<![CDATA[Her Film Project - STORIES]]>Fri, 16 Aug 2024 21:59:05 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Continuing the film discussion]]>Thu, 06 Oct 2022 13:48:17 GMThttp://www.herfilmproject.com/stories/continuing-the-film-discussion
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In 2018, Tracey Francis of WIFSE15 and Kyna Morgan of this website, wrote a zine entitled Meshes (designed by Tracey) to discuss film, polyvisual representations, visual culture, and more, then recorded a short-run podcast by the same name in 2021-2022. We named it after the avant-garde short film Meshes (1943) by Maya Deren, essential viewing for any film student. During the first pandemic lockdown in the UK in 2020, we chatted almost weekly over that summer about a film or two that we'd both watched (and included the groundbreaking British television series 'I May Destroy You' by Michaela Coel). The podcast followed on naturally from the zine and our lockdown film chats. While our zine was 'notes on', our podcast was 'rambles about', and we covered a range of short films, some features, and a variety of stories. Also, nearly all films were directed by women and about women.

You can visit this page to learn more, read the zine (PDF), and listen to the podcast on Soundcloud.
]]><![CDATA[THE ASK: Brianne Nord-Stewart]]>Sun, 18 Feb 2018 21:22:55 GMThttp://www.herfilmproject.com/stories/the-ask-brianne-nord-stewartby Stephanie Law

This series aims to raise the profile of female media creators, artists, and decision-makers with the goal of facilitating open dialogue and proposing concrete action (“the ask”) towards achieving equality and inclusion in the media industries – and society at large. Read more here. Visit the inaugural "ask" here.

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Photo courtesy of B. Nord-Stewart / Credit: Lung Liu
Bio:

Brianne Nord-Stewart has been making a name for herself in the comedy sphere with award-winning shorts like ​Trolls (2009), The Provider (2011), and most recently, Beat Around the Bush (2016), which picked up Best Comedy Short at the Arizona Int’l Film Festival, Best Short at the Broad Humor Festival, and was Leo-nominated for Best Female Performance. Brianne directed and produced the webseries Young & Reckless, which won Best Editing at Hollyweb Fest, Best International Web Series at Pilot Light TV Festival, and was Leo-nominated for Best Male Performance. She recently launched the webseries The Dangers of Online Dating which she created, wrote, and directed, and got banned from Tinder for trying to promote it. A Women in the Director's Chair alumnus, Brianne has also received Shaw Media’s Fearless Female Director Award, The Harold Greenburg Fund’s Shorts-to-Features Award, and recently the Newcomer Award from the WIFTV Vancouver Spotlight Awards. Brianne recently signed with agents/managers Meridian Artists in Toronto as a director.
Why are you passionate about what you do?

I pursued a career as a filmmaker because I’m a person with a sense of adventure and a curiosity for learning. Filmmaking allows me to pursue both. I’m still here because I found my voice as a writer.
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When I applied for film school I had no idea I was going to be that filmmaker who was super passionate about dark comedies about taboo and “uncivilized” topics. But it turns out that’s what I’m interested in, in film and in life. Most of the conversations my characters are having on screen I’ve already had in real life, or with myself in my head. I’m a questioner. And if no one has a satisfactory answer or point of view to satisfy me, well then I’m going to explore it myself. And make it funny.
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Photo courtesy of B. Nord-Stewart / Credit: Wendy D (WIFTV Spotlight Award photo shoot)

​Who inspired you to pursue this path?
 
The independent woman in me cringes at this answer but… it was my first longer-than-two-weeks high school boyfriend who inspired me to pursue filmmaking. We had a film and video class in high school - where I met said older boyfriend – and he was graduating and applying to film school and I thought, “Huh. I can go to film school?” followed shortly after by, “Man I hope my dad’s cool if I don’t go to Med-school.” Cue Jaws music… Until then it had never occurred to me that that was a possibility. Shout out to Andrew Scholotiuk (and his mom Carol)!
 
What are you working on?  What do you wish you had an opportunity to work on?
 
Currently, I’m working on marketing and releasing my webseries The Dangers of Online Dating (DOOD). It’s about a sexual health nurse with a fear of casual sex consequences who decides to break her sexual drought by jumping into online dating. Our launch party was packed and the audience was so dang loud with laughs, and groans, and guffaws, and shouts of “Paula! What are you doing? Don’t do it!”. Being able to focus my time on that this year has really been amazing. Yes, it’s very difficult to produce indie content in Vancouver right now because there are 360-some productions paying tier one rates to crew and no one is available for low-budget. BUT I’ve found my stride, I know my mission, I’m more focused, and I’m using my voice. I’ve got stories to tell and I’ve met some rad creators I want to collaborate with.
 
People who follow me on the social medias often comment about how much I’m “killing it”. Yes, I am making a living working on my own projects, but  I have a lot of goals I haven’t achieved yet. I want to direct freaking television. I want to write and direct a killer first feature film that puts me on the map as Canada’s breakout filmmaking talent, and one Hollywood should be watching. I want to make some serious freaking cash directing commercials, specifically ones that strengthen people instead of manufacturing insecurities. I would love to work in a legit writer’s room and get myself on the road to showrunning. In short, continue with my passions and also make the elephant bucks. That’s easy, right?
 
Tell us about a barrier that you faced in your career and how you overcame it (or didn't).  What did you learn from this experience?  What advice would give others?
 
I don’t know how to break in and make that freaking dinero. I’ve been meeting agents for years who say “we love your work” and then “down the line we’d love to work with you, but we can’t sell you just yet”. That’s my main frustration. I keep proving myself over and over and I need someone on my team who helps me focus my attention and create a plan to achieve what I’m going after.
 
On being a woman in film: I am fully aware of the wage gap and gender disparity when it comes to percentages of blockbuster directors, but I’ve never thought “I didn’t get that job because I’m a woman”. Instead, I channel my energy into creating and producing my own projects. I see something I want to do and I think, “I can do that”. I owe a thank you to many women who came before and started paving the way for gender parity. Most of my experience on set is on my own set and I dictate the tone for how the work day is going to go. Anything that knocks people down or infringes upon people’s safety isn’t tolerated.
 
You want to be a filmmaker? Write something, shoot it, edit it, and watch it with a group of people. That’s the best way to learn and develop your own voice.
 
What actions would you ask the community, industry, or society at large to take in order to break down barriers, and create opportunities for women and diverse voices?

For networks and financiers, put your money where your mouth is. Underdogs have had to work that much harder to get where they are. They are tough, they know how to multi-task and get shit done. Women have shown up to work, fed their babies, loved their partners, and have foreseen a way to avoid a million minor catastrophes every day, all while their uteruses are trying to kill themselves once a month. We’re badass. We’re also the consumer who wants badass stories. So support the underdog: we’ll watch and you’ll still make a bunch of money.
 
If you’re a new filmmaker, aspire to create greater work than you think you are capable of, and greater than the resources at your disposal. It’s a creative job. How can you make the story simpler to achieve from a financial and logistical perspective, and more powerful from a character one? If you’re creating work that is “good enough” for a student film, or first film, or “good enough” under the circumstances, that’s just not good enough. Period. No matter what you are up against, the film should be the best it can possibly be, PLUS that extra 20% of personal blood, sweat, and tears.
 
Unicorn farts and fairy dust could be helpful too. Who’s got some?
 
Every individual has the power to effect change.  What actions have you taken or will take to champion inclusiveness and break down barriers for others? 

I’m not sure that anything I’ve done to “effect change” was done in a conscious manner. Honestly, I’ve just thought, who is the best person for the project, what can I afford, and who can help me stretch this dollar?

It so happens that the two cinematographers I have repeatedly worked with are women. It so happens that the creators and writers I have worked with are all women. And it so happens that a lot of the characters I have created and written are women. I want to make work I care about with people I trust.
 
