I recently attended a panel dicussion as part of the surprisingly good Women's Arts International Festival, in Kendal. The topic was 'women in film' and it was put together by the laudable but horrendously-titled 'Birds Eye Film Festival' which - no, has nothing to do with frozen peas at all - but screens women's films at an annual event in London, as well as doing a lot of good education / awareness-raising work.
I'll own up to being still a tiny bit miffed at our film Bata-ville's rejection from the Birds Eye Film Festival ( I mean, how many women director-made road movies about shoemaking were we up against that year?!) but I dutifully attended the panel with an open mind, there were some very notable speakers on it including one of the producers of the Full Monty!
The chairwoman conducted the event with a slightly self-effacing, slightly dotty and slightly posh manner that despite myself (I have good friends who can be just like this) I find a little cringe-making in a public speaker, especially when under a feminist heading. This was perhaps encouraged by the small audience, but there were some good points made, especially towards the end when cinematographer Zillah Bowes suggested the industry started to ensure that at least one woman was included in training schemes etc, pointing out that 'working your way up' in the industry seemed still to be nigh-on impossible for women (you basically went 'in' at the level you wanted to operate at , either by studying it first or fluke - like me!) But anyway, down to my main point.....
As I was musing on this, I noticed that the other women film-makers based in Cumbria did not seem to be in the audience or on the stage - Mags Scholes (whose recent short 'Call Me' made with Jo Hutton is in Cannes this year) and Juliet McKoen, and 3 bear animations. In fact, of the active Cumbrian film-makers that I am aware of, most are women, and there is a high standard of professional achievement there - for example, feature films being made and not just shorts.
I wonder if in fact the question might be more - what is it about the urban, centralised film industry that discourages or excludes women - as opposed to how they are successfully operating in the rural or provincial contexts, such as Cumbria?
Discuss...
Posted Wednesday 23rd May, 2007 at 12:01 pm by Karen
