NYWIFT Blog

AfriAmerican Immigrant Screening: Local Stories, Global Themes

In Astoria’s historic Kaufman Studios, filmmakers from the African diaspora shared local stories that reverberated deep into universal themes and questions as part of New York Women in Film & Television’s Women Filmmakers: Immigrant Stories screening on May 31, 2018. Featured in the fourth season of this NYWIFT series highlighting narrative and documentary films about the New York immigrant experience, these short films tackled issues ranging from the #MeToo movement, to President Trump’s travel ban, to the immigrant experience, to what it means to be American, among many more.

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Terry’s Picks: Script Girls, Critical Problem, Female Auteurs

Script Girls: IATSE Local 871 commissioned a new report, ‘Script Girls,’ Secretaries and Stereotypes: Gender Pay Equity on Film and Television Crews, which shows certain female-dominated craft professions such as script supervisors and art department coordinators typically receive hundreds of dollars per week less than their counterparts in comparable male-dominated crafts. In addition, the report...

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Gaia Visnar on channeling her own search for home into her character in The Basis of Intimacy

NYWIFT member Katrina Medoff spoke with fellow member Gaia Visnar, an actor and producer for the short film The Basis of Intimacy, which was made by a female-driven and largely international crew. They spoke about the power of a silent film and what conversations Visnar hopes to spark with the film.

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Terry’s Picks: NYWIFT Grants, Abby Wambach, Follow Through

NYWIFT Grants: Applications for the NYWIFT Fund for Women Filmmakers are open now through June 22nd. The funds are: the Loreen Arbus Disability Awareness Grant, In-Kind Post-Production Grants, the Nancy Malone Marketing and Promotion Grant, and the Ravenal Foundation Feature Film Grant.  Abby Wambach: Take a few minutes to listen to or read soccer star...

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You’re The Pest creator Taylor Coriell on collaboration, inclusion and her new comedy web series

NYWIFT member Taylor Coriell is the executive producer, co-creator and co-star of the new comedy web series You’re The Pest. Fellow member Leah Curney, who is currently developing her own web series, sat down with Coriell to chat about the joys and challenges of being a multi-hyphenate creator.

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Terry’s Picks: Blockchain Technology, The Tale, Barbican Program

Blockchain Technology: The industry is abuzz with excitement – and questions – about Blockchain technology, so NYWIFT is holding a panel this Thursday to discuss its potential power for filmmakers. Member Heidi Philipsen also recently wrote a guest post for Women and Hollywood exploring the technology’s possible impact on indie filmmaking.  The Tale: We are...

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The Women’s Film Preservation Fund Crosses the Atlantic with 1970s Classics of Feminist Filmmaking

A year ago, an email arrived in our Women’s Film Preservation Fund mailbox from Tamara Anderson, Cinema Curator at the Barbican Centre in London, who had discovered our 2015 Carte-blanche series at MoMA, Women Writing the Language of Cinema. Would we curate a smaller series, focusing just on Second Wave Feminist films, for their multi-arts celebration Art of Change? What has resulted, Artists and Activists: Second Wave Feminist Filmmakers, will screen as a series over Saturday and Sunday, June 2-3 at the Barbican. 

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Having fear and doing it anyway

Award-winning Director Jennifer Fox and NYWIFT Board President and Producer Simone Pero Discuss the making of The Tale

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Terry’s Picks: NYC Women, Easy Promises, Decent Odds

NYC Women: The new website women.nyc was designed by a team of women, for women, to help them navigate parenthood, afford living in NYC and ask for a raise.  Easy Promises: Dr. Martha Lauzen discusses why while promises of inclusion for women at film festivals is easy, actual change is hard. Decent Odds: A breakthrough...

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Exploring Family and the Individual Search for Self

NYWIFT WFPF Co-Chair Kirsten Larvick previews the eighth and final installment of the From the Vault: Women’s Advocacy on Film series, co-presented with UnionDocs. Two documentaries, Joe and Maxi and Anything You Want to Be, explore the nature of womanhood and identity within the contexts of family and society at large.

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Terry’s Picks: Designing Women, Notorious RBG, Male Ally

Designing Women: We’re pleased to announce actors Nia Long, Christine Ebersole and Debra Monk will present at Monday’s Designing Women awards (with special appearances from Lena Waithe, Elizabeth McGovern and Mark Feuerstein via video). If you haven’t bought your tickets yet, do it now before we sell out! Notorious RBG: Go see RBG right away. It is...

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Terry’s Picks: Vida Writers, Production Workshop, Cannes-do Women

Vida Writers: Vulture takes a look inside TV’s first all-Latinx writers room, for the new Starz series Vida. Production Workshop: We are offering our annual one-day media production workshop for immigrant and first-generation women, taught by our friends at Third World Newsreel, this Saturday, May 12th. Learn more and apply to participate. Cannes-do Women: Meet...

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Terry’s Picks: Role Reversal, Designing Women, Immigrant Series

Role Reversal: IndieWire looks into the ways that gender swapping characters in television can re-shape perspectives and gain parity for women on screen. Designing Women: Get your tickets for NYWIFT’s Designing Women on Monday, May 21st, honoring the best and brightest of hair, makeup and costume designers. Honorees for this year are: costume designer Dana...

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Report from Tribeca: Isabella Olaguera on AD’ing, Celeb Encounters and Breaking into the Biz at 14

New Jersey-based assistant director Isabella Olaguera has worked professionally on over 50 feature films, television shows and commercials since 2010 – including an Oscar-nominated short. She has every right to brag, but she’s been keeping a big secret: she’s only 20 years old! She may very well be the youngest member of New York Women in Film & Television. Isabella discusses her work as the 2nd AD on the indie feature film All These Small Moments, a coming-of-age tale shot entirely in NYC, which premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival this month.

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Terry’s Picks: Love Gilda, Farewell Scandal, Harlem Summit

Love, Gilda: Congratulations to Lisa D’Apolito and her documentary Love, Gilda, which opened the Tribeca Film Festival to phenomenal reviews (and received an emotional introduction from Tina Fey). The film was fiscally sponsored by NYWIFT. Farewell Scandal: Last week we said goodbye to Shonda Rhimes’ groundbreaking series Scandal, which broke barriers, tackled controversial subjects, and...

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Three unique and historic approaches to exploring gender on film

In their seventh program in the series From the Vault: Women’s Advocacy on Film, the Women’s Film Preservation Fund and UnionDocs present three significant films of the 1970s which consider ideas around gender in various contexts. WFPF Co-Chair Kirsten Larvick offers a sneak preview.

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Terry’s Picks: Spring Drive, Sandra Oh, Cool Kids

Spring Drive: If you’re not a NYWIFT member yet, now is your chance! Join NYWIFT by May 18 to take advantage of our Spring Membership Drive discount. Sandra Oh: Former Grey’s Anatomy star Sandra Oh discusses her return to television as the star of BBC America’s Killing Eve and the importance of Asian representation on...

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Camerawoman Angela Murray Gibson Films Herself into History, 1921-1925: Marsha Gordon and Buckey Grimm

Angela Murray Gibson, a silent era filmmaker receives due attention at Orphan Film Symposium’s line-up this April 11th – 14th, 2018 at the Museum of Moving Image. That Ice Ticket (1921), a recent NYWIFT Women’s Film Preservation Fund and Kino Lorber preservation, will screen on April 13th as part of the presentation, Camerawoman Angela Murray Gibson Films Herself into History, 1921-1925. Here, its presenters Marsha Gordon and Buckey Grimm offer some insights into this distinguishing filmmaker and her broader mark on American cinema.

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