In the future, I need to do more to include more significant roles for people of colour, non-binary individuals, and those who are differently-abled on screen and off. I’m thinking forward to hiring a wide variety of voices in my writers rooms (and I should have one soon, right?) Diversity can only make the work stronger.
 
EDIT NOTE FROM MY ASSISTANT: “Brianne doesn’t realize she’s absolutely a mentor. In an industry where there are many gatekeepers, she’s incredibly giving with her time and knowledge and lifts people up. She’s eager to share, collaborate, and give critical feedback.” – Caitlin McCarthy
 
This series is called “The Ask.”  If you were to request one thing that would help your career or project right now, what would that be?

I would like a manager. [Update: Brianne recently signed with Meridian Artists]. Who knows a good one who wants to work with a driven no-bullshit director, who has fierce vision, mad snowboarding skills, the ability to befriend 200 strangers, and makes killer pico de gallo? Drinks on me.

I want to a TV directing gig.

I want Reese Witherspoon to option BEAT AROUND THE BUSH and collaborate with me on it as my climactic debut feature.
 
How can the community connect with you? 

Twitter @bnordstewart, Instagram @bnordstewart, and www.Nord-Stewart.com.
]]><![CDATA[Movie-Ish]]>Wed, 14 Feb 2018 14:18:11 GMThttp://www.herfilmproject.com/stories/movie-ishHi, It’s Alex--creator of [Blank] My Life, a media partner of Her Film Project. Recently, I returned from snowy Pittsburgh/Liberty, PA where we shot 120 pages in 12 days.  Man, the weather was….cold.
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Photo courtesy of A. Spieth
People that work on “real TV” film that much all the time.  And we’re the exact same as "real TV," right?  Just a few less dollars and few less crew members, but who is counting right? We are here to make art.  We are here to have a good fucking time. We are here to get distributed.

So, what’s the difference between a webseries creator turning into essentially a filmmaker? Oh god, let me count the ways.

1). The Breakdown Matter:  In Webseries world, you don’t need a detailed scene breakdown, the game is less high stakes and there’s more time for everything. Thusly, on day one of the shoot--we didn’t have one. So from 10pm-2pm on January 2nd, that’s what we did.

Last year, we were constantly ahead of schedule and able to add shots.  This year, we were constantly 2-3 hours behind and running to cut off nearly every shot that wasn’t completely necessary.  I hadn’t ever overseen a set like this before, and without the incredible support of my team who stepped up to do roles they didn’t initially sign up for, it would have been a disaster.

Pre-production was like looking down the barrel of a gun into hell (this line written by one who has NEVER held a gun).  Like, was it gonna happen?  Which bar was best?  How many theatres do we have to tour?  How to get everything for free? Was this the right choice?  What’s the most important?  (Answer: most important is fun, cheap, and invested).  It can feel singular, and once you jump in, you realize: thank god I’m not alone.

Moral of the Story:  If you mess up, hope your team will steer you back to shore. 

Alternate Moral:  Hire theatre kids--they understand the need to get the job done at all costs.

Alternate Moral:  do not hire me to do scene breakdowns, as I will let you down…..sorely.
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A shout out to our lone DP/AC/Grip Michael Kohlbrenner.  He’s a hero, and most people would have given up or begun to settle for the work involved.  Hire him.
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Photo courtesy of A. Spieth
2).  Things Get Lost.  God, we lost props and papers and track of continuity.  God, how can you focus on who was wearing the sweater in scene 1?  Oh god, when did we change the table settings? The power of your mind to set up a shot takes too much to keep the details.  
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Moral: Hire a script supervisor.  Don’t even try to keep the sweaters, coats, and minutiae in your mind--get someone else to do it.
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Photo courtesy of A. Spieth
3).  People are more interested out of NYC:  The people of Blossburg, Liberty, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania treated us so well.  Most locations didn’t charge us anything, and, often, offered us food/a place to rest.

A bar in Pittsburgh allowed us to stay an hour past our out time, a school in PGH allowed us 2 hours past the out, we didn’t leave the theatre til 11pm every night when we were to be done at 8pm.  We borrowed dollies and wifi and banked on the good will of strangers, who again and again, helped us out.

One time, we were filming a scene involving some sexually suggestive material, and the mayor stopped by to watch.  I was afraid he’d tell us to “take your dirty movie and get lost, kids!” Instead, he invited us into his headquarter for hot chocolate. Once inside, I put my feet literally inside my UPM’s sweater to warm them.  It was funny and simultaneously…tragic.

Moral:  Next time, we’re filming in the goddamn summer.  But if you are filming in the winter,  go where the community is warm.

4).  Source everything IMPORTANT to a specific person:  Make this “This is my responsibility” and “This is your responsibility” for the important stuff.  Small crews are great 'cause everyone has to be all hands on deck, and the downside is “Things get lost” (see above).  Things will get so mushy that it’s good to know exactly whose job it is.

Moral of the story:  Duh, duh, duh.
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Photo courtesy of A. Spieth
5).  Hire Your Opposites: I, often, find that sometimes I’m too eager to just get things in done and rush the process of making it good.  Thusly, it’s important to surround yourself with folks with a heavy attention to detail and a refusal to give up until it’s right.  You will balance each other out.  

Getting it done is important, and getting it done well is even moreso.  No point in making something that looks rushed and uncertain.  Luckily, when I forget that,  I have the best collaborators in the world to remind me.
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Photo courtesy of A. Spieth
The end of the story begins with post-production.  Let’s be bold, let’s be beautiful, and let’s see what happens next.  I’ve never been so lucky and never been more tired.   Three times in this shooting season, I cried.  Once because I realized I was over-working everyone, Secondly because I was rushing people, and Third because I realized I was going to have to sing in public.   

On the second occasion, my UPM put her arm around me and said, “These are the hours.”  She was referring to the hours you have to put in for film, but it resonated with me in a different way.  These are the hours you put in to make it, these are the hours you do to get somewhere, these are the hours that matter.  

So, I’m tired and well.  HBO, you out there?  This year, we need a script supervisor.

Love,
Alexandra Ann and the whole Blank team.
Alex Spieth is creator and star of the web series [Blank] My Life (now moving into season 3), a media partner of Her Film Project. You can read her previous articles for Her Film Project here:
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Madame Producer (December 2017)
Turning Into the Protagonist You Wrote (October 2017)
Annoying and the Female Creator (April 2017)
Meet Alex Spieth (February 2017)
]]><![CDATA[The Silent Film Sound and Music Archive: Interview with Dr Kendra Leonard]]>Tue, 23 Jan 2018 19:41:32 GMThttp://www.herfilmproject.com/stories/the-silent-film-sound-and-music-archive-interview-with-dr-kendra-leonardby Kyna Morgan
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Dr. Kendra Leonard, Executive Director of The Silent Film Sound & Music Archive (courtesy of K. Leonard)
Biography:
Kendra Preston Leonard, Ph.D., is a musicologist and music theorist whose work focuses on women and music in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; and music and screen history, particularly music and adaptations of Shakespeare; and a librettist and poet. She is the author of five books, including Music for Silent Film: A Guide to North American Resources (2016) and Shakespeare, Madness, and Music: Scoring Insanity in Cinematic Adaptations (2009). Leonard has been awarded the Society for American Music Sight and Sound Subvention; an American Music Research Center Fellowship; the Janet Levy Award from the American Musicological Society; a Harry Ransom Center Fellowship; and the 2017-2018 Rudolph Ganz Long-Term Fellowship at the Newberry Library, all for work on music for silent film.

Kyna Morgan: What was the impetus for creating the Silent Film Sound and Music Archive, and with whom did you work?

Dr. Kendra Leonard: Every time I’d go to a music scholarship conference, I’d stand around with my colleagues, saying “someone should find music from the silent film era and put it on line.” Then one year I thought, why not just do it myself? So in 2013, I created the name and wrote up some basic parameters, and filed for non-profit status. I contacted a number of colleagues about helping out; I had an initial advisory board for the first year, and then built the board we have now.
 
