Her Film Project

Continuing the film discussion

10/6/2022

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.

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THE ASK: Brianne Nord-Stewart

2/18/2018

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by 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.

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.

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Movie-Ish

2/14/2018

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Hi, 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.

Photo courtesy of A. Spieth

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The Silent Film Sound and Music Archive: Interview with Dr Kendra Leonard

1/23/2018

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by Kyna Morgan

Dr. Kendra Leonard, Executive Director of The Silent Film Sound & Music Archive (courtesy of K. Leonard)

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THE ASK: Farzana Shammi and Katy Swailes

12/31/2017

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by 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.

Farzana Shammi (Courtesy of the filmmaker)

Katy Swailes (Courtesy of the filmmaker)

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Madame Producer

12/29/2017

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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.

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Web Series Spotlight: 'Brokers' and 'Next Level Anxiety'

10/26/2017

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by 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

Brokers Trailer from Brokers on Vimeo.

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Khadra: documentary short on women-led grassroots work in Lebanon

10/23/2017

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Interview with director, producer on documenting initiative to use recycling as a way to heal sectarian divides

by Kyna Morgan

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.

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An Actor's Life: interview with actress and multi-hyphenate Jen Ponton

10/19/2017

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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.

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The Brazilian film industry has a gender issue, but also a race one

10/12/2017

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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.

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Brokers​

Interview with director, producer on documenting initiative to use recycling as a way to heal sectarian divides

Brokers