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Showing posts from November, 2015

Aidee Walker; & The Good Kuntz at 48Hours

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I've wanted to interview Aidee Walker ever since Friday Tigers/ Ngā Taika o Rāmere, which she wrote and directed, won both major prizes in the New Zealand International Film Festival's Best Short Film competition in 2013 – Best New Zealand Short Film and the Audience Award. 

Aidee's one of those inspiring, hard-working and super-versatile women we do so well here. A writer/director of short films, now transitioning to features. An in-demand actor for highly rating television shows (Mercy Peak; Outrageous Fortune; Shortland Street; and Step Dave, for which she also wrote an episode this year) theatreand short films, including her own. A director of music videos, for Anna Coddington. She's most recently been shadowing actor and director Michael Hurst through a two-episode block of SPP's Westside under the Director & Editors Guild of New Zealand's TV Drama Director Attachment Scheme. 

As well, this year Aidee was part of The Good Kuntz, the first all-women 48Hou…
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Celebration! Gender Equity Initiatives in NSW; & #womeninfilm in Welly

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What amazing news from Australia, via Screen NSW (Screen New South Wales, based in Sydney) and Film Victoria (based in Melbourne)!

Gender Equity via Screen NSW

Screen NSW  has just introduced a gender equity target, of 50/50 allocation of its development and production funding programs by 2020 and will work towards reducing the industry wide gender bias against women in key creative roles.

These are the latest Screen NSW funding figures, according to Danielle McGrane of the Sydney Morning Herald–
Just 28 per cent of directors and 16 per cent of writers working on features funded by Screen NSW from 2012-2015 were female. There were more female producers at 75 per cent.  For those of you outside Australasia, New South Wales is within the film funding territory also covered by the nationally-oriented Screen Australia, which has no gender policy. These are Screen Australia's figures, according to Danielle–
Just 15 per cent of directors for Screen Australia-funded features from 2009-20…
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Sophie Mayer & Her 'Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema'

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Sophie Mayer. She arrived at my place via her last book There She Goes: Feminist Filmmaking and Beyond (written with Corinn Columpar) and her beautiful, inspiring and generous online presence brings her here often (scroll to end for details). I love it that she's also a poet – and a couple of years ago, when Jane Campion gave her workshops in Wellington (we're both Campion fangirls) Sophie kindly contributed a post that explained Keats' 'negative capability'. I needed that. And I love it that she makes me laugh as well as challenging me to think and feel more fully.

I'm waiting impatiently for Sophie's new book to reach New Zealand: Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema, and was delighted when she agreed to this interview.

One of the most interesting and challenging things about global women's film activists is that as individuals we work hard to share and understand our different views of women's filmmaking; and the different language we use to …
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From Paul Feig to Agnès Films' #FavWomanFilmmaker campaign

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A great week last week, thanks to the male allies of #womeninfilm. Paul Feig tweeted several times in support of Destri Martino's fine work at The Director List, where she's created an elegant database of over 1000 accomplished women directors from around the world (more coming all the time!) and, each Friday, provides us with info about the latest crowdfunding for projects with women directors. This kind of very useful tweet –
Help @DestriMartino continue her important work by going to https://t.co/8LzP2NhdQH & clicking the Donate button at the bottom of the page. — Paul Feig (@paulfeig) November 3, 2015 On Women & Hollywood, award-winning screenwriter/director Matthew Hammett Knott wrote 'Confessions from Above the Celluloid Ceiling: The Truth About White Male Privilege'.

Kyle Buchanan produced a three-part series about women directors, starting with 100 Directors That Hollywood Should Be Hiring, continuing with 100 Women Directors: Actors, Producers, and Twi…
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Dear Jemaine

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An actor going to movie premier "attends", an actress "showcases her lithe body" - what I'm saying is: how do I showcase my lithe body? — Jemaine Clement (@AJemaineClement) October 26, 2015

You make me smile.

I love it when I see you in the neighbourhood. Once every couple of years or so.

Wheeling the most elegant little pale blue bike I've ever seen, past New World.

At the polling booth at Clyde Quay School.

Striding past me, outside the fish and chippery in Majoribanks Street.

I love the way you show the neighbourhood, in What We Do in the Shadows. The first horror I ever watched (I am a wuss, a generic ancient person with shopping bags, waiting for the number 20 bus to go up Hawker Street; eating spicy eggplant at Cha; buying double ice cream cones at Kaffee Eis; in and out of the Paramount and the Embassy.)

I loved your Cure Kids project.

And I totally loved your work in People Places Things – kept reaching for 'Rewind' to have another look-and-listen,…
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