 
KM: Could you describe the challenges inherent in the creation of the archive, and even some of the less challenging or most enjoyable aspects of creating it?

KL: One thing I really did not expect was how some scholars didn’t want this repertoire to be made available to everyone for free—some people hoarded scores and materials and had staked a claim and did not want anyone else working on “their” topics or composers. That is completely counter to my philosophy and my goals for SFSMA. As a small, newer archive, SFSMA has to educate potential grantors and donors about what it does and how it works. Sometimes people contact us assuming that we can buy music from them and that their music is very valuable monetarily, or that we can assemble custom scores for performers to use in accompanying movies—they have to do that themselves! I love every time we find a truly unique piece of music with clear markings identifying what films it was used for—connecting the music with an individual performer, movie, or theater offers a glimpse into entertainment history.
 
 
KM: How would you describe the consideration of silent film sound and music in academia today?

KL: There is a good deal of interest in music for silent film, and a growing body of scholarly literature about it. I am particularly pleased to see that scholars are starting to interrogate the historiography of the silent film and the music for it in ways that include consideration of gender, sexuality, class, race, and other crucial factors that help us better understand the use of music and sound in the early cinema. There are a number of researchers who are new to silent film and doing important and interesting work on facets of the repertoire that have been previously neglected.
 
 
KM:  Is there something we can learn from silent sound and music that is relevant to filmmaking, or the study of film history, today as both students of film or cinephiles?

KL: Absolutely! The more we learn about music and sound for silent film, the more we learn about the history of sound film music and sound and what influences music from the silent period has had on film music since. We learn about what kinds of music Hollywood’s composers heard when they went to the silent cinema as young people. We learn that music for the movies hasn’t always been a male-dominated industry. We learn that music has always had a narrative role in moving pictures, and we learn just how nuanced that role was from the beginning of filmmaking. We learn what the origins are of certain musical tropes in film. We learn about regional and other differences in interpreting films, performance practice, and other aspects of early twentieth-century entertainments. There’s an entire world of music and sound and image to explore.
 
 
KM: How does the SFSMA fit in within your own professional trajectory in terms of academic research and archival work? And related to that, what legacy do you hope it has? 

KL: I’ve often said that in another academic life, I’d like to be an archaeologist and anthropologist. Running SFSMA and finding and digitizing works from the past and learning about the culture that surrounds them lets me be a musical and media archaeologist and anthropologist. There will never be a time when I’m not interested in learning about and making new discoveries about the past, so I see myself being involved with SFSMA and its work for a long time to come. I hope that the Archive will continue to thrive and add materials to its holdings, and that it will enable people from all over the world to do research, compile scores for performance, and discover more about music for the early cinema.


Learn more about the archive and connect with Dr. Leonard:

The Silent Film Sound and Music Archive
Kendra Preston Leonard’s website 
Twitter: @K_Leonard_PhD
Leonard’s current ebook project::
Music for the Kingdom of Shadows: Gender, Séances, and Cinema Accompaniment in the Age of Spiritualism
 
]]><![CDATA[THE ASK: Farzana Shammi and Katy Swailes]]>Sun, 31 Dec 2017 08:00:00 GMThttp://www.herfilmproject.com/stories/the-ask-farzana-shammi-and-katy-swailesby Stephanie Law
This series aims to raise the profile of female media creators, artists, and decision-makers with the goal of facilitating open dialogue and proposing concrete action (“the ask”) towards achieving equality and inclusion in the media industries – and society at large. Read more here.
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Farzana Shammi (Courtesy of the filmmaker)
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Katy Swailes (Courtesy of the filmmaker)

Bios:

Farzana Shammi is a Canadian-Bangladeshi journalist and filmmaker. She is an alumna of DOC Toronto’s Breakthrough Program (2016) the documentary Channel Doc Accelerator (2014), and the Reelworld Film Festival Impact Film Lab (2015). Her directorial debut, a mini doc about an orphanage in Bangladesh, aired on TVO in 2011. She has worked in various roles on award-winning and nominated films, including Nisha Pahuja’s The World Before Her, Jennifer Baichwal’s Watermark and Noura Kevorkian’s 23 Kilometres. She got her start as a research intern for Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, Shelley Saywell. Before immigrating to Canada, Farzana worked as a journalist and copywriter in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her writing is frequently published by Bengali-language news sources, and she regularly contributes to Bangla Television Canada as a reporter and camera operator. Farzana has an Advanced Diploma in Broadcasting and Film from Toronto’s Centennial College, and a Master’s Degree in Mass Communications and Journalism from the University of Dhaka. She is fluent in English, Bengali and Hindi. 

Katy Swailes is a multiplatform storyteller based in Toronto. She recently co-produced the short documentary film The Ravenite, which is set for release in spring 2018. Since 2012, she has coordinated and co-produced various programs for the CBC, including the documentary television series, Absolutely Canadian, the short film competition series, Short Film Face Off, and the national radio program Writers & Company, where she is currently Associate Producer. Katy began her career working for nonprofit organizations, including Women in Film & Television-Toronto and the Centre for Independent Journalism in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. She’s a graduate of the Public Interest Media program at the University of Western Ontario, and received a certificate in Business Management for Media from Toronto’s Humber College.
 
Picture(Courtesy of the filmmakers)



 
​Why are you passionate about what you do?

Farzana Shammi: I’m passionate to make films about social justice issues. Through documentary, we can hold up a mirror to the world around us and demand to make it a better place. I believe that sharing stories is a way of inspiring change. And that is why I’m passionate about what I do. 

Katy Swailes: My passion is driven by curiosity and a constant desire to tell stories. Regardless of the medium, it always comes down to an unshakable sense of “this needs to be told,” or this character has something unique to say. And it doesn’t always have to be about social injustice. While I’m definitely passionate about highlighting social issues, I’m also very much drawn to small, simple stories that resonate on a basic human level. I’m driven by the power of storytelling to connect us as human beings – to illuminate our shared experience as well as to help us make sense of our differences. And film is such a powerful medium through which to do that.


Who inspired you to pursue this path?

FS: Award-winning Canadian documentary filmmaker, Shelley Saywell – my first industry mentor. My first gig working in film was as an intern for Bishari Films, Shelley’s production company, and she encouraged me to get on a plane and go make my film.

KS:  I can’t say there’s one particular person who inspired me. But a major influence was my time working for Women in Film & Television, my first job out of university, where I had the chance to meet so many inspiring women in the industry (including Farzana!) Being exposed to this diverse community and seeing so many examples of creative, successful women got me thinking that film was something I could actually do. Now I’m fortunate to be working with incredible people who inspire me every single day, which is so important in an industry that can really challenge your endurance. I draw so much energy and motivation from my peers, as well as from the subject of our film, Rumana, who is an endless source of inspiration. 


What are you working on?  What do you wish you had an opportunity to work on? 

FS: The project that Katy and I are working on, along with Executive Producer/Producer Lalita Krishna, is a one-off feature documentary that tells the remarkable story of Rumana Monzur, a Bangladeshi-Canadian woman who is fighting to overcome a vicious domestic attack in order to achieve her dreams. The film also follows the lives of characters who are currently living in Bangladesh – independent women whose unfolding stories will take the audience on an intimate journey of abuse and resilience, healing and hope.  
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I had the opportunity to work on Global Television’s award-winning investigative program 16x9, which has now ended, and I really wish I could work on another investigative news show like the fifth estate or W5.

KS: In addition to the feature project with Farzana, I’m working on a one-hour documentary – with directors Dennis Mohr and Morgan Schmidt-Feng – about an 80-year-old artist in New York CIty, who has been documenting the East Village through his art for more than 40 years. Among other themes, it’s a story about bearing witness to the injustices around you, and about staying true to who you are and what you believe in, regardless of passing trends. It deals with topics of immigration, community and belonging, so it’s very timely given what’s happening in the U.S. right now.

