Characters in Films with At Least One Woman Director and/or Writer and Films with Exclusively Male Directors and/or Writers (<i><a href="https://womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/2018_Its_a_Mans_Celluloid_World_Report.pdf">It’s a Man’s (Celluloid) World</a>: Portrayals of Female Characters in the Top Grossing Films of 2018</i>) </span></span></div></div></div></div></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Other recent research shows that some measurable inclusion/exclusion has improved. The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (the Inclusion Initiative) studied gender and the intersection of gender and race across North America's 100 Top-Grossing Films of 2007-2018 (1,200 movies) <a href="http://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/inequality-in-1200-films-research-brief_2019-02-12.pdf">and found</a> that in the whole decade only 28% of those films had women as leads or co-leads, but in 2018 the proportion increased to 40%.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ1DOKZ7SmPsWmMFaysxr3q8EO0cvqG5BRHu1MtIp3TnHkQGyO_jdAycdWwhQD_Yk9u2Dmyoaj-7BvXVPHGKbAkaAijN3NBPS9IoAXBle71jeXCeo-BYr6pMp5-Zeo7gMkZHyKnIYXludu/s1600/v_U7TgQ0.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="1415" height="108" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ1DOKZ7SmPsWmMFaysxr3q8EO0cvqG5BRHu1MtIp3TnHkQGyO_jdAycdWwhQD_Yk9u2Dmyoaj-7BvXVPHGKbAkaAijN3NBPS9IoAXBle71jeXCeo-BYr6pMp5-Zeo7gMkZHyKnIYXludu/s320/v_U7TgQ0.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 6. from Inclusion Initiative's <i><span style="font-family: "national"; text-align: start;">Inequality Across 1,200 Popular Films: </span><span style="font-family: "national"; text-align: start;">Examining Gender and Race/Ethnicity of Leads/Co Leads From 2007 to 2018: <i>Research Brief</i></span></i></span><br />
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</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Representatives of the ethnic groups that form 39.3% of the American population were the lead or co-lead in only 15.5% of the films studied; and although women from from a variety of different backgrounds were represented, indigenous women and women from the Middle East were still largely absent.<br />
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The latest <a href="https://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/geena-benchmark-report-2007-2017-2-12-19.pdf"><i>Geena</i> </a><i><a href="https://seejane.org/wp-content/uploads/geena-benchmark-report-2007-2017-2-12-19.pdf">Benchmark Report</a> </i>from the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media studied 'family films' to quantify progress over time. Here's some of its results–<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFWVQWoLzVpTKd9I3heM-9_bCKfS_rc57bUZl92vYar6-2oxh5XoNS0Yn0akOI3sz4DvuVqR4CzrpQUUwecxLFWsQ4-qv5R9sDiV5odU5ObLDPyMht9MqfuLy2OhDpAVwaGzqxLddwGpBj/s1600/IMG_5114.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFWVQWoLzVpTKd9I3heM-9_bCKfS_rc57bUZl92vYar6-2oxh5XoNS0Yn0akOI3sz4DvuVqR4CzrpQUUwecxLFWsQ4-qv5R9sDiV5odU5ObLDPyMht9MqfuLy2OhDpAVwaGzqxLddwGpBj/s320/IMG_5114.jpg" width="280" /></a></div><br />
Neither research project explored 'by and about' statistics, an analysis of who controlled the stories and the lenses through which the increased numbers of women and girls and people of colour and other groups were seen. But Darnell Hunt, in his annual <i><a href="https://socialsciences.ucla.edu/hollywood-diversity-report-2019/">Hollywood Diversity Report</a></i>, identified the percentage of writers of colour credited on top films as 'flat over the seven years examined in this report series — 7.6% in 2011 and a nearly identical 7.8% in 2017' (television's numbers were better).<br />
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This 'by and about' matters, because until there are many more features where storytellers from groups that are under-represented or misrepresented or not represented at all control the narrative, inclusive onscreen representation, particularly of protagonists and antagonists – otherwise welcome – can be a kind of colonisation within a cultural narrative controlled mostly by white men. Additional layers of colonisation through representation seem to have a fresh vigour now it's established that films with complex and entertaining female protagonists, including female protagonists of colour, can be very profitable (4).<br />
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This has adverse consequences for women writers and directors, who remain excluded; and for writers and directors from other – and often intersecting – under-represented groups, also often colonised and misrepresented. For instance, as distinguished African American filmmaker Ava DuVernay <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/oprah-winfrey-ava-duvernay-black-920196">puts it</a>, while acknowledging that artists should be free to make art about whatever they want– 'Historically, black artists have not been able to interpret black life as robustly as we should, in terms of having it distributed, financed and shared. That's why it's a beautiful moment when you have black artists who are able to articulate and express their reflection as opposed to black folk only being able to watch an interpretation of our life'. (And I know that I enjoyed the women-centred <i>The Favourite</i>, but longed for a version made with the same budget, and with someone like Amma Asante, Andrea Arnold, CampbellX or Sally Potter as director and co-writer – or two of them! – working with <i>The Favourite</i>'s originating scriptwriter Deborah Davis. And I'm as excited as anyone that Joel Cohen is going to direct Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in <i><a href="https://www.slashfilm.com/macbeth-movie/?fbclid=IwAR0-4VJY2_oLpcdRKLAVPzQWeg_xM964grAVWe9Dg8LMIYjj7tAWA80ap6E">Macbeth</a>. </i>But what about Steve McQueen directing David Oyelowo and Viola Davis in another version?)<br />
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Further research has found that even if women <i>are</i> leads or co-leads in a highly profitable and award-winning film, they may not get as much to say. Just before the 2018 Oscars, Ceretai's gender analysis of speaking times among the films nominated for Best Picture demonstrated that 'the Oscars are telling us to listen more than twice as much to men as to women'.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi38_6TG5VdzavD1Jwz78wtM7VZPPfLk4Kj-gtpcMf5anjDx79z8Iva4w5KggZ0cp20vF75lWR7V6BMjr4a7Fz3iLWWTMlLRABj_f04uakImxkMq2DNDS41TScyT0ZkjvZy2W-fjrK3qjg2/s1600/theoscars_genderspeakingtime_speakingtime-graph-with-title-1-1024x543.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="1024" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi38_6TG5VdzavD1Jwz78wtM7VZPPfLk4Kj-gtpcMf5anjDx79z8Iva4w5KggZ0cp20vF75lWR7V6BMjr4a7Fz3iLWWTMlLRABj_f04uakImxkMq2DNDS41TScyT0ZkjvZy2W-fjrK3qjg2/s320/theoscars_genderspeakingtime_speakingtime-graph-with-title-1-1024x543.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 7. Speaking Time Between Genders from <i><a href="http://ceretai.com/the-oscars-still-tell-us-to-listen-twice-as-much-to-men/">Ceretai</a></i></span></td></tr>
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<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The Inclusion Initiative also looked at distributor figures; some of these corporations have received International Grants from the NZFC.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcLClDcKaeRWnL0EesumgFXTNn91lWE2tbPXWGw8OEhmXCPJkJvqjj49hiQaSsJwoZNj5n-uUuAutjKTDuHKPRyHF5GwjnNeiCXCTRR4s0MpyejUTw0Tc7Y0ZVt_sdy-_qWuw01gizXUQC/s1600/iHFTlV0s.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="756" data-original-width="1517" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcLClDcKaeRWnL0EesumgFXTNn91lWE2tbPXWGw8OEhmXCPJkJvqjj49hiQaSsJwoZNj5n-uUuAutjKTDuHKPRyHF5GwjnNeiCXCTRR4s0MpyejUTw0Tc7Y0ZVt_sdy-_qWuw01gizXUQC/s320/iHFTlV0s.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 8. from the Inclusion Initiative</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="text-align: left;">Many of these major players have recently signed up to the ill-named </span><a href="https://www.timesupnow.com/4percentchallenge" style="text-align: left;"><i>'4% Challenge'</i></a><span style="text-align: left;"> (where's the aspiration in that, a so much </span>less ambitious agenda than <i><a href="http://www.5050x2020.fr/">50:50 by 2020</a></i>?!), committing themselves to more features helmed by women.</div><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9sSGPomf0gbeSXJE1Ail8csQWKCEkHwZTh8TfKnsLFUmKwoIaMy498gmlPa5mb9JBYVOSYgxc87yj6hvpnvR27iZUHFNrHNOOD4r9zv_9zPz4LVpUfi3l4wFsZqdj0WFPBCycyLspjQWc/s1600/4percent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1200" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9sSGPomf0gbeSXJE1Ail8csQWKCEkHwZTh8TfKnsLFUmKwoIaMy498gmlPa5mb9JBYVOSYgxc87yj6hvpnvR27iZUHFNrHNOOD4r9zv_9zPz4LVpUfi3l4wFsZqdj0WFPBCycyLspjQWc/s320/4percent.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 9. </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">from</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> <i><a href="https://www.timesupnow.com/4percentchallenge">TIME'S UP Now</a></i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Back to New Zealand now, to look at the funding for local projects from the </span><i style="font-weight: normal;">Annual Report</i><span style="font-weight: normal;">; and add it to the International Grants.</span></h4><h4 style="text-align: left;">New Zealand Grants & Their Inter-Relationship with International Grants</h4>The New Zealand Grants, in contrast to the International Grants, <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/sites/default/files/2018-11/NZFC_ANNUALREPORT_2018%20FINAL.pdf"> aim </a> 'to develop the New Zealand film industry and tell more New Zealand stories' and are awarded to some but not all projects that the NZFC funds and takes equity in.<br />
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In the 2018 financial year, the NZFC invested in (took equity in) and/or gave local Screen Production Grants to eleven narrative feature films (see below, (5) for details of the my basis for project inclusion). Of these, three were #directedbywomen (27%). If the single project jointly directed by a woman and a man is included, 36% of the projects funded included a woman director. But much less than 27% of a total $19,158,852 taxpayer local production pie was allocated to projects #directedbywomen – 9% – and if the jointly funded project is included the share is still only 31%; this raises the question of whether a woman-directed work jointly directed with a man attracts more resources than one that isn't.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPpjEr16uJa3TzNQfI_MVbA1V0aG9UQYkKTrVvFlC953uwtLCGmIn6-sGMCqeU2XohMcsf8qjhIGRb7o5Icuj4i6alEKuBTMSNKoYVG7XsYMex8VRbzFHevnuiR9VJ-RvntDHx9fUR6vt3/s1600/MC7GllyU.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="471" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPpjEr16uJa3TzNQfI_MVbA1V0aG9UQYkKTrVvFlC953uwtLCGmIn6-sGMCqeU2XohMcsf8qjhIGRb7o5Icuj4i6alEKuBTMSNKoYVG7XsYMex8VRbzFHevnuiR9VJ-RvntDHx9fUR6vt3/s320/MC7GllyU.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 10. NZFC Production Funding and NZ Screen Production Grant $$ share by director gender 2018 financial year</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>When I combined all the taxpayer film production funding – local and international – there were 29 projects, five #directedbywomen (17%), one directed by a mixed gender team (3%). Here's how the grand $126,897,844 total was allocated.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5wc0MBpuG_yRnKecUI1FzKZb9FvB6nx8eGBookwoJQ-IB74N3b2OT_uU6_vD1Yy5qMIhnalJcHgLMm0GC6X7eAWPvohCqpC2r6JIM7sgg0tJAqpjL6LEdrCUa7QSLI0WC575jUT3t_AzH/s1600/%2524%2524+share+all+production+funding+2018+finncial+year.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="450" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5wc0MBpuG_yRnKecUI1FzKZb9FvB6nx8eGBookwoJQ-IB74N3b2OT_uU6_vD1Yy5qMIhnalJcHgLMm0GC6X7eAWPvohCqpC2r6JIM7sgg0tJAqpjL6LEdrCUa7QSLI0WC575jUT3t_AzH/s320/%2524%2524+share+all+production+funding+2018+finncial+year.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 11. Local and International Screen Production Grants and NZFC production investment in narrative features 2018 financial year: $$ share by director gender</span><br />
<div style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><br />
</div></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Overall, beyond gender, the international projects represent a very narrow cultural narrative.<br />
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Women's under-representation among the directors is matched by other under-representations: a Māori man directed just one project; an African-American woman directed another; and a Chinese man directed a third. Collectively, these three projects received a tiny share of the International Grants.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCe9BVB6xZbyqLaL4euYjjBYB1J8TXeM3CLZoOXKJmOUJFXhbHHgCVrwPsnJDTp67UxxaeDsM4jFovykPL1mO7ZGDXccJVfpPKTbyipjuuqwesMNbvMxXWuZ9L_1t5TglJWcka20mKxeCL/s1600/X987HfUA.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="441" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCe9BVB6xZbyqLaL4euYjjBYB1J8TXeM3CLZoOXKJmOUJFXhbHHgCVrwPsnJDTp67UxxaeDsM4jFovykPL1mO7ZGDXccJVfpPKTbyipjuuqwesMNbvMxXWuZ9L_1t5TglJWcka20mKxeCL/s320/X987HfUA.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Figure 12. Under-represented director share of $$$ in International Grants 2017-2018</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>The local cultural narrative is almost as narrow: that blue 3% in figure 11. includes – as far as I know – all that year's projects directed by Māori (14.9% of the population, with <i>Waru</i>) and Pasifika (7.4%, with <i>Vai</i>); Asian directors (11.8%) aren't represented at all.<br />
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None of this taxpayer funding imbalance is great from the perspective of inter-generational wellbeing, because it privileges the male and/or white gazes and encourages corporate practices that – as discussed in <a href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/nz-update-17-1-safety-revisited-7ddb4b620622" style="font-style: italic;">Update #17.1</a> –<i> </i>don't support mental health.<br />
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In the local context, wouldn't it be better for inter-generational wellbeing for audiences to see Māori and Pasifika people more often through a well-funded Māori and/or Pasifika woman's lens or women's lenses, telling some of the infinitely varied Māori and/or Pasifika stories, especially because the local and life-enhancing culture of 'kindness and collectivism' (or <i><a href="https://medium.com/spiral-collectives/t%C5%AB-tonu-mai-2dcebecd1c77">Tū Tonu Mai</a></i>) in filmmaking has been articulated so clearly and practised so effectively by Māori and Pasifika filmmakers, in the Brown Sugar Apple Grunt, Piki Films and Miss Conception features? And what about all those Asian individuals who see almost no-one like them in local movies, made by their own filmmakers? (6)<br />
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And wouldn't it also be better if at least half the projects receiving International Grants were directed by women, some of whom may welcome the opportunity to emulate 'kindness and collectivism' practices, keeping in mind the <i>50:50 by 2020</i> principles, particularly the emphasis on creative renewal; and distinguished showrunner Shonda Rhimes' <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/icm-partners-pledges-reach-50-50-gender-parity-by-2020-1064634:%20Shonda%20Rhimes">statement</a> that 'Where there's equity, there's less harassment and abuse'?<br />
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How could this happen? I think about this while I peel and core all those apples and pears and freeze them and bottle them and plant winter broccoli seedlings and sow broad bean seeds; interview a remarkable filmmaker for two hours; post a 1980 <a href="https://medium.com/spiral-collectives/jacquie-sturm-1980-2bae61cae4fb">video interview</a> with Māori writer J C Sturm who – thanks to sexism and racism – was unable to find a publisher for her volume of stories back in the 1950s and 1960s; and plan to go to that Schools Climate Change protest at Parliament.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;"><b>Towards Radical Improvement, Within a Wellbeing Framework</b></h4>The NZFC is working on gender equity – and other inclusion – with mixed success; I address some aspects of this below, within a discussion of support for distribution of women-directed features. For now, because of that $107m, I'm going to focus on the (feature film) International Grant funding director gender imbalance and how to change it to something more equitable.<br />
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International project owners have no stake at all in looking after our inter-generational wellbeing. They're unlikely to care that Lorraine Rowlands <a href="https://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/1083">has identified</a> some complex mental health issues for New Zealand film workers on their 'big' projects – including at least one that is women-specific; it's hard, reading her thesis, to feel hopeful that the established international filmmaking culture that visits us and lives with us will change any time soon. Adherents of this culture may also be attracted by under-regulated labour practices and be more likely to bring with them – protected by non-disclosure agreements – abusive practices that compromise local worker wellbeing: anecdotal evidence is that abusive behaviour, especially sexual harassment, is more common on international projects than on local ones.<br />
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But I believe that – because of New Zealand's current international profile and leader and because the American and European statistics show some improvement – it's possible to make changes that promote inter-generational wellbeing *and* maintain any local benefits from the International Grants, starting within a context where the NZFC works hard on international relationships. According to its <i>Annual Report</i>–<br />
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'International activities serve to strengthen our ties with the international industry and to underline our commitment to working with international partners. International and domestic production and post-production activity in New Zealand play a highly symbiotic role and the International team activity recognises, values and actively promotes this interconnectedness as crucial to the sustainability and growth of the industry.'<br />
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That team's connectivity is probably assisted by the networks of our internationally-oriented filmmakers, including actors; and by connections made at key film festivals over the years and arguably. because of this, it could easily adjust its activities to attract inclusive and highly resourced projects that are more likely to increase our national wellbeing than those that come here only for economic reasons and the scenery.<br />
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Because of the NZFC's international connectivity, because some big studios have signed up to the <i>4% Challenge</i> and because there are changes happening elsewhere, it seems feasible for the agency to commit itself to its own <i>50:50 by</i> (say) <i>2025</i> challenge across all its production funding (that $126,897,844). Why not identify all the studios' forthcoming women-directed films and pitch New Zealand to them (there's a list at the end of <a href="https://variety.com/2019/biz/news/hollywood-female-directors-1203178814/">this article</a>)? Build networks with producers who bring women directors' work to Māoriland? With Eurimages? With the Korean women who run the renowned Seoul International Women's Film Festival and are tuned into what's happening that way? With anyone else you can think of, away from the comforts of long-established relationships at Sundance, Toronto and Berlin?<br />
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Why not add some incentives to the Qualifying New Zealand Production Expenditure, like France's provision of up to a 15% bonus added to its state funding allocation, using an eight-point system, where a production is awarded points if the writer and director as well as key crew members – such as the cinematographer – are women? (A production is eligible for a bonus once it achieves at least four points.)<br />
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Uniquely I think we could add New Zealand 'kindness and collectivism' points for providing best practice on-set childcare – for pre-schoolers and during school holidays – and subsidies for those who have off-set caring responsibilities; and for encouraging job-sharing. We've know now that projects that embrace these things can make money. For example <i>What We Do in Shadows</i> (2014) and <i>The Breaker Upperers</i> (2018) are respectively numbers 8 and 15 in our local <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/sites/default/files/Top20Films%20-%201-8-18.pdf">Top Twenty Films at the New Zealand Box Office</a>. In a <i>Los Angeles Times</i> <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-breaker-upperers-madeleine-sami-jackie-van-beek-20190313-story.html?">interview</a> last month, writer/directors Madeline Sami and Jackie Van Beek explained how they've experienced and practised 'kindness and collectivism' principles on those projects–<br />
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'They [Madeline and Jackie] hired several female department heads and facilitated job sharing so that working moms were part of a gender-balanced crew, including producers Ainsley Gardiner and Georgina Conder of the female-forward Miss Conception Films.<br />
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"Our producers Ainsley [Gardiner, of Miss Conception, which shared production with Piki Films] and Georgina [Condor, of Miss Conception] were both moms, so one would do half the week and then they'd tag out," said Sami, who has a baby daughter with musician wife Ladyhawke. "Head of makeup and head of wardrobe were job-sharing moms; we made a concerted effort to be like, 'We can do this.' "<br />
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"It's important to us that we're inclusive and that being a mom doesn't mean you can't make feature films in any department," said Van Beek, who has three kids with comedian Jesse Griffin. "Making feature films and having children shouldn't be mutually exclusive."<br />
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Van Beek credits her experience on <i>What We Do In the Shadows</i>, where producers Waititi and Chelsea Winstanley had an area set aside so she could breastfeed, with setting a welcoming tone for working mothers on set.<br />
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"I had fangs in and I was breastfeeding my baby. After that experience, I thought, it can be no other way. And if a mother is the best person for the job – make it work."'<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">What Principles Could Justify These Changes?</h4>1. To continue with the current International Grant system would be at odds with the philosophy behind Jacinda Ardern's statement that 'If you're a Minister [of the Crown] and you want to spend money you're going to have to prove you are going to improve inter-generational wellbeing'. International Grants perpetuate systemic gender inequity, both locally and globally. They do this because they tend to exclude storytellers of under-represented groups and cultures and to generate films that support the 'global collective mythological narrative of white male supremacy', which New Zealand seeks to reject; and their production practices can and do place New Zealand workers' mental and physical wellbeing at risk, which places their family members at risk too.<br />
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2. Reform based on a duty of care to New Zealand citizens needs to support changes to the culture within which international projects operate here to ensure all workers are safe; and to support a global creative renewal that develops a new narrative, not based on and within white male supremacy.<br />
<br />
3. Shonda Rhimes' authoritative <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/icm-partners-pledges-reach-50-50-gender-parity-by-2020-1064634:%20Shonda%20Rhimes">statement</a> that 'Where there's equity, there's less harassment and abuse' supports the idea that reform needs to be based on equity, starting with gender equity and the idea that equity requires that those responsible for framing and shaping onscreen stories about under-represented and misrepresented groups are themselves part of and where possible accountable to those groups, who may also be their primary and underserved audiences.<br />
<br />
4. Some New Zealand filmmakers have developed a 'kindness and collectivism' culture within filmmaking which has economic value and is likely to be attractive to international filmmakers who are developing new cultural narratives within contexts that <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/08/women-want-to-see-more-female-ensemble-films-and-filmmakers.html">acknowledge their economic value</a>.<br />
<br />
5. Many women, many of them also part of other under-represented and misrepresented groups, have been damaged by industry behaviours – on local and international projects – and have left the industry. A commitment to equitable allocation of International Grants would acknowledge that these women haven't been safe and how much we've all been harmed by the presence of systemic bullying; sexual violation, from harassment to rape; harassment on other identity-based grounds; and economic discrimination. Positive changes may help bring these women back; or to undertake other work feeling stronger through knowing that the damage to them has been acknowledged and that their safety and wellbeing matters to us all.<br />
<br />
Back to local productions now.<br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">Distribution & Marketing & New Zealand Features</h4><div style="text-align: left;">The disheartening statistics that record women's participation in New Zealand feature films as writers and directors are sometimes explained by reference to 'the pipeline' of project development and production, a pipeline historically riddled with systemic sexism. This sexism fails to acknowledge that, as So Mayer puts it in their #DirectedByWomen review of <a href="https://directedbywomen.com/crucial21dbw-waru-directed-by-8-maori-directors/"><i>Waru</i></a>, '<span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(96, 101, 105);">exclusion from the means of production [and distribution] is a form of violence'; </span>tends to place the responsibility for the statistics on women themselves; and tends to offer explanations based on erroneous beliefs<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(96, 101, 105);">. </span></span>These can include a belief that most women aren't 'ready' and need more skills, more 'development', more mentoring, more labs, before they can participate fully as feature film writers and directors, often but not always with this kind of result–</div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">I see a lot of women going through these labs over the years. But I don’t see a lot of women in these directorial streets. The math doesn’t add up. The industry has to try something else if it’s serious about creating balance and defeating bias. Emphasis on “if it’s serious.” <a href="https://t.co/UnBd2S1zmQ">https://t.co/UnBd2S1zmQ</a></div>— Ava DuVernay (@ava) <a href="https://twitter.com/ava/status/1106929688386002950?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2019</a></blockquote>Ava qualified this statement in another tweet–<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">I have a complicated relationship with all these labs. I like the Sundance labs because they are project based. Working on your work. Some others, that have you following a bunch of people around, I don’t know. I figured you should just start working and follow your own path. 🤷🏽♀️ <a href="https://t.co/1L6mPrx0G2">https://t.co/1L6mPrx0G2</a></div>— Ava DuVernay (@ava) <a href="https://twitter.com/ava/status/1106927924320428032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 16, 2019</a></blockquote>I think that the NZFC too has to 'try something else if it's serious about creating balance and defeating bias', quite a few more 'something elses' than at present. Because beliefs about women 'not being ready' has created further problems, too. For instance, as addressed in <i>Update #17.1</i>, if assessors aren't open to and skilled with 'different' structures that some women use, and struggle to engage with unfamiliar stories, assessment of women's scripts may be inadequate. And if a woman doesn't have a strong enough advocate for her vision, sometimes but not always her producer, the pipeline may reject her work for funding in the development or production phase, or colonise it with demands for it to 'fit' what the screen industries are used to, including the distributors, because to obtain NZFC production funding a distributor has to be in place.<br />
<br />
And then, if the project makes it through the pipeline with the writer, director and producer either happy with or resisting colonisation – or, thanks to extraordinary commitment by the filmmakers, makes its way through its own pipeline independent of taxpayer production funding – and enters the world, it's often denied adequate and appropriate support to help it reach audiences. As also happens in other parts of the world.<br />
<br />
Globally, marketing and distribution is tough for women filmmakers, especially if their gender intersects with other identities.<br />
<br />
For instance, the ever-on-to-it Inclusion Initiative says this–<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Distribution is key but gate keepers’ biases affect marketing and reach. Ex: our work w/<a href="https://twitter.com/sundanceorg?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@sundanceorg</a> shows that male directed & female directed movies have roughly equal meta critics scores but female helmed films are put in far fewer theaters.</div>— Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (@Inclusionists) <a href="https://twitter.com/Inclusionists/status/1102240220383047685?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2019</a></blockquote>And the equally legendary Birds Eye View responds–<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">This is why we started <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ReclaimTheFrame?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ReclaimTheFrame</a> in the UK - a mission to bring ever greater audiences to new films by women, funded by <a href="https://twitter.com/BFI?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BFI</a> and others like <a href="https://twitter.com/mubiuk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mubiuk</a> - to galvanise filmgoers, distributors and cinemas. It’s working so far!</div>— Birds Eye View (@BirdsEyeViewFF) <a href="https://twitter.com/BirdsEyeViewFF/status/1102241248860086279?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2019</a></blockquote>Followed by this reply–<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Great! Trying to illuminate that the system – buyers & sellers – are not representing folks equally. The gate keepers need changing and/or distribution methods (i.e., kudos to <a href="https://twitter.com/netflix?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@netflix</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/AmazonStudios?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AmazonStudios</a>) <a href="https://t.co/FfQmo8btpl">https://t.co/FfQmo8btpl</a></div>— Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (@Inclusionists) <a href="https://twitter.com/Inclusionists/status/1102242159745392641?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2019</a></blockquote>And some examples–<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Example of two films that should have had MUCH stronger / larger distribution & marketing campaigns: Beyond the Lights & Belle. Critical reception was strong for both but the releases were too small. Gate keeper bias! CC: <a href="https://twitter.com/gugumbatharaw?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@gugumbatharaw</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/GPBmadeit?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GPBmadeit</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/AmmaAsante?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AmmaAsante</a></div>— Annenberg Inclusion Initiative (@Inclusionists) <a href="https://twitter.com/Inclusionists/status/1102243222321913856?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2019</a></blockquote>As the Inclusion Initiative noted, Netflix is changing distribution opportunities, for women of colour at least (though there are <a href="https://filmmakermagazine.com/107124-digital-haves-and-have-nots-disappearing-svod-deals-and-independent-film/?mc_cid=07a05e7420&mc_eid=4d2d6be212#.XJ_gxS2B2i7">challenges there</a>, too). Campbell X and Ava DuVernay have both tweeted about their Netflix experiences–<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">This is why we watch Netflix. This is why my queer POC feature film is on Netflix. Boom! <a href="https://t.co/JAKcd67XCy">https://t.co/JAKcd67XCy</a></div>— Campbell X (@CampbellX) <a href="https://twitter.com/CampbellX/status/1101377630954315777?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2019</a></blockquote>And in response to a question about which film–<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Stud Life. On Netflix USA only. They took the risk on me. Not the UK one.....<br />
