An symposium on Gender in Media organized by The Geena Davis Institute and WFTV, held at BFI.

Tania Friemuth a Reel Angel member and DOP went to find out what positive interventions are happening or going to rectify the stats? We all are too aware of.

We did record audio from our phone, which you can listen:

Audio here

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A brief running order is included below.

GDI Symposium – 8th Oct, BFI Southbank London SE1 8XT

09.00 -09.45 Registration opens with refreshments in the BFI Southbank, The Riverfront Café

09.45 Registration closes and all guests seated

10.00 Welcome and opening remarks by Clare Stewart, Festival Director, BFI London Film Festival

10.05 Introduction to the Geena Davis Institute by Madeline Di Nonno, CEO, Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media

10.10 Keynote address by Geena Davis, Founder and Chair of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media

10.20 Geena Davis Institute presentation by Madeline Di Nonno

Panel One: How Film Impacts Issues Affecting Women and Children

Moderator:
Shami Chakrabarti, Director, Liberty

Speakers:
Amanda Nevill, CEO, British Film Institute
Baroness Mary Goudie, Co-founder of the 30% Club, which sees global CEOs work together to promote equality and diversity
Deborah Jamison, CEO, Ending Domestic Violence
David Kosse, Head of Film 4 and former President of Universal International
Eileen Naughton, ‎Managing Director and VP, UK-Ireland Sales & Operations at Google.

Panel Two: Empowering Women and Girls Through Film

Moderator:
Bonnie Greer, Playwright, Novelist, Critic

Speakers:
Elizabeth Karlsen, Chair WFTV UK, Producer, CAROL
Abi Morgan, Writer, Suffragette (Backed by BFI, Film4 and Pathe)
Destiny Ekaragha, Writer-director, Gone Too Far!
Deepa Mehta, Writer-director, Beeba Boys
Laurie MacDonald, Producer, He Named Me Malala

Our notes on the Geena Davis Keynote speech;

Some highlights from Geena herself:

‘In part I try to help empower women by choosing the roles that I choose to play, roles that I believe will resonate  with women, in fact I only play role models’

‘The film that has most impact on my life was Thelma and Louise, it really has changed the course of my life, it cemented my passion for wanting to help empower women and its driven my commitment ever since then’

‘I don’t think its going to take 7oo years for this change to happen, I predict from the reactions we have seen to our work and research we can take off both 00’s and see it in 7!’

Link to The Geena Davis Institue research findings here;

http://seejane.org/research-informs-empowers/

We all know the stats from previous articles on female directed and writers:

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jul/22/gender-bias-film-industry-75-percent-male

After the session, a brief summary of thoughts:

Some key points what we need to do/can do/ are doing to help this change taken from both panel discussions and speakers;

– Early on in life, on screen for young kids role models.

– Make more films like The Suffragettes, more strong female leads as Joss Wheaton says in this video clip here, more female heads of department especially directing.

– Bfi diversity scheme- 3 tick scheme, to support their motto ‘ talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn’t’ –

One of the ticks can be obtained by meeting this criteria:

‘At least 10% of the total crew are BAME; or 5% are disabled; or 40% are from a socially disadvantaged background; or if at least 30% are women; or, depending on the location of the production, we will also consider an otherwise demonstrable and reasonable ‘significant engagement’.

More info on their 3 tick scheme:

http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-film-fund-diversity-guidelines-for-production-2015-05-19.pdf

Its galvanised the way for other funding bodies, a year piloted it, its been very successful and now fully integrated. And now developing further schemes across the whole organization.

– Keep the discussion, dialogue going. More voices, actresses speaking out such as Helen Mirren says in this video clip here , plus Meryl streep, Jennifer Lawerance, Saide Frost, Gemma Atherton and Emma Watson kicked off 1.2 billion conversations on social media. – But also deeds not words as spoken in Suffragettes.

– WFTV – what they do to support us is invaluable.

– People in ‘power’ or close to the ‘power’ – take more risks – ‘I am going to write only about women for the next 4 or 5 years ‘ – says Abi Morgan writer, also Gemma Arterton is only doing strong female roles. Alicia Silverstone Silverton setting up her own production company like Sadie Frost’s– Blonde to Black Pictures – http://www.blondetoblackpictures.com/

– Oh! and when the discussion was open to the audience for suggestions a Database was requested from the crowds – hello!! If your writing an article, I love to hear from you and contribute, we need to spotlight these talented women at Reel Angels!