Here you'll find films that either have core themes and values that are of distinct interest to women or stories intent on depth of character, films you may have missed, most having opened and closed because they couldn't hold onto the theaters. In the present day atmosphere, the opening weekend gross has become the determinant of whether a film is 'good' or not. Not true and we have to say it. We have to mobilize to compete on behalf of films which are worth our time and valuable and never set out to be 'blockbuster' of this sort. We need to embrace their DVD as our release -- find and rent or buy these films so that they live.
But collectively, our industry - as in the industry it takes to create our product – has been a major polluter everyplace we go.
Consider the main polluter we use, that which we can’t do without. Consider how much fuel we use. Generators, night shoots, “distant locations”, trucks per shoot, idling trucks, moving cranes, moving everything, people, wardrobe, grip equipment, out to the set and back, move locations, fly crews, use helicopters.More >
THE 2008 FILM FINISHING FUND WINNERS ARE IN! By: Erin CondronOver the last 23 years, the Women In Film Foundation has provided annual cash awards and in-kind production services in the amount of $2 Million to deserving women filmmakers of 170 films. It is a great pleasure to introduce the 2008 grant winners for your attention.More >
GETTING OUT FROM BEHIND THE DESK By: Elisabeth FinchSeveral years ago, fresh out of undergrad, armed with an expensive briefcase full of idealism and Diet Coke, I was hired as an assistant to an executive at a respectable production company. Like most of my fellow assistant-sisters, my salary was less than a year’s tuition at the college I assumed was my ticket. But my boss was a seasoned professional who made no uncertain promises that if I gave him one year, he would “do what he could” to push my writing further, either at the company or with a known and trusted colleague. Ever the optimist, I convinced myself over a celebratory IHOP Grand Slam breakfast that this was my official entrée.More >
Sometimes Zea deals with the dumb stuff just like everybody else. The progress she has made, she believes, is in how she reacts to those crazy-making moments. “As I’ve gotten older, I recognize that it’s only a movie. Before I would have thought It’s my life. Something is wrong with me if things are not working out. Now I have the confidence to say, Maybe it’s not supposed to work out; maybe it’s the idea and not me. I’ve developed a tough skin and, I hope, not lost my sense of humor.”More >
What I am talking about is a complete change in professional orientation. Changing careers. Making new goals. Finding out how to achieve them. And I don’t mean going from a buyer to a seller, (although that one was a real eye-opener) or from catching to pitching, or from actively producing to teaching producing, or from making films to assessing films or enabling films. I’m talking out of one entire field into a new one.
VIDEO Q&A with the Filmmakers of FREEHELD By: WIF/LA Panel A video Q&A with Cynthia Wade, director and producer of FREEHELD and Vanessa Roth, producer. FREEHELD became the winner of the 2008 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject and was finished with a grant from the Women In Film Foundation's Film Finishing Fund. The Q&A is moderated by Ilene Chaiken, creator of The L Word. More >
Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, a professor in the School of Communication at UC San Diego conducts annual studies of women working in the film and television industries. This is The Celluloid Ceiling report for 2007. it provides an in-depth look at the number of women not employed in influential positions on the top 250 grossing films each year.
Women comprised 24% of all creators, executive producers, producers, directors, writers, editors, and directors of photography working on situation comedies, dramas, and unscripted programs airing on the broadcast networks during the 2005-06 season. This percentage represents a decrease of one percentage point from last season...More >
Porn films never get compared to “Citizen Kane.” This is because, first of all, “Citizen Kane” has a plot, which porn films don't. Porn plots usually revolve around a cliched male protagonist strutting and thrusting his way through a series of preposterous situations chosen simply because they highlight the actor’s impressive talent for strutting and thrusting...More >
“The Devil Came on Horseback” and took my breath away, and broke my heart, and explained the origins of the genocide in Darfur, clearly. It’s a provocative call to action.More >
These "how-to's" are contributed by experts in their fields. Plumb them, consider them and if you have more questions post your questions on....
...Post them on the "thread" for that article in Letters to the Editor. The expert will answer your questions specifically to help you expand your knowledge on the subject.
Video: some of these 'articles' present experts via panels video-taped by one of our chapters. (You'll need the capacity on your operating system to watch those that have video content...)
As in the mission statements of all the Chapters of Women in Film/Television, all the contributors herein and in future issues are proud of "giving back" and committed to doing so. Mentoring makes us strong. After all, mentoring is the backbone of the "old boys' network'. Likewise.
Many of the subjects of the articles were suggested to us by grantees (such as the Latina New Filmmakers Grants or the Emerging Filmmakers Grants) as being what talented new-comers really don't know and need to know. Many more suggest themselves in conversation with programming committees from all the chapters. We'd like even more ideas for subject matter from you. If there is a subject you'd like parsed, if you want real information, please let us know by writing a Letter to the Editor. If there's a woman expert that you'd like to hear from on her subject, let us know that person's name and we'll approach her to write an article for The Virtual Mentor..
Created for and recognizing up-and-coming filmmakers from under-represented communities across the country giving deserving female filmmakers access to valuable resources and contacts that otherwise would be a challenge to attain. You can read more about the 2007 grant winners for both filmmaker grants here.
A collection of Sheila Benson's critical best (LA Times critic from 1981 to 1991, msn.com after that, Seattle Weekly now Etc ). There is something subtly uncommon about Sheila's reviews, another way of observing, another way of remarking on the emotional center of a movie, so often observing things not only unobserved in ordinary reviews but missing from the ordinary review. That is of course from our pov. ......it's nice to pay respect and give credence to that here on these pages.
