NYWIFT Blog

By Leah Curney

Recently, the New York Women in Film & Television Women Crush Wednesdays podcast team had the pleasure of connecting with the Storylines podcast, produced by our sister WIFT organization, Women in Film and Television Alberta (WIFTA). Like NYWIFT’s Women Crush Wednesdays, the Storylines podcast features interviews with women working above and below the line in the entertainment industry. Their inaugural season, which just wrapped up last month, showcases 15 successful women who share a past or present connection to Alberta, Canada.

My Women Crush Wednesdays co-host Janine McGoldrick and I initially connected with Storylines host Sheena Rossiter over video chat. Sheena is a journalist, documentary filmmaker and professional podcaster who, prior to returning to Alberta, spent much of her career working overseas in Brazil, London and Barcelona. It became clear in our conversation that despite the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is something of a silver lining – in many ways, our world has become smaller and our borders more malleable, with technology allowing us to connect and collaborate across states, countries and continents.

WIFT Alberta podcast host Sheena Rossiter at the Daily Xtra Portrait Lounge at Inside Out Toronto 2018

Excited to continue our conversation, Sheena and I arranged a follow up virtual meeting, taking turns interviewing each other from our at-home “pillow fort” recording studios (one of the perks of podcasting – you can do it from just about anywhere!). The result is two “snackable” bonus podcast episodes that launched in June. In our Women Crush Wednesday bonus episode, Sheena shares:

• How podcasts are nearly “pandemic-proof” due to their nimble, agile and inexpensive format
• The state of TV and film production in Alberta, Canada as their industry prepares to restart production
• How smaller scale documentaries may find increased opportunity to film safely and fill the gap left by larger narrative films

Then, in the Storylines bonus episode, we talk about:

• Virtual auditions, which were on the rise prior to the pandemic, and are quickly becoming the new normal
• New opportunities to connect and collaborate remotely during this period of quarantine
• New options for micro-budget filmmaking and directing via video chat

Plus, we have a laugh about the metric system and how our Canadian sisters keep a distance of “two meters” while in the States we stay “six feet” apart.

Both episodes are embedded below for your listening pleasure, and we’ll be continuing to collaborate with WIFTA on future episodes, so be sure to subscribe to Women Crush Wednesdays on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. To hear full episodes of Storylines, visit wifta.ca/storylines.

Finally, do you have a story of your own to tell about your experiences in the entertainment industry? Whether it’s good, bad or ugly, Janine and I invite you to share it with us on Women Crush Wednesdays – write it down (under two pages) or record yourself on a smart phone voice memo app (under five minutes) then email it to communications@nywift.org. Each month, we’ll choose one or two to feature on the podcast. Our stories are powerful tools to educate, inform, uplift and entertain one another. We look forward to hearing yours.

Bonus Episode on the NYWIFT podcast:

(Or listen here on Anchor.)

Bonus Episode on the Storyline podcast:

(Or tune in at this link.)