— Campbell X (@CampbellX) <a href="https://twitter.com/CampbellX/status/1101380036580519936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2019</a></div></blockquote>For Ava DuVernay–<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">One of the things I value about Netflix is that it distributes black work far/wide. 190 countries will get WHEN THEY SEE US. Here’s a promo for South Africa. I’ve had just one film distributed wide internationally. Not SELMA. Not WRINKLE. It was 13TH. By Netflix. That matters. <a href="https://t.co/lpn1FFSfgG">https://t.co/lpn1FFSfgG</a></div>— Ava DuVernay (@ava) <a href="https://twitter.com/ava/status/1102236624895655936?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 3, 2019</a></blockquote>Last year, as part of my <a href="https://medium.com/@devt/directedbywomen-aotearoa-getting-with-the-suffrage125-programme-f861b6fbbe68">#directedbywomen project</a>, I went to the New Zealand Motion Picture Industry Council's conference (NZMPICC) for a day. I loved it, was completely entertained. I can't write much about the conference but I concluded that local distributors and exhibitors are entrenched in the global system that promotes the 'collective mythological narrative of white male supremacy'. Because that's how they make a living. The 'wellbeing' of various audiences, of the nations within our nation and equity issues within that wellbeing, can't be part of that, though the NZMPICC certainly cared for the wellbeing of those attending.<br />
<br />
Logically, if the NZFC – as the local, taxpayer, gatekeeper – is to support women-directed films and films by other under-represented and misrepresented groups effectively, it's going to have to find new ways to support their distribution and marketing so that they reach the widest audience possible.<br />
<br />
At the moment it provides 'Theatrical Release Support' through its <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/sites/default/files/2017-11/Distribution%20Grant%20Guidelines%20-%20May%202017.pdf">Distribution Grants</a> to distribution companies and to filmmakers who self-distribute, but the money is allocated unevenly and much of it depends on distributor investment, which in turn is probably dependent on how they predict the box office for the film, in among their other films that tend to echo Hollywood's 'collective mythological narrative' (7). And some local films don't get the attention and audience they deserve.<br />
<br />
Because I knew this and was thinking about it, when I saw this billboard for the forthcoming <i>Daffodils</i> at Wellington Airport I was surprised by my immediate and visceral responses, of sudden anger and then sadness.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEl-trvmBbWJ0k7-x_jlxIGmCLOOi6eOWOj96dtpDYsORQbGzbID37fagayZSvPJ4GiAgHOroYluszF0bonREQngUxTo9cq1ikTjyHl3Sf-h5mamlp1FhwfWLldscbzVFU-G8-pqKczCHj/s1600/Daffodils.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="809" data-original-width="1080" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEl-trvmBbWJ0k7-x_jlxIGmCLOOi6eOWOj96dtpDYsORQbGzbID37fagayZSvPJ4GiAgHOroYluszF0bonREQngUxTo9cq1ikTjyHl3Sf-h5mamlp1FhwfWLldscbzVFU-G8-pqKczCHj/s400/Daffodils.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
These emotions weren't about <i>Daffodils</i>. As I understand it, <i>Daffodils</i> is a great story beautifully made. I love the idea of its music and I very much want to see it because I heard its writer, Rochelle Bright, speak at that NZMPICC conference and was soooo impressed by her clarity and content and heart; she was outstanding.<br />
<br />
But the same week this billboard appeared I saw Casey Zilbert's <i>Hang Time –</i> a feminist-made feature set in the Marlborough wine country, about millennials and masculinity – on its brief tour around New Zealand, with single screenings in seven towns and cities, following a local tradition of women's self-distribution, stretching from Merata Mita's <i>Patu!</i> (1983) and Gaylene Preston's <i>Mr Wrong</i> (1985) to Andrea Bosshard and Shane Loader's <i>The Great Maiden's Blush </i>(2016), with all the associated problems of access to cinemas and good screening times.(8)<br />
<br />
I know and have written about Casey. But haven't read her work, like <i>Dearly Departed</i>, a romcom that made the <a href="http://www.tracking-board.com/presenting-the-2017-hit-list-the-best-spec-scripts-of-the-year/?utm_content=64117311&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&fbclid=IwAR1du8OkzLDCxlqX2l1I0JCw-ijjq-USHC7cMtVmQOdrUOH0TNj0SkU7aKo"><i>2017 Hit List</i></a>, The Tracking Board's list of best spec scripts of the year *and* <i><a href="https://thebitchlistscreenplays.com/2017/11/23/the-bitch-list-2018/">The Bitch List</a></i> for 2018. And all I knew of <i>Hang Time</i> was from the media, including Graeme Tuckett's <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/film-reviews/110570694/hang-time-a-confident-competent-and-easytolike-kiwi-movie">review for <i>Stuff</i></a> (the largest New Zealand news outlet, online and in print). It gave <i>Hang Time</i> 3.5 stars and described it 'a confident, competent and easy-to-like Kiwi movie'.<br />
<br />
<i>Hang Time</i> screened down the road at The Embassy on a Thursday. One-time only, and a Q&A afterwards with cast and crew. I went with an academic/art theorist and a distinguished visual artist. Both feminists. And both unlikely to go if I hadn't suggested it. We weren't really the target audience: none of us millennials, all of us verging on ancient; and although the others enjoy their wine, I've almost always been an alcohol-free zone, so the wine theme didn't appeal to me.<br />
<br />
After a week of intense engagement with historic intersectional car crashes I was ready for a nap, in my comfortable seat; I expected to doze off somewhere in the middle of the second act, as I tend to do when tired.<br />
<br />
But I didn’t. Because I fell in love with the film. Absolutely, it is 'confident, competent and easy-to-like'. And it has such heart. Beautifully drawn relationships among the five main characters. Beautiful, fluent camera work and editing. It more than passed the Bechdel Test because Jess and Bella didn't just chat about something other than men, they had a shared storyline of their own that had nothing to do with the blokes at the centre. I loved Harry and Ants, was moved by their conflicts and their portrayals of masculinity, as well as that of the Hemmingway-esque Jake; and like my companions I laughed a lot, just as much as I had at <i>The Breaker Upperers </i>a year ago<i>.</i><br />
<br />
And I was especially happy when millennial filmmaker and entrepreneur <a href="https://twitter.com/saycheeselouise">Louise Hutt</a>, 'One of those millenials the internet warned you about', tweeted from the Hamilton screening–<br />
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><div dir="ltr" lang="en">Hot dang! It was REALLY REALLY good! If you're in Auckland, go see this on Saturday night! It was very funny and sweet and real. <a href="https://t.co/DjAOOXuvd7">https://t.co/DjAOOXuvd7</a> <a href="https://t.co/gUlOSeuipb">pic.twitter.com/gUlOSeuipb</a></div>— Louise Hutt (@saycheeselouise) <a href="https://twitter.com/saycheeselouise/status/1101059226506428417?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 28, 2019</a></blockquote>It wasn't just me, then. And another, very different, mate texted after the Auckland screening: 'Very easy to recommend'.<br />
<br />
It seems likely that <i>Hang Time</i>'s appeal is partly due to its <i>relevance</i>, that key factor required within every feature funded by the Swedish Film Institute, a bastion of best practice for taxpayer-funded film funds (9). Here in New Zealand, where the patriarchy and the colonisation process continue to influence and damage women and men and children and young people so profoundly, we need many and diverse films that are relevant to how those systems work and how they affect us all. Not only relevant documentaries but also fictional narratives, because they too can affect and galvanise audiences. <i>Hang Time</i> fits very well within a recent and 'relevant' woman-made collection, alongside <i>Waru,</i> <i>Vai</i>, a documentary about Celia Lashlie, <i><a href="https://www.amandamillar.co.nz/blog/celialashliedocumentary">Celia</a>; </i>and a few others.<br />
<br />
From what I saw, what I've read and the feedback I got, <i>Hang Time</i> deserved a wider theatrical release. With a billboard or two, like <i>Daffodils</i>. But it didn't get that release: the NZFC didn't invest in <i>Hang Time</i>'s two-month (yes!) development, contributed just $40,173 to its production and then just $14,940 to its self-distributed theatrical release.<br />
<br />
Other recent and 'relevant' woman-directed features, directed, like <i>Hang Time</i>, by women among the 'kindness and collectivism' cohort discussed in <i>Update #17.1</i>, also didn't receive appropriate distribution and marketing investment from the taxpayer. <i>The Great Maiden's Blush</i> (2016) was the only local film on Graeme Tuckett's <i>Top Ten of 2016</i>, and in giving it four and a half stars, he <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/film-reviews/79687021/movie-review-the-great-maidens-blush">appreciated it</a> as 'a sinuous, clever, ambitious, nuanced, layered and gorgeously assembled film. Pay <i>The Great Maiden's Blush</i> the attention it deserves and you'll be rewarded with one of the most beautifully photographed, best sounding and best written films you'll see all year'.<br />
<br />
In his <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/film-reviews/87630749/tucketts-top-ten-movies-of-2016"><i>Top Ten</i> list</a>, he wrote: 'Taika Waititi's <i>Hunt For The Wilderpeople</i> might have been the local box-office draw this year, but this wee gem was the film that stayed in my mind and heart the longest. Film-makers Andrea Bosshard and Shane Loader – aided by editor Annie Collins and cinematographers Alun Bollinger and Waka Attewell – wove together a sinuous tale of love, birth, death, loss and everything in between. It avoided the pits of mawkishness and sentimentality that would have claimed a lesser film and emerged as a tiny gem of honest story telling and narrative ambitions achieved'.<br />
<br />
But although the NZFC invested $31,000 in development of <i>The Great Maiden's Blush</i>,<i> </i>over years,<i> </i>from<i> </i>2000, and allocated $15,000 to finishing the production, it contributed only $4,000 to its self-distributed theatrical release<i>. </i>(I *think* that<i> </i>tiny $4,000 distribution grant must have been because the NZFC decided it was eligible only for a <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/funds/distribution-fund">small Distribution Grant</a>, as an independently funded film, although it had invested $46,000 in it over the years; and as a film without 'a recognised distributor' attached (10)).<br />
<br />
And then last year there was Dorthe Scheffmann's <i>Vermilion. </i>Here's what David Larsen wrote about it in <i>Metro</i> in November (not online)–<br />
<br />
'I was struck by the excellence of the acting, the music, the camera work, the visual effects, the editing and the art direction, but none of these … could have caught fire without such a restrained, intelligent screenplay… I can’t remember when I’ve seen this many complex, wellrealised women – especially older women – in a New Zealand film …<br />
<br />
Scheffmann’s writing is a gift to her performers, delineating character and story cleanly while trusting them to do the work of bringing both to life. Although the film is dealing with emotionally charged matters, the dialogue is light rather than heavy, elliptical in a way that at first seems pseudo-profound but gradually reveals itself to be the real thing. The characters have the force of lived experience behind them. This is a wise, sweet, moving film and it made me cry.'<br />
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Like <i>The Great Maiden's Blush </i>and<i> Hang Time</i>,<i> Vermilion</i> is absolutely relevant; and especially relevant for women. In an interview with <i><a href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/features/writerdirector-dorthe-scheffmann-on-her-drama-vermilion/">Flicks</a></i>, Dorthe explains that <i>Vermilion</i>'s about–<br />
<br />
'what constitutes whānau and love. It comes in a lot of different shapes and forms, a chosen family. ...And choice, I think, is probably the real theme of this film. Darcy (Jennifer Ward-Lealand) has made choices and some of them she regrets and some she doesn’t. And then there’s the impact of the choices; the nature of her relationship with her daughter (Zoe, played by Emily Campbell), which is a deep love for each other, but it’s not a love based on time spent with each other. <br />
<br />
Zoe is clearly more comfortable with the other two women characters. It’s also about the way women support each other. Friendship between women is one of those incredibly strong human relationships. And there are so few films that actually focus on the power of those relationships. Many women would struggle to bring up children without that community of women to support them.'<br />
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But although the NZFC invested in <i>Vermilion</i> ($158,200 in development from 2003, and $1m in production), and NZOA contributed $199,000, the agency allocated only $10,888 to its release, presumably because the distributor didn't want to invest heavily in marketing it (11).<br />
<br />
Contrast the development timelines and distribution sums for <i>The Great Maiden's Blush</i> and <i>Vermilion</i> with, to give just one example, the NZFC investments in and grants for the man-directed <i>Pork Pie</i>, a remake of the classic <i>Goodbye Pork Pie – </i>$105,000 for development, between 2014-15 (later repaid to the NZFC); $2m for production; a $2,538,264 Screen Production Grant; and a $123,500 Distribution Grant for its theatrical release in 2017.<br />
<br />
According to <i>Box Office Mojo</i>, <i>Pork Pie </i>earned $788,924 in that release, less than the total NZFC investment, as seems to be the case for most local features; and the return to the taxpayer would have been significantly less than that (12). Was <i>Pork Pie</i>'s development, production and release so rapid and well-funded because – unlike <i>Hang Time</i>, <i>The Great Maiden's Blush</i> and <i>Vermilion</i> – it fitted so easily into that 'collective mythological narrative', from idea to script to production to distribution?<br />
<br />
Sometimes, a woman-written and directed feature has a similar trajectory, like <i>The Breaker Upperers</i>, which received $50,000 for a short film (proof of concept?) and $50,750 for script development in 2016, then $1,740,600 for production and $119,255 in Distribution Grants, a total of $1,960,605. And it earned $1,196,246 at the local box office on its way to that all-time 15th place. That's wonderful, in all kinds of ways for all kinds of reasons, though it too earned less in cinemas than the NZFC's equity investment and grants combined.<br />
<br />
But I believe that the imbalance of taxpayer support to reach audiences between <i>Pork Pie, </i><i>The Breaker Upperers </i>and<i> Daffodils</i> and the three under-resourced films I've referred to – <i> Hang Time</i>, <i>Vermilion</i> and<i> The Great Maiden's Blush – </i>is too great. Because the qualities of the latter three mean that they arguably have equal potential to increase the nation's wellbeing. The imbalance causes an inequity, a gap like the pay gap, another kind of economic violence; and, like every inequity, it affects inter-generational wellbeing.<br />
<br />
How might the NZFC address this inequity, for which distributors aren't responsible because they aren't accountable to the taxpayer? How can it initiate and support a kaupapa that treasures those movies and their contribution to the nation's wellbeing and connects them with wide audiences?<br />
<br />
I don't think increasing the Distribution Grants will help, unless (again) a bonus is offered for especially effective distribution of films written and directed by women and members of other under-represented and colonised groups. Instead, in the new wellbeing-oriented environment I think that, as a gatekeeper, the NZFC is going to have to expand its own marketing and distribution support well beyond the support it directly offers distributors, to move conceptually far beyond its weak assertion in its <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/new-zealand/about-us/what-we-do/diverse-voices/women-film">original gender policy</a>, that 'The voices and perspectives of women are integral to telling the stories of our country, its culture and communities', towards well-resourced action that increases audiences for women's stories.<br />
<br />
The principles that could underpin this expansion of the NZFC responsibility are–<br />
<br />
1. Distributors – like most recipients of Screen Production Grants, particularly the International Grants and to some extent the NZFC itself – are enmeshed in 'the global collective mythological narrative of white male supremacy', which is changing only slowly. Therefore, local projects that contribute 'to a lovingly and realistically inclusive story' and contribute to inter-generational wellbeing need complementary support from the taxpayer.<br />
<br />
2. Complementary support is best provided by a rigorous and well-resourced strategy within the NZFC, the organisation best placed to take our cinema into the hearts and minds of the nation.<br />
<br />
3. Any new strategy has to be equitable, i.e. available at the same level for all feature projects directed by women, with close attention to the diverse communities they intersect with, regardless of whether and how the NZFC has contributed to development and production.<br />
<br />
4. As suggested in <i>Update #17.1</i> in relation to more appropriate script assessment, to increase audiences the NZFC may have to open up to a wider community of expertise.<br />
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I believe that the distribution and marketing problems – like all the others within this broken system –can be resolved through the kindness and collectivism implied in the fourth principle. Here are some ideas, based on the NZFC's capacity to leverage its established relationships and to be courageous and imaginative in forging and maintaining new relationships with the groups most likely to understand the significance of supporting local women's features, because of their relevance to our daily lives; and most likely to have the capacity to engage in helping to increase audiences.<br />
<br />
<b>Established Relationships</b><br />
Remember that NZFC assertion that 'international activities serve to strengthen our ties with the international industry and to underline our commitment to working with international partners'? Where are the committed local partners with ties that can be strengthened to enhance distribution, beyond the guilds? To start with, there's the NZMPIC, the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZFF), and Show Me Shorts.<br />
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Although the NZMPIC and its members seem unlikely to adjust their somewhat uneven commitments to publicity and marketing costs for individual releases, I imagine they'd be happy with any project that aims to increase box office for all without requiring much outlay from them. They might be open, for example, to amplifying *all* – local and international – women-directed movies through using, in all publicity, the internationally well-known <i><a href="http://f-rated.org/">F-Rating</a></i> or <i><a href="http://www.a-listfilm.com/">A-Rating</a>. </i>These ratings, or tags, like the age-related ratings and warning notes from the Classifications Office, would alert audiences to movies that centre women and girls, especially work that women write and direct, both local or imported; the NZFC could provide the tags for local movies. (The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/imdb-f-rating-system-highlight-women-in-film/">uses <i>F-Rating</i> tags</a>.)<br />
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The NZFC could also undertake to pay for a billboard (or several) for all local women-written and -directed features in an as-of-right gesture that treats every release equally, an initiative that would benefit NZMPIC members, as advertising they don't have to pay for. <br />
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</i>This would also demonstrate that we truly treasure films written and directed by women and that our wellbeing is enhanced by films like <i>Vai</i>, which comes out in New Zealand cinemas this week, accompanied by the most beautiful art work and international appreciation like <a href="https://directedbywomen.com/crucial21dbw-vai-directed-by-8-pasifika-directors/?fbclid=IwAR2NRozhP9G6R_Jajk6i8Z_3DZ8x9iqrt8kFRuYvAadbBYTuII4rgFYeXUg">Girish Shambu</a>'s– 'A landmark in the history of cinema...Indigenous cultures share a fundamental connection to place; at the heart of <i>Vai</i> is the pain of fracture of this connection'.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQi-fkj33EDNIOIIkDimMxVi8XIrG10Ce-iekWArK6Wq2P_U_FJE0D9LZN7YAJllQjUit-SjHx0sBS5cmAAeUHMf7nCF6ejna2A4Q8j8f8H6mp6XyQIY-CcXlHWlix9fiSarwl-moZ_XVF/s1600/52712782_562666767547080_4256628506655457280_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="672" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQi-fkj33EDNIOIIkDimMxVi8XIrG10Ce-iekWArK6Wq2P_U_FJE0D9LZN7YAJllQjUit-SjHx0sBS5cmAAeUHMf7nCF6ejna2A4Q8j8f8H6mp6XyQIY-CcXlHWlix9fiSarwl-moZ_XVF/s400/52712782_562666767547080_4256628506655457280_n.jpg" width="280" /></a></div><br />
Just imagine some of that gorgeous <i>Vai</i> art work on billboards at all our international airports, affirming that we love, treasure and are enriched by Pasifika women and their filmmaking!<br />
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Then there are the major local film festivals – partially funded by the NZFC – that haven't yet signed the <i>50:50 by 2020</i> charter, even though many 'big' festivals where they source their films, like Cannes, have done so. If the NZFC is serious about 'the voices and perspectives of women are integral to telling the stories of our country, its culture and communities' and their global connections, why doesn't it make its funding contingent on the NZFF and Show Me Shorts signing the charter? Contingent on their helping to promote all New Zealand films, not only those they choose to screen, through their email lists and social media? Contingent on their establishing a local Ballon Rouge to support industry professionals with babies or small children, like the one <a href="https://www.screendaily.com/news/cannes-marche-du-film-launches-scheme-to-support-delegates-attending-with-children-exclusive/5138431.article">just announced</a> for the Cannes Marché du Film? The festivals would have to work a little harder and develop some new strategies, but why not encourage them to shake up their practices? And why doesn't the NZFC offer Māoriland a bonus – and/or a billboard or two (on the motorway?) – because at least 50% of its films have been directed by women, for years now?<br />
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Current audiences are sometimes small limited because some people don't find movies relevant to them; and they are too expensive for many more.(13)<br />
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But the NZFC could also work with the festivals on associated programmes within and outside the festivals to group together 'relevant' women's and indigenous work and work from under-represented groups for discussion of social and political wellbeing issues, as well as their cinematic values, with screenings and panel free for all? These would connect local wellbeing and various challenges to it with the inquiries and insights movies can provide *and* increase audiences through reaching those for whom movies are not usually relevant.<br />
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And why not, in each edition of the festival, and at appropriate (non-film) conferences, curate a programme about a challenging and relevant contemporary theme that local women and indigenous filmmakers have explored, contextualise it with international women filmmakers' explorations and invite appropriate contributors to panel discussions that are more in-depth than the usual Q&As with directors? Again, free for all? For instance, suicide and end-of-life choices are current issues, so why not screen <i>Vermilion</i> alongside Paora Joseph's <i>Maui's Hook</i>, Nicole Palo's <i>Emma Peeters</i> and Agnès Varda's <i>Le Bonheur</i> (14)?<br />
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Or follow Chicago, where a group of women in prison <a href="https://www.wbez.org/shows/_/_/8c9e7e3c-3592-4818-8046-b16ef0442825">have just curated a film festival</a>. Now there's great way to increase audiences by opening up to a wider pool of curatorial expertise!<br />
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These kinds of investment would promote narratives and filmmakers that go beyond the dominant 'collective mythological narrative', add richness to community dialogues, and over time build audiences for those hungry for 'other' points of view, whose hunger has historically been unmet. Appropriate short films and episodes from webseries and television series on similar themes could also screen; any programme curated by Show Me Shorts would be only shorts.<br />
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<b>New Relationships</b><br />
I've often referred to the illuminating moment when I learned that most of those within a particular group of professional women I spoke with choose their books according to author gender but don't choose the films they watch according to the genders of those who write and direct them. From this experience and many individual conversations I'm sure that there are opportunities for audience- building relationships, mediated by the NZFC, especially among women's groups. As far as I know, there's just one women's organisation, the Auckland Women's Centre, with a regular film screening programme, at an Auckland cinema: it is often sold out.<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">Thinking opportunistically, our current Governor-General is Dame Patsy Reddy, who used to chair the NZFC board. Why not an event or two or three at Government House? Dedicated to developing conversations about the role of women's films within debates about pressing contemporary issues and about overall wellbeing? And dedicated to facilitating development of partnerships that help grow wide audiences for films that women make? These conversations – led by the NZFC – could include women filmmakers *and* key leaders from organisations like the Auckland Women's Centre, Women's Refuge, Rape Crisis, the Māori Women's Welfare League, Rural Women and Global Women, among others? Would they be engaged by opportunities to bridge the current disconnect between women's filmmaking and potential audiences, to establish women's film groups with their members, by opportunities to build word of mouth about forthcoming films, by the idea of being film ambassadors? Would they have ideas about offering support for young women who take part in <i><a href="http://theoutlookforsomeday.net/">The Outlook for Someday</a> </i>and<i> </i>Māoriland's <a href="https://maorilandfilm.co.nz/projects/">Rangatahi programmes</a>, and in programmes in schools? The Te Puna Foundation, the charity that supports the National Library, has just announced its <i><a href="https://www.booksellers.co.nz/news/1-million-communities-readers">Communities of Readers</a></i> project, because– </div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">'We know that reading for pleasure improves both literacy and wellbeing. This initiative will enable the National Library to work with a small number of communities to strengthen reading engagement.'</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why not a similar project for Communities of Viewers?</span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">Or? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div>New partnerships seem worth an intensive effort. They're already developed, in pockets, for individual films like <i>Vai</i>, whose partners (AUT, Pasifika Education Centre, Le Va, Pacific Connections - Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Auckland and the Ministry for Pacific Peoples) have helped fund 500 Pacific girls and women to attend Vai's Auckland premiere screening, as part of its <i>Women of Vai Empowerment Campaign</i>. And it's been glorious to see, on Facebook, the responses to the <i>Empowerment Campaign</i> and the joy <i>Vai</i> generates. The producers and distributor have done a great job with this element of <i>Vai</i>'s audience. It looks like they couldn't have done more. The NZFC appears to have supported this campaign, beyond Distribution Grants, too.<br />
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But what about the audience's other elements? <i>Vai</i>'s potential audience is a very broad one because its many beautiful layers pay such loving attention to the lives of Pasifika women and girls and provide multiple representations that will now forever challenge (mis)representations by those who aren't themselves Pasifika - and not just in films. Seeing <i>Vai</i> at the weekend touched my heart and transformed my understanding of Te Moana Nui a Kiwa and the women and girls who are part of it. Like <i>Waru</i>, <i>Vai</i> illustrates the richness of work that is 'by and about' and has the capacity to make a strong contribution to the inter-generational wellbeing of us *all*.<br />
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But in central Wellington on <i>Vai</i>'s opening weekend, the cinema was only half full. The taxpayer as represented by the NZFC and its own partners (wherever they might come from) didn't promote <i>Vai</i> strongly enough to the rest of us, as a magnificent gift to this colonised country in a colonised ocean, at a time when we're forced to consider how–<br />
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'[Film and other media] are where the modern mythology of hate is incubated...Until the global collective mythological narrative of white male supremacy is changed, script by script, to a lovingly and realistically inclusive story...we are doomed.'<br />
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There's so much that could be done. And I bet you've got more and better ideas about how to do it. Or can generate them quite quickly!<br />
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And while you do that, I'm off to find a cow onesie, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/2112561575488241/">to protest</a> about dairy farming's effects on our land and waterways. See you outside Parliament, perhaps?<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">---------------------<br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">Just as I finished this, <i>Showtools</i> released this video, which shows some differences from the <i>Box Office Mojo</i> figures that I've used, but not huge ones; and demonstrates how little return the taxpayer is likely to get from its share of the equity in film.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">These results add up to $44,126,678 of box office revenue over a decade. Only a proportion of box office takings will return to the taxpayer via the NZFC, through NZFC's share of the equity (or to the filmmakers themselves). In the 2018 <i>Annual Report</i>, the 'Income from Films' amount 'distributed to the NZFC' was <span style="font-family: inherit;">$825,151; in 2017 $3,008,265 (the <i>Hunt for the Wilderpeople</i> effect?) and in 2016 $1,622,198. </span>These figures probably include some returns from streaming and DVDs etc and a share of any rights sales. No direct return on Screen Production Grants at all. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="graf graf--p" name="0164" style="text-align: start;"><div style="text-align: left;">If the NZFC was a business it would be required to make a profit. It doesn’t. And because of that small economic return, the NZFC and the taxpayer risk very little if the agency chooses to base its decision-making about investment in local film production and distribution support on wellbeing-related factors, including equitable principles and more community-based involvement, from script assessment to distribution.</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" mozallowfullscreen="" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/324769918?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="640"></iframe><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://vimeo.com/324769918">Analysing The Figures - NZ Box Office Results 2009-2018</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user31060554">Showtools</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.</div><br />
