Lights, Camera, Equality: Women Leading the Way in Film Ep92

With International Women’s Day approaching (on Friday 8th March 2024 to be exact!) we thought this would be a great topic for our 92nd episode. Your host, Sue Collins, discusses gender equality in filmmaking and emphasizes the importance of having women in leadership roles behind the camera (and beyond).

Drawing from over 15 years of experience as a female filmmaker, Sue touches on her juggling act of being a dedicated producer and devoted parent. Since starting Moonshine Agency and running her own show (with the unconditional support of her partner, Mike Hill), Sue found the balance between parenthood and producing films that address human interest stories and drive positive impact - which is what you're here to learn more about!

Fancy reading more about Equality in filmmaking? We reckon you should check out the Inclusion Initiative study HERE (it’s a brilliant read!)

Curious about the Moonshine Agency films mentioned in this episode? Explore them today!
Website: Conquering Cancer Campaign
YouTube: Conquering Cancer
Visit Moonshine Agency for more Impact Films

What would YOU like to hear about next? We’d love to hear your thoughts and burning questions about the constantly evolving filmmaking industry 🔥 Get in touch on Instagram @moonshinecommunicationsacademy or email us at support@moonshinecommunicationsacademy.com.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome to episode 92 of the Moonshine Moonshot Podcast. Later this week it's International Women's Day. So I thought I would theme this episode on women in film. So I'm going to start with a big shout out to Catherine Bigelow, who is the first woman in 82 years to win an Oscar for The Hurt Locker, and that was in 2010. And then the second woman to win was Chloe Zhao for Nomad Land. And just the third woman in Oscar's history to win a director's Oscar was Jane Campion in 2021 for the power of the dog. That's three percent of winners of Oscars for directing were women. I know, right? So we celebrate these women and sincerely I hope that more women are going to be recognized in the future. And this brings me to my question: Will times change? Will women ever really have gender equity when it comes to filmmaking? Welcome to the Moonshine Moonshot Podcast. I'm your host, Sue Collins, and if you've landed here, it means you're wanting to find out more about how to make filmmaking a sustainable career. And you're also curious about how to make meaningful work that fills your cup. You're ready to learn how to make movies that matter, build a sustainable career, and have a positive impact on your audiences. So you are in the right place. Filmmaking has so many parts, and I'm sharing what I've learned over the past 15 years producing impact films that reach their intended audience and support real-world change. So let's get started. Well, the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism have a research project called the Inclusion Initiative. So presumably they asked a similar question. The first report that they produced states that across the 100 top-grossing films of 2016, 47 did not feature a single black woman or girl speaking on screen. 66 movies were devoid of Asian female characters, and a full 72 films erased Latinas. Very few females from the LGBT community, native and indigenous females, Middle Eastern females, or female characters with disabilities are seen in our cinematic stories. And more generally, the percentage of females on screen in film has not moved in decades. So this was done in 2016. And yeah, that's a big downer to be reporting on. And I think it has to be said, we have to highlight this again and again, or things just do not change. But on a more positive note, things are improving slowly. And I found a follow-up report that was released in April 2023, and it was called Inclusion in Netflix Original US Scripted Series and Film. And it was conducted over the period of 2018 to 2021. The newest findings from the Inclusion Initiative explore gender, race, ethnicity, LGBTQIA plus, and disability across Netflix scripted films and series in 2020 and 2021. And you can also find that report, and I'll put the link to it in the show notes. But the research is called New Annenberg Inclusion Initiative Report identifies areas of inclusion in Netflix content. The results demonstrate that Netflix achieved gender equality in leading roles. Yay! Told you some better news. So this is what the report stated. Across its original scripted film and series from 2018 to 2021, 55% had a girl or woman as a co- or lead. Behind the camera, Netflix movies outpaced top-grossing films in the percentage of women directors. In Netflix series, 38.1% of show creators were women, a significant increase from the 26.9% in 2018. Unsurprisingly, the data revealed that the importance of having a woman in a leadership role behind the camera. Films with at least one woman director attached had significantly more girls and women on screen as leads or co-leads, think 79% versus 54%. The main cast 54% versus forty three percent, and speaking characters forty-three versus thirty nine percent, than did those films without at least a one woman director attached. And I like this data and I especially like the statement that I'm going to say again now. The data revealed the importance of having a woman in leadership role behind the camera. Now I'm not suggesting or asking for films to be made solely by women, but rather emphasizing how important it