08 03 2017 - Media release Gender Matters interim update
Strangers writer Penelope Chai and writer/director Corrie Chen.
As Screen Australia works towards gender equity in projects receiving production funding, the agency has taken stock on the progress of its Gender Matters initiative. The update comes in the same week that actor and gender equality advocate Geena Davis addressed a gathering of the Australian screen industry with a sobering look at the representation of women on screens, highlighting how the issue of unconscious gender bias begins in children's television and film.
Gender Matters is the biggest initiative Screen Australia has ever taken on, said Screen Australia's Chief Operating Officer Fiona Cameron. It has permeated every corner of our agency, from Program Operations who process every incoming application, to the Development Unit who assess every project and assist talent to develop stories and their careers, to Business & Audience who look after distribution funding for female-led projects under Better Deals.
Eight months since the Brilliant Stories and Brilliant Careers funding was announced, we're seeing some clear trends emerge including an increase in applications from female led creative teams from 56% to 64% across all our programs. So we are heading in the right direction and we need a couple of years under our belt to influence production outcomes, particularly in the feature film sector where there is a much longer lead time.
Although I'm confident Gender Matters will reach its target agency wide, the biggest problem area is in feature film production. To that end, we are urging the industry to think about the makeup of their creative team early. If you come in for development or production funding with a project with an all-male team, you will struggle to convince us why that is appropriate in 2017.
An interim update on all five elements of Gender Matters is included below, and a three year rolling statistic tracking gender parity in Screen Australia production funding will be released in the second half of 2017.
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA CHANGES Upon the December 2015 announcement of Gender Matters, an express mention of gender and cultural diversity was added to the Assessment Criteria on all Screen Australia funding guidelines (highlighted in bold):
"Other factors including availability of funds, diversity of slate and the gender and cultural diversity of the team may also influence Screen Australia's funding decisions.
Fiona Cameron noted: Although the Assessment Criteria change may seem minor, in practice it's changed the way we now run our decision meetings. Our staff are looking at every single creative attached to an application, and the team makeup is overtly part of the funding decision. In practice, when we get situations where two applications are comparable in terms of creative rigour, team experience, financial strategy and a path to audience, if one creative team is demonstrably more inclusive, we will fund that project.
BRILLIANT STORIES In July 2016, $1.867m in Gender Matters: Brilliant Stories funding was delivered for the development of 45 new female-led projects across television (16), online (11) and film (18). Brilliant Stories represented the most projects Screen Australia has ever funded in a single day in its history.
Fiona Cameron noted: Projects funded under Brilliant Stories are at a range of stages from script workshops to shooting pilot episodes. Many have already attracted distribution partners, international finance and co-production opportunities.
The speed at which many of the Brilliant Stories projects are progressing is encouraging. The success of this initiative has also prompted us to look at ways to assist female creatives beyond Gender Matters, such as Doco180 with WHIMN and the ABC ME Girls' initiative, both announced this week.
Corrie Chen (director/writer) and Penelope Chai (writer) received Brilliant Stories funding for the development of their feature Strangers (formerly titled Arrivals). The story follows a young Australian woman who travels to a city in China to track down her long-absent father, but all she finds is a desolate metropolis with a single inhabitant awaiting the arrival of others.
Based on the real phenomena of ghost cities' in China, the creative team utilised part of their Gender Matters funds to do on-the-ground research, enabling substantial reference footage to be shot. A first draft script is due in mid-2017.
Corrie Chen noted; The Gender Matters initiative has been particularly empowering for us and our project because of its commitment to being more open and receptive than traditional funding rounds. This was important because, at application, our project was still in its infancy and we didn't yet have a firm grasp over its tone and scale. With the support of Screen Australia, it allowed us to put our development funds towards our research trip.
As writers, this trip was crucial for authenticity as it's a story about two people from different cultures being thrown together. As a director, it allowed me to finesse a strong voice over the film I want to make, and how I could capture the extraordinary world of China's ghost' cities. As a woman of colour, this opportunity and the faith of Screen Australia has really accelerated my career, and helped me find the confidence to realise my voice is of worth.
Whilst it is normal for projects to spend years in development, several projects have already reached significant milestones:
Public Relations (television) will shortly deliver their polished first draft, and just released their concept video.
Silver Lining (television) has been workshopped with Alice Bell (Puberty Blues) and Academy Award nominee Luke Davies (Lion) has been attached as a script consult.
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08 03 2017 - Media release Gender Matters interim update 