<h4 style="text-align: left;">ENDNOTES</h4><div style="text-align: left;">(1) Since I <a href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2017/02/new-zealand-update-2-letter-to-deputy.html">last looked</a> – a couple of years ago – at director gender in the projects that the International Grant scheme funded, others have (re)contested the scheme's economic benefits in debates that I don't have the capacity to engage with, though I can believe that the International Grant may bring some economic benefits and upskilling. A government-appointed group has explored possible changes to the associated controversial <i>Hobbit Law</i> of 2010, too. This law treats film production workers as independent contractors, unless they are party to a written employment agreement that states that they're employees; it effectively denies them the rights enjoyed by other New Zealand workers to bargain collectively under the Employment Relations Act. The <i>Hobbit Law</i>'s complexities are also beyond me, though it 'feels' wrong. (For more info about the Screen Production Grant, see <i><a href="https://www.mbie.govt.nz/dmsdocument/1079-evaluating-screen-production-grant-pdf">Evaluating the Screen Production Grant</a></i> and various articles by Matt Nippert, e.g. <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12210718">here</a> and <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12072876">here</a>.)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">(2) The next NZFC <i>Annual Report </i>is likely to document grants to <i>Mulan</i> directed by Niki Caro and the television series of Eleanor Catton's <i>The Luminaries</i>, directed by Claire McCarthy, but I doubt whether this will make much difference to, say, a three-year analysis. The films included in the analysis are: <i>Beijing Safari</i>; <i>Blade Runner</i>; <i>Ghost In The Shell</i>; <i>Marvels Spider Man</i>; <i>Mortal Engines</i>; <i>Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets</i>; <i>Alien: Covenant</i>; <i>Pete's Dragon</i>; <i>Mortal Engines</i>; <i>Wolf Warrior 2</i>; <i>Justice League</i>; <i>Murder On The Orient Express</i>; <i>Thor: Ragnorak</i>; <i>Maze Runner</i>: <i>The Death Cure</i>; <i>Mission Impossible Fallout</i>; <i>Animal World</i>; <i>A Wrinkle In Time</i>; <i>Wonder Woman</i>. </div><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">(3) Others, like the Swedish Film Institute – the global leader in best practices for national agencies – also provide statistics. The Irish Film Board's work is useful. Canada has a variety of agencies and initiatives and statistical practices associated with them. Screen Australia statistics are not helpful in this context, because although its <i><a href="https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/backgrounders/2017/11-30-gender-matters">Gender Matters</a></i> aim is that 'half of the projects that receive production funding will have women occupying at least 50% of key creative roles', when counting towards its Key Performance Indicators (KPI), it includes the protagonist's gender as a 'key creative role', alongside writer, director, producer. This makes it possible for all those projects to have men as writers and directors and still be counted as a contribution to 'progress' and 'success'. In addition, although many research projects have established that women-directed projects receive less funding than those directed by men, the KPI is based on the number of successful applications rather than funding dollars. Finally it excludes development funding from the KPI, so there's no analysis of whether projects written and directed by women receive more or less investment towards reaching production.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">(4) See for instance, note (3), above, on Screen Australia's <i>Gender Matters</i> practices which actively promote this colonisation. And see also, Briony Kidd's <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/movies/article/2018/08/03/matthew-newton-directing-jessica-chastains-next-film-should-road-back-really-be?fbclid=IwAR3TzcVUTj_3SWRR-iPVUYya6zyYVJMMdfk1mV5y9p0ldQ_x1fHR0HHTc88">article</a> about the Australian actor-writer-director with a record of multiple arrests for violence against women, who has said recently “I love writing for women, I love working with two fabulous, intelligent, wonderful actresses and I’m not just saying that because they’re here—they are, and I really enjoy actually telling female stories...I’m a male writer-director, but we have a 95 percent female crew. I tried to write great roles for women in this movie, and I do think that it’s a really important thing to do. It’s a long time coming...If I’m going to write and direct something, I’m going to want to surround myself with as many strong, intelligent women as I can.” Briony Kidd asks some excellent questions about this.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">(5) Like the International Grant, this is available after production is complete and paid for and sometimes in a different financial year than the NZFC's original production investment; where this happened I included the original production investment in my calculations. The local films included are: <i>The Stolen</i>; <i>Kiwi Christmas</i>; <i>The Changeover</i> (all received Screen Production Grants); and <i>Reunion</i>; <i>Daffodils</i>; <i>Baby, Done</i>; <i>Guns Akimbo</i>; <i>Savage</i>; <i>Waru</i>; <i>Hang Time</i>; <i>Vai</i>. Some of these may be eligible for Screen Production Grants that will appear in the next <i>Annual Report; </i>and<i> </i>I haven't included any taxpayer funding received from other sources like New Zealand on Air or Te Mangai Paho.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">(6) This may be a less of an issue for Māori men directors, six of whose features are in the <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/sites/default/files/Top20Films%20-%201-8-18.pdf">Top Twenty Films at the New Zealand Box Office</a>, and who have strongly established story sovereignty for Māori; and it may become become less of an issue for Māori and Pasifika women, thanks to recent 'by and about' Māori and Pasifika women-made features: <i>Waru</i>; <i>Vai</i>; the forthcoming <i>Cousins</i> and <i><a href="https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/same-but-different-nz-love-story-2019">Same but Different</a></i>; thanks to the shared directing in three of these and in <i>The Breaker Upperers</i>; thanks to all those who work on narrative webseries like <i>Friday Night Bites</i> and <i>Baby Mama's Club</i> that also embrace intersectionality and build audiences with imagination and skill; thanks to the new <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pasc.nz/">Pan-Asian Screen Collective</a>; thanks to Māoriland's and others' dedicated and imaginative hard work with rangatahi; and thanks to Māoriland's extraordinary holistic and inclusive framework that connects filmmaking to what's going on in the world right now, exhibiting indigenous films alongside other art forms and a series of associated inspiring events; and within a kaupapa committed to practices that contribute to a healthier mother earth. But sustaining a film practice will always be a challenge for women who also live with an amplified gender pay gap: Māori women, Pasifika women, Asian women.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">(7) The Distribution Grants at the moment include five categories, with discretion for at least two more–</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">1. Publicity and Advertising (P & A Grant), for activities usually associated with a theatrical release of a feature film: up to NZ$50,000 to cover up to 25 percent of publicity and/or advertising spend for the theatrical release of a New Zealand film in New Zealand. The distributors anticipate a box office and create their marketing spend around that. In exceptional circumstances the NZFC may provide a higher amount, as a loan, under exceptional circumstances established by the distributor not the NZFC. Any decisions about a loan would need to be made by the CEO and COO and the NZFC has never provided a higher amount as a loan.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">2. Virtual Print Fees payable to cinemas, at $500 per screen if there are agreements to screen the film in at least five cinemas across two major cities over a three-month period. These may soon become obsolete.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">3. Innovation Grant to support a strategy which aims to access new or non-traditional theatrical audiences through innovative and fresh approaches to releasing or promoting a film – up to 90 percent of the projected cost, to a maximum of $25,000, may be in addition to a P&A Grant for a larger-scale film release.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">4. Box Office Sales Grant, for those who have a P&A and/or an Innovation Grant for theatrical distribution – up to $1000 per film, to cover the costs of reporting box office sales via a third party organisation such as Rentrak or Numero.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">5. $7,000 is the maximum grant for films funded independently of the NZFC and without a recognised distributor attached.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Distributors with a release strategy which exceeds the P & A Grant cap would need to demonstrate increased audience reach and revenue estimates to access discretionary grants not mentioned in the guidelines, made after negotiations with the distributor.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">There's 'in season support', an additional amount the NZFC occasionally pays if a film does particularly well over its opening weekend and picks up additional screens in its second week. It is matched by the distributor dollar for dollar so they can continue to advertise the film after it has already opened.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">And premiere support is also occasionally offered if paying 25% of premiere costs through the P & A grant is not feasible for a distributor, due to the size or scope of the planned event. This $5K grant is usually less than the 25% the distributor would get via the P & A grant.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Warm thanks to NZFC staff for helping me make sense of these grants.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">(8) According to Merata Mita's <a href="https://www.nzonscreen.com/person/merata-mita/biography">biography</a> at <i>NZ On Screen</i>, 'local cinema chains weren't interested (at this time documentaries rarely played in Kiwi cinemas, outside of film festivals). <i>Patu!</i> was invited to film festivals around the globe'. But I think <i>Patu!</i> did screen in some New Zealand cinemas and her Awatea Films is listed as sole distributor on imdb. Happy to be corrected about this, of course, as with anything else!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">(9) The Swedish Film Institute's Anna Serner visited New Zealand, and the NZFC, in 2018, so perhaps 'relevance' will become part of its gender strategy.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">(10) According to <i><a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/newzealand/">Box Office Mojo</a>, The Great Maiden's Blush </i>took $46,213 at the Box Office in 2016. It came in at 182 on the list for that year. At 174 was <i>The Rehearsal</i>, in which the NZFC invested $1,760,360 for production and $42,500 for theatrical release support.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">(11) <i>Waru</i> received more, $50,744, and the totals for <i>Vai </i>and<i> Daffodils </i>are not yet available.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">(12) The Distribution Grants for <i>Pork Pie</i> and <i>The Breaker Upperers</i> were larger than many and made up of the following components–</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Pork Pie</i> ($123,500) P & A grant $50,000; VPF grant for 85 screens at $500 per screen $42,500 Innovation Grant $25,000; BOS Grant $1,000; Film Premiere support $5,000</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>The Breaker-Upperers</i> ($119,255) P & A grant $50,000; VPF grant for 57 screens at $500 per screen $28,500; BOS grant $1,000; Innovation grant $24,755; In season support $15,000</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">(13) <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/04/streaming-vs-moviegoing-study-nrg-deadline-movie-ticket-prices-box-office-1202586605/?fbclid=IwAR0hdPmDejZUrRZphcqcjY5_utYJn4vrZXnihINFuuxunZl1GqPfhtAKaGM">These just out</a>, from <i>Deadline</i>, illuminate a couple of related issues (for North Americans).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxGmjSRBhU53thZceVI2GGVQLH-nMQZJZvNihHQWDcsZEv6rUVFzyxpcoPICzKXGlpN7W3KPGH_UebxGJBuZYTmhpoX6tg9UTxMN3bEyQiz9VKMP_yj8gF2-LIQLkgBMOiDOKbDiRyuG0P/s1600/nrg-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="446" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxGmjSRBhU53thZceVI2GGVQLH-nMQZJZvNihHQWDcsZEv6rUVFzyxpcoPICzKXGlpN7W3KPGH_UebxGJBuZYTmhpoX6tg9UTxMN3bEyQiz9VKMP_yj8gF2-LIQLkgBMOiDOKbDiRyuG0P/s320/nrg-3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwbSz4yFJF5zDi_FnVgRZ7ly-4baL79MSF-pAWYIt-CWt0BnVbE2d77U9lGHsqz4N7d10etZbSHN8D8xi0WkE1tckbXOjH2q4vtbXeu162QpOPrA3UrOnc54Fd9cNxrc-8XFvo-RiJtnZ/s1600/55864920_363418924266068_5426104215380426752_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="309" data-original-width="487" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqwbSz4yFJF5zDi_FnVgRZ7ly-4baL79MSF-pAWYIt-CWt0BnVbE2d77U9lGHsqz4N7d10etZbSHN8D8xi0WkE1tckbXOjH2q4vtbXeu162QpOPrA3UrOnc54Fd9cNxrc-8XFvo-RiJtnZ/s320/55864920_363418924266068_5426104215380426752_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">(14)<span style="font-family: inherit;"> New Zealand's <a href="http://features.nzherald.co.nz/teen-suicide-an-untold-story/">youth suicide rates</a> were the <a href="https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/mental-health-and-addictions/working-prevent-suicide/understanding-suicide-new-zealand">second highest in the OECD</a> in 2011; and last year's <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/106532292/new-zealand-suicide-rate-highest-since-records-began">overall number</a> of self-inflicted deaths rose to a new high of 668 – 13.67 per 100,000 of population, with Māori disproportionately represented (97 men and 45 women).</span></div> </div><br />
wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-9825962474503000492019-02-12T14:33:00.000-08:002019-06-10T15:56:51.741-07:00Hang Time & Casey Zilbert<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hang Time still</td></tr>
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<i>Hang time is a new world wine term for the length of a vine’s growing season; the longer the grapes hang on the vine before harvest, the greater depth of flavour in the final wine. This also applies to our three heroes, who each need a little more time on the vine.</i></div>
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– <b>Hang Time</b> writer/director/producer Casey Zilbert and producer Steve Barr</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steve and Casey at work </td></tr>
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Casey Zilbert inspires me. One of those filmmaking and feminist Women Who Do It. Who does it with speed and style and skill, with warmth and humour and joy and consummate kindness. Who consistently supports other #womeninfilm (*&* some blokes!) in very beautiful ways.<br />
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Her first feature, <b><a href="https://hangtimemovie.com/">Hang Time</a></b>, is a wine-fuelled comedy for the new ‘lost generation’– millennials. It’s about millennials having a quarter-life crisis, premieres in Marlborough this weekend and then tours the country.<br />
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Inspired by classic Ernest Hemingway novel <b>Fiesta</b> (aka <b>The Sun Also Rises</b>) about drunken expats in Europe — at university, Casey’s studies included Fiesta and wine science — <b>Hang Time</b> was shot at a Marlborough winery in just 11 days (!).<br />
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Read the rest of this article on Medium <a href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/hang-time-casey-zilbert-9c38b001fd4c">here</a>, where it's prettier.<br />
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And book your tickets, <a href="https://hangtimemovie.com/tour-dates/">here</a>!<br />
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Or just watch Casey talk with Steve about filmmaking, right here.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p-SLfTZV-C8" width="560"></iframe><br />
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-23368527690339631482019-01-21T23:20:00.000-08:002019-04-10T01:00:07.343-07:00NZ Update #17.1 Safety Revisited(<a href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/nz-update-17-1-safety-revisited-7ddb4b620622">This is easier to read over on Medium</a>)<br />
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Back in October, just before the <a href="https://medium.com/@devt/directedbywomen-aotearoa-getting-with-the-suffrage125-programme-f861b6fbbe68">#directedbywomen screenings</a> in Auckland, I tumbled down a steep flight of wooden steps in Auckland's Ayr Street Reserve. Cracked one ankle and broke the fibula in my other leg. Missed spring gardening. Missed all of Wanuri Kahiu's visit (but not some beautiful responses from the many people she inspired and revitalised).<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfEbWSVIPhG2xJqJ_CAgnGoyMDIINVR9LXoqYD-DzVpkdDXtcJLGDx2wnMr_HR4_tFsy6gtOn-7SeoI-tjvsSe5GvcHqpR5qAlcPKQmN0yRdabfP3cGjPevtyAHWU8QtE7jr3DX5xzCKke/s1600/wanuri+at+Parliament+with+Jan+Logie.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="484" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfEbWSVIPhG2xJqJ_CAgnGoyMDIINVR9LXoqYD-DzVpkdDXtcJLGDx2wnMr_HR4_tFsy6gtOn-7SeoI-tjvsSe5GvcHqpR5qAlcPKQmN0yRdabfP3cGjPevtyAHWU8QtE7jr3DX5xzCKke/s320/wanuri+at+Parliament+with+Jan+Logie.png" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Bringing joy to Parliament: Wanuri with Jan Logie – Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Justice (Sexual and Domestic Violence Issues) and party spokesperson for ACC – after a Beehive theatre screening of Rafiki and a Q&A with Jan.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Couldn't transcribe or edit my #directedbywomen Skype interview with Isabel Coixet. Couldn't edit and publish other almost-ready interviews I cherished. Couldn't organise more screenings that filmmakers had requested, with the films' directors beamed in to Te Auaha's small treasure of a cinema for Q & As, also via Skype.<br />
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After two months almost entirely at home, half-way down a pedestrian-access steep zigzag, I'm fully mobile again. With thanks to the Accident Compensation Corporation's (ACC, our universal no-fault accidental injury scheme) fine services; to a traditional Chinese orthopedics specialist; to Wellington City Libraries' home delivery service; and to the kindness of family and friends. With deep-and-forever gratitude that I didn't break my neck. With similar gratitude towards those who stepped up at very short notice, to ensure that Wanuri was looked after; and towards those who've been patient with my delays and errors.<br />
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My highly privileged experience of seamless service from ACC and then a positive outcome was completely dissimilar to the ACC experiences of Jacqui Scott which I wrote about four years ago in <a href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2014/08/safety-in-paradise.html" style="font-weight: bold;">Safety in Paradise?</a>;<b> </b>and of the many other women who still haven't healed from the after-effects of medical mesh. And while I was so safely cared for, limping about on my crutches and very very tired, unable to concentrate for long, with fresh appreciation of the daily life challenges of all who are physically disabled – often more severely and for much longer – there was lots in the news about others feeling and being unsafe here.<br />
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2018 was our #MeToo year as much as the rest of the world's. We have very high rates of domestic violence including rape and sexual abuse; and in a tight housing market, <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/110558947/sex-for-rent-adverts-placing-women-at-risk-as-dark-side-of-housing-crisis-exposed">some men advertise</a> accommodation 'at reduced rates – or for free – in exchange for sex acts'. Rape and sexual abuse are also endemic outside our homes and there's bullying at work, too: just this week, <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/110126678/fire-and-emergency-new-zealand-to-remove-barriers-to-reporting-bullying">a story</a> appeared about harassment and bullying among staff at Fire and Emergency New Zealand, charged with keeping us all safe. Late last year, the nation-wide expression of grief and shame after a man murdered a woman tourist in Auckland triggered a difficult conversation about far less intense responses to other murders, of local women and children, by local men. <br />
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Alongside this, we had complex and painful debates about the safety of transpeople and others who are 'different'. The effects of colonisation and its associated racism continue to compromise safety and have long-term ill-effects too, as evidenced in the concerns identified in a <a href="https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/national/top-five-concerns-among-maori-2018">recent survey</a> among Māori, released by Māori TV –<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">Mounting debt and financial insecurity (26%)</div><div style="text-align: center;">Housing affordability, homelessness (21%)</div><div style="text-align: center;">State of rivers and lakes / concern for the land (19%)</div><div style="text-align: center;">Number of Māori children in State care (16%)</div><div style="text-align: center;">Number of Māori in prison & The rising suicide rate and the mental health system (equal at 9%)</div><br />
All risks are further amplified for women because the <a href="http://women.govt.nz/work-skills/income/gender-pay-gap">gender pay gap</a> is currently 9.2% and larger for Māori, Pasifika and Asian women; and our resources of time and money are further diminished because we spend far more time on unpaid and caring work than men do.<br />
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But in Public Address's annual survey of the <a href="https://publicaddress.net/hardnews/woty-the-kindness-scandal/">word of the year</a>, 'kindness' won: seeped through perhaps from our Prime Minister's United Nations <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/29-12-2018/summer-reissue-kindness-kaitiakitanga-watch-read-jacinda-arderns-us-address/">endorsement</a> of 'kindness and collectivism'; and from the hard-working people who work to advance safety-for-all. So that felt good.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Casey directing</span> </td></tr>
</tbody></table>But then, filmmaker Casey Zilbert sent an email to someone at the New Zealand Film Commission/Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga (NZFC, our taxpayer-funded film agency) about 'the years of emotional, financial and sexual abuse [she] has suffered in the screen industry'. And when she received neither acknowledgement nor a response to her email (she later learned her email had been filtered out in some way and hadn't reached the intended recipient) she posted on Facebook – 'Two weeks ago I wrote the bravest email of my life and officially broke my silence about the years of emotional, financial and sexual abuse I have suffered in the screen industry. That email has been neither acknowledged or answered. People wonder why women don't come forward… this is why'.<br />
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I was as shocked as I had been when I <a href="https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/taika-waititis-wife-reveals-sexual-harrasement-complaint/">read</a> how a crew member sexually harassed writer/director/producer Chelsea Winstanley on set, when she was directing. (Chelsea is also known as Chelsea Cohen, and celebrated as New Zealand's first filmmaker to advocate publicly for gender equity in taxpayer funding.) Over the last dozen years, I'd heard many other not-for-publication stories about women being abused in the screen industry. But I'd thought conditions had improved.<br />
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Casey's report of her experiences – about which I know nothing more than what I read on Facebook – inspired me to explore how those experiences might fit within wider contexts, among women artists within a national culture that is already unsafe for women and children; and in relation to recent advances that she and her peers have made and that the NZFC has made.<br />
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Before I fell, before Casey's post, by the end of 2018 I'd spent almost two years feeling optimistic about #womeninfilm in Aotearoa New Zealand. Because I could identify ongoing and satisfying change for the better, led by <b><a href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/nz-update-11-1-the-women-who-do-it-9965444ed894">The Women Who Do It</a></b>, a new generation of women who create long-form narratives for the screen, including webseries.<br />
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For years, because New Zealand had some 'exceptional' – because they were rare, as well as highly skilled – women feature filmmakers, it was believed we didn't have a gender problem: Dame Jane Campion of course (though based in Australia); Niki Caro, starting with <b>Whale Rider</b>, often working overseas and now in post-production on Disney's <b>Mulan</b>; prolific veteran Gaylene Preston, who will soon be invested as 'Dame Gaylene Preston'. But we have a gender problem going way back, as I formally identified, to the surprise of many people (but not most women filmmakers!) in 2007–8.<br />
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Some of these exceptions were and are writers and producers who tend to work with male directors. Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens work with Sir Peter Jackson (an unusual number of honorifics in this post!). And, more recently, less publicised but prolific multi-award winners Donna Malane and Paula Boock of Lippy Pictures. They've made five telemovies and are now in the middle of a six-part thriller, <b><a href="https://www.if.com.au/nine-network-mediaworks-head-for-the-gulf/">The Gulf</a></b>, a co-production with Germany. (It follows the moral disintegration of a female detective as she investigates crimes on her home patch of Waiheke Island.)<br />
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The new generation of women filmmakers can be distinguished from the 'exceptional' group because although they are sometimes perceived as the 'new' exceptions, they often refuse exceptionality. Notable for their focus on self-determination and inclusive self-representation for diverse women and their communities, they are visionary, hard-working, versatile and courageous screen industry change-makers. They work on films, on television series, on webseries and in theatre. They're often multi-hyphenates - directors-writers and actors for screen and theatre/ producers/ assessors-coaches-teachers. They often work both outside and within Aotearoa and within and outside taxpayer-funded systems.<br />
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Roseanne Liang is a great example. Her first feature, <b>My Wedding and Other Secrets</b>, was released in 2011, funded by the NZFC. Not long afterwards <a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/voices/audio/2018637725/gunning-for-hollywood-and-timesup-for-nz">she teamed up</a> with actors and storytellers JJ Fong, Perlina Lau and Ally Xue as 'a bunch of women with a dream', to create three seasons of the issues- and ideas-full comedic webseries <b>Flat3</b>; twenty-eight episodes of <b>Friday Night Bites</b>; six episodes of <b>Unboxed</b>; and eighteen episodes of <b>Feng Shui</b>. She also contributed to <b>K'Road</b> <b>Stories</b> and made shorts. One of only twenty women worldwide selected for the <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/paging-studio-chiefs-emerging-female-directors-touted-annual-survey-1074487">2018 <b>Alice Initiative</b></a>, alongside Reed Morano, Tina Mabry, Regina King and others, she's now in pre-production on <a href="https://deadline.com/2018/09/my-wedding-and-other-secret-roseanne-liang-fuse-thriller-1202473389/"><b>Shadow in the Cloud</b></a> (a thriller formerly known as <b>Fuse</b>, and starring Chloë Grace Moretz); and will also direct a feature based on her short <b><a href="https://deadline.com/2018/10/roseanne-liang-do-no-harm-movie-based-on-short-film-justine-gillmer-kelly-mccormick-david-leitch-1202481614/">Do No Harm</a></b>, which premiered at Sundance.<br />
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Others in this 'new' group might seem to fit within the old 'exceptional' tradition, because they've progressed to NZFC-funded features through the old-time pathway, via a successful short or two. For instance, in cinemas in 2018, among the NZFC-funded features and from the new generation of filmmakers we had <b>The Breaker Upperers</b>, written and directed by Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek and produced by Ainsley Gardiner and Georgina Allison Conder's Miss Conception; it shot to 15th place <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/sites/default/files/Top20Films%20-%201-8-18.pdf">all-time box office</a> for local features; it is now available on Netflix, I think the first New Zealand feature there.<br />
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Dorthe Scheffmann's <b>Vermilion</b> was released too, informed by her sophisticated Feminist Filmmaking Manifesto and building on her work as a commercials director and maker of beautiful short films, including the classic <b><a href="https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/the-beach-1995">The Beach</a></b> accepted into competition at Cannes in 1995. <b>Vermilion</b> had a 97% female crew and structured its shoot with alternate weeks of rehearsal and shooting. Distinguished actor – and president of <a href="https://www.actorsequity.org.nz ">Equity New Zealand</a> – Jennifer Ward-Lealand (she's always 'Dame Jennifer' to me!), playing <b>Vermilion</b>'s central character, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqgGD8ZTRKk">has said</a> – 'I think I'm spoiled now for filmmaking. It was such a wonderful experience'. Among the documentaries, Katie Wolfe directed <b><a href="https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/education/he-mangai-wahine-air-on-maori-television">He Māngai Wāhine</a></b> for television, a powerful story about Māori women and Suffrage. (This 'new' generation's practices, now forming a critical mass, also appear to some extent to overlap with some men's practices, like those of M2S1, whose three independent features started with the hugely popular <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/threewisecousins/">Three Wise Cousins</a></b>.)<br />
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So what's different about these women's practices?<br />
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When I wrote with optimism about <a href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/nz-update-11-1-the-women-who-do-it-9965444ed894"><b>The</b> <b>WomenWho Do It</b></a> eighteen months ago, I described some of the practices that I thought these creative visionaries had in common. I may be mistaken about some of them, or about including some of the filmmakers I listed then and refer to here, but here are the factors that continue to support my optimism. There's some repetition for those of you who read that earlier piece, but also some evolution of the ideas behind it. (Back then I speculated that the filmmakers were motivated – like outstanding multi-hyphenate Ava DuVernay – by the desire to 'build their own house' and by the social elements of creating an audience, affecting it and building a relationship with it, as identified by Louise Hutt during her <b>Online Heroines</b> webseries research. I still believe that's part of it. But there's more.)<br />
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While the taxpayer agencies: the NZFC and New Zealand on Air (NZOA, the broadcasting funding agency) – like similar agencies around the world – have been fumbling towards inclusionary best practices, the 'new' women filmmakers have been living those best practices, because their work almost always fulfils the criteria used by global best practice leader the Swedish Film Institute when it evaluates projects submitted for funding: 'gender equality'; 'diversity'; and 'quality', which has its own subset of criteria: relevance, originality, craft. And for me, the new generation's outstanding 'relevance' in its work reaches beyond their onscreen stories, because its makers appear also to be building what Tina Makereti has described in her <b><a href="https://medium.com/spiral-collectives/poutokomanawa-the-heartpost-1d643dc8376">Poutokomanawa - The Heartpost</a></b> – in relation to Aotearoa New Zealand's literature – as 'a kaupapa whare', a national house, 'a whare for all of us ... that must welcome and absorb and connect' all the screen stories and filmmakers and audiences of Aotearoa.<br />