is that women are represented both on screen and behind the camera. And this is true in all walks of life, not just in filmmaking. And as a female filmmaker who's had to walk the path of becoming a parent, navigating the career knock-on that goes with that, I've experienced one of the key reasons that women find it hard to gain leadership roles in the film industry. The hours, often 10 plus hour days on set, the workflow and the way filmmaking is generally structured makes working with young children very, very challenging. But it is possible, so I would strongly encourage women to find a way through it and for their male counterparts to help them adapt and to adapt themselves to support the women in the industry. For me, the answer was to run my own show. Well, not exclusively run my own show. I do this with my partner in all things, Mike Hill. And together we now run Moonshine Agency. Now, if you're not familiar with our company, it's an impact film production house based in Melbourne, and we produce films with a purpose to progress important social issues and build movements towards solutions. So why do I make impact films? And well, aside from being able to talk about gender equity, when I started out, I was working on a lot of pop culture content and it was really fun. And don't get me wrong, I love content that's made for entertainment. But I didn't find it as fulfilling as the work I do now. And once I realized that the work I produced could make a positive difference, I've actually never looked back. I'm a strong believer in hope-based messaging. I do not think that the doom and gloom and alarming images and stories you often see on the news is motivating. It's important people know what's going on in the world, but I also think it creates fear and helplessness. So I prefer to approach serious issues by showing the powerful human interest stories that move the narrative beyond problems and challenges and focus on solutions and inspiration. Many of the stories we've told are focused on health, cancer, rheumatic heart disease, or palliative care. And the work has seen me travel the world to some very far-flung places, and I have witnessed firsthand the poverty and disempowerment people face when they become seriously ill in many countries, and not just developing countries, but also in the USA and Australia. This has actually led to some key points of difference in the way that we produce our films at Moonshine Agency. The films we take on are end to end. And what that means is that we start with ideation and development, we go right through pre-production, production, post-production, but this is where the difference really comes in, because we do all the distribution and outreach ourselves. Many films are handed over to a distributor at the point of completion, and the filmmakers are not particularly involved in how the film gets out into the world. But because our films are part of broader campaigns that we build audiences for for many months in advance, because that's how you strengthen movements, so we also create a lot of short form content like online videos for YouTube or social media. Could be short films, blogs, articles, Instagram reels, for example. And this means we are far too involved in the outcomes of the work to leave it in somebody else's hands. And the distribution is also very key to outreach. How people see the film and what they do once they have seen it. This is where the impact comes in. It's the call to action, the rallying cry, the increased awareness that motivates audiences members to take action and become part of a solution. And this could be anything from making a donation to hosting a screening of the film for their own community. It could mean they get a vaccine or they're motivated to go and get a cervical screening, or that they encourage their communities to do so. We produced a film a few years ago and it was called Conquering Cervical Cancer, which highlighted the worldwide efforts to eliminate cervical cancer. This is a huge story because cervical cancer is the first cancer in human history that can be eliminated. But yet one woman dies from cervical cancer every two minutes. Through incredible advances in technology, elimination is possible, but it is not without challenges. And this film, I feel, really supports women all over the world. Part of the outreach was undertaken in Africa, where the highest burden of disease is. The film essentially educates audiences on what cervical cancer is, how it can be prevented through vaccination and with the HPV vaccine, and screening through either a PAP test or the new HPV test, which enables early detection. And then if a cancer is detected, timely treatment can potentially save the woman's life. Now, some of these outreach events that were held in Africa for the film held a film screening with a QA, but then women were offered a cervical screening or an HPV vaccine there and then, or booked within the coming days. Oh, I was just looking for a place where I could learn everything I need to know to make an amazing film that changes the world. It's such a shame that that place doesn't exist. Oh what? Hang on. It does. Oh, if you're looking for inspiration, ideas, tools, and ways to learn how to make movies that matter, head to Moonshine Communications Academy over at Instagram and all your problems will be solved.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Warning results may vary depending on the questions, and success is not guaranteed. Always read the label.