The experience of working on these projects has been very different – one being a major production involving many stakeholders, and the other a small passion project among friends. But at the end of the day, what we’re hoping to achieve with both projects is more or less the same – a compelling story that engages, entertains and makes people think differently about something they’ve taken for granted. Of course, with Rumana’s story, there is the added intention of sparking dialogue, of creating change, of inspiring other survivors of domestic violence. And along with the film we’re developing a robust digital media and outreach campaign to achieve that impact. Ultimately, we hope the message of the film will resonate long after it’s off the screen. 


Tell us about a barrier that you faced in your career and how you overcame it (or didn't).  What did you learn from this experience?  What advice would give others? 

FS: There are many barriers to breaking into the film and documentary industry. As an emerging filmmaker, finding funding to create your first project is the biggest obstacle I’ve faced. The competition for public funding is fierce, while researching and applying to funds can be like a fulltime job. Many opportunities require the commitment of a broadcaster or cooperative before your project is eligible.   
I overcame this barrier by participating in different development programs like Breakthrough and the Doc Accelerator, where I got the chance to pitch to industry decision-makers. These programs offer you credibility, and bring you face-to-face with the people who you would otherwise not have access to as an emerging filmmaker.

KS: I have to agree with Farzana. Without a track record, getting our project financed was a huge barrier – until we partnered with a highly experienced, reputable producer. Teaming up with Lalita was a game-changer for us, and working with other mentors has been essential in helping me overcome the steep learning curve that is the daunting, complex process of filmmaking. I have found the Canadian doc community to be largely supportive of emerging talent, especially if you show the initiative and passion -- and importantly, if you have a strong story to tell. Just be sure to be upfront about expectations and make sure the partnership is a good fit all around. Remember that you bring something to the table, too!  


What actions would you ask the community, industry, or society at large to take in order to break down barriers, and create opportunities for women and diverse voices? 

FS:  As a woman of colour, I would ask the industry to create more job opportunities for diverse candidates – and hire them. And especially for the first-time or emerging filmmaker, I’d like to see more programs that will help them get into the industry – to provide them with more opportunity, where they can learn and grow – since the spaces are very limited.  

KS: I would implore experienced professionals to take an emerging filmmaker under their wing, and help them realize their first film project. This is a crucial step to breaking down the barrier for new and diverse voices to have their stories heard. 
 

Every individual has the power to effect change.  What actions have you taken or will you take to champion inclusiveness and break down barriers for others? 

FS: I would definitely like to help any emerging filmmaker in every possible way. I’ll create opportunities to hire them for every project I work on, and I’ll also refer them to other filmmakers, which I do currently.

KS: It is so strange for me, someone who is squarely in the “emerging” category, to have young aspiring filmmakers looking to me for advice. But I’m always willing to share my experiences with those who are starting out – many of whom are young women, often from diverse backgrounds – and I do my best to help guide them in the right direction. I feel I have a lot to pay forward for the generosity that I’ve been shown, and I’m excited for the time when I’ll be in a position to really champion the voices of diverse creators.


This series is called “The Ask.”  If you were to request one thing that would help your career or project right now, what would that be? 

FS: The opportunity to work full-time is one thing that would help my career.

KS: Several more hours in each day. That would be REALLY helpful.


How can the community connect with you? 

The website for our film project and LinkedIn (Farzana Shammi; Katy Swailes).


]]><![CDATA[Madame Producer]]>Sat, 30 Dec 2017 06:13:04 GMThttp://www.herfilmproject.com/stories/madame-producer
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Courtesy of A. Spieth
I’m knee-deep in production for Season 3 of the series formerly known as [Blank] My Life, renamed Spooksville.   The new title is meant to be sexier, so please email me afterwords on if it’s working?  We need your feedback and we need it….now.

With a budget of $10,000 for everything (sounds like a lot….but it’s not!) there’s a lot of calling, a lot of call-waiting, a lot of waiting for calls, a lot of waiting to be texted back, a lotta not getting calls back, a lotta missed calls, a lotta longing, and a lot of lost sleep.  It’s a lot of bargaining for hours and free space, a lot of compromises, and a lot of script re-writes to fit the new situations.  It’s a lotta work that for the past 3 years hasn’t given me much in return.  If I were smart, I think I’d leave the person I was fucking and find someone new.
When does this end?  I wonder.  When do you stop having to make all important calls and source the work to others? When does it get to be less difficult to produce this bullshit?  Is this the year that I burn….out?  How do you keep trying and trying and not give up? When do I say—fuck the mania—I can’t call any more restaurants!—I can’t negotiate with any more theatres! Fuck it! When is that?

But for better or for worse, this is true of my relationship with my acting career. I’ve been 15 years an actor, and, my god, I’m starting to thing my career will never put out.  It’s gotten sexier in the past year—I’ve been felt up above the waist and, on our anniversary, my career paid for dinner (weird! That never happens!) My career is a total tease. I can’t figure out if it loves me too or if it’s just using me for my loyalty (my career is totally insecure, and can often be so boring, 'cause it’s like, shut up about your weight already!)

Nevertheless, do I have time for two worthless lovers who don’t pay the rent?  I can’t quit acting--we’re practically married by this point; we have a union; we grew up together. And the series makes me feel so good, so young, the way that acting used to before a bunch of people told me I wasn’t GOING TO HACK IT IN THIS BIZ KID, 'CAUSE U ARE TALENTED BUT U DON’T KNOW THE BIZ.  Too bad the series is a total free-loader who likes to crawl in bed with me and not get a day job, cause the series knows I’ll take care of it.  I love you, babe, you are so hot, and I’ll pick you up when you feel down by buying 40,000 views on Youtube.  

Tragically enough:  this column isn’t going to become an advice column.  If I knew what to do I would tell you.  All I can tell you is that you have to survive long enough to start trying different things.

Recently, I did a play in Pittsburgh, and on the last night the artistic director of 20 plus years was striking the chairs that had only an hour ago held patrons. Maybe it doesn’t get better, your arm muscles just get stronger.  I stayed with my former teacher during the run of the show, and I thought, nothing changes in a person—you just continue to get better and better at expressing yourself.  Last Tuesday, I went to an audition with a little girl who had recently recorded a Nick Jr. song (read: FARRR MORE FAMOUS than I), and I told her that in those exact terms.  The littler girl's mother nudged her and said, "Ask her about what it’s like to be a real actress!" And I said, "You know sometimes you get it and sometimes you don’t and you try to not care when you don’t get it."

The little girl and her mother looked bored.  A dude across the hall about my age looked at me, and I’m sure he knew what I was talking about ('cause if you don’t you literally are either blessed or a dickwad).  I wondered if either of us would get these roles or, obviously, if we were going to get married. The little girl and I  went in to audition and, tragically, the little girl was really amazing and likely far better than I.  She was entirely fearless and clearly knew what to do. Maybe my advice only applies to some of us.  I went back outside and my potential future husband was gone.  Luckily, I still have two careers to come back home to.

I wish I knew how to do it.  Time to try to do things differently and if it works, it works, and if it doesn’t, we can climb back into bed together and tell each other it isn’t working out.  Maybe we’ll have sex a few more times, before the series gets on a train to New Haven, and I get back on Tinder to find a new self-produced project.  Maybe this one will treat me better, maybe I’ll get smarter about my limits, maybe this one will be make me feel beautiful.  I’m never done; I’m just learning to be smarter.  I’ve noticed, people always date the same folks, it’s just that they look slightly different every time.

A PLEA:

This year we want to be distributed on R29, Elite Daily, Super Deluxe, or any larger internet video platform. 

