Wellywood Woman

White Lies: Tuakiri Huna : the book White Lies|Tuakiri Huna premiered on 27 June. It's a story about three women. And (yes!) it's New Zealand's very own Bechdel Test film. Adapted – from Witi Ihimaera's Medicine Woman novella – and directed by Dana Rotberg, a Mexican director living in New Zealand, it's doing well. Here in Wellington, it's towards the end of its theatrical release. The producer, South Pacific Pictures, is "very pleased", because it "continues to have terrific word-of-mouth which we know has contributed to its extended run at cinemas, both in New Zealand’s main centres and regionally." And  White Lies|Tuakiri Huna is off to the Toronto International Film Festival's Contemporary World Cinema programme soon, where it will screen alongside some other interesting women-directed films. Dana Rotberg (Dana, although I've met her only once, very briefly) will travel to Toronto for Q & As following screenings on 9, 11...

Min-Young Yoo with her award Women's film festivals are increasing their reach. They're collaborating: the International Women's Film Festival Network  and many cross-border initiatives like the Belgian fest Elles Tournent 's partnership with the first Beijing Women's Film Festival . And all the activity is just as well. This year the gender balance among the directors of Sundance's United States selections is an exception among the big festivals. Women directors are not well-represented  even at Venice ,  where women directors participated strongly last year. So it's great to have the opportunity to celebrate a woman director's achievement at a major festival. I was delighted, thanks to translator Rose Chang (then International Business Manager at Indiestory )  to interview  24 year-old Min-Young Yoo whose Cho-De (Invitation) won the Orizzonti YouTube Award for the Best Short Film. She was the only woman director to win a major award at Venic...

Francine Raveney, Mariel Macia, Kate Kinninmont, Melissa Silverstein Even with the internet, women like me – who live far away from Europe and almost as far from most of Asia and the Americas, and who don't have the money to travel – can sometimes feel uninformed or even isolated. So I was thrilled when I saw that coolwomenandfilm  had uploaded a record of You Cannot Be Serious , a meeting of women in film, at this year's Berlinale. The videos here provide an opportunity to meet so many special activists: Stefanie Görtz from the Dortmund|Cologne International Women's Film Festival; Britta Lengowski from Film und Medien NRW; Silke J Räbiger, director of the Dortmund Cologne IWFF; Kate Kinninmont CEO of WIFT UK (who invites women in the audience to identify themselves by their occupation – there's even one who works in costume!); Francine Hetherington Raveney from EWA, the European Women's Audiovisual Network ; Tove Torbiörnsson from the Swedish Film Inst...