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<b>The Women Who Do It</b> appear to work with urgency and to be fuelled by a philosophy encapsulated in Sue Monk Kidd's sentence in <b>The Secret Life of Bees</b>: 'Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here'. And they know that story-telling can heal: like Tina Makereti, they know that 'stories can save your life'. So they're not in it for the money (though some money is always good). Although the taxpayer supports some of their projects some of the time, they often support their original work from their own resources, earned elsewhere; and/or by crowdfunding; via other support from family and friends; through skill exchanges; and through other donations of time and materials. (More about the economics later.)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmO0dgzShBDQ2m_3fwuUc1Qy3fecigA_90aHMW5hWHF2QUYW1mhU06EGAJ6Oj90RQ-UWaDdYxGxOP0slTfjVNk9qh9oX6t_zYW_UivI57np7doJ1KektGmNZA67PaMBtzCeRM01ZlrBogp/s1600/IMG_5019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1109" data-original-width="1056" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmO0dgzShBDQ2m_3fwuUc1Qy3fecigA_90aHMW5hWHF2QUYW1mhU06EGAJ6Oj90RQ-UWaDdYxGxOP0slTfjVNk9qh9oX6t_zYW_UivI57np7doJ1KektGmNZA67PaMBtzCeRM01ZlrBogp/s320/IMG_5019.jpg" width="304" /></a></div><br />
From their actions, I think that – also like Ava DuVernay – these women believe '<a href="https://www.theroot.com/ava-duvernay-at-sxsw-if-your-dream-only-includes-you-1790859101">If your dream is only about you, it's too small</a>'. Kindness and collectivism, a generosity of spirit, are vital to their dreams and their processes. <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=12179867">According to</a> Chelsea Winstanley, one of the writer/directors on <b>Waru</b>, a chapter film by nine Māori women writers and directors, released in 2017, 'We don't have to do it the old-school way. Women can be better in numbers. While making <b>Waru</b>, we shared our ideas and our scripts with each other. That's what we, as women, can bring to this male-dominated profession'. Similarly, Katie Wolfe, another of the <b>Waru</b> women, has stated, ‘I myself need to make sure the women in the industry beside me are getting a chance to tell their stories’. And I suspect that many of these women would agree with <a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018673187/sir-kim-workman-we-talk-about-new-zealand-values-and-beliefs-what-are-they">Sir Kim Workman's idea</a> too, that personal ambition can be problematic (perhaps especially for an artist of any kind?) because – 'if you're ambitious you don't speak the truth'.<br />
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Also part of the generosity of spirit is acknowledgement of the benefits received from the work of/support of others, both women and men, *and* how that gives you responsibilities and obligations.<br />
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Writer/director/producer Ainsley Gardiner has <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/103350816/the-breaker-upperers-the-kiwi-comedy-breaking-new-ground-for-femaleled-filmmaking">been explicit</a> about her own experience and obligations - '…my mentor Larry Parr [a writer and producer whose credits include Kiwi classics like Sleeping Dogs, Smash Palace and Came a Hot Friday]… proactively promoted women and Māori. I've gotten to where I've gotten to because other Māori and women have actively fought so I don't have to experience prejudice and struggle, so I know there's an obligation on me to do exactly the same thing'.<br />
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Roseanne Liang benefitted from producer John Barnett's <a href="https://www.nzonscreen.com/person/roseanne-liang/biography">support</a> for <b>My Wedding and Other Secrets</b>– 'Most film graduates want the opportunity to make a feature film and it's a really hard road. But to have someone stride up to you and offer it to you is an incredibly lucky happenstance'. She too gives back; and last year was one of the founding members of the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pasc.nz/">Pan-Asian Screen Collective</a> (PASC), established to support 'emerging and experienced screen practitioners of pan-Asian heritage in Aotearoa/New Zealand'. PASC's goal 'is for New Zealand’s cultural landscape to honestly and equitably reflect pan-Asian faces, creativity, expertise, experience and history on screen and behind the camera' as it advocates for 'fairness, representation and equity in funding, and support the development of career pathways in the screen industries'. It will 'work with New Zealand's screen sector to understand and value the diversity of experience and stories pan-Asian New Zealanders offer so that 'we see and hear more of our many communities’ stories and storytellers in the broader and evolving narratives of Aotearoa/ New Zealand'. This kind of commitment is hard work; and generally unpaid.<br />
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The late Merata Mita (1942-2010) is <a href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2015/10/merata-is-always-with-us.html">always there for Māori women</a> and Chelsea Winstanley produced the beautiful doco <b>Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen,</b> directed by Merata's son Heperi. (It's just screened at Sundance and was acquired by Array, founded by Ava DuVernay. Chelsea Winstanley <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=12198091">said</a> – 'I just feel like Ava Duvernay and her philosophy, everything she's championing right now: representation, women, is completely in line with what Merata was trying to do in her lifetime. So it just seemed like the perfect fit…She loved the film and she loved the messages in it'. <b>Merata</b> will have its European premiere at the Berlinale.)<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh00gmSLHwpKmMlFmmMBZfYogyMT-_6iS58io6XUv4FIfxmwTpDkX9adigjUfsLF7HQvMdSZMvoH1ocdbtnwdznVzWLhPczYO-pJQSYnvMtPrHxGltV5fGf-n215OnuToiYf1LBKz-p7YFU/s1600/Merata+at+Sundance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh00gmSLHwpKmMlFmmMBZfYogyMT-_6iS58io6XUv4FIfxmwTpDkX9adigjUfsLF7HQvMdSZMvoH1ocdbtnwdznVzWLhPczYO-pJQSYnvMtPrHxGltV5fGf-n215OnuToiYf1LBKz-p7YFU/s320/Merata+at+Sundance.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">'Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen' at Sundance 2019– l to r: Merata’s son Rafer Rautjoki, Merata’s youngest son and the film’s director, Heperi Mita, Chelsea Winstanley and Ava DuVernay</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami <a href="https://www.filminquiry.com/interview-jackie-van-beek-madeleine-sami/">acknowledge</a> ongoing collegial relationships with Taika Waititi (who <a href="https://www.screendaily.com/news/netflix-boards-the-breaker-upperers-exec-produced-by-taika-waititi-exclusive/5129995.article">executive produced</a> <b>The Breaker Upperers</b>) and Jemaine Clement; and themselves employed a 60% women crew.<br />
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(As I understand them, I don't think these relationships are about mentoring, or mentoring only. They are or have been relationships with people who may themselves be mentors and role models but have also provided and referred to other mentors and role models, who advocate for the filmmakers they support, who authenticate them, who make them laugh, who provide a measure of protection.)<br />
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The work itself has some other distinguishing characteristics. <b>Women Who Do It </b> often make work with multiple protagonists and they're not fussy about form: whatever works. Chapter features and some webseries serve long-form narratives as well as 'conventional' features. <b>Waru</b> started out as a webseries idea, was taken on by the NZFC as 'eight short films', and as a chapter feature became the first feature written and directed by Māori women for 30 years; it continued to delight <a href="http://literalmagazine.com/where-are-you/">audiences round the world</a> throughout 2018 and into 2019.<b> </b>It's been followed by another chapter work, <b>Vai</b>,<b> </b>from the same producers,<b> Brown Sugar Apple Grunt</b>, to premiere soon <a href="https://www.berlinale.de/en/presse/pressemitteilungen/alle/Alle-Detail_48788.html">at the Berlinale</a> and <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/news/two-new-zealand-films-head-sxsw%20soon">SXSW</a>.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaCogcX4p3-OnxvWvyyx1AIUQg0jWw4GQoW5FXclHC_jFl81F0xSt2ridimig_ZFtkQOmFxGW00Bm_EbtEbYPNwrwfgXrzjAApVAI4bdggvp45vrksUaV37Oh-2-FIVoVPs4cEM7UJvEC/s1600/Vai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggaCogcX4p3-OnxvWvyyx1AIUQg0jWw4GQoW5FXclHC_jFl81F0xSt2ridimig_ZFtkQOmFxGW00Bm_EbtEbYPNwrwfgXrzjAApVAI4bdggvp45vrksUaV37Oh-2-FIVoVPs4cEM7UJvEC/s320/Vai.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The writer/directors of <b>Vai</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Among other exciting recent webseries work in the long-form narrative category is a new season of <b>Baby Mama's Club</b> directed by Hanelle Harris, with a transgender wahine as a central character, Kat; <b>Tragicomic</b> from the Candle Wasters, directed by Elsie and Sally Bollinger; and a doco, the <b>Minimum</b> series about low-wage workers, directed by Kathleen Winter.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5t8s4um0lohOPVAyNiJ2w73YLZkLp-yHdpxIH4DbEdv6pbq7lv83AgYFbjijG54Uza8HmY-yGUpb5EHc_Iz7M5BxrW-5c4eDrzsLScVgNjocivIe4C1NolbOT8SDvbDqLojkMG8PFyRq2/s1600/Baby+Mamas+Club+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1350" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5t8s4um0lohOPVAyNiJ2w73YLZkLp-yHdpxIH4DbEdv6pbq7lv83AgYFbjijG54Uza8HmY-yGUpb5EHc_Iz7M5BxrW-5c4eDrzsLScVgNjocivIe4C1NolbOT8SDvbDqLojkMG8PFyRq2/s320/Baby+Mamas+Club+.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><b>Baby Mama's Club</b> season 2: Moe Laga (Kat) and Hanelle Harris (Shan/writer/director/co-producer)</span><br />
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</div></td></tr>
</tbody></table>And a new season of <b>Aroha Bridge</b> written and co-directed by Jessica Hansell is due soon (my favourite episode of <b>Aroha Bridge</b> so far is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXthW7LsOGk">this one</a>, which is all about kindness to an artist).<br />
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Jennifer Ward-Lealand, who finds acting in webseries 'delightful experiences' <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqgGD8ZTRKk">suggested recently</a> that fewer constraints mean that everyone involved in webseries could be more creative, perhaps because of 'a freedom to do what we wanted'. This greater freedom and opportunity for experimentation, some of it probably due to enhanced creativity because of flexible hours, may be one reason so many of the new generation persist in making webseries. Even though the projects are woefully under-resourced, whether funded by NZOA or others and the makers themselves, or by the makers alone. And even though broadcasters don't seem to take webseries seriously as a screen art form: TVNZ flooded season two of <b>Baby Mama's Club</b> with irritating ads when it launched, at a rate that I don't think happens in their other programmes, demonstrating a lack of respect towards the work and a lack of understanding of its achievements. The length of a webseries episode is about the same as a short film and it's inconceivable that a short film screening would be twice interrupted by an ad; and a third time if a viewer wanted to see the credits.<br />
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But nothing stops these women: there's always a new project that moves things along. Writer/director/producer/actor Nikki Si’ulepa has made short films and has been in among the webseries as a contributor to <b>K’Road Stories</b> and star of the much-loved webseries <b>Pot Luck</b>. And she’s just released the trailer for <b>Same But Different</b>, her first feature and the first local narrative feature with lesbian protagonists since Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson’s <b>Heavenly Creatures </b>though<b> </b>Leanne Pooley's doco, <b>Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls</b>,<b> </b> sits in 14th place on our all-time top 20 NZ films.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsamebutdifferentmovienz%2Fvideos%2F589968891427655%2F&show_text=0&width=560" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Kindness and collectivism also bring new and life-enhancing ways of working. Here's how Ainsley Gardiner describes the heart of these ways, as one of the <b>Waru</b> women and winner of WIFT's <a href="https://mailchi.mp/5d2e0a46de1c/wift-mana-wahine-award-2018">2018 Mana Wahine Award</a> and now, with Briar Grace Smith, the 2019 Merata Mita Fellow. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglWqx5cDQSGaik1oaHyUu9wVIKKpq7Gmf4DPYQJcVA_9thzGu_458A7-cmUX1MFWibygPkFN1jYgzCOUawWq9tDEc8ZeflUGxvDjBPjyu5i1yTdI3F60UZ3KyUEYbC1KRAGPl5oG14mQBn/s1600/Briar+and+Ainsley+more.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="940" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglWqx5cDQSGaik1oaHyUu9wVIKKpq7Gmf4DPYQJcVA_9thzGu_458A7-cmUX1MFWibygPkFN1jYgzCOUawWq9tDEc8ZeflUGxvDjBPjyu5i1yTdI3F60UZ3KyUEYbC1KRAGPl5oG14mQBn/s320/Briar+and+Ainsley+more.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
During a Women & Hollywood <a href="https://blog.womenandhollywood.com/tiff-2017-women-directors-meet-ainsley-gardiner-waru-d8c5edda8767">interview</a> back in 2017 Ainsley said –<br />
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'The issue is not a statistical one for me. We can see a rise in the numbers of women in various roles without seeing a shift in the processes that underpin the industry, script development, production approaches, marketing, and distribution.'<br />
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And when she was asked for her advice to other women directors, she said - <br />
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'Work together. Strive together. Fight together. This industry is not geared towards the way that women work naturally, which is collaboratively, as a tribe. Share your work without fear. And support each other. Hire other women. Make it a priority.<br />
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We can't be successful as women by making it in a male-driven paradigm, we win when we change the paradigm. Looking forward to it!<br />
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Best advice bar none: feed them well. Merata Mita told me that filmmaking is a privilege afforded to very few. That privilege is a huge responsibility. Don't be an asshole. Take care of each other and for God's sake feed people properly.<br />
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We have to embrace what comes naturally to us. We are fierce nurturers and protectors of what is right. We can handle incredible pressure and pain. We can fight among ourselves, recover, make decisions that serve the community, and we can do so without losing anything for ourselves.<br />
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We would be well served to fund the experimentation of alternative ways of making films that are driven by women. It's pointless just bringing women in to sit at the king's table. We have far more to offer, and, of course, we are also the greatest consumers of our own stories.<br />
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The status quo is fearful.<br />
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It should be.'<br />
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The variants of the new kindness and collectivism in film inevitably include practices around care for children. From memory, the first local production to pay for an actor's child care costs was <b>The Great Maiden's Blush</b> (2016, director <a href="https://www.nzonscreen.com/person/andrea-bosshard-2/biography">Andrea Bosshard</a>, the prolific and conceptually sophisticated independent filmmaker who has written and co-directed, with Shane Loader, three features within a substantial body of work), which did so for Miriama McDowell, playing the film's protagonist. And on <b>Waru</b>, <a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/201858650/insight-women-s-work-and-the-gender-wage-gap">according to</a> Katie Wolfe ' … the nine of us, we have 17 children between us. We never had any limitations on bringing those children onto set'. And on another occasion <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11926306">she said</a> – 'It was very freeing to be able to work that way. All the stress and guilt goes away'.<br />
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Māoriland's seamless integration of women, children and young people into every aspect of its annual programmes, including its film festival, provides another model and another layer to filmmaking practice that reinforces what is happening on some screen projects. Its sixth festival will open in March with <b>Vai</b>; and it consistently shows a selection, 60% directed by women, that draws on its deep global connections with indigenous filmmakers. This year, it will launch New Zealand's <a href="https://maorilandfilm.co.nz/mff19-special-events/">first filmmakers residency</a>. (If you're reading this from outside Aotearoa and want to visit, March is a great time to come and experience the festival, but check out Maoriland's year-round programme <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MaorilandFilm/">here</a>, too.)<br />
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There are also variants of the 'joint director' idea, which fits nicely within collectivism and allows for two or more people with complementary skills and experience to share the directing tasks and enrich the project. I've already referenced Andrea Bosshard's practice, which was for years unique. And now the joint writer/directors of <b>The Breaker Upperers</b>, Jackie van Beek and Madeline Sami have reinforced the value of <b>Waru</b>'s joint writer/director practice (as did Stuart McKenzie and Miranda Harcourt on <b>The Changeover</b>; kudos to the NZFC for supporting all these choices). <br />
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Casey Zilbert belongs comfortably within this new generation, as someone who consistently experiments with new ways to thrive as a writer/director/producer, moving between New Zealand and the rest of the world. She consistently supports other women to thrive too, by sharing her opportunities with them.<br />
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Co-writer on one produced feature, <b>Born To Dance</b> (2015, Toronto and Berlin), in an attempt to establish a sustainable model of local filmmaking Casey'll release <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/HangTimeMovie/">Hang Time</a></b> in February, a low-budget feature that she's written, directed and co-produced and will distribute. In 2018, Casey won WIFTNZ's Fulcrum Media Finance Woman to Watch Award. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoEq6cLfeWAapk4dUnvQgjXC29A8RMT9TxSziA_PCcYp_4RsbQVzDZkW0qrx_uQdvWCKRK1o4adCtRx2iorVpsupiPp5oM_kbG50PvkMM_3wupnLsyFXY4Zj1TO3jCMQw2qQr6dANzG688/s1600/Hangn+Time+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="679" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoEq6cLfeWAapk4dUnvQgjXC29A8RMT9TxSziA_PCcYp_4RsbQVzDZkW0qrx_uQdvWCKRK1o4adCtRx2iorVpsupiPp5oM_kbG50PvkMM_3wupnLsyFXY4Zj1TO3jCMQw2qQr6dANzG688/s320/Hangn+Time+poster.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><br />
Graeme Tuckett's <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/film-reviews/110570694/hang-time-a-confident-competent-and-easytolike-kiwi-movie">review</a> of <b>Hang Time</b> calls it 'confident, competent and easy-to-like', so it's no surprise that a persistent and hugely likeable social media campaign accompanies the <a href="https://hangtimemovie.com/press">conventional media exposure</a> for the movie.<br />
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And it's no surprise that two <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRQMV6g8fjru4ymy4D74qDQ/videos">webseries</a> are part of it; and include this ep about feminist filmmaking.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p-SLfTZV-C8" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Casey's alert and generous interview of Rouzie Hassanova after Rouzie's <b>Radiogram</b> screened during 2018's #directedbywomen was beautiful too, one of the finest Q & As I've ever attended. For me it typified the quality of her engagements with the diverse women writers and directors she supports and inspires and builds relationships with and my understanding of that quality was confirmed when I watched the excellent Epilogue to the Ernest Steve webseries that accompanies <b>Hang Time</b>, written and directed by Rouzie. <br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XVQNnL39u6g" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Finally, I really liked Casey's recent Facebook post in support of some fund-raising young filmmakers, because after succinctly describing the problems for emerging women filmmakers, she so explicitly incorporates characteristics of kindness and collectivism–<br />
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'Many young female filmmakers get stuck at the emerging level due to a lack of consistent funding. Lower budgets mean lower production value. Unfortunately many producers/financiers/audiences associate low production value with a lack of talent... and the cycle of funding imbalance continues to keep incredible talent from reaching their true potential. The best way for Wellington to change this global funding imbalance is to directly support the female filmmaking community through events like this. These baby filmmakers aren’t our competition, they are in our care'.<br />
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Beyond the inspiring practices and practitioners and their work, last year I was further encouraged when the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/screenwomensactiongroup/"><b>Screen Women's Action Group</b></a> (SWAG) came into being, took a survey, held meetings nationwide and decided to focus on sexual violence, with support from organisations like the ACC, which has a long history of providing some support for those who've been sexually abused. And in Wellington, two women founded the <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/242118849902767/">Emerging Women Filmmakers Network</a></b> for a large group of enthusiastic women.<br />
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And the BBC's six-parter <b>The Luminaries</b> was a classicly 'exceptional' local shoot, adapted and executive produced by Eleanor Catton, from her Booker-Prize-winning novel.<br />
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So much excitement and pleasure. And then, towards the end of the year, <a href="http://script-to-screen.co.nz/2018/11/4642/">a post</a> from Story Camp Advanced Aotearoa showed Briar Grace Smith, who is working on the long-awaited adaptation of Patricia Grace's classic, <b>Cousins</b>, standing right next to Jane Campion (and alongside lots of other women) and I thought O! O! Maybe <b>Cousins</b> will be a series, like <b>Top of the Lake</b>!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieOMSL_733Mv_jigiHCFMtQm896ocEXel0OQb1nf81fcjijUbcJOqiAxY7pq0RE4C_Xf0_qwj2awJMNd7-5ThV9GCvYUt7QUYHb3LqJI_GPENMbLzVYo4dAkp7F8cXlR7znP5B_5_Q1_ly/s1600/script+to+screen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="543" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieOMSL_733Mv_jigiHCFMtQm896ocEXel0OQb1nf81fcjijUbcJOqiAxY7pq0RE4C_Xf0_qwj2awJMNd7-5ThV9GCvYUt7QUYHb3LqJI_GPENMbLzVYo4dAkp7F8cXlR7znP5B_5_Q1_ly/s320/script+to+screen.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Back left – Jane Campion next to Briar Grace Smith, among all the others at Script to Screen's Advanced Story Camp Aotearoa 2018</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>---<br />
There were reasons to feel optimistic about the NZFC, too even though it's persisted in its belief that women are somehow responsible for our low participation in feature-filmmaking that the agency funds– 'They/you need to build confidence. They/you need to build skills.' That undercurrent of blame that's very familiar to women, from other contexts.<br />
<br />
I don't believe that having women as policy- and decision-makers guarantees improved conditions for women in the screen industries. I've heard many stories about men advocating for women filmmakers when women did not and an individual's gender is not the key characteristic required for them to have the capacity and will to transform a system that has never been inclusive. (For over a decade I believed that only court action would force the necessary changes, partly because I identified many women producers who preferred to engage with projects written and directed by men. Then, by chance I met someone working at Treasury who explained that gender equity could be achieved almost immediately if Treasury tagged NZFC funding so that half of the investment in development and production of features had to be for projects written and directed by women. And that seemed much more straightforward, so I changed my mind.)<br />
<br />
But then Jacinda Ardern became Prime Minister and Minister for Culture and Heritage. So I felt confident that her philosophy of 'kindness and collectivism' would prioritise policies to ensure inclusive systems of taxpayer-funded storytelling – in every medium.<br />
<br />
And I did think it might help women in the screen industries when in early 2018 the NZFC once again appointed a woman as CEO: Annabelle Sheehan.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpCh7hvvVxm93kdpHWRsEdmBGGpczFsqf7J0hFo003Y4Kg_NnUk6ezDgI4WuGwJ8zhhlaiinDSyUKw0H3Sb-xZwEl9Sk-Ck8CdysFXjf_anx58BQb85hZDEkTxXwZQGlNzsfLqx__hcsR0/s1600/Bill+Sheat%252C+Governor-General+Dame+Patsy+Reddy+Annabelle+Sheehan+Dame+Kerry+Prendergast.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="523" data-original-width="804" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpCh7hvvVxm93kdpHWRsEdmBGGpczFsqf7J0hFo003Y4Kg_NnUk6ezDgI4WuGwJ8zhhlaiinDSyUKw0H3Sb-xZwEl9Sk-Ck8CdysFXjf_anx58BQb85hZDEkTxXwZQGlNzsfLqx__hcsR0/s320/Bill+Sheat%252C+Governor-General+Dame+Patsy+Reddy+Annabelle+Sheehan+Dame+Kerry+Prendergast.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The NZFC's 40th birthday celebrations at Government House November 2018, with l. to r. Bill Sheat first NZFC Chair, Sir David Gascoigne, also a former Chair, his wife Dame Patsy Reddy also a former Chair and now Governor-General, Annabelle Sheehan current CEO and Dame Kerry Prendergast current Chair</span> </td></tr>
</tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBfQiYHSY5aTwAK0W9k1VOyGjC4siXjYm_O_Eh4e5yJ9jNssiKett814ljed3uWLum73dGDmgmndYKM2gDVNlJ47ZX8e1o62oyklKM9S0smmfFS4-NaFayzCaC0bWFU4DcqwEWvaEbXJX2/s1600/gg-nov18-nzfilmcommission+018+copy.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="265" data-original-width="400" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBfQiYHSY5aTwAK0W9k1VOyGjC4siXjYm_O_Eh4e5yJ9jNssiKett814ljed3uWLum73dGDmgmndYKM2gDVNlJ47ZX8e1o62oyklKM9S0smmfFS4-NaFayzCaC0bWFU4DcqwEWvaEbXJX2/s320/gg-nov18-nzfilmcommission+018+copy.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Also at the celebrations with past & present NZFC CEOs: at far left Dave Gibson, Ruth Harley to the right of Annabelle Sheehan and at far right Graeme Mason</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>As well, the eight-member NZFC <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/new-zealand/about-us/our-board">board</a> is now half women, of whom two are Māori – a Māori man is also a board member – and is chaired by a woman, Kerry Prendergast, who has just become Dame Kerry. Two of the four-member NZOA board are also women; and it is chaired by Ruth Harley, who used to be CEO of the NZFC and then of Screen Australia. (The agencies recently announced Raupapa Whakaari, a joint venture to co-fund the development of high-end adult drama series that will appeal to the international market as well as New Zealand audiences and it's not hard to imagine that in due course they will amalgamate, though there are always risks in amalgamating into a single large taxpayer funding body, as <a href="http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=114388&fbclid=IwAR0GkruRViSew440HOegiCkXDJmDo5tcchRG5fuAuJAvpGKotGlNjYxv7Cs">demonstrated</a> after the absorption of our National Library and National Archives into the Ministry of Internal Affairs.)<br />
<br />
Then, early in 2018, at a National Library-based event tucked between exhibitions about the Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi (1840, The Treaty) which guarantees Māori control of Māori treasures, including its language and its stories, and Women's Suffrage in New Zealand (in 1893), the NZFC made a wonderful group of announcements.<br />
<br />
I loved hearing about the new <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/resources/te-rautaki-m%C4%81ori-english">Te Rautaki policy</a> based in the Treaty; and especially loved that part of its action plan is to 'Develop frameworks and guidelines to assist with decision-making about Māori content and funding, including the creation of "cultural safety guidelines" for the industry and stakeholders'. This is a huge commitment.<br />
<br />
'Cultural safety', also <b>Kawa Whakaruruhau</b>, if you're not familiar with it, is a system developed by scholar, artist, nurse and visionary Irihapeti Ramsden, as described very fully in <a href="https://www.nzno.org.nz/Portals/0/Files/Documents/Services/Library/2002%20RAMSDEN%20I%20Cultural%20Safety_Full.pdf">her PhD thesis</a> and most strongly adopted and further developed in nursing practice here and around the world.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXKQjYecK-iEQYrSoTlOkFYL2jGj0REZQeL7TeYquF8Ba0VIlxjSXBRYQNNwKyqeNOcpEtqzWocIshyphenhyphenc6TZu5QEWPTFzseGx69XCvvIQgN3mLQ7uxdIKXHQOldyvfqXH56CcMpb0IXXf-0/s1600/Irihapeti_Ramsden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="780" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXKQjYecK-iEQYrSoTlOkFYL2jGj0REZQeL7TeYquF8Ba0VIlxjSXBRYQNNwKyqeNOcpEtqzWocIshyphenhyphenc6TZu5QEWPTFzseGx69XCvvIQgN3mLQ7uxdIKXHQOldyvfqXH56CcMpb0IXXf-0/s320/Irihapeti_Ramsden.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Irihapeti Ramsden 1946-2003</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>According to Irihapeti, cultural safety 'allows the consumer to say whether or not our service is safe for them to approach and use … Designed as an educational process by Māori, it is given as a koha to all people who are different from the service providers whether by gender, sexual orientation, economic and educational status, age or ethnicity. It is about the analysis of power and not the customs and habits of anybody' [i.e. not 'cultural awareness' or 'cultural sensitivity'].<br />
<br />
Cultural safety education focuses on the understanding of self as a bearer of culture and a process where an individual service provider reflects on their own cultural identity and the impact that their personal culture has on their professional practice. A little like an individual's examination of their conscious and unconscious biases as well as their privilege, it develops an understanding of the historical, social and political influences on professional practice. It focuses on developing relationships that engender trust and respect. And it continues to evolve, with some highly experienced practitioners available to provide guidance.(According to the NZFC <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/sites/default/files/2018-11/NZFC_ANNUALREPORT_2018%20FINAL.pdf">latest Annual Report</a>, for 2017–2018, it has recently 'reviewed and updated [its] Anti-Bullying and Sexual Harassment Policy and run Sexual Harassment Awareness training for all staff and the Board', so cultural safety training could be an extension of a training programme already in place.)<br />
<br />
It's not hard to see how the development and adoption of the NZFC's cultural safety guidelines for Te Rautaki could also benefit all people who are different from the public servants who are service providers at the NZFC. As I remember it, from when I filmed Irihapeti's thesis interviews around the turn of the century, with the <a href="https://medium.com/spiral-collectives">Spiral Collective's</a> new digital camera (*broadcast quality images*!!), cultural safety requires service providers to develop the capacity to ask 'Who benefits?' and 'How?' and 'Why?' from a service, and then the flexibility and the skills to ask someone who presents themselves at the service 'How can I help?', to listen carefully to the response(s) and then to do everything possible to provide what's asked for. (Jackie Clark's approach with the legendary <a href="https://www.aunties.co.nz/theaunties-about-us/">Aunties</a> charity is a fine example of a contemporary organisation that provides a culturally safe service for people affected by domestic violence.)<br />
<br />
The same evening that the NZFC announced Te Rautaki, the agency also awarded the nine <b>Waru </b>women the first Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga Māori Screen Excellence Award, for Māori filmmakers whose work makes an impact locally and/or internationally. Each woman received $50k to assist with her work; for the taxpayer to invest $450k in nine Māori women artists on a single day, in any medium, was unprecedented. In addition, the NZFC announced that it had started research and policy development of programmes and funding to support and encourage a range of under-represented voices in the film industry; and the 125 Fund to celebrate the anniversary of women's suffrage, offering up to $1.25 million to each of two feature projects. The 125 Fund has since offered production funding to three women-written and -directed features that it had already supported for development: <b>Hawk Mountain</b> by writer/director Loren Taylor (<b>Eagle vs Shark</b>); <b>The Justice of Bunny King</b>, written by Sophie Henderson (<b>Fantail</b> and <b>Baby, Done</b>) and directed by Gaysorn Thavat (<b>Brave Donkey</b> and <b>The Gulf</b>); and <b>Poppy</b>, written and directed by Linda Niccol (<b>Second Hand Wedding</b>). I got to know each of the writers a little when I interviewed them a while ago and am excited about their projects and delighted that they are funded.<br />