Can anyone help us?  We’re just a girl and her two career paths who desperately need some bread. We’ll look better once you feed us, and, as I mentioned, at least 2  of us have insecurity issues so we’ll stick around til Doomsday. (Longer if you whisper the word “health insurance” 'cause that’s the thing we all want.)
Alex Spieth is creator and star of the web series [Blank] My Life which is beginning its third season. [Blank] My Life is a media partner of Her Film Project. You can read her previous articles here, here, and here.
]]><![CDATA[Web Series Spotlight: 'Brokers' and 'Next Level Anxiety']]>Thu, 26 Oct 2017 07:00:00 GMThttp://www.herfilmproject.com/stories/web-series-spotlight-brokers-and-next-level-anxietyby Kyna Morgan
Web series creators Aaron Ballard (co-creator and co-writer of Brokers) and Lauren Maul (creator, writer, and director of Next Level Anxiety) discuss their work in two recent interviews. Ballard's series Brokers is currently online, and Maul's series Next Level Anxiety can be viewed beginning October 30. 

Brokers​

Aaron Ballard's new web series Brokers takes a comedic look at a new real estate broker in New York City. Confronting strange situations and learning the rules of her job, she begins to make her way in the big city.  The five-episode first series can be viewed online now. See below for links.

Brokers is created and written by Aaron Ballard and Dano Madden, directed by Talya Klein, and produced by Aaron Ballard, Dano Madden, Talya Klein, Lauren Singerman, and Elizabeth V. Newman. 

Ballard is a New York City-based actor, writer, and producer originally from South Carolina. She's performed in numerous plays, including Our Town and Lonesome West, as well as appeared in independent films and new media projects, but usually works independently. Her one-woman show about Victoria Woodhull premiered at The Women in Theatre Festival in 2016, and her award-winning short, Now, That's Cute, screened at several festivals, including the Chicago Comedy Film Festival. A SAG-AFTRA and Actors' Equity Association (AEA) member, Aaron studied acting at Rutgers University where she earned a Master of Fine Arts.
Kyna Morgan: What sparked the idea for a web series about real estate brokers in New York City?
 
Aaron Ballard:  I became inspired to write Brokers after working for a Manhattan real estate company for about a year. Like [the character] Ellen, I was pretty new to the city and needed a survival job. I found this real estate company that hired me right away, and I was god awful at it. I never made any money because I only got paid on commissions and I am not much of a wheeler dealer type so I failed.  But I was introduced to a very specific, and strange world that I knew I wanted to write about.
 
KM: Why did you decide on a web series instead of a short film? And how did you begin to put your series together?
 
AB:  When I got the idea for Brokers, I pretty much immediately knew I wanted it to be a web series. I knew I wanted it to be character driven and to have the real estate office be the kind of nucleus for the show and then have opportunities to see the brokers in action outside of the office. I think there is so much more of the world that can be explored, and an episodic format allows for that more than a short film does. I also just really like TV, and watching stories unfold and characters develop over several seasons is something I love.  

After mulling over the idea for a few months, I went to Dano Madden, my co-writer, because he is a great playwright. I have a sketch comedy writing background so I knew I wanted someone who could help ground my jokes and ideas for characters in  reality. We started meeting in bars to draft outlines. We would write episodes separately, and then exchange them and edit each other’s work. We went through a bunch of drafts, and eventually we had a final script to shoot; I never really wanted to let it go, though. We were doing rewrites on set each day, which was fun because it felt like the script was  living and breathing as we filmed. 
 
KM: Have you found much web series community support or many connections with other web series creators? Is there a sense of mutual support?
 
AB:  Yes! That’s been really fun to meet other creators and to follow them on social media and to have them acknowledge and support what we’re doing. There are a lot of web series out there, and if we can be each other’s audience and inspiration, then I think we can help each other grow. Stareable is a site that is dedicated to being a landing page for various web series, and I appreciate the support they have given us and the community they are cultivating.
 
Learn more:

Website - Brokers
Facebook
Twitter @brokerswebshow
Instagram @brokerswebshow
​

Next Level Anxiety
​

​Lauren Maul's new web series Next Level Anxiety takes a look at contemporary social anxieties, but also incorporates a world beyond this one. A hybrid web series, Next Level Anxiety crosses the genres of sci-fi, comedy, and horror. The five-episode series will be available to watch on Vimeo and the series' website on October 30.

Next Level Anxiety is written by Katie Compa, Lauren Maul, Pushy Muldowney, Andrew Marzoni, Adriane Quinlan, Missy Wilkinson, Daniel Sears, and Jason Jude Hill; produced by MaulFace, LLC and GrumpyFilms, Inc.; and created and directed by Lauren Maul. 

Maul has been making art in New York since 2011, with both a variety show (Bitchcraft) and a stand-up show featuring ladies and LGBTQ folks performing comedy as straight men (Dudes Being Dudes Being Dudes) created in 2013. In 2016, she created her production company, MaulFace, which produced the web series Amazon Reviews: The Musical (named by IndieWire as one of the best 16 web series in 2016). She performs and produces shows in New York City and discussed her new web series with me during a recent interview.
Kyna Morgan: What spurred you to create your web series, Next Level Anxiety, and were you always attached to direct?

Lauren Maul: After the 2016 election I was experiencing way more anxiety than usual, so I decided to channel that anxious feeling into a creative project. I’ve always been drawn to comedy, but this time I wanted to add a dash of the terror and horror I was feeling, so I included elements from the spooky things that I enjoyed as a kid, like Goosebumps and The Twilight Zone.

​Since I had such a specific vision for this series I felt like I needed to direct it. Directing is the one job that allows me to combine the empathy of a performer with the vision of a writer and the gall of a producer, and I love it! Next Level Anxiety is my first time film directing, but it definitely won’t be my last.  

KM: You have an inclusive cast across gender and ethnicity; was this a conscious choice to practice inclusion on screen? How did you put your cast together?

LM: My goal as an artist is to make art more accessible -- and a big part of that is making sure my projects showcase diversity in front of and behind the camera. (Also, when I watch TV or movies that consist of an all-white cast it feels kind of ominous, like, where is everybody else? I wanted the series to feel scary, but not THAT scary.)

I have three rules for casting which are: talent, diversity, and the ability to be chill enough to share a pizza with. If a person is all three of these things, I know working with them is gonna be awesome. All the actors I hired for this series are friends and acquaintances, and, magically, were the people I pictured when I first heard the scripts read out loud. This was literally my dream cast.

KM: You've stated that your series 'uses sci-fi/comedy/horror to embody the anxieties of our current social climate'. Can you describe how you've achieved this, and address what you hope viewers will come away with after watching the entire series? 

LM: Next Level Anxiety includes little nuggets of real things that scare me, like apathy, global warming, and disappearing rights, but I wanted to present those things in an entertaining way. I wanted the audience to be scared, but not the whole time. I also wanted them to laugh, but not continuously. And I wanted them to have “WTF???” moments, but not be super confused. I feel like I achieved this spooky/funny/WTF? balance because when I watched the audience receive the series at the premiere, I heard them emit a variety of gasps, laughs, and “oooooh”s.

​My goal with this series is to leave the audience feeling like the world is more magical/mysterious than it is scary/terrifying.

