Wellywood Woman

Cian Elyse Waiti with her two SWANZ awards In the first part of this post, NZ Update #11.1 , I addressed this myth:  gender inequity within the ‘pipelines’ to feature film funding and television drama will disappear  if  AotearoaNZ's taxpayer-funded  agencies persuade women screenwriters and directors to Do It, to upskill and to apply for funding more often. I showed that the reality is that the system favours men who write and direct and this adversely affects women, whatever we do or don't do. I also showed that the production of many women-created short-form series demonstrates that there's a large cohort of women who already Do It to a high standard in spite of having limited resources; and identified some characteristics of their practice as they develop new ways to tell screen stories.  I suggested that the taxpayer-funding agencies  Do It themselves, instead.  The New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC, responsible for funding films), New Zealand On Air (NZOA,

Most of the  Waru  women during a standing ovation at Toronto l-r Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu, Awanui Simich-Pene, Chelsea Cohen, Renae Maihi, Katie Wolfe, Casey Kaa, Paula Jones, Briar Grace-Smith This is the first of two posts about gender equity in the allocation of Aotearoa New Zealand (AotearoaNZ)’s taxpayer funds to screen-based fictions. After eleven years of learning from many others engaged with this issue, here and around the world, I argue that the agencies responsible for investing taxpayer funds must acknowledge that women writers’ and directors’ low participation in feature filmmaking and television drama is due to  systemic and enduring advantages for men who write and direct; and that  it is not women’s ‘fault’ .  Because of their systemic flaws, the agencies concerned should complement their collection and use of   ‘ diversity ’  data with comprehensive gender equity policies and best practices,  instead of urging women to enter their  ‘ pipelines ’  in larger num