Wellywood Woman

In late December, the Irish Film Board, or Bord Scannán na hÉireann (IFB/BSE), announced its six-point Gender Equality Plan (Information; Funding; Training and Mentorship; Education; Enterprise; and Partnership). The plan includes a target of achieving 50/50 gender parity in funding over the next three years. The IFB/BSE is the national development agency for Irish filmmaking and the Irish film, television and animation industry, the Irish version of Screen Australia and the New Zealand Film Commission, although there are some differences. For instance, IFB/BSE is responsible for Screen Training Ireland , the national screen training and development resource and the New Zealand Film Commission isn't involved in television – that's New Zealand on Air's responsibility. For those of you not familiar with how these agencies work, the respective Acts of Parliament that established each organisation also established their boards, equivalent to boards of directors, appoin...

Annie  Equality for Women, Acting Chair of Bord Scannán na hÉireann/The Irish Film Board It seems to have happened so quickly. In early November, Dr Susan Liddy sent a letter to The Irish Times– Women and the Irish Film Industry Sir, – I write in response to Una Mullally’s article (' A century on, Abbey [Theatre] still gives women a bit part ', Opinion & Analysis, November 2nd) which highlights the woeful under-representation of female playwrights in the Abbey’s centenary programme. Unfortunately, this dismal picture of exclusion is not the exclusive preserve of the theatre. It is also echoed in the Irish Film Industry, which is overwhelmingly male-dominated and lacking a strong female voice and vision. My own research suggests a mere 13 per cent of produced screenplays in the period 1993 to 2013 were written by Irish women.  When women are missing behind the camera there is often a knock-on effect in front of the camera. So only 24 per cent of all produced films ...

Something I enjoy about working on the Development project is that it is transmedial, part of a new storytelling world where fiction mixes with non-fiction and where For the first time since ancient cultures, where stories were passed down from generation to generation through verbal communication…the world has now found a new, communal space to share and grow its stories that represent humanity. … In other words, stories are no longer simply stories, they are world views that will evolve with discussion, creation, and review In that communal space, here on the internet, Development is linked with an informal, global, transmedial project to increase the numbers of feature films that women write and direct, and that tell stories about women's lives. (I hope that New Zealand will be the first country in the world where women write and direct half of all features. But I’m not holding my breath.) This blog, and Kyna Morgan’s sister blog over at HerFilm , are as essential to the De...