Wellywood Woman

Dana Rotberg shooting White Lies|Tuakiri Huna Last week, two lovely people questioned me about my work. I don't look back at it often, but returned to my PhD thesis and various statistics-oriented posts I'd almost forgotten, like this one and this one . And then remembered a survey that I wrote for Geoff Lealand, the New Zealand editor of the second edition of the Directory of World Cinema: Australia and New Zealand . When I looked at it again, I realised that even in the year since I wrote it lots has changed.  (I think you can also tell that I don't enjoy writing 'academic', am much happier in real-time immediate responses).  So here it is while some of it's still relevant and to accompany Matthew Hammett Knott's interview with me, for his Heroines of Cinema series (blush).  If I were writing a survey today, I'd include all the short films New Zealand actresses write and direct and their   potential as multihyphenates . I'd include M

my garden  It's harvest time. I'm also pruning fruit trees, sanding window frames, sewing clothes. And fulfilling some obligations. Overwhelmed. So overwhelmed that I gave away my tickets to Alison Bechdel's events at Writers Week. (Knowing that she provides some wonderful online clips helped me make the decision.) Need to stay very quiet for a bit. But today was special. Surprises. Too many awesome moments to tweet. And when I wrote the day in tweet-size I found I had to add two questions that are not tweet-size. 1. EARLY. Woke from extraordinary dream. Ate a big breakfast in bed, read the paper and went back to sleep. 2. 10.30 Up, quick shower & to desk to start to assess stranger's script. Forgot what fun it can be. What Will Happen Next? followed me to 3. Happy Lunch With Beloved Family. They delight me. Filled with gratitude for their generosity. Then quick walk up Cuba Street to 4. Rendez-Vous with Visiting Beloved Director at Cuba Lighthouse.

Get Your Hopes Up (Ballance St Wellington) photo: Phantom Billstickers I'm at the bus-stop. Feeling gloomy. Ages ago I agreed to write about New Zealand women screenwriters, for an international guide. And now the deadline's looming and I've lost interest. In the eight years of my Development project , nothing has changed in New Zealand. Creative New Zealand and the New Zealand Film Commission, the organisations that distribute public funds to filmmakers and other artists, have no gender policy. They don't record gender statistics consistently. And they never publish them. Nor does New Zealand On Air, which funds some movies for television, and is required to consider women as an audience. The film guilds – publicly funded – don't make diversity statements or produce diversity reports. And change is slow everywhere. Callie Khouri knows what she's talking about, from a career that stretches from Thelma and Louise to Nashville . She said the other