<br />
As well, a significant cohort of women producers received 'Boost' funding: multihyphenate Kate Prior; Alix Whittaker; Reikura Kahi, Selina Joe and Whetu Fala within the Wheke Group; Alex Reed; Nadia Maxwell.<br />
<br />
Then, late in the year, the Swedish Film Institute's legendary Anna Serner made an official visit, funded by the NZFC-funded WIFTNZ, as a speaker at the annual Big Screen Symposium and then as an adviser to the NZFC. That can only be good!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj06MG9_HnmIrUK1pJ1DPtrb46LrH5xnmcUMD4PuIlvqY8GbA1og4zRK5KnBW04zv5ci2KZgx9gAyCBbEX2Hj-TH6hklpXkFgTzyk0jeThaFzMFFBZ0HlgNPEnLViA_vEIwVIgk-ama6EF4/s1600/Anna+Serner+at+the+NZFC+Nov+18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1600" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj06MG9_HnmIrUK1pJ1DPtrb46LrH5xnmcUMD4PuIlvqY8GbA1og4zRK5KnBW04zv5ci2KZgx9gAyCBbEX2Hj-TH6hklpXkFgTzyk0jeThaFzMFFBZ0HlgNPEnLViA_vEIwVIgk-ama6EF4/s320/Anna+Serner+at+the+NZFC+Nov+18.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Anna Serner visits the NZFC November 2018, with WIFTNZ's Patricia Watson at far left next to Leanne Saunders and CEO Annabelle Sheehan second from the right at the front</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>And a gender working group has been established within the NZFC to look at ways of increasing the number of women entering and remaining in the industry.<br />
<br />
But then came Casey's post.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
Casey's first post was followed by another one: 'The number of women who have come forward to talk with me following my post has proven how common my experiences have been, and how important it is that we start having a more open discussion about the real challenges facing women in the film industry. Many of these women have shared a fear of not being funded should they come forward, and others share my concerns that many who have turned a blind eye over the years are now involved with screen safe organisations and it has created a real sense of mistrust between women and the organisations put in place to protect them'.<br />
<br />
When I asked which 'screensafe organisations' Casey meant, she named NZWG, SWAG and WIFTNZ ('<a href="http://screensafe.co.nz/">ScreenSafe</a>' also refers to an organisation that supports and promotes health and safety in our screen sector). She also stated that 'If people continue to think sexual abuse is the only form of abuse women experience in this industry then we are barely scratching the surface of the challenges we are facing. Many established women are nervous about extending outside sexual harassment as it would mean looking at their own behaviour. Needless to say, many women have been foot soldiers for bigger bullies in this industry'.<br />
<br />
While I absorbed that, I turned to her reference to economic abuse which reminded me (yet again) that the necessary resources – time and money – required for sustained filmmaking are particularly problematic for women. A commitment to screen storytelling amplifies the limited access to resources that we share with all New Zealand women and with women artists working in other mediums. I believe it also amplifies our exposure to violence and the effects of violence.<br />
<br />
---<br />
<br />
An arts career is always a risky undertaking, for anyone. For instance, financial risks include those recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/sep/02/academic-exposing-ugly-reality-high-fashion-giulia-mensitieri">identified</a> in the fashion industry and local exploitation like Creative New Zealand's (CNZ) unpaid internships at the Venice Biennale, now <a href="https://www.thebigidea.nz/stories/breakthrough-creative-new-zealand-take-new-stance-to-support-their-venice-biennale-exhibition">being reconsidered</a>, thanks to Francis McWhannell, practices which privilege those who have access to financial and other support from elsewhere, as also documented in a <a href="https://writersguild.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/APPG-inquiry-on-social-mobility-inquiry-outline-1.pdf">recent report</a> from the UK Writers Guild re social mobility.<br />
<br />
But it's tougher for women. CNZ's <b>Portrait of the Artist</b>, now almost twenty years old, is I think the last major research about access to time and money for artists. Its participants included filmmakers and it showed that, although the national gender pay gap was 15.2% that year, the gender gap for artists was much wider: women artists' gross income was only about half men's.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7vy-fm_zOyyAcWwj67zupfzMerly5aRo8XXWowbYeivDeWZGmZJV73RjXdsb8p7F6naCv9SS4sSpCi43Ze-1xP-r9myxZzytt39kPgC2IG3LwOp5NXk8uVld8LbswovW6R7EiJ24vHfqD/s1600/Portrait+of+the+Artist+Tble+17.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="842" data-original-width="814" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7vy-fm_zOyyAcWwj67zupfzMerly5aRo8XXWowbYeivDeWZGmZJV73RjXdsb8p7F6naCv9SS4sSpCi43Ze-1xP-r9myxZzytt39kPgC2IG3LwOp5NXk8uVld8LbswovW6R7EiJ24vHfqD/s320/Portrait+of+the+Artist+Tble+17.png" width="310" /></a></div><br />
(As you can see, only two genders were included and intersectional information, for example about Māori women, wasn't sought or provided. There's also no specific information about Asian and Pacific women artists, whose ethnicity means that it's more likely they earn less than Pākehā and Māori women, though that kind of information is also complicated by the many people with multiple ethnic identities.)<br />
<br />
Women artists were also out of paid work because of domestic responsiblities about twice as often as men; and out of paid work because of illness or accident much more often than men. Was that sometimes or often because of recovery from sexual abuse or domestic violence or bullying at work, all of which cause immediate physical effects and immediate and long-term psychological effects and can also compromise the immune system?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuYQAINTEVRVrbYxQUmHM2NLzCMuy6ioit5rov5S8kDdsi5lJLVF_MwZEoZ2IyGlHj0xBdLddo5fSV-PGV0DBHh5OOkEiREs6fZwKGlAST7mlwdSmg9iD_HMfJi25N-OqTTE4tcDpgNmhA/s1600/out+of+work.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="542" data-original-width="800" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuYQAINTEVRVrbYxQUmHM2NLzCMuy6ioit5rov5S8kDdsi5lJLVF_MwZEoZ2IyGlHj0xBdLddo5fSV-PGV0DBHh5OOkEiREs6fZwKGlAST7mlwdSmg9iD_HMfJi25N-OqTTE4tcDpgNmhA/s320/out+of+work.png" width="320" /></a></div>I doubt whether these gendered imbalances have much changed. And in every case they are exacerbated by experiences like the one articulated by a <b>Portrait of the Artist</b>'s filmmaker participant, common experiences among artists – 'Constant rejection takes up a large portion of your life and you don't earn a thing. You lose faith in yourself and you have to live virtually on no income'. That filmmaker was fortunate – 'Support from my partner keeps me going financially'.<br />
<br />
More recently, screen women have talked very openly about the challenges of 'income'. The night the <b>Waru</b> women were awarded the Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga Māori Screen Excellence Award Katie Wolfe, in an elegant speech in te reo and in English, noted that they're 'poor' and the award would make a huge difference. Now, with the award, Katie said, 'Ka rere mātou', 'We're going to fly'. For a little while at least.<br />
<br />
At a #directedbywomen event in 2018, those who work on webseries, some of them funded by NZOA, discussed how the revolution in representation that they'd effected relied heavily on favours from other creative professionals and on their own income from other sources; in their <b>Online Heroines</b> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Gkr3dBGFoo">episode</a> (around 9 minutes in), The Candle Wasters are particularly open about their financial struggles. They pay their costs, including the costs of employing others. But even with NZOA funding, each of them receives a limited fee, not a wage, and it’s not enough to live on, so they all work part time or flexible jobs to make ends meet. They needed to figure out how to pay people properly, otherwise it wasn’t sustainable and still needed to work towards making it more sustainable for them as the creators.<br />
<br />
Others are in the same position. Another webseries maker told me– '[The webseries] has occupied my life for over two years now and I have not had any income from it despite the NZOA funding.' That's true for women making feature films, too. Jackie van Beek has <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=12180482">acknowledged</a> that she was 'effectively paying' to complete post-production on her first feature and late in 2018, this is what she and Madeleine Sami <a href="https://www.filminquiry.com/interview-jackie-van-beek-madeleine-sami/">said</a> about the economic realities of filmmaking, the financial strain that comes with making a film in New Zealand –<br />
<br />
'I remember at the time when we had <b>The Breaker Upperers</b> all over the back of the buses in Auckland, and we were on billboards and stuff, and a lot of people were saying to me, "Oh man, Jacks, you're killing it! You must be like, so rich,"' says van Beek.<br />
<br />
'We're very lucky because we sold to Netflix US, and we're very lucky that we are getting paid for that – our back-end deals are coming through. But at the time we were on the buses, none of that money had started coming through, so people were saying I should be buying them drinks - I'm like, "I don't have any money! What are you talking about?"'<br />
<br />
'It's always the way in New Zealand – people think if you're on TV, that you're rich,' says Sami. 'Most of the time in New Zealand if you make a movie, it puts you in debt.'<br />
<br />
Patricia Watson, Executive Director of WIFTNZ, with a membership weighted towards women working in production, speaks mostly with women and with 'a tiny handful' of non-binary WIFTNZ members. She recently emailed to say – 'You would be horrified at the number of people in the screen industry who earn no, or next to no income in any given year, and many of them are mid-career. This includes some established producers'.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDoUA7XyH1rTz4fVIFX4Aovil6BMLJos1LEr6rRNEtXhbVdExjBoYEE_TbzWzG3odfFeYni0YxhdWj6X_GwMWQQC-GNxVzplm54Ye3FuLYrchQ3yylOqvmtOShtMVuD9cdX774AjWa3CyR/s1600/WIFTNZ+2017.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="400" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDoUA7XyH1rTz4fVIFX4Aovil6BMLJos1LEr6rRNEtXhbVdExjBoYEE_TbzWzG3odfFeYni0YxhdWj6X_GwMWQQC-GNxVzplm54Ye3FuLYrchQ3yylOqvmtOShtMVuD9cdX774AjWa3CyR/s320/WIFTNZ+2017.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">WIFTNZ membership 2017: to be updated</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>And yes, the situation is probably similar for some men. But far fewer men have those additional burdens within the general community, of lower earning power and more unpaid work and reduced personal security; and further burdens within the screen industries, of greater exposure to abuse, often compounded by intersectional issues.<br />
<br />
<b>Portrait of the Artist</b> didn't address working conditions that can affect mental health for artists. But as noted at the very beginning of this post, mental health is another major contemporary issue among all New Zealanders. I know of only one piece of research that studies safety and mental health among New Zealand artists, Lorraine Rowland's <a href="http://mro.massey.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10179/1083/02whole.pdf">thesis</a>, <b>The Life of Freelance Film Production Workers in the New Zealand Film Industry</b> (and two associated articles, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303907054_The_systems_psychodynamics_of_gendered_hiring_Personal_anxieties_and_defensive_organizational_practices_within_the_New_Zealand_film_industry">here</a> and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726711431494">here</a>) based on interviews with twenty-one freelance production workers in the film industry, ten of them women. It argues that freelance production workers' complex psychological relationship with their work is a product of their work environment that helps to perpetuate industry conditions which disadvantage the workforce.<br />
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Lorraine interpreted the stories she heard in relation to current structural conditions, working practices, and power imbalances within the New Zealand film industry and reported although that her respondents 'enjoyed the creative challenges, camaraderie, excitement, and intensity of their working lives and identified strongly with their work…they also experienced continual financial insecurity, unpredictable and demoralising periods of unemployment, and recurrent [often mental health related] problems maintaining a reasonable work-life balance'. The women appeared to pay a particularly high price for their involvement in the industry and often sacrificed other areas of their lives for their careers. Often they compensated for this imbalance by becoming even more career focussed, thus compounding the problems in non-work areas of their lives.<br />
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Wider-ranging Australian research has also demonstrated how societal risks to personal safety are <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/584a0c86cd0f68ddbfffdcea/t/587ed93e3e00be6f0d145fe0/1486006488652/Working+in+the+Australian+Entertainment+Industry_Final+Report_Oct16.pdf">amplified</a> in the entertainment industry. I think Australia is close enough to New Zealand - although entirely different (think France and Belgium, Vietnam and its neighbours, or Hawa'ii and California) – for New Zealanders to find it useful.<br />
<br />
Published in 2014 and 2016, by <a href="https://www.entertainmentassist.org.au/">Entertainment Assist</a>, working with the College of Arts at Victoria University in Melbourne, the research includes people from the film industry among the roughly 2000 respondents and the researchers found that that the majority of Australian entertainment industry workers express an overwhelming passion for their creative work. But they also found that work is characterised by long and unrewarding working hours and a lack of appreciation for years of commitment and a powerful, negative culture within the industry that includes a toxic, bruising work environment; extreme competition; bullying; sexual assault; sexism and racism, all ignored or dealt with inadequately. Not surprisingly, the researchers also measured very high levels of mental health problems (moderate to severe anxiety symptoms ten times higher than in the general population, depression symptoms five times higher) and extremely high rates of suicide ideation, planning and attempts. Gender differences weren't marked in most categories, a little surprisingly, given the pervasiveness of sexual assault and sexism, compounded for those also affected by racism.<br />
<br />
So. The possible outcomes of unsafe practices in the screen industries are more serious than I ever imagined. Gosh.<br />
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As I considered women filmmaker safety and the roles of economic and mental health issues, I was also reading a book recommended by director Lexi Alexander, from one of my 'home delivery' parcels via Wellington City Libraries. It's called <b>The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us From Violence</b>, by Gavin De Becker. <br />
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This book is, according to Meryl Streep, 'A thorough and compassionate primer for people concerned about their safety and the safety of their families'. Carrie Fisher described it as a book 'for anyone who wants to discover their intuition and use it to enhance their safety'. In a truly riveting read, De Becker, a security expert, unpicks the elements of 'intuition' and affirms how important it is not to deny intution's information but to trust it to help keep ourselves safe.<br />
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If people aren't safe, and many women aren't safe in New Zealand, we're less likely to contribute strongly, in any of our roles. And if we don't feel safe in a particular system, we are also less likely to participate at all, whether in an governmental immunisation programme, or an NZFC programme.<br />
<br />
So I thought some more about Casey's story and the NZFC's position within our culture's lack of safety for all women, and within the screen industries' amplification of this. I believe that intuitively and for good reason many women do not trust the taxpayer agencies, regardless of who is currently in charge and this, along with the economic insecurity many women face, probably affects our level of participation in various programmes, especially feature film development and production.<br />
<br />
Factors that affirm our intuitive lack of trust include the organisation's demonstrable four-decades-long entrenched preference for golden boys' projects (and a small number of ‘exceptional’ women’s, now including some from some women who are part of the new generation that refuses or resists ‘exceptionality’) and persistent rumours of a 'closed shop' because the organisation has a very limited 'list' of filmmakers it will take seriously (again sometimes including women from the new generation).<br />
<br />
Historically there's also a problem with the agency's reputation for inadequate assessments of some women's work, perhaps particularly those who do not have a strong advocate for their work. Katie Wolfe's <a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/201858650/insight-women-s-work-and-the-gender-wage-gap">statement</a>, on Radio New Zealand (RNZ), back in 2017, may not be about the NZFC but echoes others from many women I've spoken with, about what happens when women present work that reflects our realities, to the NZFC as well as to producers and to television commissioners – '... when you're submitting work which is very female-focused, sometimes the reaction to it is "That doesn't feel quite right" or "I don't recognise that". Of course you don't understand it, you've never heard it before. We're making the world care differently and see differently, because we haven't had the chance to hear these stories before'.<br />
<br />
(This isn't unique to New Zealand, though it's likely to be more marked for Māori, Pasifika and Asian women and for other 'different' women; Patty Jenkins <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristenlopez/2019/01/22/patty-jenkins-talks-films-feminism-and-i-am-the-night/#3c9045b16da4">encounters similar problems</a> at the big American studios.)<br />
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In the same RNZ interview, Katie's comments about bias against Māori women also aren't necessarily about the NZFC, but mirror comments I've heard made about its sometimes under-informed responses to women filmmakers. 'Before <b>Waru</b> was made', she said, 'when it was pitched as an idea, someone quipped "there wouldn't be eight Māori women in this country that could helm a feature film", which was just crazy because the women who helmed this feature film were incredibly experienced'.<br />
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In the last few years, after the NZFC established <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/news/additions-nzfc%E2%80%99s-gender-policy-announced">a gender policy</a> that required it to 'engage' with more women filmmakers, I've heard stories about 'empty' meetings that seem concerned only to tick a box. For me, it's always pleasant and interesting to visit the NZFC HQ but I think I've experienced a few 'empty' meetings myself, when I've been invited to a meeting by one person – once with a 'How can we help?' kind of overlay – then found myself among four or five staff members whose interests and agenda(s) remained opaque. Each time I arrived home thinking 'Whatever was that all about?' (I remain grateful that the NZFC provided access to its cinema for #directedbywomen and a staff member to run it, for test screenings.)<br />
<br />
So with all this in mind I went back to the 125 Fund for a closer look.<br />
<br />
When announcing the fund in March 2018, as part of the NZFC's wider diversity policy, which includes the issue of gender imbalance, Annabelle Sheehan said – 'Women are significantly underrepresented in the New Zealand screen industry – as they are globally. With this unique initiative, we want to encourage ambitious women's voices and diverse scripts which depict meaningful representations of women in both character and story and provide new opportunities for New Zealand women filmmakers.'<br />
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Did the programme adequately reflect the NZFC's new and inclusive directions?, I wondered. Did it encourage women who don't trust the agency? Are things already differently managed there, so a wide range of women could confidently respond to the call-out? Or, because of the 'unsafe' NZFC history as described, did some women with scripts feel that the huge investment of unpaid time required for a complex application would probably be a waste of time? (I was especially interested in proposals from those who make webseries, because of their established reputations for inclusive and diverse female representation; their generosity of spirit; their capacity for making relevant, entertaining and extended narratives. But I have no idea about whether any of them participated.)<br />
<br />
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<br />
The fund was open to dramatic features only – not documentaries. Applications to the fund opened in June.<br />
<br />
Only ten applications were submitted. But they were all of 'high quality', I was told; the panel was so impressed with the calibre of the projects that instead of two projects, as originally planned, it decided to fund the three that I celebrated above.<br />
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In the applications, women were in all three key roles of writer, director, producer except in one team that included a male writer. Two of the writers were Māori as well as two of the producers, implying that the other eight of each were Pākehā. Of the directors, two were Asian, two Māori and one Middle Eastern, implying that the other five were Pākehā. Most (producers-only) applicants were from Auckland, with one from Dunedin and two from Whakatane.<br />
<br />
I haven't spoken with anyone about their application or possible application; and know the names only of those who were funded. But I did ask the NZFC about the selection panel and whether consideration was given to ensuring its members were diverse. I learned that there were four women involved: Leanne Saunders and Annabelle Sheehan for the NZFC, and Philippa Campbell and Rachel Larsen for the industry; that they were chosen because of their experience, level of expertise and international market knowledge, and that there was 'limited availability of qualified assessors at the time they were required'.<br />
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For me, because this assessment panel – half NZFC employees and apparently all-Pākehā – reverted to a default position of funding three – apparently all Pākehā – women's scripts that were already in development with the NZFC, the intuition of those women who didn't feel safe enough to submit an application was probably justified. (And, yes, two of the projects are produced by Māori. And yes, Gaysorn Thavat will direct one of the projects. But the callout was about *scripts* and 'encouragement' and 'new opportunities'.)<br />
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A cynic whispered to me that maybe the programme was an imaginative marketing ploy for features the NZFC was already going to fund for production, given that so many NZFC features don't recoup the taxpayer's investment. Or a strategy to lessen pressure on the production pipeline of projects already in development. Either reason could explain why the panel was weighted with NZFC personnel. Hearing this, for a moment I returned to my old speculations about the possible effectiveness of legal challenges to the agency's decision-making processes.<br />
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And a visitor-bearing-easy-to-prepare-foods hissed 'What about us brown girls? They should be shoulder-tapping us for everything. There’s <b>Two Little Boys</b> and <b>Boy</b> and <b>Pā Boys</b> and now <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/BrownBoysFilmNZ/">Brown Boys</a></b> and all these white girls making their movies. Just one for us wāhine Māori, over 30 years. Makes me hōhā. Glad I didn't apply.' I explained why I was looking forward to the three films selected for the 125 Fund. 'Don’t care,' she said. 'Gotta rush, helping Jay on her Christmas runs. Take her some of these cherries?' 'And couple of scones?' I offered. 'Nah. She’s a scone queen and no offence but even your date scones aren’t great. It’s your oven I reckon. But I’ll grab some of that parsley by your front path.'<br />
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The 125 Fund was linked to Suffrage for all women, so the choice of selection panel, like the rest of the process, needed to be culturally safe. And because of Te Rautaki it's particularly disappointing that there was no Māori – woman or man – on the panel, for a project that was announced right next to the bicultural Treaty and Suffrage documents and right next to the Te Rautaki announcement. Because all the projects were of 'high quality', if there had been a Māori on the panel, or even better, two Māori, perhaps at least one of those Māori-written projects would have got through. (Maybe they received a 'consolation prize' of (more?) development funding or fast tracking through another programme?)<br />
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I'm glad that change may (again!) be on its way, because I'm told that 'The NZFC is … looking at how we could have better encouraged more applicants to the 125 Fund, and what other areas of investment could perhaps better support women to make dramatic feature films'. So here's my ten cents worth about how the NZFC could have better managed the 125 Fund process, to include more women; and to invest in us more effectively.<br />
<br />
In my view, for this once-in-a-lifetime project it was essential that the NZFC didn't do the same as it's always done and expect to get different results; and essential that it made the process transparent and safe.<br />
<br />
For instance, the NZFC could have chosen to invest the equivalent of the cost of that extra third production in actions start to build trust between itself and a more inclusive group of screen storytellers; and to welcome and support women who didn't already have projects in development with the NZFC and/or had reason not to trust the organisation.<br />
<br />
This could have started with energetic outreach to the many women who have the experience and capacity to introduce something exciting to the big screen, particularly scriptwriters. It wouldn't have been hard to create a list of a hundred or so to invite individually – I would have started with women who have regular work as scriptwriters and every woman scriptwriter attached to an NZFC feature application (development or production) over the last decade; with those whose short films have been successful (like Zia Mandviwalla whose short, <b>Night Shift</b>, was selected at Cannes in 2012: will we have to wait 23 years for her feature, as we did for Dorthe's?); with those who make webseries; and because <a href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2015/11/dear-jemaine.html">my own list</a> is from 2015, I'd have checked around the industry/educational institutions for women I may not yet have heard of. Some might be working in local television: NZOA's latest <a href="http://www.nzonair.govt.nz/document-library/diversity-report-2018/">Diversity Report</a> stated that 53% of the writers on projects they funded were women, many of whom will have developed scripts for features, too. It might have been fun to ask Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens if they had a project they'd like to try.<br />
<br />
Because the NZFC must know that some (many?) women filmmakers would not have had the resources to make an application because of their domestic responsibilities, or would be unable to fund the necessary time to complete an application, and that others would have had difficulty finding a producer, the next step – working within a cultural safety framework – could have been, when inviting women on the list to apply, to ask each of them 'How can we help you get an application in? Do you need to take a month off work to do another draft of the script? If you don't plan to direct yourself, do you have a director in mind or can we help with some suggestions? Do you need a producer? Do you have a producer, but she can't afford to get the application together for you and needs to have some funded time? Does anyone in your team need support with an aspect of family care that she's responsible for? Do you need help with a table read? Do you want help to pay for an assessment from a reader of your choice (outside the NZFC, outside Aotearoa)?' And then spent that $1.25 million to meet those expressed needs, on a first-come-first-served basis. (This exercise would have generated useful data about what women filmmakers want, too; and I'd have had a list of resource people at the ready, for women who might express a need for particular project support but did not have anyone they could ask for that help.)<br />
<br />
It was also necessary to address intersectionality explicitly, especially given the inclusionary initiatives announced at the same time as Fund 125. I'd have trusted the callout if I knew that the NZFC had considered what it needed to do to ensure that it complied with its Te Rautaki commitment – which surely can't be limited to Māori-only programmes – and to support as many Māori women as possible to apply; and that it had strategies to reach women whose voices are under-represented: Pasifika, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, women on the LGBTQIA spectrum, disabled women.<br />
<br />
And what about addressing the lack of diversity among the assessors? I think many women would have felt more confident in the applying if they perceived that genuine efforts were being made to broaden the NZFC's base of decision-makers. Could part of the strategic planning have been to engage with diverse assessors before the project was announced and to announce this at the outset? I was a little shocked to read about the 'limited availability of qualified assessors at the time they were required' because – again, to build trust – appropriate assessors should have been engaged and announced very early, not when the applications started to come in, or at final decision-making time. (The announcement of juries is a common practice which supports transparency, whether at Cannes or the Berlinale or with this randomly selected <a href="https://lucyartresidency.com/">call for proposals</a>, seen on Facebook today.) And with Skype and Facetime available assessors don't have to be in New Zealand.<br />
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There are lots and lots of people internationally with appropriate 'experience, level of expertise and international market knowledge' who could help with support and assessment, some of whom would be available, for a fee, over the entire selection period or for part of it.<br />
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There are many ways to manage this effectively and it's always tricky to work around individual availability, but off the top of my head, I'd have started with Māori, women or men, including people like Nikolasa Biasiny-Tule. I'd have consulted with the recipients of the Merata Mita Fellowship – Ciara Leina'ala Lacy, Amie Batalibasi, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers. I'd have approached local Asian and Pasifika filmmakers to get their suggestions. I'd have asked around about women who work successfully to advocate for and educate about women in genre, like Heidi Honeycutt in the States and Briony Kidd in Aussie. And other experts like Thuc Nguyen of the steadily more influential The Bitch List, film writer and activist So Mayer, the astute Kay Armatage, a former legendary programmer at Toronto, before becoming an academic and film activist at Canada's Women in View. Someone from Ireland – with about the same population – where their films have been consistently successful internationally and their gender and film policies are more developed. Or someone from Array or ImagineNATIVE or Amazon or Netflix. It's not hard, could have been done in a few full days and would have provided some fresh perspectives that are sorely needed in a system that is perceived as closed and not safe.<br />
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Alternatively, why not a few local panels made up of specialist audience members, each with a chair who would bring their panel's responses to and take part in the final selection? Why leave audience participation to test screenings, at the other end of the process? There are many people who would recognise stories that would enhance our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren and illuminate our diverse communities; and identify which filmmakers would be capable of completing their projects to a high standard.<br />
