why women do(n't) make films

in the beginning there was...

evolutions

new century movements

an interesting question of gender

sponsorship & volunteers

WOMEN OF MOTION

PROGRAMMES

bibliography

links

new century movements page 1/3

a screen of her own

After Women In Motion ran in 1997 there was a period of refocusing for WIFT(victoria). Whilst highly successful Women In Motion was in fact a project run by WIFT(victoria) which drew heavily on its volunteers yet which did not directly relate to the needs of the majority of its membership. Whilst not wanting to discard all events which offered opportunities for younger women interested in gaining entry into the film and television industries the WIFT(victoria) Board decided to shift its organisational focus:

"...we had a series of strategic planning sessions and it was in the context of...just really struggling to survive ... having lost infrastructure funding so ... for a while WIFT had no staff. We were just looking at where we were going and trying to plan and we were thinking about who our membership was, and who we wanted our membership to be, and our membership was largely grass roots women who are trying to get into the film industry and emerging filmmakers. We wanted to keep those women when they went on to become more established filmmakers or TV producers, but also be an organisation for established women, whose careers are established, and that was the group who we were having the most trouble attracting and keeping as members of WIFT." (Susan Miller 2000)

During these discusisons the Board decided that the membership base of WIFT(victoria) was not really secondary school age young women. With the success of projects such as Women Applying to Film School the numbers of women getting into the VCA had significantly improved,

"...that was not felt to be as much of an issue as it had been in...say the late eighties. Probably early nineties actually; and we just felt like what we needed to do was to focus on trying to get established women into, getting involved with WIFT and retaining their membership with WIFT..." (Susan Miller 2000)

With the decision to refocus their organisational energies more directly on their memberships current needs the WIFT(victoria) Board retired Women In Motion, and in its place ran A Screen of Her Own in 1998. This two-day event included discussions, workshops, networking opportunities, and film screenings directly aimed at more established women filmmakers. Held at the St Kilda Town Hall, the event was also a celebration of the 10th anniversary of WIFT(victoria) and included a 10th anniversary dinner. "... we had a conference and a dinner which was called ... SOHO, A Screen of Her Own; and that was ... seminars, and training for women ... at different levels of career and the dinner was actually a ten year anniversary for WIFT. That was actually a really good night for getting those more established women who've been around that long and they found that a very good reunion type of dinner. A lot of women caught up with people they hadn't seen for a while." (Susan Miller 2000)