Wellywood Woman

Thanks to the Associate Minister for Arts, Culture & Heritage, Grant Robertson, and to Jan Logie, Under-Secretary, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Justice (Sexual and Domestic Violence Issues),  Minimum  screened in Parliament’s Beehive Theatrette during  last year’s #directedbywomen , following Kanya Stewart’s classic  Even Dogs Are Given Bones  (1982, for Dyke Productions and  Auckland Women’s Community Video ), about the women who occupied the Rixen clothing factory in Levin when the owner decided to close the factory but wouldn’t pay them redundancy. still from  Even Dogs Are Given Bones It was a beautiful thing when Grant Robertson introduced the evening and asked the  Even Dogs Are Given Bones  women  to stand up so we could applaud them. And beautiful to watch the two works — made almost 40 years apart — together; and to watch all the  Minimum  episodes at once, in a crowded cinema. As well as some of the Rixen women, the audience included some of the participant

Kahra Scott-James and Tanya M. Wheeler are making an ambitious short film,  The Middle Wife , described by an LA script consultant as ‘ Northanger Abbey  meets  The Innocents’.  It  explores domestic violence. And they are crowd-funding on  Boosted   for its first stage. I know Tanya as a prolific and deeply committed screenwriter, with credits on the short films  Wrong  and  Footsteps , on  Power Rangers , the feature  Umbrella Man ;   and the award-winning  RESET   webseries, which she also produced.  And I’m learning about Kahra, a writer, a sound designer, re-recording mixer and occasional composer whose award-winning  Trap   screened at last year’s New Zealand International Film Festival (among many other festivals). She has designed soundtracks for 3D interactive movie creators Brilliant Digital Entertainment (USA/Australia — Warner Brothers/DC Comics), managed an audio post-production studio for several years, working on broadcast, film and animation projects and lect

It’s all go here in New Zealand, so I’ve had to add this to the  last post . And — working around other commitments — I’ve probably missed stuff! But it looks like there are more and more reasons to be optimistic about positive change following more announcements: from the New Zealand International Film Festival (NZFF); New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC, our taxpayer-funded film agency); and the New Zealand Writers Guild (NZWG). Some Wellbeing Budget allocations that could help increase opportunities for women, too. Some awards that acknowledge some brilliant women. Two upcoming summits. New Zealand’s Best Short Film Jane Campion (credit: NZFC) Part of the NZFF and to be judged by Jane Campion this year. And five of the six  finalist films  she has selected are #directedbywomen (or co-directed)– Egg Cup Requiem  directed by Prisca Bouchet and Nick Mayow;  Hinekura , directed by Becs Arahanga (also one of the  Vai  writer/directors; and  Hinekura  won the Mana Wairoa