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For instance, the panels could include one of academics who study women's filmmaking and/or practise as filmmakers, who can read scripts and budgets and are familiar with the interests of diverse audiences. Again off the top of my head I can think of lots in this group – and I imagine there are many more – some of whom might have been ineligible if they themselves decided to apply to the 125 Fund: Anita Brady; Cushla Parekowhai; Ella Henry; Ghazaleh Golbakhsh; Jessica Hansell; Jo Smith; Keri Kaa; Leonie Pihama; Misha Kavka; Ness Simons; Ngahuia Te Awekotuku; Raqi Syed; Shuchi Kotari; Sima Urale; Tina Ngata. (I've come to a new appreciation of relationships between academia and film after interviewing European women directors for Eurimages: their sophisticated conceptual frameworks have really challenged my thinking about the medium and its audiences.) And what about some of those who work in exhibition and distribution, who know what they'll be able to sell? Or novelists and poets and painters? Anything to bring in fresh and informed opinion, to stimulate more debate and transparency, more safety and more accountability to the public that the NZFC serves.<br />
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<br />
Within the comments on Casey's original post, I asked SWAG for advice about what women could do when they were abused in the screen industries. Its response, about sexual abuse only, came from a sexual violence prevention specialist and (in summary) encouraged survivors to keep a record, to talk directly with the perpetrator, get specialist support (e.g. through the confidential Safe To Talk helpline (0800 044 334), to report it through either <a href="https://www.hrc.co.nz/enquiries-and.../how-make-complaint">Human Rights Commission</a> or <a href="http://employment.govt.nz/.../steps.../personal-grievance/">Employment NZ</a>, can't be both); or report a sexual crime to the Police.<br />
<br />
This was an informative, helpful, response about resources available to address one kind of abuse. But it doesn’t help with the other kinds of abusive behaviour experienced by Casey and others and — as reported by Entertainment Assist — that come from within a ‘powerful, negative culture within the industry that includes a toxic, bruising work environment; extreme competition; bullying; sexual assault; sexism and racism, all ignored or dealt with inadequately’, where workers are often poorly rewarded (unlike workers in other occupations like law, or the military, that have similarly negative cultures but the workers are regularly and well paid). <br />
<br />
So I asked — ‘Do you know if there is any anecdotal (or other) evidence/advice about whether the Employment Relations Act or the Human Rights Act is a better pathway for people who are self-employed and who have to take into account that if the complain they may find themselves blacklisted by employers/funding organisations? Making complaints through either pathway could be risky career-wise? I think this is one reason why women here haven’t made complaints in the past and I know that women directors associated with the EEOC action in the States don’t find it easy to get work.’<br />
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There was no further response. Because, I think there wasn’t then and isn’t now an effective response that’s available for those whose well-being is affected by this ‘toxic, bruising work environment’. Which brings me back to cultural safety and the kaupapa whare for all of us, that welcomes and absorbs and connects all the screen stories and filmmakers and audiences of Aotearoa. And the two agencies that the taxpayer supports to build this whare.<br />
<br />
...<br />
<br />
Overall in our violent country women can’t be confident of any supportive systemic response if they report incidents where their safety is violated. Only a small proportion of those who rape are investigated and prosecuted and when they are, over sixty per cent of the cases are <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/107081667/over-60-per-cent-of-rape-charges-not-proven-in-court" href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/107081667/over-60-per-cent-of-rape-charges-not-proven-in-court" rel="noopener" target="_blank">not proven</a>. As just one example, a few years ago a group of young men victimised and humiliated underage girls by having group sex with them, filming it, putting it online to boast about it. They were never prosecuted, and last week, a few years later, one of the young men tried to portray himself as a victim as he attempted to advance his career. The ongoing effects on one of the victims was detailed in a powerful and heartbreaking <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/25-01-2019/im-still-living-it-a-roast-busters-survivors-story/">essay</a>.<br />
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And a couple of weeks ago, there was this assault, followed by a <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/110471269/women-stand-naked-on-aucklands-karangahape-road-in-protest-of-police-inaction-after-alleged-assault">central Auckland protest</a> by the courageous women who were harmed.<br />
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</div>Only after that protest–where the women were supported by their friends–and then the publicity that followed @Becs' tweet with these photos, did the Police <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/110471269/women-stand-naked-on-aucklands-karangahape-road-in-protest-of-police-inaction-after-alleged-assault?fbclid=IwAR0iSDXUTxvz44EJCJETb0oCOgUkL5ScZ1P8PQZkiTJJbLNRFejTUVkiAoE">follow up</a> 'urgently'.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOqEA8Ualxa1nHMJ29um2-X7obmZ5317Yqh3qYeYAS63SEzLvaSERDziO92RqUbYHABzbIEdy6DW7m4xpTzAwvLargpO8l7yAbeHnvwA3JMP57ctSHOI1p70gxPTCeoiAOHz2timnaCVBk/s1600/IMG_4909.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOqEA8Ualxa1nHMJ29um2-X7obmZ5317Yqh3qYeYAS63SEzLvaSERDziO92RqUbYHABzbIEdy6DW7m4xpTzAwvLargpO8l7yAbeHnvwA3JMP57ctSHOI1p70gxPTCeoiAOHz2timnaCVBk/s320/IMG_4909.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">images by @Becs</td></tr>
</tbody></table>When sexual assault is investigated and proven, the consequences for the perpetrator can be minimal. Just <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12194243&fbclid=IwAR1jx6IBzCtWQyrP2JGs7XsbZCh1GjWGJ9J1zACc_xbVDt-HZrNs5-xNU50">last week</a>, a middleaged professor who had sexually violated a woman in her eighties living in a rest home, with profound effects on her well being was convicted but sentenced only to home detention, some community work; and ordered to pay the woman a risible amount of reparation for emotional harm. And this reminded me of the <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/109441963/man-who-sexually-assaulted-dementia-sufferer-sentenced-to-community-detention">recent story</a> of a man who sexually assaulted a woman with a degenerative brain condition when she invited him into her home, but was sentenced only to community detention.<br />
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Sometimes the Police don't investigate properly and prosecute. A few years ago a group of young men victimised and humiliated underage girls by having group sex with them, filming it, putting it online to boast about it. They were never prosecuted, and last week, a few years later, one of the young men tried to portray himself as a victim as he attempted to advance his career. The ongoing effects on one of the victims were detailed in a powerful and heartbreaking <a href="https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/25-01-2019/im-still-living-it-a-roast-busters-survivors-story/">piece</a>.<br />
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Sometimes schools fail, <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/01/30/421656/bullying-claims-ignored-at-girls-school">as they appear to have</a> at Nelson Girls College, where there are multiple claims of physical abuse and bullying, and parents claim that the school fails to protect students.<br />
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Even Parliament fails, according to <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/110286188/majority-of-women-mps-suffer-violence-and-harassment-in-parliament-report">a recent report</a>. Responses from 16 of the 46 women MPs showed that more than half of them had been the targets of 'psychological violence' – sexism and harassment while doing their jobs – much of it from other MPs; and 86 per cent of them either did not know who to go to for help or decided to simply put up with the abuse (Threats of physical violence, including death and rape threats, were more likely to come from constituents or members of the public.)<br />
<br />
Alison Mau, who's written a series of articles about her investigations of #metoo issues in New Zealand has reported (not yet online) that some women didn't participate because they feared the consequences, even though their stories would be anonymised. There is no code of conduct that would provide boundaries for acceptable behaviour for Parliamentarians but the Speaker and Deputy Speaker are discussing introducing a code and the potential consequences if someone breaks the code: whether it is safe and easy to complain, what the support systems and processes might be.<br />
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Not surprisingly, within this larger picture, when women complain of violation at work the outcomes are often unfair and tend to show more concern for the perpetrators than the victims. In the news on one day last week were two stories of women abused at their work, law and in defence.<br />
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The first, by legal researcher Zoë Lawton and also not yet online, relates to the local Law Society Standards Committee's response to two sexual harassment complaints from a law firm's employees. The committee had to decide whether the perpetrator's 'blatant verbal and phsyical sexual harassment' as a law firm partner met the statutory definition of unsatisfactory conduct or, more seriously, misconduct. It decided the behaviour didn't meet the misconduct threshold, imposed a small - for a law partner - fine to be paid to the Law Society, not as reparation to the complainants; did not suspend the perpetrator from practising; and suppressed his name.<br />
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The <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/110103474/robert-roper-victim-mariya-taylor-overwhelmed-by-donations-towards-legal-costs">second story</a> details the latest in Mariya Taylor's story. After Mariya joined the Air Force in the 1980s as a young woman, former Air Force Sergeant Robert Roper repeatedly sexually abused her. The Air Force covered up the abuse and when she finally sued him for mental harm, years later, and failed because of the delay in her action, both the Air Force and Robert Roper attempted to recover their costs; she now has to pay nearly $28,000 in court costs to Robert Roper as well as her own legal costs.<br />
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For women who aren't paid much and can't afford lawyers if they want them, trauma at work has particularly harsh consequences. Just this morning–<br />
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As for bullying, WorkSafe — the national agency responsible for everyone's safety at work – has never prosecuted a workplace bullying case. It claims bullying and harassment are 'often hard to prove' and typically <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/110442136/worksafe-responding-to-oranga-tamarikiministry-for-children-bullying-complaint">investigates</a> bullying and harassment claims only where there's a diagnosis of serious mental harm and a link to workplace bullying as the cause; WorkSafe recently <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/110570026/worksafe-under-fire-for-not-prosecuting-bullying-and-harassment-cases">conceded</a> that it was applying resources in other areas, where it would get 'bang for the buck'; it uses a triage system and puts its resources into areas where it perceives 'much higher levels of harm' such as health-related exposures, like carcinogens, which makes up 50% of the biggest risks (in their view).<br />
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Because of this continuing evidence that we live in a national culture where abusers continue to be protected in work situations as well as elsewhere, it's unfair and inappropriate to place responsibility for making complaints on individuals in the screen industries unless there is a formal and effective umbrella system where these complaints can safely be made. And it's certainly unrealistic to suggest that abusive behaviour within the 'toxic, bruising work environment' of the screen industries can always be resolved by having a quiet word with the perpetrator.<br />
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This brings me back to safety within the whare for all of us, a whare that welcomes and absorbs and connects all the screen stories and filmmakers and audiences of Aotearoa. And the two agencies that the taxpayer supports to build this whare.The NZFC and NZOA have to step up. Perhaps in association with CNZ; NZOA is working on a new artists survey that’s the subject of the next episode in this series.<br />
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What can these agencies do? <br />
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I think the most important thing they can do appreciate the value of new the 'kindness and collectivism' practices,and examine what they can bring to them, to ensure that the whare for all of us is a safe work space for all of us, informed by the Treaty and free of the extreme competition, bullying, sexual assault, sexism and racism that Entertainment Assist identified. If they want justification beyond 'doing the right thing', the new generation of women filmmakers has demonstrated that the kindness and collectivism in their practices consistently generates innovative and high quality work that speaks to global audiences. Because of this it makes creative and economic sense to use the agencies' power to establish high levels of safety wherever in the industry they have influence.<br />
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The experiences of Casey and other women show that safety includes – beyond what is already regulated for – economic, physical and psychological/emotional safety.<br />
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Economic safety, to start with. What does it mean in this context? Culturally safe nurses who ask 'How can I help?' can only help with those services they provide, including access to a highly developed and safe network that will connect individuals to other services they ask for; they can't guarantee any patient's economic security; or access to an unsubsidised drug or service. And taxpayer agencies have similar limits. They cannot guarantee economic security in the making-a-living, making-a-profit sense, except to their own employees. As happens in the screen industries globally, the overwhelming majority of the people and organisations that approach the NZFC and NZOA for funding are rejected.<br />
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But the agencies can encourage economic safety by being fair with its own allocations. The NZFC – the one I'm most familiar with and will focus on here – has been working towards this for a while, as already noted. But I hope that before too long, as part of a kaupapa whare commitment to safety-for-all it will fully meet its Treaty obligations and ensure that intersectional gender equity is present throughout its funding allocations. I dream too that Treasury will start to tag the NZFC funding at its source, to help make all this happen.<br />
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There are other things the NZFC can do to support economic safety, especially for women but also for others, especially if it works from a kindness-and- collectivism base informed by the new generation practices and abandons practices that worked for its historic golden-boys-and-exceptional girl belief system and its associated 'list' (if it still exists).<br />
<br />
Take guild membership. They're our unions and they're funded by the NZFC and they're influential. And there are programmes, including some that the NZFC supports, that require applicants to hold specific guild memberships, like this year's Table Reads, just announced by the NZWG. <br />
But, especially for women, guild membership costs can be problematic. If you can afford only one, and especially if you're a multihyphenate with a multidimensional identity, which one(s) do you choose and why? There are many who are eligible for membership of most of or all the following - in alphabetical order - Actors Equity, Directors & Editors Guild, Ngā Aho Whakaari, Pacific Islanders in Film & TV, Pan Asian Screen Collective, Screen Production & Development Association, WIFTNZ, Writers Guild. But often women can afford only one membership each year, if that. If the NZFC increased its subsidies to the various guilds, would it be possible for a woman who qualifies for one professional guild to qualify for free membership of the rest she's qualified for? That would reduce the economic cost of participation in the industry for women which is larger than for men. Perhaps this investment would also result in a much more diverse membership, both professionally and demographically, of WIFTNZ, for instance; and more inclusive participation in discussions that result in advice that the NZFC acts upon.<br />
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There's an opportunity to develop fiscal sponsorship too. Many filmmakers and other artists are now familiar with Boosted, the Arts Foundation's crowd-funding site which offers donors a tax credit. If the NZFC established – or helped an organisation like the Arts Foundation to establish – a charitable umbrella that filmmakers could use when approaching sponsors or charitable organisations for funding, that could help too. Women Make Movies has made a huge difference by its fiscal sponsorship of women's projects.<br />
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The NZFC could also provide more economic safety for women by investing more in marketing and distribution for their work. (Organisational under-investment in marketing and distribution is a global problem for women filmmakers). It does some of this, but it doesn't educate and build audiences for women's work specifically. It doesn't link local women's work to international women's work thematically. It doesn’t ask distributors and exhibitors to highlight every film that’s directed by a woman, so those who want to watch films made by women are aware of their release. It doesn’t subsidise cinema ticket costs - as its French counterpart does - so I’ve heard of many young women practitioners who at the most can afford one or two tickets to the New Zealand International Film Festival or Show Me Shorts: $6 is about the maximum they can afford. It doesn’t tag funding to festivals it supports with a requirement that the festival register as part of the 50:50 by 2020 movement and in addition identify Bechdel Test or A-Rated or F-Rated films.<br />
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As well, the NZFC doesn't consistently provide the women whose work it invests in with support around reaching audiences (subsidising tickets and screenings are just two options). As far as I know, it doesn't consult and learn from the webseries women who have so effectively developed local and international relationships with diverse audiences. Why not someone jointly funded by the NZFC and NZOA who focuses solely on promoting women who tell stories for screens of all sizes, whether or not the taxpayer has funded those women? Another agency, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, regularly tours the country with historical work. Where are comparable tours of contemporary work, which can struggle to flourish in cinemas that prefer blockbusters? Who's taking women's films and their makers into schools, accompanied by discussion? Even if audiences are small, they're getting to know the stories women tell and thinking about stories they'd like to tell, too.<br />
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The NZFC could also contribute to economic safety through investment in programmes like some excellent new intiatives in other parts of the world, to encourage producers. Just a few examples here. In France, CNC (roughly the NZFC equivalent) <a href="https://www.ewawomen.com/film-industry-articles/france-committed-gender-equality/">now offers</a> a bonus of 15% of support for films that include as many women as men in the management positions of their film crew. Screen Ireland's <b><a href="https://www.screenireland.ie/images/uploads/general/Enhanced_Production_Funding_for_female_talent_(english_and_Irish)_FE-SI.pdf">Enhanced Production Funding for Female Talent</a></b> provides extra funds for projects with women writers or directors. (Ireland has about the same population as New Zealand and well developed gender equity policies that seem to be working: four of their six features <a href="https://www.screenireland.ie/news/2019-sundance-film-festival-underway-six-screen-ireland-titles">at Sundance right now</a> are directed by women.) And just the other day, Moms-in-Film <a href="https://medium.com/@momsinfilm/10-ways-to-create-a-parent-friendly-film-set-bfb7728d2e50">published</a> <b>10 Ways to Create A Parent</b> <b>Friendly Set</b>, with <b>Hire Parents</b> and <b>Inspire Safety</b> as first and second on the list: both ways to support economic safety for women. And further down, health protection. This is an economic safety issue because without that protection skilled workers will be lost and skilled people with caring responsibilities will be lost. And many of them will be women. <b>Shoot Like Marvel</b>, says the Moms-in-Film list–– ' Plan to shoot 10 hr days. And when possible 5 days on, 2 days off. Marvel does it. NBCUniversal does it'; and <b>Provide Childcare</b>, which could be mandatory for all projects and all budgets submitted to the NZFC, including international projects seeking subsidies. And then there's the recent <b><a href="https://www.raisingfilms.com/raising-films-writer-residencies-spring-2019/">Raising Films Writers Residencies</a></b> initiative, something easy to repeat here because there are many generous people who would offer their baches, I think.<br />
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Physical and psychological/emotional safety mechanisms. Because our violent society tends to respond inadequately to violence against women and because that violence is amplified in the arts, globally, and because violence against artists including filmmakers tends to be accompanied by intersectional violations like racism, the effects of colonisation and economic hardship and mental health issues, anything less than a pan-industry commitment to zero tolerance of physical and psychological abuse is inadequate. And that commitment needs to be led by taxpayer-funded agencies working together to create something that covers the entire sector, including international projects, where anecdotally personal safety risks for women are said to be high. (If I've read the NZFC Annual Report properly, the taxpayer investment in the NZFC in 2017–2018 was $32.3m; and the Screen Production Grant, formerly the Large Budget Screen Production Grant <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=12195991">cost $149.2m</a> in the same period). This is not a moment for fragmented efforts. The NZFC, NZOA, CNZ and the ACC need to work together, in consultation with the Police and specialist violence-against-women agencies. It's too large a responsibility for WIFTNZ and the other guilds and SWAG, even with help from ACC.<br />
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Primary prevention is vital. A compulsory safety certification process for every project that receives public money would be a good start, as part of the contractual requirements that accompany every offer of taxpayer support, with riders that require provision for safety specialists, like on set intimacy co-ordinators; and for family-friendly hours and child-care. A certified project would have to identify designated people whose job it is to listen to and respond to concerns as soon as they arise and appropriate pathways for dealing with those concerns and where necessary forwarding them on to appropriate agencies and/or a cross-arts structure for processing complaints safely, where there are real penalties for those who harm filmmakers and other artists at work (unlike the Wellington Law Society's Standards Committee), as well as ongoing support for those who are harmed.<br />
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But I'm not an expert. I just know that it's time to prioritise safety and that thanks to #metoo and #timesup there are models now. <br />
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And lots of research, to be added to last year's SWAG survey and discussion groups about sexual violence in the screen industries. <br />
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And the will to work for positive change.<br />
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(to be continued, in 17.2, with an assessment of the recent NZOA/CNZ research)<br />
<br />
----<br />
On 2 February, this news from SWAG–<br />
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'Kia ora koutou,<br />
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It's been a long time since you heard from us but we finally have some news we can share…Many of you attended the SWAG forums last year in Auckland and Wellington and contributed to discussions about how to begin a culture change to make our industry safer. From your korero SWAG was able to draft a list of recommendations.<br />
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Last year SWAG presented these recommendations to the Sexual Violence Prevention Advisory Board. The Advisory Board supported our application to ACC for funding so we can begin a process of culture change for sexual safety in the NZ film industry.<br />
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Today we are super thrilled to let you know that ACC have agreed to fund SWAG to begin this initial process in partnership with Screensafe NZ.<br />
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Over the next few months we will begin to build the foundations that we need to take this process into the future and begin to implement some of the recommendations.<br />
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Thank you all so much, we couldn't have come this far this without your mahi and support. We will keep you updated with our progress as we go.<br />
<br />
Arohanui, SWAG.<br />
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And just below that on their <a href="https://www.facebook.com/screenwomensactiongroup/">Facebook</a> page, this–<br />
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-88819912281309949862019-01-10T23:29:00.000-08:002019-01-10T23:30:37.087-08:00Julia Berg is On Her Way (to NZ)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://www.jbergfilms.com/bio">Julia Berg</a> is offering a day-long workshop to up to eight lucky New Zealanders, on Saturday January 19. Ideal for many of us who've made new year resolutions to advance our projects and I wish I could be there, because of her experience and the workshop's potential to link into the big wide world. Here's <a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creative-talent-campus-idea-into-pitch-new-zealand-tickets-53640478114?fbclid=IwAR2YreCVoF1bdF0LDbDVgKr9ybFvsq9S7-Ecixb-Qj2hlI8_4xjKO8lgaOU">the workshop link</a>.<br />
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Originally from Australia, Julia has worked for leading BAFTA and Academy award production companies including New York's <a href="http://www.likely-story.com/">Likely Story</a> working with people like Charlie Kaufman (<b>Synecdoche, New York</b>) and Nicole Holofcener (<b>Please Give</b>). Most recently she worked in development for producer James Wilson with filmmaker Lynne Ramsay (<b>You Were Never Really Here</b>) and Wilson's slate of auteur filmmakers.<br />
<br />
Julia has developed material for <a href="http://www.mavenpic.com/about-1/">Maven Pictures</a> (Andrea Arnold's <b>American Honey</b>), worked with partners such as the BBC, Film4, Screen Austrailia and the BFI; and has shaped material into films that have premiered at Cannes, Sundance and Tribeca Film Festival.<br />
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She founded JBERG Films, a production company and creative talent campus that runs workshops to shape story ideas into film/TV pitches', because she wanted 'to be more entrepreneurial about film development instead of working for one company with a streamlined vision'.<br />
<br />
Julia's greatest joy is packaging a project from inception, bringing everything together and finding a home for it with talent, producers, financiers and with its audience, and because she 'absolutely and whole heartedly' believes in greater access to the industry and wants to enable it, she runs workshops to track new talent and see that moment when creative connections take off. Inclusion and diversity are key to Julia's work and she's worked creatively with award-winning individuals whose support needs include cerebral palsy, down syndrome and brain injury.<br />
<br />
I asked Julia a couple of questions.<br />
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<b><i>How will the day run?</i></b><br />
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It's a writer's room, very collaborative and full of sharing.<br />
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I will share techniques on pitching – share samples and then talk about treatments and then everyone will share their project with the group. We will all give feedback which I will lead.<br />
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There will then be 1hr-1hr30mins to create a pitch / one pager.<br />
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After that writing break, everyone will share the page they have prepared and everyone will give feedback. I will discuss further developments or the best ways of getting the project out to the industry.<br />
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It isn't in person as I need to be in Australia – so it will be a video session that we run via ZOOM. I use this all the time. Everyone needs to show up on the video call at 10am - 5pm to get the most out of it. When attendees sign up / book I email them the link which is very easy to download.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Does it always 'directly put your project in the hands of financiers/producers/agents'; and at the end of the day? Or?</i></b><br />
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My goal is to ensure access for the talent. Sometimes at the end of the day, depending on the quality of the work. Or I offer to continue running the sessions bi-monthly (every 2 months) in the same set up, with similar cost so that we can keep the project moving, keep up traction, ensure notes are addressed to get the project to a quality where I do connect them to the industry.<br />
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I'm developing three TV series at the moment so and I work with 100 filmmakers around the world each month. I will always respond but because I am pretty busy I suggest attending continued workshops every two months to keep up the relationship and ensure traction for the filmmaker/talent.<br />
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-27934621176450296062018-09-18T19:17:00.003-07:002018-12-28T14:37:08.479-08:00#directedbywomen #aotearoa - Getting With the Suffrage125 programme<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY1gJcmKrz2vs8ZVnALnbq9YQQIWGexo021Cx9FD68FsZZoZ9fD5JhT60o_xPurAI-mR04QrNEmyyk7rRyX4gVs65pmNvJCTz3EedhKV1N0XaNvpO-SS74CR6zCuuR8tlTvgkkxzyvzqoz/s1600/%2523dbw2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY1gJcmKrz2vs8ZVnALnbq9YQQIWGexo021Cx9FD68FsZZoZ9fD5JhT60o_xPurAI-mR04QrNEmyyk7rRyX4gVs65pmNvJCTz3EedhKV1N0XaNvpO-SS74CR6zCuuR8tlTvgkkxzyvzqoz/s400/%2523dbw2.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">design by Louise Hutt</td></tr>
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(This post looks much prettier <a href="https://medium.com/@devt/directedbywomen-aotearoa-getting-with-the-suffrage125-programme-f861b6fbbe68">here</a>; and is easier to read.)<br />
<br />
125 years ago today, women in Aotearoa New Zealand got the vote. And my mate’s in town, for a posh Suffrage125 dinner. Writing Buddy 1B. You might remember her, from our conversation <a href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2016/07/women-are-not-problem.html">a couple of years back</a>.<br />
<br />
Play with me, she begs, from the airport. He rā mīharo tēnei. We can garden. I’ll shout you lunch. You can help me pick a dinner-time frock.<br />
<br />
I can’t, I say. Gotta write about the #directedbywomen #aotearoa screening programme.<br />
<br />
Do it tomorrow, she says. Celebrate with me...<br />
<br />
I can’t, I say again. It’s the first screening tonight. <i>The Bookshop</i>, and Isabel Coixet is beaming in, live from Barcelona, for a Q&A.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjMrdl-MJvY1MHOTYPdb9Y-wQtCYUvEyFsLc31rXKyB5XRXDi6Ov56wRYp6miMZknGgfBgA2hRI4h2Yvx0dJo9RDntiuWHT2QghDnkQDO4bhQusTnqPPKPUbYiZemSi8NoSVKx51SiX2oW/s1600/Isabel+on+set+with+cast.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="571" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjMrdl-MJvY1MHOTYPdb9Y-wQtCYUvEyFsLc31rXKyB5XRXDi6Ov56wRYp6miMZknGgfBgA2hRI4h2Yvx0dJo9RDntiuWHT2QghDnkQDO4bhQusTnqPPKPUbYiZemSi8NoSVKx51SiX2oW/s400/Isabel+on+set+with+cast.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Isabel directing Bill Nighy and Patricia Clarkson on set with The Bookshop</span><br />
