Wellywood Woman

Anna Serner heads the Swedish Film Institute . This is a masterclass (a mistressclass?) in #gendermatters, where she describes how she's achieving gender equity at the institute. I love her careful analysis of the problems, the obstacles and the achievements. She's developed a brilliant model for every country where the taxpayer funds film. Anna was filmed at the 'Women in Irish Film' Colloquium at Mary Immaculate College  in Limerick, a few weeks ago. Yes, in Ireland, where #gendermatters too (and where the population is about the same as New Zealand's). The colloquium was organised by Dr. Susan Liddy of the college’s Department of Media and Communications and a member of the Equality Action Committee, with Lauren MacKenzie, Liz Gill and Marian Quinn, who together represented the Writers Guild of Ireland and the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland in discussions with the Irish Film Board’s Gender Equality Plan. Many thanks to actress/writer/producer Maeve M...

Mya Kagan at work Women writers have  often  used male pseudonyms. There are the Bronte sisters of course; and more recently the writer known as James Chartrand , of the Men With Pens website. But as far as I know, Mya Kagan’s the first scriptwriter to submit her work under a man’s name (which of course she hasn’t revealed, referring to him only as ‘Max’). Her project is also different from other uses of pen names. She doesn't  simply send out her work under a pseudonym;  she uses t he new pen name to re-submit previously rejected work, to see if there will be any different response . She documents the experience in Submitting Like a Man (SLAM) .   Mya’s based in Brooklyn New York and her description of herself  charms me and reminds me a little of another New York filmmaker and webseries writer, Anne Flournoy– [Her] work is known for being a spiky blend of smart, lively, deliciously absurd, and wildly entertaining.   Mya's main sp...

by Susan di Rende Susan di Rende I’m trying to understand how creating the Broad Humor Film Festival changed my taste in films and cured me of Hollywood story fever. I started Broad Humor in 2006 to give women a place at the table, a table I valued but which failed to validate work by women I saw and liked. For 9 years, I watched every submission to the festival and read every screenplay, good, bad, and ‘meh.’ Before, I loved TV and many mainstream movies. In my teens I was addicted to the flickering screen. Now, I can hardly bear to watch any of it. There is good stuff in those shows and stories, but my overall reaction is ‘meh.’ I’ve written about how women’s stories tend to be structured differently and why I say women’s comedy is a way for men to experience the multiple orgasms women take for granted. Hollywood understands the Aristotelian big climax and Denouement brand of cigarette. But lately, there have been a lot of great female characters showing up, especiall...