Wellywood Woman

It's time to register for Aotearoa New Zealand's HP48Hours (48Hours) film competition, founded by Ant Timpson in 2003 and supported by the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC), our taxpayer-funded film organisation. So here's my view of the competition, an interview with veteran participant Ruth Korver and an analysis of director participation in 2016, by gender. I've been curious about 48Hours since 2006, when I started my PhD on the development of women's feature films in New Zealand. What, I wondered back then, are the roles of film initiatives created outside the NZFC? How do they feed into women's opportunities to make taxpayer-funded feature films? How do the NZFC's contributions – if any – to these initiatives benefit women writers and directors who want to make features? Whenever I've thought about how 48Hours benefits women who want to write and direct features, I've decided “Yes and No”. In 2009, for instance, I wrote “...o...

I'm waiting (always) for more feature documentaries by *and* about women from Aotearoa New Zealand. Coming soon I hope. And some of you will read this and wonder about docos by and about Māori women and by and about indigenous women of other parts of the Pacific; and by and about women from our immigrant communities. 'Where are they?' you might ask. I wonder, too. Most years. And now, when I wonder, I reflect on a recent and brilliant essay , Poutokomanawa – The Heartpost , by award-winning fiction writer, essayist and teacher Tina Makereti. There, she writes about her writing students– In a class of young middle class+ Pākehā students (e.g. the majority university classes) there are many clever, witty, talented, politically astute and very pleasant people. Some of them are beautiful writers. Educationally, they have always been surrounded by writers, theorists and educationalists with the same socio-cultural capital as them. Few of them have stories to tell...

The Aotearoa New Zealand film and television world is being transformed by awareness of, and increasing commitment to, gender equity. Here are some lovely little things I’ve cherished since my last update. Michelle Latimer 1 The Māoriland Film Festival in Ōtaki (a beautiful small-town-by-the sea, north of Wellington)  has announced its first three awards and released its stats. The awards are all People’s Choice awards and films directed by women won two of them. Michelle Latimer’s RISE: Standing Rock was Best Documentary feature, from a docuseries that investigates the ongoing environmental rights struggles that continue to be faced by Native American and indigenous citizens. The episodes played at Māoriland, Sacred Water and Red Power , are situated at Standing Rock. Amie Batalibasi won Best Short for Blackbird , which tells the story of Solomon Islander siblings, Rosa and Kiko, who were kidnapped from their island home to work on a sugar cane plantation in Qu...

Every so often magic happens. Like this public meeting organised by  Directors & Editors Guild of New Zealand  (DEGNZ) and WIFTNZ . I was sad I couldn't go and look forward to seeing the video that was recorded, as shown in the audience pic below. Many thanks to DEGNZ Executive Director Fiona Copland and to Lucy Stonex, for this brief report of the historic event, including the pics, followed by my response. For those of you not familiar with New Zealand, Annie Goldson is a documentary director and producer and academic, Cushla Dillon is an editor, Gaylene Preston is a director, writer and producer in film and television and Jackie Van Beek is an actor and a writer and director for stage and screen. l. to r. Gaylene Preston, Kim Hill, Annie Goldson, Jackie Van Beek by Lucy Stonex Responding to the release of some concerning international statistics, members of DEGNZ and WIFT gathered in Auckland last week to talk about gender imbalance amongst dire...