Wellywood Woman

Here, in alphabetical order by director, are the New Zealand women-directed short films selected for three sections of the New Zealand International Film Festival. Because a successful short film is seen as an element of the pipeline to taxpayer funding for a feature film, selection of these films really matters. Some of these come from this year’s New Zealand’s Best Short Film competition (BSF) , where half of those elected are #DirectedByWomen. NZIFF programmers Bill Gosden and Michael McDonnell made a shortlist of 12 films from 83 submissions and veteran filmmaker Gaylene Preston selected six finalists. And the winners of the associated awards do well! A jury of three will select the winner of the $5,000 Madman Entertainment Jury Prize, and the Wallace Foundation and Wallace Media Ltd will award a $3,000 Wallace Friends of the Civic Award to the film or contributor to a film they deem to merit special recognition. The winner of the audience vote takes away the Audience Choice A...

The Context This week, the United Nations women's agency, UN Women, joined forces with activist and Academy Award-winning actor Geena Davis, to support the first global study of how women and girls are portrayed in family films.  The study will examine the top-grossing international movies in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom. According to Geena Davis, the current dearth of female characters of substance in family films means that children are being taught that girls and women 'don't take up half of the space in the world'. And  for Lakshimi Puri , acting head of UN Women: Gender representation in film influences the perception of women and girls, their self-esteem and the relationships between the sexes... We cannot let the negative depiction of women and girls erode the hard gains that have been made on gender equality and women's empowerment. Also this week, in a  report for CNN, Melissa Silverstein of...

lisa gornick i am singing on a large stage Lisa Gornick’s seduced me again-- When I saw this drawing, I thought There’s Me! Thin and Alone and Exposed and Worried about my Voice and my Song! There’s the outcome of This-Harshest-Winter-Ever at Our Place! And then I laughed. Settle Down, Drama Queen! There are Freesias on the Kitchen Table! Put down your Tiny Violin! & Step Up! Lisa's drawing’s inspired me to round up this week’s news about New Zealand’s women directors. They're pretty special. First, Kathy Dudding . At the New Zealand Film Archive there’s a series of evenings commemorating her death a year ago and celebrating her life and work. Wednesday’s, which I missed, was called Bathe in The Light of the Pale Blue Moon. Still to come, this evening and tomorrow, screenings of Asylum Pieces , Kathy's final film, which I found very moving. Still from Kathy Dudding's Asylum Pieces Then, Gaylene Preston . Mary Wiles at Canterbury University, ...