Committees and Affinity Groups
Affinity groups are for members who would like to benefit from meeting informally with other members in related professions. There is a current list of affinity groups below. If you would like to start an affinity group, contact membership@nywift.org.
Use your ideas and creative energies to help women in film, television, and digital media—and enhance your connections with other women in the industry. Get involved today!
COMMITTEES
Archive Project
Documents and preserves women's contributions to New York's film, television and digital media industries since NYWIFT's inception (1977), through producing video/oral histories of women in the field. Get to know the committee. Contact: Marcie Setlow (212-595-9600, msetlow@aol.com).
Career Focus
Career Focus develops programs and services for members facing career transitions. Contact: Susan Freel ( sfreel@earthlink.net)
Development
Plans and effects strategies to increase and maintain NYWIFT corporate sponsors. Get to know the committee. Contact: Anne Hubbell (917-825-0902-6765, anne.hubbell@kodak.com).
Fund for Women Filmmakers
Solicits in-kind donations from New York post-production facilities for the Fund for Women Filmmakers. The fund provides completion funding and in-kind contributions to independent producers and nonprofit organizations. Contact: Terry Lawler (212-679-0870, tlawler@nywift.org).
Interactive Communications
Strategies NYWIFT's internal and external marketing, communications and advocacy. Finds ways to use digital initiatives to serve the organization and its members through content development, social networking, etc. Contact: Esmee Einerson (347-200-2915, iamesmee@gmail.com).
Membership
Helps members get the most from NYWIFT membership, including createing programs to recruit and retain members. Get to know the committee. To sign up, contact membership@nywift.org. Contact: Anna Gerb (212-253-0333, annagerb@gmail.com).
- Intern/Mentor Subcommittee: Provides professional mentors to NYWIFT interns. Contact: Easmanie Michel (212-679-0870, ext 39; info@nywift.org).
Produces a wide range of programs for NYWIFT members and industry professionals. Contact: Iri Greco (347-721-3140, iri@panforteproductions.com).
- Documentary Subcommittee: Presents screenings of nonfiction productions and panels about technique and craft. Contact: Marcia Rock (212-998-7985, marcia.rock@nyu.edu).
- International Subcommittee: Creates international-themed programs and liaises with Women in Film International. Contact: programs@nywift.org.
Plans and executes the annual Muse Awards Luncheon and Designing Women. Get to know the committee. Contact: Susan Steiger (212-880-0885, sjsteigs@yahoo.com).
Women's Film Preservation Fund
Raises funds to make grants for the restoration and preservation of women's films. Get to know the committee. Contact: Kirsten Larvick ( kirsten@kirstenstudio.com).
AFFINITY GROUPS
Business Roundtable
Provides opportunities for NYWIFT members who are business professionals and executives to meet each other for the purpose of business growth, exchange of ideas, discussion of common problems and their solutions, and mutual referrals. Contact: Thea Kerman (212-213-6116, movielaw@hotmail.com).
Our Own Playground Sessions (OOPS)
Brings together members, creating a safe place to stretch their imagination and hone their skills as actors and directors, practice their craft on a weekly basis, workshop a given script (produced script or work-in-progress), network, and for writers to see their work come alive through the eyes of different directors.
- The format: two scripts a night (three-hour sessions), 2-3 pages of a script (produced or about to be produced), and two sets of actors, with up to six or eight directors directing the same actors on the same pages. Each director gets a chance to direct the actors for about 10-15 minutes, followed by open discussion about the process. No camera, no crew, just the actors and directors. Actors can attend and participate when they are cast. Writers can attend and observe when their script is selected.
- Join OOPS. Contact: Cynthia Granville ( cynthia@cynthiagranville.com).
Provides networking and support for NYWIFT writers. To join or for more info, contact Katy Ostrander at katyorose@yahoo.com.
Screenplay Reading Roundtable
A joint project with the New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts and Media, this project provides the opportunity for informal roundtable readings of your script by experienced actors, and directed by an experienced director, in front of a limited number of guests that you invite. Hear your words being read and get feedback on your work. Scripts are selected by and cast by participating directors. To submit a script, contact Katy Ostrander at katyorose@yahoo.com