Wellywood Woman

#DirectedByWomen #Aotearoa is back, this time in collaboration with Wellington’s Emerging Women Filmmakers Network ; and generous assistance from those listed in the credits!  The multi-dimensional programme celebrates the visits of Maria Giese, Hope Dickson Leach and Nasreen Alkhateeb to Wellington, after they participate in the Power of Inclusion Summit . Thanks to Māoriland , Maria and Nasreen will also attend a screening in Ōtaki. ------------ Maria Giese is the Nipmuc/US director who initiated the ongoing Federal investigation into Hollywood’s discrimination against women directors. Hope Dickson Leach , UK director, co-founded Raising Films  — an organisation that advocates for parents/carers working in the screen industry, and develops practices to support them. Nasreen Alkhateeb , US director, leads diverse broadcast, digital and film storytelling projects that empower new voices and advocate for gender/racial/ability rights and climate change issues. N

Isabel Coixet, based in Barcelona, has made 14 feature films, many of them award-winning. Her  Elisa & Marcela , about two women who married in Spain — in 1901 — when one of them adopted a male identity, was in 2018 the first Netflix film selected to compete for the Berlinale’s Golden Bear. Isabel has her own production company,  Miss Wasabi , which makes narrative films, documentaries and commercials; and is also an activist — a member of  CIMA , the powerful Spanish group that in 2010 kickstarted this iteration of European women’s film activism when it brought together women working in the audiovisual sector in Europe to create  the Compostela Declaration . Later, Isabel became Honorary President of the  European Women’s Audiovisual Network  that grew out of the declaration. She was also a member of the Cannes Camera d’Or Jury, led by Agnes Varda, in 2013. I interviewed Isabel by Skype, at the Te Auaha cinema in Wellington, on September 19 2018, the 125