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I think it’s the first time screening in this country has been followed by a live Skype with the film’s director. I’m nervous as.<br />
<br />
1B – So? Haven’t you prepared?<br />
<br />
ME – Of course I have. And people have given me some lovely questions. But I haven’t had time to write about it all before it starts.<br />
<br />
1B – It ‘all’?<br />
<br />
ME – The screenings. The ideas behind them.<br />
<br />
Ah, she says. She gets it. How can I help? <br />
<br />
ME– Write it for me? <br />
<br />
I can’t, she says. But I *can* bring stuff for lunch. I can throw you the pātai. You know the story. I'll hum it, with the questions, and you play it with the answers.<br />
<br />
So she arrives – as always – with (reusable) bags bulging with kai. Opens the fridge. Mutters about its miserable contents. Unloads her bags.<br />
<br />
Makes a pot of tea. Settles herself in a sunny chair. Switches off her phone. Hums. Watches me power up the desktop.<br />
<br />
One two three go, she says. What’s on the programme?<br />
<br />
Early lunch, I say. (I’ve seen the scallops. The cake box.)<br />
<br />
1B rolls her eyes.<br />
<br />
1B–Early lunch is *not* your kaupapa.<br />
<br />
I refocus. Fast.<br />
<br />
ME– There are seven screenings, accompanied by discussions with directors. A pilot programme. Hang on, I'll paste it in.<br />
<br />
She puts down her mug, gets up, puts on her elegant reading specs.<br />
<br />
I'm easily distracted. I want to be distracted. They're new, I say. Nice.<br />
<br />
She ignores me. Comes over. Leans on my shoulder. I staunch up. Paste in the info.<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
WELLINGTON</h3>
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/451466348678870/">THE BOOKSHOP</a> </b><br />
<b><br />
</b> <br />
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<b><br />
</b> <b>Wednesday September 19 7pm </b><br />
Followed by a live Skype discussion/Q & A with writer/director <b>Isabel Coixet</b> (9pm)<br />
<br />
Te Auaha cinema (just up Dixon Street from Cuba Mall) Free<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLAQyq_jXUDUZQbg-2ZscQv36x2uzKfhrJlEo_PeDsdOSjgSMhWDjh49SXsU_sTCA6USqjbxArWKfghcOmyzSDuUcQamqgGVS23sZr_xj5EMRCtarYHnZO_zZQv9Y5WJ5DMB639-WLwEVa/s1600/safe_image.php.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="540" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLAQyq_jXUDUZQbg-2ZscQv36x2uzKfhrJlEo_PeDsdOSjgSMhWDjh49SXsU_sTCA6USqjbxArWKfghcOmyzSDuUcQamqgGVS23sZr_xj5EMRCtarYHnZO_zZQv9Y5WJ5DMB639-WLwEVa/s320/safe_image.php.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<b>EVEN DOGS ARE GIVEN BONES </b>(dir Kanya Stewart 1982) & <b>MINIMUM</b> (dir Kathleen Winter 2018)<br />
<b>Friday September 21 7.30pm</b><br />
<br />
Beehive Theatrette, Parliament, kindly hosted by Associate Minister for Arts, Culture & Heritage Grant Robertson. Guest list now closed.<br />
<b><br />
</b> <br />
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<b><br />
</b> <br />
<b>Even Dogs Are Given Bones</b> (<b>EDAGB</b>) documents a group of women workers during their 11-week occupation of the Rixen clothing factory in Levin, after its owner made them redundant and closed the factory without giving them redundancy payments.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP38l2MC22NmPI-REaBEzIP1S1ULECzX3xvxWhxBYg520JQcU3NnLzZy14odNBE68cWkaKZMEcBK-s6WFcK663iJG7NjQ-cdlhrqIvs05mbhy-IULyeOvATqWck82rXy4GdLO8eH1CDfZn/s1600/Minimum+01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP38l2MC22NmPI-REaBEzIP1S1ULECzX3xvxWhxBYg520JQcU3NnLzZy14odNBE68cWkaKZMEcBK-s6WFcK663iJG7NjQ-cdlhrqIvs05mbhy-IULyeOvATqWck82rXy4GdLO8eH1CDfZn/s320/Minimum+01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<b><br />
</b> <b>Minimum</b> is a series about women who work low-wage, precarious or under-appreciated jobs in Aotearoa.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/973656402821872/">RADIOGRAM</a></b><br />
<b>Wednesday October 3 6pm </b><br />
Followed by Q & A with writer/director <b>Rouzie Hassanova </b><br />
<br />
Te Auaha cinema. <a href="https://www.conferize.com/radiogram">CLICK HERE</a> to book a seat, with your PayPal account.<br />
<b><br />
</b> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIidgHpzTdYubYiEv4lY9CwuJnVVMD47KJo4JWR8M1muEDVpYQI5ApWHIbW1lPjNnvkcyS-hyvQwF7OfM_bIKhYafamiKx7lq9hbP_hLXoRdZS7QYGUcCW5E-vOF7d1-xB4QFclWW0039i/s1600/Radiogram+poster.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="717" data-original-width="501" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIidgHpzTdYubYiEv4lY9CwuJnVVMD47KJo4JWR8M1muEDVpYQI5ApWHIbW1lPjNnvkcyS-hyvQwF7OfM_bIKhYafamiKx7lq9hbP_hLXoRdZS7QYGUcCW5E-vOF7d1-xB4QFclWW0039i/s320/Radiogram+poster.png" width="223" /></a></div>
<b>RAFIKI</b><br />
<b>Sunday 28 October 3pm</b><br />
Followed by Q&A with co-writer & director <b>Wanuri Kahiu</b>, led by Ness Simons, writer/director of the hugely successful <b>Pot Luck</b> webseries and Head Tutor at the New Zealand Film & Television School.<br />
<br />
Te Auaha cinema. <a href="https://www.conferize.com/rafiki">Click here </a>to book a seat, with your PayPal account.<br />
<b><br />
</b> <br />
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<b>RAFIKI</b><br />
<b>Monday 29 October 6pm</b><br />
<br />
with <b>Wanuri</b> present and followed by a discussion with Wanuri, led by <a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/members-of-parliament/allan-kiritapu/" href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/members-of-parliament/allan-kiritapu/" rel="noopener" target="_blank"><b>Kiritapu Allan</b></a>, M.P. and Junior Whip.<br />
<br />
Beehive Theatrette, New Zealand Parliament, Pipitea, hosted by Jan Logie with Grant Robertson as a guest.<br />
<br />
Invitation only, but feel free to ask for an invitation!<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
ŌTAKI</h3>
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/718307255195003/">RAFIKI</a></b><br />
<b>Tuesday 30 October 6pm</b><br />
<br />
with <b>Wanuri</b> as guest<br />
<br />
Māoriland Hub, 68 Main Street Ōtaki <a href="https://www.iticket.co.nz/events/2018/oct/rafiki">CLICK HERE</a> to book a seat, or buy one at the door ($6)<br />
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
AUCKLAND</h3>
<b>WOMEN & WEBSERIES</b><br />
<b>Wednesday 24 October 6pm</b><br />
<b><br />
</b> <br />
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<br />
#directedbywomen #aotearoa's response to Wanuri's FUN & FIERCE & FANTASTICAL <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/wanuri_kahiu_fun_fierce_and_fantastical_african_art?language=en">Afrobubblegum ideas</a> directed by <b>Anna Duckworth</b>, <b>Hanelle Harris</b>, <b>Jessica Hansell</b>, <b>Ness Simons</b>, <b>Roseanne Liang</b> and <b>The Candlewasters</b>.<br />
<br />
Conversation with some of the directors to follow, led by Louise Hutt, herself a writer/director, and author of the ground-breaking <b><a href="http://www.onlineheroines.com/">Online Heroine</a>s</b> research.<br />
<br />
Rialto Cinema Newmarket, bookings online <a href="https://www.rialto.co.nz/Movie/Women-And-Webseries#cinemas=750,751&date=2018-10-24">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<b>RAFIKI</b><br />
<b>Thursday 26 October 6pm</b><br />
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Followed by Q&A with director <b>Wanuri Kahiu </b>and<b> Ella Henry</b>.<br />
<br />
Rialto Cinema Newmarket, <a href="https://www.rialto.co.nz/Cinema/Newmarket/EventsFestivals/DirectedByWomen#cinemas=750,751&date=2018-10-25">CLICK HERE</a> to book.<br />
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________________________________________________________________<br />
<br />
1B is suitably impressed.<br />
<br />
1B – I see.<br />
<br />
She gives me a little one-arm hug.<br />
<br />
1B – Ākene pea. Ka rawe. But.<br />
<br />
ME – What?<br />
<br />
1B – Why?<br />
<br />
I summon a justification.<br />
<br />
ME – I want to celebrate these directors, within the Directed By Women global celebration that reaches beyond ‘the industry’, to audiences for films that women write and direct, *and* within Suffrage125.<br />
<br />
I want to amplify the audiences' pleasure by having the directors present to talk about their work, in the cinema in person or through the magic of live Skype.<br />
<br />
And I want to provide a craft-oriented and feminist context, where – if they want to – directors can talk about why and how they made the work <b>and</b> how systemic obstacles affected the film; and what that meant for the film. <br />
<br />
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f44a">
It's kind of urgent. Because there's a huge increase in <a href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/nz-update-16-suffrage-125-the-nzfcs-125-fund-15d58bc341dc">wide releases of films about women</a> that are written and directed by men. This matters. As director Delphine Lehericey <a href="https://rm.coe.int/interview-delphine-lehericey/16808d6477">told me recently</a>: “Men are not experts on women. They observe women. Sometimes, because they are human, they have beautiful women characters. It is different, no less interesting. But it is still a male gaze. When I tell a story about women I’m an expert because I am a woman.” </div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f44a">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="f651">
And I’ve talked with so many women in various contexts, lots of them feminists, who choose their reading matter according to the gender of the author, but often cannot name a woman director beyond Jane Campion or someone similar and certainly do not have a favorite woman director. I hope, that if they/we are exposed to more women-directed work PLUS director-led conversations about it, more women will start looking at who directed the movies they’re offered in cinemas and online and take note of their differences. </div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="20ae">
<br /></div>
<div class="graf graf--p" name="20ae">
Some of the work will be just like the men’s work we’re used to. But a lot won’t. In the UK, Club Des Femmes is a good model for celebrating women-directed movies. There are many women’s film festivals too. But there’s room for a lot more activity. </div>
<br />
1B – So #directedbywomen #aotearoa is a fragmented kind of film festival?<br />
<br />
ME – Yes, and mostly in pop-up contexts, to make the work accessible to those who can't afford film festivals: students and emerging filmmakers and others on low incomes.<br />
<br />
1B – But the Rialto screenings will be at normal prices?<br />
<br />
ME – Yes, alas. I hoped to organise subsidised tickets, as Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey and others do in the States. But ran out of energy and time.<br />
<br />
1B goes back to her sunny chair and her tea.<br />
<br />
1B – How did you choose them?<br />
<br />
ME – I thought about films that would provoke discussion and action. Films directed by women whose work and presence in the world delight me. <br />
<br />
Isabel Coixet was a no-brainer, as a prolific Catalan/Spanish writer & director and often her own camera operator. Her work includes award-winning features, documentaries and commercials and her personal work has complex women protagonists and often incorporates human rights themes. She was a good friend of John Berger, the legend whose writing revolutionised ideas about looking at and portraying women. She's also now in post-production on <b>Elisa y Marcela</b>, for Netflix, about two women who attempt to marry at the beginning of the twentieth century and a member of Spain's powerful group of activist women directors and president of the influential European Women's Audiovisual Network. She has stories to tell and wisdom to share.<br />
<br />
<b>The Bookshop</b> is about women and work and the problems we face, so is a great choice in the week that <b>Even Dogs Are Given Bones</b> and <b>Minimum</b> will show at Parliament. And the actions of a girl in <b>The Bookshop</b> point to the kind of hope for the future that I feel thanks to the work of filmmakers like Kathleen Winter who directed <b>Minimum</b> and her DOP, Jess Charlton. <br />
<br />
Rouzie Hassanova's <b>Radiogram</b> is here thanks to Lucy from the <a href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/emerging-women-filmmakers-network-4d4b09566535">Emerging Women Filmmakers Network</a>, who told me about the film. A tiny group of us watched it and were blown away. It is so beautiful. And timely, with its theme of freedom – a theme shared in all the work selected – including freedom of expression.<br />
<br />
And then those webseries. Aotearoa’s women directors thrive online. <b>Women & Webseries</b> celebrates their work, with (I know I'm repeating myself!) a fierce, often funny and feminist selection. What's not to love?<br />
<br />
I loved Wanuri's FUN & FIERCE & FANTASTICAL <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/wanuri_kahiu_fun_fierce_and_fantastical_african_art?language=en">Afrobubblegum ideas</a>! She's inspiring. <b>Rafiki</b> is totally special and its journey into the world is fascinating. I think there are also parallels between what colonisation and Christianity did to gender and sexuality in Kenya and what they did here in Aotearoa New Zealand.<br />
<br />
1B – I'm in.<br />
<br />
I like it when she smiles at me. I smile back.<br />
<br />
1B – Are there really many women who have disposable incomes and choose to buy books by women authors, but who don't choose movies and small screen viewing that women?<br />
<br />
ME – Oh yes. Lots. I became aware of some of them in a gender symposium a while back. But they're also you and me. None of us has been exposed to a critical mass of women-directed screen work unless, like Barbara Ann O'Leary of Directed By Women, we've made a conscious choice to watch only or primarily work that women direct.<br />
<br />
So we miss out. For instance, Delphine also told me that her feminist ideas and their realisation in her work were shaped by reading women's books; and after reading Virginia Woolf etc she was unable to read men like Balzac and Proust in the same way. But all her filmmaking influences were men, until she came across Andrea Arnold's work; and Celine Sciamma's. <br />
<br />
1B – Do women's experiences of filmmaking matter? Isn't it hard for every filmmaker, regardless of gender? Doesn't the work just speak for itself?<br />
<br />
ME – Yes and No. You're pushing me, babe.<br />
<br />
There's real pleasure when we watch diverse women's authentic portrayals of women and girls on screens large and small; and their stories about the lives of men and boys. You know that. And <b>EDAGB, Minimum, The Bookshop, Radiogram, Rafiki</b> and the webseries episodes all demonstrate how fresh and different and inspiring and deeply moving that experience can be.<br />
<br />
But you also know that women have particular problems within systems that show minimal confidence in our self-representations and our world views and the stories we choose to tell; where 'they' (sometimes other women) try to mould our stories so they fit what they're used to, where 'they' decline to invest in them. Where 'they' try to persuade us, persistently, that it's our fault and we just need more confidence and a few more workshops, to bring us up to speed. <a href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2016/07/women-are-not-problem.html">We've talked about this before</a>. <br />
<br />
Does anyone say to an aspiring sports player, 'You need more confidence'? Sometimes, maybe. But mostly what they say is 'Practise. Practise. Practise'. And they make sure the sports player gets the individualised support she needs. There may be workshops involved and coaching, all kinds of stuff, but basically it's about supporting the player to do what she needs to do to shine as a unique player, and in a team if it's a team sport.<br />
<br />
1B - But I just watched Jacinda Adern and Helen Clark talking about confidence as a problem, even for Aunty Helen?<br />
<br />
ME - Yes. I saw that too. They also spoke at length about domestic violence as a major problem and about the need to establish equal pay. It surprised me that they didn't really connect women's felt 'lack of confidence' to our lived experiences of systemic gender discrimination and expectations.<br />
<br />
I often think of a screenwriter <a href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2014/06/disappointment-gratitude-call-for-help.html">who responded to some research</a> I did, because she *was* like a highly motivated tennis player. She wrote 'What keeps me going is an inner drive to never just be normal that I've always had. It is unbearable for me to think about a life where I wasn't working towards something more creatively. It is not about fame or fortune, it is about getting to the point where I know I am an expert at my craft…Time is my biggest issue, because I need to work 40 hours a week at a job that isn't screenwriting to pay my rent and put food in the cat's bowl and so on. This means I work very long days sometimes in order to cram in my day job, and some screenwriting, and meetings for other projects. But, as I said above, it is not an option for me to *not* do these things, and that's fine by me.'<br />
<br />
This woman is now an established professional screenwriter and continues to work on her own projects too. Because of her inner drive, her fervent desire to tell onscreen stories and her commitment to become an expert at doing that. Not because of her confidence or because she attended lots of workshops intended to 'upskill' her. Finding time and resources were her biggest issues, as they've been for artists forever. And like many other women, her early career needs for time and resources will have been affected by pay inequity and/or (though not for her, I think) by the effects of our unpaid work on our capacity to practise.<br />
<br />
Or there's legendary editor Annie Collins. She's driven, too. <a href="https://medium.com/spiral-collectives/annie-collins-editor-extraordinaire-e631bf1c26c8">She's said</a> 'There's something about the images that just drives me all the time. About putting them together, about that moment of connection between one shot and another, about what happens that comes out of it. It isn't just this shot and then that shot, it's what happens at that moment of intersection. It can be magical. And I would say that ever since 1975 when I first cut anything, it's like an addict, you're always searching for that same high. And all the time I'm searching in the footage no matter whether it's drama or documentary, but it happens more often in documentary, I'm searching for those moments of magic that happen. And there's nothing like it. I've tried to go away from editing but I can't. It's so magical. Every film is magical.' <br />
<br />
I'm sure that the systemic lack of confidence in us - NOT our own confidence or lack of it, though we have every reason to lack confidence when we enter systems that are biased against us – is a key element in the deep-seated gender discrimination that causes so many problems, like those highlighted in #metoo. Isabel's said that to get a start in the film industry as a woman in Spain, you have 'to be a thousand times more pushy, tough and determined than any man'. <b>Rafiki</b>'s been banned in Kenya because of its story about two young women who fall in love and Wanuri now has to take action against the Kenyan government if the film – which was selected for Cannes and Toronto – can be eligible for consideration for Best Foreign Language film at the Oscars.<br />
<br />
The systemic lack of confidence and investment in our work, from development to distribution to <a href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/auckland-womens-community-video-2beebdf6da09">the archives</a>, has so many effects. It actively sabotages opportunities to see women's work. For example, I've often wondered if, when film fests talk about 'quality' and women's films, they're partly talking about production values that are only possible with big budgets. I wish they'd focus more on the quality and imagination of the storytelling by diverse women who are the experts on our lives. And they might, now some of them have signed up to run their festivals with gender parity. I didn't notice that <b>Radiogram</b> was a low-budget film, because I was transfixed by its power and beauty: you'll love it for the script alone. But Rouzie had to shoot <b>Radiogram</b> for 130,000EUR plus 35,000EUR for music rights; some of the production values affected by the limited budget will have reduced her opportunities.<br />
<br />
Webseries women directors too show such quality and imagination in storytelling, using small budgets and big imaginations to represent women in ways we just don't see otherwise in the cinema. So I was very interested when someone at New Zealand on Air didn't get this and was mystified why episodes of local webseries might provide a 'cinema experience'.<br />
<br />
1B – You're upset, kare.<br />
<br />
ME – I am. I loved what writer/director Casey Zilbert wrote in a FB post encouraging friends to support a fundraiser for a short film – her first feature, <b>Hang Time</b>, is out later this year and made on a low-budget model, so she knows what she's talking about – but I also felt sad, yet again, because the problem is so persistent–<br />
<br />
'Many young female filmmakers get stuck at the emerging level due to a lack of consistent funding. Lower budgets mean lower production value. Unfortunately many producers/financiers/audiences associate low production value with a lack of talent... and the cycle of funding imbalance continues to keep incredible talent from reaching their true potential. The best way for Wellington to change this global funding imbalance is to directly support the female filmmaking community through events like this. These baby filmmakers aren’t our competition, they are in our care.'<br />
<br />
(I'm sick of this conversation now. I want to get outside.)<br />
<br />
ME – Lunch soon?<br />
<br />
1B shrugs. Shakes her head.<br />
<br />
1B – Kāore.<br />
<br />
I sigh. Twice.<br />
<br />
1B – No violins, Eeyore. Is there some good news?<br />
<br />
ME – Let me think.<br />
<br />
(I'm hungry. I take a risk.)<br />
<br />
We could have just a little something? I ask. Something from that cake box and some kawakawa tea from the garden?<br />
<br />
I hold my breath, watch her realise that 'a little something' would be good for both of us.<br />
<br />
1B– Āe. Ka rawe.<br />
<br />
So we potter round the garden picking bits of this and that, for now and for lunch. And eat special little chocolate and raspberry friands from French Cancan in Newtown.<br />
<br />
And I'm good to go again.<br />
<br />
Briefly.<br />
<br />
1B settles back in her chair, trying to be patient. She still has to buy something to wear at her posh dinner. It will take her ages.<br />
<br />
1B – And we're off!<br />
<br />
ME – The good news. At the annual Big Screen Symposium three years ago Chelsea Winstanley <a href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2015/10/merata-is-always-with-us.html">called on</a> the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) to distribute its funds equally between women and men, the first woman director/producer/writer to do so, supported by other Māori women filmmakers. Remember? Since then, others have joined her. That call hasn't ended. And there's been #metoo, followed by the excellent work of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/screenwomensactiongroup/">SWAG - the Screen Women's Action Group</a>, working to make our industry safe from sexual harassment.<br />
<br />
And I'm delighted that Anna Serner of the Swedish Film Institute is coming to this year's Big Screen Symposium; she's the world leader in creating gender equity in taxpayer-funded film organisations. Change is happening. But it's slow. And it's focused within the industry.<br />
<br />
And as I said earlier, this #directedbywomen #aotearoa is a pilot project to develop more awareness and demand among audiences. And to work out how to get women's films more widely seen. I'd love distributors and cinemas to start using the A-rating or F-Rated logos, now well-established overseas, to signal when their films are directed by women. But in the meantime...<br />
<br />
1B – Why can't you just do what you're doing now, on a larger scale?<br />
<br />
I laugh. And talk as fast as I can, while my fingers fly across the keyboard.<br />
<br />
ME – <b>Cost</b> Including cost of time. Lots and lots of searching to find <b>EDAGB</b> for instance. And So Many Emails About Everything... And so much Generous Voluntary Help from others that they wouldn't be able to sustain in their busy lives. Director and writer and academic and artist and activist Louise Hutt is an amazing support. Writer/director Ness Simons at Te Auaha has been amazing too, though she's also flat out as head tutor at the New Zealand Film School, doing outstanding work to support her students to become the best human beings they can be, as well as the best filmmakers they can be; the women and men who've been through that course are special. Kathryn Bennett at Rialto Newmarket has been uber-generous too, patiently explaining how the system works. Jill McNab at Vendetta has provided excellent advice. Patricia Watson at WIFTNZ is a gem. The New Zealand Film Commission kindly helped with a contact and opened up their beautiful little Hayward Theatre for a test screening. The women at Big Screen Symposium have really gone for it to get Wanuri here.<br />
<br />
<b>Screening Rights</b> The cost of screening rights is impossible to recoup if tickets are to be affordable and if the cinema (like Te Auaha) is small. And Te Auaha's lovely 55-seat cinema is essential because most cinemas can't yet manage live Skype and because its size is just right for intimate conversations. The costs for films not otherwise distributed in New Zealand and for one or several screenings, even in a larger cinema, are particularly uneconomic and not always negotiable.<br />
<br />
<b>Labelling/ Classification</b> Getting films labelled through the Film and Video Licensing Board (FVLB) – or in the case of the webseries episodes, each episode! That labelling isn't necessary for docos and the FVLB appears not to be interested in the argument that almost every woman-directed film *is* a doco, because it shows us women as we are, rather than as we are constructed through lenses controlled by men.<br />
<br />
<b>Travel Costs</b> for directors and fees for them to speak or to interview other directors, which I haven't paid this time but which they utterly deserve.<br />
<br />
<b>Freight</b> Who’d have thought it would take a full day to organise a FedEx pickup from Korea, for the DCP (Digital Cinema Package) of <b>Rafiki</b>? That FedEx would cost so much more than NZ Post? And that it would take hours and hours to prepare the paperwork to send it through to the next festival?<br />
<br />
And then there’s <b>File Conversion</b>: all those webseries eps had to be made into a single file and then converted to a DCP. Fortunately there’s now free software that does it. But still Louise’s generous time to make the title cards, there’s an editor to pay and a 1TB hard-drive to buy…<br />
<br />
<b>Travel Costs</b> for directors and fees for them to speak or to interview other directors, which I haven’t paid this time but which they utterly deserve.<br />
<br />
<b>Media</b> Mostly just time (and I struggle with finding that time and with responding to requests when something draws media attention, as with finding the Rixen women who star in <b>EDAGB</b>, <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/106656081/search-on-for-women-who-made-employment-history-in-levin">here</a> and<b> </b><a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/106718997/the-women-who-stood-their-ground-in-levin-factory-found">here</a>). But there are also fliers and posters and social media....<br />
<br />
1B – You could get funding? From the NZFC? NZOA? WIFT? This time, Women's Suffrage? From human rights lawyers interested in freedom of speech, especially in <b>Rafiki</b> and <b>Radiogram</b>?<br />
<br />
ME – Tried all that. No success. Maybe another year. I've been asking directors and writers and editors and cinematographers which films they would like to see, with the opportunity to do a Q&A with one of the filmmakers after it screens. And the list is already quite long and very exciting.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, I'm just hugely grateful to all those who helped and continue to help. What a lovely combo of logos, huh?<br />
<br />
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1B – Āe. He tika tonu! And how about that <b><a href="http://www.viva.co.nz/article/food-drink/magic-fridge-author-alex-mackay/">Magic Fridge</a></b>? You could do with one of those...<br />
<br />
ME – And today I have one! As well as the book of course. Kia ora e hoa. Ngā mihi nui, ngā mihi tino mahana ki a koe. I'm done. Let's have lunch.<br />
<br />
So we do.<br />
<br />
And we plant some silver beet.<br />
<br />
Then off we go to find 1B the perfect frock. My head preoccupied with those questions for Isabel.<br />
<div class="graf graf--p" name="c912">
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<b>NOTE</b><br />
<br />
Of all feature films produced in Aotearoa between 2003-2016, around 80% were directed by men; and of taxpayer-funded features during this period, only 6.5% were written and directed by women and had female protagonists. Women participate more fully in documentary-making; in the last three years, the proportion of NZOA-funded documentaries directed by women fluctuated between 36-46%, though how many of these were about women and girls is unmeasured. Distribution of films that diverse women make is a further, global, problem.<br />
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-89095644959833305512018-09-09T15:57:00.003-07:002018-09-25T21:45:10.153-07:00#DirectedByWomen month in Aotearoa New Zealand<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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September marks the fourth global <a href="https://directedbywomen.com/">#DirectedByWomen</a> celebration. All round the world, people choose to watch films that women direct. In bed late at night on their phones. On the couch with mates and wine and popcorn and tea and biscuits. In cinemas with friends and strangers.<br />
<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Good to go, in Palma</span></td></tr>
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And in lots of other places, like this outdoor cinema <a href="https://www.instagram.com/directedbywomenspain/">in Spain</a>, where #DirectedByWomen has grown and grown.<br />
<br />
You can find events near you on the very full #<a href="https://directedbywomen.com/">DirectedByWomen catalogue</a>.<br />
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This year, by a wonderful coincidence, September is also the month where here in Aotearoa New Zealand we celebrate 125 years since Parliament passed the law that gave women the vote: Suffrage125. So there are films #directedbywomen all over the place! Starting in the north... and aware that I haven't included anything from Te Wai Pounamu/ the South Island (yet!)</div>
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AUCKLAND</h3>
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In Auckland, at <b>ACADEMY CINEMAS</b>, there's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/2065192397127467/" style="font-weight: bold;">There She Goes: Women's Countercinema in the 20th Century</a>.<b> </b> It starts with <b>Mauri</b>,<b> </b>on Women's Suffrage Day, next Wednesday. (On the same day, at the 8th Down Under Berlin Film Festival on the other side of the world, <b>WARU</b>, 2017 will screen.) <b>There She Goes</b> runs through to November.<br />
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Here's its list–<br />
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<b>A Place of Rage</b> dir. Pratibha Parmar, 1991 <br />
<b>Born in Flames</b> dir. Lizzie Borden, 1983 <br />
<b>Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles</b> dir. Chantal Akerman, 1975 <br />
<b>Love and Anarchy</b> dir. Lina Wertmüller, 1973<br />
<b>Mauri</b> dir. Merata Mita, 1988<br />
<b>Vagabond</b> dir. Agnes Varda, 1985 <br />
<b>Wanda</b> dir. Barbara Loden, 1970 <br />
<b>Woman, Demon, Human</b> dir. Huang Shuqin, 1987 <br />
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*&* shorts by Alison Maclean, Forough Farrokhzad, Maya Deren, and Sima Urale!<br />
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I love the series title, perhaps a hat-tip to this book by Corrin Columpar and Sophie Mayer. Sophie is also the author of <b><a href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/sophie-mayer-her-political-animals-the-new-feminist-cinema-cbfa7b706c51">Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema</a></b> and a <b><a href="https://medium.com/women-s-film-activists/sophie-mayers-activist-wisdom-c5bfd6fddc23">Feminist Filmmaking Manifesto</a></b>–<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/214532599217749/">TE URU WAITAKERE GALLERY</a></b> in west Auckland is screening some Merata Mita films, in association with Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision and alongside some Barry Barclay films, also not often screened.<br />
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<b>Mana Waka </b>dir. Merata Mita, 1990 (based on original 1937 footage of Mäori carvers recreating the great fleet of waka that originally brought Māori to Aotearoa)<br />