Learn more:
​
Website - Next Level Anxiety
Website - Lauren Maul
Vimeo
Facebook


]]><![CDATA[Khadra: documentary short on women-led grassroots work in Lebanon]]>Mon, 23 Oct 2017 16:31:24 GMThttp://www.herfilmproject.com/stories/khadra-documentary-short-on-women-led-grassroots-work-in-lebanonInterview with director, producer on documenting initiative to use recycling as a way to heal sectarian divides
by Kyna Morgan
Picture
Rabab, one of the subjects of the documentary short film 'Khadra' (courtesy of A. Rowsome & L. Santucci)
​The forthcoming documentary short film Khadra is currently in pre-production with production to commence in Lebanon later this fall. Directed by Alice Rowsome and produced by Lauren Santucci, Khadra focuses on grassroots work in the conflict-torn city of Tripoli, impacted by violence and failures in waste disposal. When on a reporting assignment, Rowsome connected with a woman named Rabab, and her son Khoder who wanted to launch a recycling initiative at his university. Rabab gathered some of her friends to launch their own initiative to help clean up their communities and heal sectarian divides.
Director (and producer), Rowsome is also a writer and photographer who focuses on forced migration, women's rights, and environmental issues around conflict and climate change, with work appearing in The Guardian, VICE, The Independent, WIRED and elsewhere. Her master's research focused on the impact of war on water in Syria; she earned her M.A. in Arabic and International Relations from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Rowsome has reported from Somalia, Ethiopia, and the South Sudan-Uganda border, and her first feature-length documentary film, Pachamama, helped to highlight the impact of climate change on an indigenous community in the Bolivian Andes. Rowsome grew up in France and currently works between Tripoli, Lebanon, and London.

Producer and assistant director, Lauren Santucci, also a writer and photographer, worked with grassroots projects in Greece and Serbia during the European refugee crisis, becoming a reporter for Help Refugees and covering the Serbia-Hungary border in 2016. She also investigated police brutality and violence against refugees and migrants. Her documentary short film Ongoing and Serious Threat follows three U.S. wartime allies from Afghanistan as they experience the process of the U.S. Special Immigrant Visa program. Santucci also holds an M.A. in International Relations and Art History from the University St. Andrews, having focused on forced migration and conflict resolution.

Rowsome and Santucci took a brief rest from pre-production in Lebanon for the following interview.
​
Kyna Morgan: Set the scene for us. What is going on in Tripoli, Lebanon, and why did you decide to make this film?

Alice Rowsome & Lauren Santucci: Tripoli is Lebanon’s second largest city, but it is a far cry from Beirut. Only 30km away, the Syrian conflict reignited tensions between Sunni neighborhood Bab al-Tabbeneh and Alawite-majority Jabal Mohsen and hundreds of people were killed in violent clashes that ended in 2014. Although the fighting has stopped, Tripoli remains scarred by the violence, poverty and corruption.

Neglected for decades by the government, Tripoli’s is now being threatened by another crisis: waste. On the coast, right in the middle of the city, a huge 35 meter-high pile of trash, estimated to store 600 tons of unsorted waste per day, is dangerously building up. And inside some of the war-torn neighborhoods where tensions remain, residents are throwing their trash on the streets that demarcate the old frontlines. For example, there is a street called Zeyla that lies between a Sunni and an Alawite neighborhood is layered with trash. The problem is huge.
Unfazed by the enormity of the issue, a group of women from Jabal Mohsen has decided to start a recycling project to mobilize people to clean up their streets. They want to use recycling to transform and bring together the Alawite and Sunni communities. Can trash provide an unexpected platform for recovery and reconciliation? That’s what our documentary is looking to find out.

Our film will follow the women on their journey to form a recycling partnership between neighborhoods with a history of extreme tension and violence. We want to highlight women’s responses to war and sectarianism. Conflict is often understood by the role of men in the fighting, but what is the other half of the population enduring?
 
KM: Has the trash become a public health crisis? And are there any members of the communities who depend on the trash in personal ways to find or sell items that can still be used?

AR & LS:  Trash is all over the streets and beaches of Tripoli. People throw their garbage from their windows aiming at garbage containers, but often miss, which has led to large piles of trash that are rarely picked up. On the beach and on the streets, it is extremely common to see enormous rats, day and night.

Not only is sewage pumped into the sea, but the large 35-meters waste dump over the coast produces a black toxic liquid, locally known as ‘bin juice’ that flows into the sea, contaminating marine life.

According to a study by the American University in Beirut, exposure to waste and burning trash leads to serious health problems. People who live in proximity to these dumps, which is practically everyone in Tripoli, are 400% more likely to catch respiratory and digestive health issues.

Living in Tripoli, we have noticed that if the wind is strong, the entire city ends up smelling of trash. And although studies haven’t been conducted yet on the health impact of the dump on locals, many complain to suffer from nausea, light-headedness and stomach problems when the smell of the trash is strong.  
​
It is not common, but some residents do make an income by sorting through the trash for scrap metal to recycle. 
Picture
'Khadra' will focus on a team of women launching a recycling initiative (courtesy of A. Rowsome & L. Santucci)
Picture
Rabab, helping to lead the effort to recycle (courtesy of A. Rowsome & L. Santucci)
Picture
Some of the subjects of the documentary short 'Khadra' (courtesy of A. Rowsome & L. Santucci)
KM: How did you connect with Rabab and her son Khoder? At what point did the initiative come to include Rabab's friends?

AR & LS:  Alice met Rabab and her girlfriends on a photography assignment in February when she was working in Beirut. Khoder, one of the women’s son wanted to turn his university recycling project into a reality in his hometown, Jabal Mohsen, but had encountered a lot of difficulties finding male volunteers to help him. Rabab talked to her friends about helping with the project and they began to meet every day to sort waste and encourage neighbors to start recycling. After their campaign, six hundred households in Jabal Mohsen began sorting their own recycling.

KM: Having dedicated herself to recycling, what is Rabab's hope now for Tripoli? How does she see her advocacy tying into the broader atmosphere in Tripoli and more broadly, Lebanon, at this time?

​AR & LS:  Rabab is determined to get the whole city, and all of Lebanon, to recycle. Now that the war in Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbeneh is over, she thinks sectarianism can be forgotten. She hopes the waste crisis can reunite Sunnis and Alawites and encourage cooperation. Although her husband disagrees, she feels [that she] and her friends can overcome sectarianism by working with the women in Tabbeneh.

KM: How has this grassroots work brought together communities formerly embroiled in conflict? Do you think the dialogue and cooperation is sustainable?

AR & LS: The women are focusing on getting the project up and running smoothly in their own community before expanding. There is very little integration between the two neighborhoods since the conflict. Although it will be very difficult in the beginning, Rabab strongly believes that dialogue and cooperation can lead to a sustainable peace. She is confident that she will find women in Tebbeneh who are open to collaborating. Convincing some of their husbands, however, might prove difficult.

KM: Grassroots peace and dialogue efforts are often led or influenced by women, and cinematic narratives like Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki's Where Do We Go Now? (2011) are examples of dramatic films that illustrate peace initiatives between communities, initiated by women. How do you situate your short documentary film Khadra within the broader canon of narrative and documentary work about women fomenting social change?

AR & LS:  Where Do We Go Now? (2011) is definitely our main inspiration for the film. The women in this documentary have such similar, warm, funny, sassy personalities, but also such a strong will to unite and just get over sectarianism, war and so on, with a very can-do attitude.

Women are at the heart of society, they are all mothers, sisters, daughters, and play the role of cooks, nurses, teachers and they are the ones who end up picking up the pieces in times of conflict, who suffer and have to adapt the most. And, ultimately, these characteristics mean that there is more that unites women than divides them. Putting women at the forefront of peacebuilding or social change initiatives, especially when it comes to uniting communities and regions, is such an important thing that should be encouraged and highlighted.

We hope that this documentary will be our first in a series of films documenting women as peace-builders and environmental activists.

KM: What's the status of your film right now, and where do you plan to screen it when it's completed? Will you screen it in Tripoli?

AR & LS: We are still in the pre-production phase—we will be releasing a teaser trailer early November and then we will come back to Tripoli to film the women in their efforts to work with the women of Bab al-Tabbeneh.
 
