Wellywood Woman

The Kenyan Classification Board has banned RAFIKI ('Friend' in Swahili), the first Kenyan feature to be accepted for Cannes. It is a love story between two young women, directed by Wanuri Kahiu and co-written with Jenna Cato Bass. Wanuri tried to have the film classified for viewers 18 and above. But in Kenya, gay sex faces up to 14 years in prison and according to the Hollywood Reporter , President Uhuru Kenyatta told CNN in an interview earlier this month that 'gay rights are not of any major importance' in Kenya. The Classification Board accused RAFIKI of being made with 'clear intent to promote lesbianism in Kenya, contrary to the law'. The Kenyan Film Commission is obviously very proud of RAFIKI. Another major #handshake in the film industry.We're proud to support @wanuri for being invited to screen first ever Kenyan film at @Festival_Cannes @amulwa2 @ckfoot @RashidEchesa @KenyanMusik @EzekielMutua @Izhow @moscakenya @NikiMags

It's a big week here in Aotearoa New Zealand! A rare event, release of a brand new local and #directedbywomen narrative feature, The Breakerupperers . Written and directed byMadeline Sami and Jackie Van Beek, it premiered to enthusiastic audiences at SXSW and has had lots of equally enthusiastic press in the run up to opening here on Thursday. Like this : I expect to be enchanted. But that's not all. Thanks to the excellent  flicks.co.nz , I've found 14 features #directedby women among the 82 listed in total, 17% –  within that magic 16-20 percentage that's associated with gender all over the place. Two of the films, Kobi and WARU , are directed by local women. Go to the flicks.co.nz site for reviews and to find out what's screening at cinemas near you. A whole lot I didn't know about. As well as on Netflix (etc) in all its glory, there there are also women-directed features on the telly: the other week, I caught up with Deniz Gamze Ergüven's

Kete– Kura Walker née Rua Photograph–  Arekahānara Design– J Terre Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa! It's #Suffrage125 in Aotearoa New Zealand this year, 125 years since women got the vote. To celebrate #Suffrage125 in Aotearoa New Zealand this year — 125 years since women got the vote — I’m creating a pop-up series of events that will celebrate and learn from women who direct for cinema, television and web series and commercials — local and international. With lots of lovely help. Old and new work, from Aotearoa and from overseas, with Q&As, debates and panels to learn more about women directors and the ways they approach screen story telling. #directedbywomen #aotearoa is inspired by Barbara Ann O'Leary's beautiful and global project #DirectedbyWomen , an annual all-September party, now in its fourth year. The first #directedbywomen pop-up is at  Mokopōpaki's shop window cinema  in Auckland, until Saturday at 4pm. It's been warmly welcomed, with

AWCV’s Nancy Peterson (l.) & Carole Stewart Women’s Gallery Wellington 1980  Auckland Women’s Community Video (AWCV, 1976-about 1986) has become a kind of ghost in the herstorical archive, far too soon. I hate it, that their work has almost disappeared. Take Slipping Away (1985) for instance, a video about The Freudian Slips, a feminist band Jenny Renalls formed in 1981. It’s possible that Slipping Away , or the raw footage it was made from, is this item in Ngā Taonga Sound and Vision. But I'm not sure. So I’m asking around, hoping to learn more. Also in Ngā Taonga, Deviance , a Freudian Slips short. The Freudian Slips’ membership varied, including between five and nine women and sometimes all-lesbian and sometimes a mixture of lesbian and straight women. The band released two EP records,   On the Line in 1983 and Are You Laughing in 1985, covering topics that included periods, women and Catholicism, how super-heroes are always men, the right of women not to ha