SPEAKER_01 11:58

There you have it. Advocacy in action. Many of the women had never had a cervical screening in their life before that opportunity. And as you can hear from this example, films are a very powerful way to engage and motivate an audience, and you simply cannot underestimate the impact of a room of people sharing an experience followed by an opportunity to ask questions and learn more. Look, possibly one of the most powerful stories in this film, Conquering Cervical Cancer, was showing how research, innovation, and collaboration was directly changing the lives for thousands of women in Malaysia. So Malaysian women face a previously insurmountable challenge in accessing cervical screening. I can't recall exactly what the number is, but it was something like only 7 to 10% of Malaysian women were being screened for cervical cancer prior to 2018. And that was for a whole range of reasons, including cultural barriers, such as not being willing to have a pelvic examination in the typical way you would normally get a cervical screening, or not wanting to take time out of work to go and see a doctor to get a test, a PAP test or an HVPV test. Or maybe they just didn't know what cervical cancer was and how it was, what caused it and why cervical screening was important. So they weren't prioritizing getting a cervical screening. Now this was, as I said, prior to 2018, and it was in 2018 that the IPBC conference in Sydney was happening, which is the International Papillomavirus Conference in Sydney. And my partner, Mike Hill, and I were conducting early strategic shooting for the film, including some initial interviews with experts who were present at the conference. And, you know, if you're not a documentary filmmaker, you may not realise, but conferences are a really great way to capture a lot of interviews with subject experts, all in the one place. It's incredibly efficient. And we interviewed a Malaysian specialist called Professor Ying Lin Wu, and she was embarking on a collaboration with Professor Marian Seville from the Australian Centre for the Prevention of Cervical Cancer. Self-collection or self-sampling had just been approved, and Professor Wu saw the opportunity it presented for women in Malaysia. Now, if you're not familiar with self-collection, it's a new way that women can collect a sample by performing the HPV test on themselves. There is no need for a physician or a speculum to be present. It's an incredible advancement in cervical cancer screening, and PAB tests have now been replaced by HPV tests in Australia, and this has paved the way for self-collection. So, as I said, Professor Wu from Malaysia saw this as a huge opportunity because it immediately removes the requirement for a woman to submit to a physical pelvic examination performed by a physician. So Professor Wu worked with Professor Seville and developed the ROSE program, which is removing obstacles to cervical screening. And they rolled out a trial with mobile clinics or pop-ups in a few areas in Malaysia where they set up a clinic in a suitable space and invited women in the area to come along and be screened using self-collection. The women were then tracked on an app so that they could follow up and give them their results within a few days, and the women could be either cleared or let know if they needed a follow-up and booked in to do so. And it also included a counseling service in case there was any need for psychological support after a diagnosis. No surprise, it was a huge success, and the program is now rolling out more broadly across Malaysia. There is so much more I could share on this, but in a nutshell, cervical cancer can be eliminated worldwide due to the invention, innovation, and development of technologies. And make no mistake, cervical cancer is a cancer that only impacts people with a cervix, which is almost exclusively women. So we're eliminating the first cancer in human history, and it's a woman's cancer. So the PAP test to the HPV test to self-collection, it's an evolution in the technology that's now empowering women and enabling them to conduct the test in privacy coupled with the invention of the HPV vaccine, which was invented by Professor Ian Fraser and his team here in Australia. Elimination is possible, but there is still so much work to be done, even within Australia. Self-collection is having a huge impact on underserved populations who had previously not accessed cervical screening, such as the LGBTQIA plus communities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I heard just last week that there's already been a 40% increase in screening within these communities since the self-collection test was made available a year or so back. That is huge. But access to health and services is not universal. Even in the USA, self-collection is not yet FDA approved, which means that thousands of women are not being screened. An anti-vaccination sentiment means that only 40% of American children have been vaccinated with the HPV vaccine. And that also means that sadly 4,360 women die from cervical cancer in the USA each year. And this is a preventable disease that directly impacts women. So we need to do better. Not just in filmmaking, but in global health for women as well. And that's why I make films on these topics, because as a filmmaker, I believe that I can use my skills to make a difference. And I hope that I'm setting an example to all upcoming female filmmakers out there that you can make films, you can have a long and meaningful career in this business. We just have to support each other on the journey. And as I said, my partner in all things is a male. We have worked together for years. We have a small team and it's for the most part gender balanced. It's really important to me that we continue to see women represented both on screen and behind the camera, and I hope that my discussing this topic today helps towards keeping conversations about women in the film industry on track. And I'm keen to know what your thoughts are about the gender inequity still prominent in filmmaking today. Are you a woman? Do you experience that inequity? Do you find it harder to get a break than your male counterparts? Let's have a conversation about it. Head over to Instagram and let me know what you think. And I'll put links to the reports that I mentioned in the show notes so that you can read up on them yourself. And apart from that, I will be back next week with more on how to make movies that matter. So thanks for joining me and keep on creating. Thank you for joining me today and every week here on the Moonshine Moonshot Podcast. If you're wanting a deeper dive into the topics being discussed on the show, then I would encourage you to head over to Moonshine Communications Academy.com and sign up for the weekly drop of moonshine via your email. Being on our newsletter community means we can support your filmmaking journey in a more tailored way as well as keeping you up to date with the resources we share on how to make movies that matter and so much more that we deliver inside your inbox every single week. So head over to Moonshine CommunicationsAcademy.com and at the bottom of the homepage you'll see a little box to add your email address, and as a thank you for signing up, we'll also send you a bonus ebook to support your messaging. So voila, you'll be on the way to receive all the best content weekly.