The film will be screened at Bertha DocHouse in London, which is the first theater in the UK dedicated solely to documentaries. We are planning a Tripoli screening at a space called Shift, that sits in between the Sunni and Alawite communities of Tripoli and supports projects that emphasize collaboration and social cohesion, as well as a collaborative art space called Warche 13. Beyond that, we are still in conversation with media channels about a commission or acquisition.
​
Learn more:

Website - Alice Rowsome
Instagram - Alice Rowsome
Twitter - Alice Rowsome

Website - Lauren Santucci
Instagram - Lauren Santucci
Twitter - Lauren Santucci

]]><![CDATA[An Actor's Life: interview with actress and multi-hyphenate Jen Ponton]]>Thu, 19 Oct 2017 07:00:00 GMThttp://www.herfilmproject.com/stories/an-actors-life-interview-with-actress-and-multi-hyphenate-jen-ponton
Picture
Courtesy of J. Ponton
by Kyna Morgan

Jen Ponton is an actress, media creative, and puppeteer whose latest film is Love on the Run, also starring Francis Fisher, Steve Howey, and Annaleigh Banford. She is also co-creator, co-writer, puppeteer, and actor for the puppet web series The Weirdos Next Door. We recently discussed her work in front of and behind the camera. 

KM: You describe your webseries The Weirdos Next Door as a mix between The Muppets and Full House. There's definitely a deep nostalgia there! Why did you choose this as a project and with whom are you working? What are your specific roles in the series, both on screen and off?

JP: I work under PacKay Productions with my co-showrunner, Kay Koch, and our 3rd producer, Packy Anderson. We were 100% going for deep nostalgia! We spent so much time collectively pining for the family content that really defined the '80s and early '90s -- 'TGIF' (Full House, Family Matters, Boy Meets World, Step By Step), Family Ties, Perfect Strangers, Growing Pains, I could go on and on! Not coincidentally, it was also something that Jim Henson was brilliant at doing. Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street, and The Muppet Show (not to mention his many films) all had content that engaged both children and adults, that truly was family viewing. When Kay started to build puppets, we knew we were being called upon to basically resurrect the long lost artform of the '80s family sitcom.
In terms of our roles, Kay and I wear a ton of hats together: each episode thus far is co-directed, -DP'd, and -created by us. Sometimes we'll both do the proper writing, but more frequently we'll heavily outline together and she'll ultimately get it in a script. She also runs post-production entirely, and I'm more on the publicity and marketing end as I submit us to film festivals and keep us active on social media. As a virtually zero-budget operation, our creators are mostly our cast and crew -- it's not uncommon for us have a puppet on one hand and then lean out of frame to get rolling on sound. Packy is our tech-savvy innovator; for example, he's created dolly rigs and gyroscopic mounts for us out of PVC pipe, which really allows us to continue growing cinematically. 

KM: What are your writing and rehearsal processes like for a webseries, especially one that uses muppets?

JP: One thing Kay and I always joke about is that we'll start writing these elaborate, very active scenes and get super excited, then we'll check in with reality --"Oh wait, they're not real." So we always need to keep an eye on feasibility, which means (most of the time) we can't see the entire body of a character without doing green screen; we can't have them, say, seated in a wide shot -- because where will we hide the puppeteer? We do a cast read-through while we're in pre-production, but our rehearsal process really just happens on the day. We'll rehearse for camera and then shoot, and Kay and I work out our shot lists beforehand.  

KM: The actor Bradley Whitford has said, "Being an actor often feels like you're swimming upstream against a current of relentless rejection and shitty material." How do you view your life as an actor?  

JP: While I can definitely empathize with Bradley and have been there myself (especially as a woman...the deeply sexist bent to castings is alive and well!), I am a fierce believer in picking yourself up by your bootstraps. The more you focus on the drudgery of the problem, the more difficult it is to see -- and work on -- a solution. So I do a ton of inner work (gratitude, visualizations, intentions, goal-setting) and I've always been a fan of thinking outside-the-box. Mad about rejection and shitty material? You could decide to be grateful in your heart for each 'no' because it gets you closer to a 'yes'. You could also write that epic screenplay you've had swirling around in your head for years. I believe innovation and faith is the key to any career in the arts. 

KM: Who are you inspired by as an actor, particularly other actors?

JP: My whole life, I was deeply inspired by Robin Williams and Jim Carrey. That gentleness of spirit and commitment to play has influenced my work and my approach to the craft. As I've gotten older, my heroes also include Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Melissa McCarthy, Paul Feig, Lena Dunham -- I love the women who are proclaiming, "This is my voice, this is how I like to make people laugh, and I'm amplifying it." That totally fuels me. 

Because it's 2017, and just being so fed up, I would add Jill Soloway, Jenji Kohan, Shonda Rhimes, Nicole Byer, Ava DuVernay, Donald Glover, Aziz Ansari and Abbi [Jacobson] & Ilana [Glazer] of Broad City to my heroes list. I'm inspired right now almost exclusively by people who are making things that matter to them and the world around them, that provide a voice and a platform. 
KM: As someone who talks about and displays her body and works against sizeism, how do you deal with or push back against body criticism which is so rampant in the industry and even rampant among film and television critics? 

JP: I'm very lucky to be an up-and-coming actress of size in a field that is just starting to recognize and respect people who look like me. It's gonna take a while, but I'm delighted that actresses like Melissa McCarthy, Rebel Wison, Gabourey Sidibe and Chrissy Metz are very much getting seen. So much of what we define as 'normal' is what we're allowed to see. The more sizes, shapes, genders, abilities and colors we see being respected and carrying storylines, the better -- and the more our collective empathy grows to really humanize people of oppressed groups.

I did an off-Broadway play a few years ago where I happened to be playing a lead character, but other than physically seeing me on stage, there was literally zero reference at all to my body type. Nothing. No lines, no reactions to me from the other characters. So it was fascinating to see the percentage of reviews that came in (including the [New York] Times) that referred to my size -- and not even in a way that created a vivid picture. Seeing that out there is just another indicator to me of how much doing this work and pushing forward is worth it. When a reviewer can finally see a woman of size in a lead role and not comment on her body, that will be an incredible win.  

When it comes to how it affects my day-to-day career, that's blissfully little. Much of that is because I'm in a body type category where I don't get the pushback of, "Mmm, she's not quite thin enough to play the lead." What I do constantly push against, though, are breakdowns that describe the (often lead) character's personality -- and, if I'm the right fit, my agent and I are hellbent on getting me considered for as many of those as possible. That can be a steep hill to climb, too, but again -- I truly believe that the more you expose people to the option, the easier it will be for them to normalize it and see it as acceptable. 

KM: You've acted in plays and in numerous television shows and films, including 30 Rock and Orange is the New Black, and with directors Todd Solondz and Liev Schreiber. As an actor who also has a webseries, do you ever observe directors or other people on set to apply what you pick up to your own series? How is having a webseries different from being hired for a film or show?

JP: Absolutely! Being on set myself, as an actor, has taught me literally everything that I've then applied to Weirdos, teaching Kay and Packy similarly and expanding our collective skill sets. I watch everyone on the crew; I mark what lighting choices are made, what shots are made, where a wide makes sense and just how much attention needs to be paid to continuity. None of us are trained as filmmakers, so all my education has been through observation. 

It's certainly different in that we've to to really pick and choose what we can transfer to Weirdos -- in terms of, here's a network television show with literally hundreds of employees, and here is my web series baby with three people who can make it happen. So we may not be able to afford a crew or a bunch of lenses or a Red camera, we can choose a consumer-grade camera with higher fps; we can save up for a small kit of lavalier mics that will help us stay out of ADR [Automated Dialogue Replacement] hell later on down the line. It's also nice to be able to be the boss and problem-solve--as an actor, you really need to respect the boundaries of your job. On Weirdos, if we run into an issue, I'm a critical part of figuring out a solution or punting. While that is stressful, it's also great for keeping you spry and ready and creative. 
KM: What's the future look like as far as your work, both what you have coming up and the life of The Weirdos Next Door?

