Aren't blogs wonderful?

I'm thrilled. All these responses.

Two quince-related requests. I'll drop the paste in town when I'm passing, carry some jam up the coast to Otaki on the bus, soon, on a sunny day . 

An experimental tweet from a non-Twitterer:

My turnips are like white balls of black pepper. Wilt the greens too, gloss with extra virgin and taste the time of year. alexmackay.com

137 Characters, he said. Do the spaces count? (Yes.)

And someone's asked me: What do I think about the review of the New Zealand Film Commission, being done by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage? 

There's lots I have no idea about, and I haven't read much about what others think since John Barnett's piece in OnFilm.

But I have some ideas—of course—about how the Film Commission could improve women writers' and directors' participation in feature making. 

The present 'pathways' to making a Film Commission-funded feature are not working for women. We're well represented as documentary makers I think, though I haven't measured the statistics. As producers we do well. And as writers for television.

But our 'pathway' representation as writers and directors is otherwise really low, for example in the 48hours contest (registration closes in 13 days). Last year for the first time there was a prize for an all-women team, which Gaylene Preston Productions sponsored. This was great, because Muriel Niederle from Stanford University and her co-researchers have shown that women and men compete differently; affirmative action programmes where women compete among other women can be very useful in making change.

And I suspect that one factor that influenced the strong participation of women writers in New Zealand On Air's recent telemovies is that NZOA has to consider women as an audience. It has to "to ensure that a range of broadcasts is available to provide for the interests of women and youth and children and persons with disabilities and minorities within the community including ethnic minorities", according to the Broadcasting Act. 

Could the Film Commission try some affirmative action? Could it be required to consider women as an audience (and the other groups NZOA has to think about)? I'll write more about this topic when I have more time.

(& I've changed the settings to simplify making comments.)