Lady Filmmakers Set For Women's Day

The BBC and Bristol City Council have backed iFeatures digital feature film scheme to redress the 'male/female' balance by attracting a 50/50 gender split in the filmmaking teams.
Ahead of International Women's Day on 8th March and following Kathryn Bigelow’s wins at the BAFTAs, a third of the directors, over half of the producers and just under half of the number of writers taking part in the initial development phase of the Bristol-based groundbreaking initiative are women.
This contrasts sharply with the industry average, where, according to the UK Film Council, just 11.5% of British films released in the UK in 2008 were directed by women; and only 17.3% had female writers.
Work in the film industry is often on location, and involves a fast turnaround and anti-social schedules.
Kate Swan, Producer of the iFeatures feature, Vale Park, concedes that for most women, working in film production involves "heroic juggling."
"Two months of six day weeks, twelve hour days - it's not exactly great with small children. Thanks to a supportive partner it’s possible but it's not hard to see why the majority of crew members are guys," she commented.
And, aside from the practical issues, the culture of filmmaking, with its emphasis on pitching, tends to be a very competitive one.
"Perhaps the key problem is not so much crude sexism, but rather the different behaviour patterns in women," added Alison Sterling, Producer on iFeatures’ only all-female filmmaking team. "There’s greater reluctance to trumpet one's achievements; possibly putting child-rearing and a normal family life nearer the top of our priorities," she continued.
The tide may be starting to turn. The success of smash hit, Mamma Mia, also produced by an all-female team, demonstrates the huge demand for content produced by this underrepresented half of society.
The iFeatures scheme is helping to support this critical shift. The collaborative nature of the submissions process placed the emphasis on teamwork, attracting more applications from female candidates.
"We want to ensure that the film product reflects a wide range of voices," commented Chris Moll, iFeatures’ Executive Producer. "An industry with just 11% of female directors is not reflecting society as a whole and is not producing content that appeals to a broad audience. At iFeatures, we are doing things differently. Whilst we didn’t set out to positively discriminate towards women, we are adapting the culture of how we develop and produce films so it is more appealing to women, which will hopefully be evident in the appeal and success of the films they produce."
“It is tougher being a woman in this industry for many reasons,” sums up China Moo-Young, Director of one of the twelve iFeatures teams. "But on the positive side change is coming slowly but surely in the form of great inspirational Directors such as Kathryn Bigelow, Jane Campion, Andrea Arnold, Susanna White and Sofia Coppola, among others. The implicit message here is that the work speaks for itself and I believe talent will always out."
(BMcN/BMcc)