JP: My dream is for The Weirdos Next Door to be picked up by a streaming service like Netflix or Hulu or Amazon. We all work so hard and put so much love into this, and I think we're making something really special -- something that needs to be accessible. So Kay and I have a pilot and a treatment ready, and we're currently looking for a management and production company to partner with for the long haul. For me personally, I'm in this wonderful place where I'm about half-a-breath away from my 'big break.' It's so close that I can taste it -- which can be exhilarating or maddening. To keep me away from the latter, I find that creating my own stuff in the meantime is more important than ever.

Aside from Weirdos, I've been writing a ton, having recently finished my first feature comedy screenplay. I've also finished a pilot script and treatment for another series, and I've got more projects at varying stages of development. Writing is keeping me occupied and sane these days, and it's been one of the only ways I can deal with and contribute to the world at this point (assuming there'll still be a world around to which I can contribute).  

In Love on the Run  (released August 2016), I star as Franny, a naive, optimistically romantic young woman waiting for her Prince Charming. When Rick (Steve Howey) takes me hostage during a bank robbery, it seems like he could be my One True Love. We're joined by Frances Fisher and Annaleigh Ashford, who play my off-the-walls, codependent mother and sister. The film is really fun, a hybrid road movie/romcom, and it's got flavors of John Waters and the Coen Brothers.

​Perhaps more importantly -- and to speak to your question before -- I think it's going to serve as a powerful visual example, seeing a woman of size as a romantic lead. It almost never happens, at least not without a big helping of self-loathing. But that's the other really powerful thing about Franny -- she doesn't hate herself, she doesn't hate her body. She's really comfortable in her skin and to be just who she is. To couple THAT with being a romantic lead? I don't think that's been the case in a film since Hairspray. 

(You can see the film on VOD & Digital, including DirecTV, Dish network, iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Vudu and Hoopla).


Learn more:

Website - Jen Ponton
Website - The Weirdos Next Door
Twitter @JenPonton
Facebook
YouTube
Instagram @JenPonton

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]]><![CDATA[The Brazilian film industry has a gender issue, but also a race one]]>Thu, 12 Oct 2017 07:00:00 GMThttp://www.herfilmproject.com/stories/the-brazilian-film-industry-has-a-gender-issue-but-also-a-race-one
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Brazilian filmmaker Adelia Sampaio (Courtesy of the filmmaker)
by Luísa Pécora 
When Kyna Morgan kindly invited me to collaborate with Her Film Project and write about women in Brazilian film, it got me thinking: what should my focus be?
 
After all, in the last two years the Brazilian film industry has experienced a much-needed awakening when it comes to debating gender equality in entertainment, and while the road ahead is long, the feeling is that there is so much going on. There are more women speaking out, more movie fans willing to listen, more online sharing that leads to mainstream media coverage, and more festivals, seminars and other events dedicated to female filmmakers. Perhaps most importantly, women in Brazil are getting organised: they are gathering themselves and finding support in the form of collectives, film societies and even Facebook groups.
 
As in many parts of the world, this is a growing, yet recent movement that has yet to lead to significant change or even to major conclusions on what the next steps will or should be. But these last two years have left a very clear message: in Brazil, to talk about women in film is to talk about black women in film. Or, in other words, it is to talk about the absence of black women in film.

​Invisible women

I have been researching gender equality in entertainment since 2009, and writing daily about this topic since 2015, when I created Mulher no Cinema, a website written in Portuguese and exclusively dedicated to films made by women or about women. Over the years, I have gotten used to seeing low numbers when it comes to female participation in the film industry, both at international and national levels. To know that only 20% of all Brazilian films released in 2016 were directed by women bothers me, but doesn’t really surprise me - the percentages are more or less the same everywhere and every year. To know that only one woman has won the Oscar for best directing still sounds absurd, yet it is a sentence I have written numerous times. It is unfortunate to say this, but experience has somewhat prepared be for the disappointing and slow-changing situation of women in film.
 
I have to admit, however, that I was not prepared to realize just how invisible black women were in Brazilian film. Of course I was aware of the historic racism that plagues this country, the last in the Americas to abolish slavery, and of the many social and economical challenges that black populations face. So I knew that black women were poorly represented in film and expected low figures. But I didn’t expect zero. And zero, or close to zero, was what I found.
 
Because the national film agency (known here as Ancine) has yet to collect data that focuses on race, the main source of research on the topic is Gemmaa, a Portuguese abbreviation for Multidisciplinary Study Group of Affirmative Action, connected to the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). The latest version of their study about the national film industry, released earlier this year, analyses gender and race of directors, screenwriters and lead actors working in all Brazilian films released between 1970 and 2016 that had an audience in theaters of more than 500,000 spectators.
 
The main conclusion is that, through all the significant changes that Brazil faced in the last half a century in film production, economy and politics, the cinematic industry remains largely male and white.
 
But just how male and white?
 
Among directors of all films considered, only 2% were women - zero of these women, black.
 
Among screenwriters, 8% were women - only one of them was identified as black.
 
Among the lead actors of these films, white women represent 39%, while black women represent a shocking 2%. And while the proportion of all white and black characters are about 6 to 1, when only female protagonists are considered it changes to 18 to 1.
 
This coming from a country where blacks make 54% of the population.
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Looking for a mirror

Inequality this huge will not be fixed overnight or without affirmative action, but black filmmakers are not just waiting for governments and institutions to do their part. A number of exciting initiatives are being created or coordinated by women, such as Afroflix, an online platform for different audiovisual formats with at least one black person working as producer, writer, director or lead actor; Mulheres Negras do Audiovisual, a website that serves as a catalog for female filmmakers of color, with professional and contact information; Fórum Itinerante de Cinema Negro - Ficine (http://ficine.org/), which promotes debates, events and projects that reflects on the work of filmmakers from the African continent and diaspora; and Empoderadas, a web series where a female team tell stories of black women in different fields, and which recently organised an event in São Paulo, the largest city of Brazil, dedicated to black women in film.
 
Most of these projects aim to help black filmmakers, particularly female ones, to be heard and to be seen. Highlighting their work is a fundamental way to inspire others - much in the idea of “if she can see it, she can be it”, commonly used to defend the importance of female representation in the media.
 
An example of the power of this idea is Adelia Sampaio, the first black woman to direct a feature film in Brazil. The feature in question, Amor Maldito, was released in 1984, but the filmmaker’s name was brought to light only recently, by historian Edileuza Penha de Souza, a professor at the University of Brasilia (UnB). As many other Brazilians, I only heard of this pioneer in 2016, in an interview published by the website Blogueiras Negras. The article, written by Renata Martins and Juliana Gonçalves, had a poignant title: “Racism erases, we write it again.”
 
Since that article was published, Ms. Sampaio has been traveling all over the country to speak at festivals and seminars. In two recent events I was able to witness the excitement and reverence of young women in the audience, who were clearly thrilled and emotional to know Ms. Sampaio exists. I asked her how does it feel to be 74 years old and suddenly become a reference. She answered by telling me about a girl who came up to her and said: “All my life I was looking for a mirror, and now I found it.”
 
There is a lot of excitement, but there are a lot of challenges too. In August, for example, the Brazilian Film Academy announced the members of the commission that would be responsible for choosing the Brazilian candidate for the Oscar for best foreign film ("Bingo - The King of Mornings", by Daniel Rezende, was eventually selected). In spite of a growing pressure for gender and racial parity in juries and commissions, six of the seven members were white men. That means that only one woman, and not a single person of color, had a say in the decision-making process that helps a Brazilian production reach foreign audiences.  
 
If the most urgent issue of my country’s film industry is the invisibility of black women, my collaboration with Her Film Project could not be about anything else. So my next articles will continue to highlight some of the initiatives and talents that are working to change this scenario. Momentum is definitely here. But equality for Brazilian women in film can only happen if it includes all Brazilian women in film.

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