The following is a brief preview - the full content of this page is available to premium users only.
Click here to subscribe...
In their November 1983 survey entitled "Women in Australian Film Production", Penny Ryan, Margaret Eliot and Gil Appleton made the following statement:
There are many - and surely just as many women as men - who want to express their talents and use their skills (of whatever kind) in making a living from making films. Yet there is a distinct imbalance between the numbers of women and the numbers of men working in film, in all areas and at all levels: a clear indication that women are facing difficulties particular to them as women in securing work for themselves in film. Moreover, there is a strong argument that the generation of such an important cultural product as film Should be influenced by the participation of women at all levels and in a proportion which reflects their membership of the community generally.
In 1983, when that survey was published, only one out of the 81 Australian feature film directors making films was a woman (Gillian Armstrong), but by 1985 there were at least four women making feature films, and that number has no doubt increased since. Women are also attracting attention throught the reception of their films; for example, Gillian Leahy's, "My Life Without Steve" won the 1986 General Category of the Greater Union Awards, the Grand Prix of the Melbourne Film Festival and the Erwin Rado Prize for the Best Australian Short Film; and for the past two years in a row, an Australian woman filmmaker has won the coveted, Palme d'Or Award for Best Short Film at Cannes (Jane Campion with "Peel" in 1986, and Laurie Mclnnes with "Palisade" in 1987).
However, there is still a long... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline