Wellywood Woman

Ghazaleh Golbakhsh  with  cinematographer Jarod Murray It's been thrilling to observe some new trends among New Zealand women who write and direct film. Over the last few years, more of them (us) are also actors. More are or have been part of various diasporas into and out of New Zealand and are global citizens. And, most recently, some have begun to form collectives. These trends profoundly enrich our filmmaking. And Ghazaleh Golbakhsh, like Anita Ross , is a filmmaker who embodies all three. Ghazaleh’s thesis film Iran in Transit , made for her Masters in Documentary at the University of Auckland, premiered at the International Student Film Festival in Tel Aviv after winning the festival’s Alternative Competition and in 2013 won the Outstanding Student Film award at the Beijing Student Film Festival. She used a Fulbright General Graduate award for further post-graduate studies in film production and screenwriting at the University of Southern California (USC)...

I 'met' Anita Ross five years ago, through her blog,  Ophelia Thinks Hard . This is how she introduces herself there– I'm an actress, a writer, mum to a gorgeous, funny and exceedingly clever little boy, and a proud Wellingtonian. I am inching my way closer to being a working actress. This is my journey. Soon, she'll take her feature project about climber Freda Du Faur,  Cloud Piercer , to the Stowe Story Labs, where mentors include Amy Hobby, Anne Hubbell and Elizabeth Kaiden of Tangerine Entertainment, casting director Ellen Parks and Anne Rosellini, co-writer of  Winter's Bone . And she's just founded Wellington's Film Fatales, modelled on the New York Film Fatales. So I asked her: And. And. And. How did you come so far so fast? You have a masters law degree, in human rights. When and why did you shift from law to acting and then to writing?  Pure stubbornness? I had spent about six years studying law but I was never pa...

Pro Quote Regie  at the Berlinale The first part of this series delighted in the roar of the collective, global Activist Complex Female Protagonist who works to improve representation of women in front of and behind the camera. (It was a limited record because I can only access information in English and – sometimes – in French.) The second celebrated a recent surge in this protagonist's work, in Australia.   This post focuses on  gender equity in New Zealand feature film funding. Like other  European and British Commonwealth countries we have taxpayer-funded systems to support local screen production– feature filmmaking, short films, webseries, transmedia work and television. And like theirs, our  hard  data demonstrates that fewer producers apply for development and production funding of women-written and -directed features than for features that men write and direct.  One suggestion for New Zealand is that among other taxp...

Another in my series about the  Activist Complex Female Protagonist.   To me, she's all those who work towards increased and more diverse representation of women in front of and behind the camera, globally.  I'm intrigued. It feels as though a sleeping giant is waking. Back in the 70s and 80s there were many activist women filmmakers in Australia, often making films by, about women and  for women. I've been reading about them (again) this week. There was even a state-funded Women's Film Fund that I'll write about soon, in a post about New Zealand's tentative new gender initiatives. But in the last decade or so, it's seemed very quiet over in Aussie. As the Screen Australia gender stats show , the situation's as bad there as it is anywhere. And similar to New Zealand's. These are very recent infographics. Yes, Sydney's  WOW is an annual festival, in its 21st year (no parallel event here in New Zealand). Yes, there's the Tasma...

Linda Niccol at Newport Beach I love New Zealand-based films about 'us'. And I love the diasporic elements in New Zealand women’s filmmaking: the contributions of women writers and directors who – like me – come to live here as children or adults and contribute differently than those from families who've lived here for generations; and the contributions of the women – some of them the same women – who move in and out of New Zealand to work. Our global reach. Best known are Jane Campion, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens, Christine Jeffs, Niki Caro (in pre-production on Callas , starring Noomi Rapace!) and Dana Rotberg, whose White Lies/Tuakiri Huna is currently attracting acclaim and audiences in Mexico. And there are others. Dianne Taylor wrote the first NZ-India co-production, Pan Nalin’s  Beyond The Known World , now in post-production. Writers and producers Donna Malane and Paula Boock define their Lippy Pictures as a production company ‘making quality film and te...

Introducing The Complex Female Protagonist Roars This year, I got a stall at the local queer fair  Out in The Park , to sell my neonics-free bee-loved flowering plants , another artist's beautiful work and this cap, which I had made in New Zealand from a design by the Bluestocking Film Series , thanks to its director, Kate Kaminski. The fair was postponed – Wellington wind – so I distributed some caps to family and Facebook friends. I’m delighted that the new owners tell me stories about when they choose to wear the caps, how they feel wearing them, the responses of those they meet when wearing them. Wearing a cap with the Complex Female Protagonist slogan has many effects. I love it. Last year, when I wrote Get Your Hopes Up , near International Women’s Day, I recalled what David Mamet wrote, about drama being about the creation and deferment of hope. This year, because of those caps and the stories their owners tell me, my mind and heart are on the Complex Female P...

Members from Women in Film chapters all over the world submitted over 800 films for Women in Film International's 10th anniversary Showcase, now called Short-Case, and for the first time ever, WIFTI awarded cash prizes to the top three winning films. What a thrill that New Zealand's Jackie Van Beek won First Prize. Here's the info about all the winners and their films, from WIFTI, with some additions about Jackie's work. And if you're interested in short films by women, you can check out all the finalists here . First Prize  Uphill Desperate to be alone, May escapes to a tiny hut in the mountains, but her peace is destroyed when another couple turns up for the night. Director: Jackie van Beek Jackie's  an actor, writer and director who works in both theatre and film. Her six short films have played in festivals that include the Berlin Film Festival, London Film Festival and the Melbourne International Film Festival. They've picked up a number of...

Filmmaker Kate Kaminski founded the now-legendary Bluestocking Series , of films with complex female protagonists that pass the Bechdel Test.  Her ideas in this piece are American-oriented, but they inspire me to consider similar stories set in New Zealand. Maybe they'll inspire you too, wherever you are? by Kate Kaminski   Yesterday I was asked by  @Winstonwrites   on Twitter “What female-driven films would you like to see in 2015?”  Because discovering films driven by complex female protagonists are a personal obsession, I knew immediately if I tackled this question, it would take much more than 140 characters so here we are. But I still had to narrow the topic down. As somebody who sees stories wherever she looks, let’s just say, I have enough story/novel/film ideas scribbled on bits of paper to fill several notebooks. I also run a women’s film festival called  Bluestocking Film Series  and this year, one of our short film categori...

Steven Joyce (Minister of Many Things), Jane Campion, Maggie Barry (Minister for Arts & Culture), James Cameron, Peter Jackson, Jon Landau New Zealand has a heavyweight Screen Advisory Board, appointed by the government just over a year ago: Jane Campion, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh, James Cameron, Jon Landau, Andrew Adamson. The board was appointed to help the New Zealand screen sector create the skills and connections to be able to generate their own intellectual property, compete internationally, attract overseas finance and to assist the New Zealand Film Commission, Film New Zealand, and the New Zealand screen sector to market and promote the New Zealand screen industry overseas. A huge ask. But something these imaginative, generous and enterprising board members can deliver on. Last September, Dave Gibson, CEO of the New Zealand Film Commission, announced that the board members would each follow particular interests – Sir Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh have identified ...

A beautiful moment in herstory. Kathryn Bigelow and Ava DuVernay converse after a showing of Selma . Hoping someone recorded it.  Half-way through some longish posts. But there are some thoughts I can't resolve. And it's mid-summer here so I'm also gardening and watching the bees (see Bee-Loved blog at right), hoping that the physical work will help me articulate what I think and feel. Sending you every good wish for a beautiful 2015. And warm thanks for being there for me to write to and for your responses, which I always love to bits. I may be gone for a while.