Saturday 22 Sep | 7pm | <a href="https://ticketing.oz.veezi.com/purchase/26?siteToken=fpnccxy3ma159g7z8a3e95asy8">Hollywood Cinema</a><br />
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<b>Mauri </b>dir. Merata Mita, 1988<br />
Saturday 23 Sep | 7pm | <a href="https://ticketing.oz.veezi.com/purchase/27?siteToken=fpnccxy3ma159g7z8a3e95asy8">Hollywood Cinema</a> </span></div>
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And check out <a href="http://www.circuit.org.nz/the-time-of-the-now">the programme</a> for <b>CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa</b>, in Auckland, this weekend, 15 September! Heaps of women-directed work and discussion; and director Stephanie Beth will talk about her <b>I want to be Joan</b>, 1977 and <b>In Joy</b>,<b> </b>1980 which she self-distrbuted in a 100-date national tour. Here are some production stills from <b>In Joy</b>, including Stephanie directing camera operator Leon Narbey, a review from Alternative Cinema and a recent shot of Stephanie.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.800000190734863px;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Stephanie Beth, now and then</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>NEW PLYMOUTH</b></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In New Plymouth, at the <b>GOVETT-BREWSTER ART GALLERY</b>, there's a <b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/515976468849025/">Women's Suffrage Film Festival</a>.</b> </span></div>
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Last week they too showed Merata Mita's <b>Mauri</b>, a rare treat!<br />
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Here's their programme for this week, headed by <b>Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance</b>, a feature-length film documentary film by the legendary Alanis Obomsawin. It has just been <a href="https://globalnews.ca/video/4287993/kanehsatake-270-years-of-resistance">released in Mohawk</a>, so it's perfect for this week as <b><a href="http://www.tewikiotereomaori.co.nz/">Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori</a></b>, too–<br />
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<b>Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance </b>dir. Alanis Obomsawin, 1993<br />
Wed 12 Sep | 7 pm | Exempt<br />
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<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LtPNqLtR4BI" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<b>The Punk Singer</b> dir. Sini Anderson, 2013<br />
Sat 15 Sep | 3 pm | M<br />
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<b>RBG </b>dir. Julie Cohen & Betsy West, 2018<br />
Sun 16 Sep | 3 pm | PG<br />
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
NAPIER</h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">At MTG Hawkes Bay there's a mix of NZIFF films and a special Suffrage programme.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Birds of Passage</b> <span style="font-family: inherit;">dir.<b> </b></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Cristina Gallego, Ciro Guerra, 2018 </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Wed 12 Sep | 2pm, Sunday 16 Sep | 4pm</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><a href="https://www.mtghawkesbay.com/whats-on/upcoming-events/show/519578/nziff-merata-how-mum-decolonised-the-screen">Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen</a></b> dir. Heperi Mita, 2018</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Wed 12 Sep | 6.15pm, Fri 14 Sep 2pm (an extraordinary film about an extraordinary woman director, directed by her son)</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Miseducation of Cameron Post </b>dir. Desiree Akhavan, 2018 <span style="font-family: inherit;">Thu 13 Sep | 6.15pm</span></span></span></span></div>
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<b>Hot Words & Bold Retorts</b> (short) dir. Gaylene Preston, 2018, with <b>Suffragette </b>dir Sarah Gavron, 2015 (Suffrage programme) <span style="font-family: inherit;">Wed 19 Sep | 2pm, 6pm </span></span></span></div>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
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ŌTAKI</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you search 'New Zealand' on the #DirectedbyWomen site, you'll find t</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">he Latin America & Spain Film Festival (LASFF) is </span><a href="http://maorilandfilm.co.nz/events/" style="font-family: inherit;">at the <b>MĀORILAND HUB</b></a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> from September 7th-16th. Māoriland consistently supports women directors right through the year and this programme includes work directed by women from Cuba, Colombia and Spain–</span></span><br />
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<b> On The Roof</b> dir. Patricia Ramos Hernández, 2016 </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thu 13 Sep | 8pm </span></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">Keyla </b><span style="font-family: inherit;">dir. Viviana Gómez Echeverry, 2016 Fr 14 Sep | 6pm</span></span><br />
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">Even the Rain</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> dir. Icíar Bollaín, 2010 Sat 15 Sep | 5pm (This one is about water (etc), really really want to see it....)</span></span><br />
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ONLINE</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There's </span><b style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/in-depth/366084/the-reality-of-life-on-the-minimum-wage-in-nz">Minimum</a></b><span style="font-family: inherit;">, too, an online series directed by Kathleen Winter about women who work low-wage, precarious or under-appreciated jobs in Aotearoa. Watch it <a href="https://loadingdocs.net/ldplus/">here</a> (scroll down). Currently</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> being released one episode at a time.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And then there's my own Suffrage125 project, </span><a href="https://medium.com/@devt/directedbywomen-aotearoa-f891e83c271d" style="font-family: inherit;">#directedbywomen #aotearoa</a><span style="font-family: inherit;">, with its pop-up events. It's hard to write about because I'm right in it. <a href="https://medium.com/@devt/directedbywomen-aotearoa-getting-with-the-suffrage125-programme-f861b6fbbe68">But I gave it a go, here</a>.</span></span></div>
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-65843577450812126622018-07-31T16:25:00.000-07:002018-08-12T20:02:35.107-07:00Emerging Women Filmmakers Network <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The first Emerging Women Filmmakers Network meet-up: Lucy (l) and Lorraine (r), in front</span></td></tr>
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Thanks to Lucy Holyoake and Lorraine Hughes, Wellington has a new and shiny Emerging Women Filmmaker’s Network. It began with a meet-up late last month, attended by about 50 women.<br />
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Lucy majored in Film at Victoria, where she did the practical courses, directed her first short documentary and fell in love with writing and directing. She’s now completing her Graduate Diploma in Media Studies where she’s researched and written about gender in film and media and she was happy to answer a few questions.<br />
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<i>What inspired your initiative? How did you establish the parameters of who the group is for?</i><br />
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The idea of this group combines my passions for film and gender studies. Initially we opened it up to all woman of any skill level, but we quickly realised the gap we wanted to fill was for young or emerging women lacking experience. Being recent graduates ourselves, we both found it very hard to know what to do next and how to actually get work in the film industry. And this is something a lot of the women we met at the meet-up also found. There is a gap between study and industry work where we are losing our female filmmakers. Tertiary institutes have relatively even numbers of men and women. Then in the industry, the numbers drastically fall. What is happening in the middle there? Where do the women go? Maybe this network start to help push through the next generations of kiwi women and encourage them to keep pursuing filmmaking. <br />
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<i>There are already well-established groups doing great work. What needs did you identify that are not met by WIFTNZ and other guilds, or by Welly’s Emerging Artists Trust (EAT)? </i><br />
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The gap I mentioned in between study and work really points to a lack of support for women who are not yet working in the industry, and lack practical experience.<br />
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WIFTNZ provides so many great events, which are beneficial to women at any stage, but they are largely for women in the industry, or with significant experience. It also became evident that only a very small number of women that attended our event were members of WIFTNZ, so there is a lack of knowledge about the events they do put on within the younger/less experienced demographic. EAT also has really great initiatives for emerging artists, but less so for the women who haven’t had much practical experience yet. <br />
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I think groups like ours can really help women to gain experience and confidence, by meeting collaborators and working on small projects together, and participating in practical exercises and workshops in a supportive environment that focuses on encouraging each other and developing our skills. Being a part of this group provides the opportunity to meet other like-minded female filmmakers and gives us a sense of community, and energies to bounce off. <br />
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<i>How did the meet-up go? </i><br />
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We were so happy with how the meet-up went! It was the first time I had been in a room with so many women who share the same passion. The energy in a room of 50 filmmaking women was so exciting and we felt so energised by that. It was so empowering and it felt like we were all ready to get out there and do it together. I think it’s something a lot of women filmmakers would love to be a part of.<br />
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Many of the women that came let us know that they were really glad we’d decided to organise this, and felt excited to be a part of it and because we are fairly recent graduates ourselves we all want to get the same thing out of it.<br />
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<i>You made a survey at the meeting. What did you learn from that?</i><br />
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Some of the key pieces of feedback we received were:<br />
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The desire for a community to be a part of and to be connected to, a community of like-minded women that provides a space for networking, collaborating, sharing work, discussion on specific film skills and a space for practicing and improving those skills.<br />
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There was a lot of emphasis on wanting to have a group for us all to work on projects together, to practice our skills as a group. Someone mentioned that actors do improvising workshops to continually practice their skills and that filmmakers need an equivalent to encourage growth and learning. For example, mini 48- hour-style exercises for emerging women, anthology films we can create together, short film festivals for emerging women judged by industry experts etc. <br />
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More support to help bridge the gap between study and work. Many of the women that attended were either still at film school, or recently graduated and feeling stuck not knowing what to do next. The general feedback was that there wasn’t much support from the industry to help women filmmakers bridge that gap. What pathways could be more established to encourage emerging women filmmakers to pursue careers in the industry? If we want those gender stats to change, this is a gap that needs support. <br />
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More practical workshops and talks about specific skills in relation to the industry, specifically targeting women with no industry experience, e.g. workshops on directing, camera, editing, screenwriting and advice on how to get into those areas, more established practical mentoring schemes. <br />
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It was interesting to read this feedback, as there was a definitive shared sense of what type of support this group wanted. Some of it we can aim to do ourselves (like building that community and improving our skills together), some of it other industry organisations could consider. We are going to send our feedback to WIFTNZ so they can consider some of these ideas. <br />
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<i>What’s happening next?</i><br />
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A whole lot we hope! We are holding our second meet up on 16th August at Toi Poneke Arts Centre where we'll screen the work of some of our members. <br />
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WIFTNZ is in the process of organising a workshop for emerging women filmmakers in Wellington with tips of what to do after study, freelance work, and hopefully some advice from the women out there doing it! <br />
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From there, we’ll keep having a mix of social meet-ups and panel discussions/workshops on specific areas of filmmaking. We’d love to get some guest speakers in for some of our events as well. And screenings of women’s work! <br />
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We just want to keep the momentum going and really establish a collaborative supportive community and then go from there. We’ve got plenty of big ideas up our sleeve, so we’re hoping to get a team of us together to figure out what this group can do. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-BN-nPKmvSSqAeskLRQ6tyOnUOhCABdco5XVLxtae3eSQQqD9zM5FJY2u2HAdfXTQbOYS2sjHSWfn7kBz1WTfCpmSqBhOhyp_iNSaR7WtT0vK7pEN5bOemuS9vr5NizExFuCPYWhb5nom/s1600/EWFN+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-BN-nPKmvSSqAeskLRQ6tyOnUOhCABdco5XVLxtae3eSQQqD9zM5FJY2u2HAdfXTQbOYS2sjHSWfn7kBz1WTfCpmSqBhOhyp_iNSaR7WtT0vK7pEN5bOemuS9vr5NizExFuCPYWhb5nom/s400/EWFN+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/242118849902767/">Facebook</a> </b>(includes posts from women interested in similar groups in Auckland and the South Island)<br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1771395362915202/">August 16 Event</a></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.843137); letter-spacing: -0.06300000101327896px;">&! A few of the woman who attended the first meet-up are now collaborating on a short film, </span><em class="markup--em markup--p-em" style="caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137); color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137); font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'salt' 1; letter-spacing: -0.06300000101327896px;">Walk a Mile</em><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.843137); letter-spacing: -0.06300000101327896px;">, and are </span><a class="markup--anchor markup--p-anchor" data-href="https://www.boosted.org.nz/projects/walk-a-mile-film" href="https://www.boosted.org.nz/projects/walk-a-mile-film" rel="nofollow noopener" style="background-image: linear-gradient(rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.682353) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0) 50%); background-position: 0px 1.07em; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; background-size: 2px 0.1em; caret-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.843137); color: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.06300000101327896px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">crowd funding</a><span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.843137); letter-spacing: -0.06300000101327896px;"> some money for it! We can help!</span></span></div>
wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3289856713823310142.post-72622483704190787902018-06-24T15:43:00.002-07:002018-12-27T12:53:41.389-08:00NZ Update #16: Celebrations & Problems<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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In Aotearoa New Zealand we're keen on movies with women protagonists, in a variety of genres. At the box office last time I looked, <b>seven</b> out of the top ten had women at their centre. But women wrote and directed only <b>two</b> of them. Just two more had women as co-writers–<br />
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*1. <a href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/oceans-eight/" target="_blank">Ocean’s 8</a> $746,780 (dir Gary Ross, wr *Olivia Milch, Gary Ross; distr Roadshow)<br />
2. <a href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/solo-a-star-wars-story/" target="_blank">Solo: A Star Wars Story</a> $220,207 (dir Ron Howard, wr Jon Kasdan, Lawrence Kasdan; distr Walt Disney)<br />
3. <a href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/deadpool-2/" target="_blank">Deadpool</a> 2 $207,067 (dir David Leitch, wr Drew Goddard, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick; distr Fox)<br />
*4. <a href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/hereditary/" target="_blank">Hereditary</a> $130,750 (dir/wr Ari Aster; distr Studiocanal)<br />
*5. <a href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/tea-with-the-dames/" target="_blank">Tea With The Dames</a> $106,154 (dir Roger Michell; distr Transmission)<br />
6. <a href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/avengers-infinity-war/" target="_blank">Avengers: Infinity War</a> $75,320 (dir Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, wr Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeeley; distr Walt Disney)<br />
*7. <a href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/the-bookshop/" target="_blank">The Bookshop</a> $62,748 (wr/dir *Isabel Coixet from novel by Penelope Fitzgerald; distr Transmission)<br />
*8. <a href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/veere-di-wedding/" target="_blank">Veere Di Wedding</a> $47,967 (dir Shashanka Ghosh wr *Nidhi Mehra, Mehul Suri; distr Forum Films)<br />
*9. <a href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/the-guernsey-literary-and-potato-peel-pie-society/" target="_blank">The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society</a> $44,785 (dir Mike Newell, wr Thomas Bezucha, Don Ross from novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Burrows; distr Studiocanal)<br />
*10. <a href="https://www.flicks.co.nz/movie/the-breaker-upperers/" target="_blank">The Breaker Upperers</a> $41,182 (wr/dir *Madeline Sami, *Jackie Van Beek; distr Madman)<br />
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So yes, movies about women do well at the box office here, as in other parts of the world. But we're watching women's stories through a predominantly male lens, a male lens that usually includes a male cinematographer. That's more than 'not great'. Jill Soloway explains why better than I ever could, in her talk about the female gaze at the bottom of this post.<br />
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I saw two of these movies in the week they featured in this top ten: <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRPNUHOS6yE">The Bookshop</a>, </i>a beautiful meditation on the agency and courage of women and girls and how both women and men undermine and support them (with the best and most subtle performance I've ever seen from Patricia Clarkson); and <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeGaIFcq0JU">Tea With the Dames</a>. </i> I enjoyed that too, but I longed for a version directed by a woman, with a different gaze, different emphases (I think the director has a Lawrence Olivier fetish). And subtly different questions.<br />
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Frustratingly, women still struggle to access the resources to write, direct and distribute 'our' movies, stories that <b>reflect</b> our worlds, in all their diversity, rather than <b>represent</b> us through men's eyes. So it was utterly exciting to learn that Netflix has bought <i>The Breaker Upperers</i>. Warm congratulations to all concerned. About 60% of <i>The Breaker Upperers'</i> crew <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/film/103350816/the-breaker-upperers-the-kiwi-comedy-breaking-new-ground-for-femaleled-filmmaking" target="_blank">are women</a> and it's beautifully shot by Ginny Loane, a woman cinematographer. It will now be seen globally and will entertain as effectively on small screens as on large, I reckon. (For the latest on Netflix's central role in getting diverse stories to diverse audiences, check out <a href="http://www.vulture.com/2018/06/netflix-is-trying-to-make-sure-its-shows-dont-get-lost.html" target="_blank">this article</a>, with some great insights from Ava DuVernay).<br />
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But <i>The Breaker Upperers </i>is an exception. It's galling that, globally, now they know our stories make money, men tell them so consistently and get strong support to do so, from development to distribution and marketing. And that even when women write the screenplays, as they did in this week's list, they tend to be co-writers, are apparently not trusted to deliver on their own.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQiWAXAj6lIX4GKwbO8B3d5AV7qwuUZG0Vk6nJi8BFTw4esGqUP7xo2uk9vaY8izLA7kiPTfJbNtcETm-WAuUSNvxzFUmzdbrTfMZzMEqhpu71eZYi_4FiZz1dCCcjS_Xy-VRJ98SQ5fm3/s1600/Annabelle+Sheehan+April-18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1481" data-original-width="1600" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQiWAXAj6lIX4GKwbO8B3d5AV7qwuUZG0Vk6nJi8BFTw4esGqUP7xo2uk9vaY8izLA7kiPTfJbNtcETm-WAuUSNvxzFUmzdbrTfMZzMEqhpu71eZYi_4FiZz1dCCcjS_Xy-VRJ98SQ5fm3/s320/Annabelle+Sheehan+April-18.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Annabelle Sheehan</span></td></tr>
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In this context, it was heartening when Annabelle Sheehan, the new CEO of our taxpayer-funded New Zealand Film Commission/Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga (NZFC), announced that the organisation has a new and deeper commitment to inclusion and diversity. This commitment started – as is completely appropriate – with <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/resources/te-rautaki-m%C4%81ori-english" target="_blank">Te Rautaki</a>, a policy initiated by the last CEO, Dave Gibson. Te Rautaki is based in the Treaty of Waitangi/Te Tiriti o Waitangi (1840) which guarantees Māori control of Māori treasures, including its language and its stories. More about this another day.<br />
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The same evening, the NZFC awarded the first Te Tumu Whakaata Taonga Māori Screen Excellence Award, for Māori filmmakers whose work makes an impact locally and/or internationally. The nine women of the extraordinary feature <i>Waru </i>each received $50k to assist with their work. It was a beautiful, brilliant and making-herstory choice; for the taxpayer to invest $450k in nine Māori women artists on a single day, in any medium, is unprecedented.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9VYGM4whFX0WrB4Q1OEmhhQ6Es8feGaKjvViSkninBq6i1Qc-1j9VG0i0SJtq4_jVsDP_3cJqQiPpRfk60JxUBAhIOLbYeF3a0tbIARgEcBx304GRE5Fwppg9jNrfxLhuMtdSAbn0DlIq/s1600/WARU+women.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9VYGM4whFX0WrB4Q1OEmhhQ6Es8feGaKjvViSkninBq6i1Qc-1j9VG0i0SJtq4_jVsDP_3cJqQiPpRfk60JxUBAhIOLbYeF3a0tbIARgEcBx304GRE5Fwppg9jNrfxLhuMtdSAbn0DlIq/s320/WARU+women.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Most of the <i>Waru</i> women, with Carmel Sepuloni in red jacket (Associate Minister for Arts, Culture & Heritage)</span></td></tr>
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Annabelle also announced that NZFC research and policy development is now underway to create programmes and funding that will support and encourage a range of under-represented voices in the film industry.<br />
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But. There's so often a 'but', isn't there? That night, it was the announcement of the NZFC's <a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/news/125-fund-announced" target="_blank">first initiative</a> within its larger plan, for the 125th anniversary of women's suffrage in this country: the <b><a href="https://www.nzfilm.co.nz/news/125-fund-opens">125 Fund</a> (deadline 13 August, 9 a.m.)</b>. The fund offers an investment of $1.25 million each for up to two dramatic features in any genre where the director and at least one other key creative is a woman.<br />
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From 2019 this initiative will be followed by designated production funds to support Pasifika filmmakers and other groups from a range of under-represented cultural and ethnic backgrounds, including the LGBTQI community and those with disabilities. But I worry that the NZFC's wider plan will go ahead before it has a more sophisticated and well-established strategy for achieving gender equity in its overall funding than it has at present. Because gender is an issue in every single under-represented group, whatever the cultural and ethnic background of its members. One of the <b>125 Fund</b>'s criteria reinforces my concern.<br />
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The <b>125 Fund</b> felt all good, at first. Annabelle said–<br />
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'Women are significantly underrepresented in the New Zealand screen industry – as they are globally. With this unique initiative, we want to encourage ambitious women's voices and diverse scripts which depict meaningful representations of women in both character and story and provide new opportunities for New Zealand women filmmakers.'<br />
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But alas, there's a fundamental problem with encouraging 'ambitious women's voices and diverse scripts' without ensuring that these voices and scripts belong to women writers as well as to women directors. Yes, some projects will have a woman writer/director, so immediately a woman fulfils both the director's role and 'one other key creative [role]'. But the requirement that only one other 'key creative' is a woman opens the door to yet another script written by an ('ambitious') man. If that happens, bingo, the <b>125 Fund </b>will benefit a male writer and encourage his voice; and the fund's integrity is immediately undermined.<br />
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I worry too that some people at the NZFC believe – erroneously – that (as Jemaine Clement <a href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.co.nz/2015/11/dear-jemaine.html" target="_blank">appeared to</a>, back in 2015) we don't have enough women writers who can manage a feature, that those who can are 'exceptional', unlike men writers, who are seen as inherently more competent.<br />
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I also remember multi-hyphenate Katie Wolfe, one of the <i>Waru</i> women, speaking <a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/insight/audio/201858650/insight-women-s-work-and-the-gender-wage-gap" target="_blank">on Radio New Zealand</a> last year, about a similar bias against Māori women directors–<br />
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"Before <i>Waru</i> was made", she said, "when it was pitched as an idea, someone quipped 'there wouldn't be eight Māori women in this country that could helm a feature film', which was just crazy because the women who helmed this feature film were incredibly experienced."<br />
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There's a long history of erroneous belief that there are few women who can write and/or direct and that those who can are 'exceptional' rather than normal. Of forgetting that we don't need 'help' (upskilling, mentors etc, which we're usually able to access when we need them), we need money and a more sophisticated industry culture.<br />
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Right now, today, there are heaps of women screenwriters. For a start, there are the nine <i>Waru</i> women, and at the moment they have more resources than usual to buy time, to write and develop an array of projects. In addition, New Zealand On Air (NZOA), that other taxpayer organisation, which funds television and webseries, recently released its 2018 <i><a href="http://www.nzonair.govt.nz/document-library/diversity-report-2018/" target="_blank">Diversity Report</a>. </i>It shows that 53% of the writers on projects NZOA funded were women – the same as in its 2017 report and a leap from the 37% in 2016; many of these writers will also have developed scripts for features. Lots of the local <a href="https://wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com/2017/09/nz-update-111-women-who-do-it.html">Women Who Do It</a> on screen push the boundaries, often without NZFC support, and are ideal applicants for the <b>125 Fund</b>.<br />
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Why would the NZFC not be more rigorous about their suffrage investment? Why is it so reluctant to place its confidence in the many many local women who write for the screen, often very well? Why doesn't it emulate Telefilm Canada’s <a href="https://telefilm.ca/en/news-releases/telefilm-canada-announces-partnership-industry-gender-parity-measures-feature-film-production-financing">policy</a>, after it identified gender parity in director and screenwriter roles as requiring immediate critical attention, or – in a country with a similar population – the Irish Film Board's commitment to various experiments to reach gender parity: they're achieving <a href="https://www.screenireland.ie/news/international-womens-day-ifb-focus-on-irish-female-filmmakers">results</a>? How can the NZFC even consider funding a script written by a man for a suffrage project? I can hear the mutters and sighs of the women who signed the suffrage petition.<br />
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I also hear women decision-makers and influencers express opinions based on a deeply held belief that women are 'in deficit' and that the gender problem is our fault mostly because we lack confidence, don't compete strongly enough, need upskilling, aren't ambitious enough in our ideas, and aren't conceptually sophisticated. I hear these opinions regularly.<br />
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I now believe that many of women filmmakers' so-called deficiencies are because decision-makers, including the women and men within the taxpayer-funded system at the NZFC, perpetuate practices that aren't safe for women. For instance, if we lack confidence it's with good reason, because decision-makers often undermine our confidence, starting with casual but heartfelt comments about our deficits and continuing through assessment and funding support. In that radio interview, Katie Wolfe echoed many women I've spoken with–<br />
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"Often when you're submitting work which is very female-focused, sometimes the reaction to it is 'that doesn't feel quite right' or 'I don't recognise that'. Of course you don't understand it, you've never heard it before. We're making the world care differently and see differently, because we haven't had the chance to hear these stories before."<br />
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Why aren't responses to difference more welcoming, more informed, more ambitious, more conceptually sophisticated? I think there's a good argument that many decision-makers are in deficit and that they need to upskill, so they can establish a safer culture for women writers and directors, in all our diversity.<br />
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Suffrage125 is a unique opportunity for the NZFC to take risks, to be bold, to express unambivalent enthusiasm for women directors and writers and cinematographers and producers and women and girls as protagonists, for all-women crews and new ways of working. To demonstrate that women filmmakers can be confident in the organisation's commitment to women and in the quality of its project assessment. Those suffragists would love that! But through its <b>125 Fund </b>criteria, by offering valuable space to men's voices, the NZFC has – perhaps inadvertently, which is a worry – marred an otherwise golden opportunity. Instead, it has chosen to feed the myth that women screenwriters are in deficit.<br />
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Jill Soloway argues that it's <i>time for men to hold back. </i>But few do, as that box office data shows. So I hope that the NZFC adopts Jill's argument and decides, within and alongside its <b>125 Fund</b>, to prioritise the female gaze as expressed by writers (and cinematographers) as well as by directors. Or else, watch out for those suffragists... on the march to the NZFC offices in Ghuznee Street.<br />
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wellywood womanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13224383638978594862noreply@blogger.com0