Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Women Making History, Part 1

01/03/2024

The month of March marks Women's History Month and, on the 8th, International Women's Day. These are important opportunities to focus on stories from women in our industry who are incredible role models. As we approached this month, I reflected on how we could amplify and elevate those stories, and I connected with women who are impacting our industry with their artistry, craft, and leadership. I asked them all a series of questions, and in the process gained invaluable insights into their inspirations, the role mentorship has played in their lives and careers, advice that shapes their decision-making, and much more.

I'm thrilled to present Panavision's Women Making History interview series. I hope you'll follow along each week throughout March to learn from and be inspired by these amazing women as we share their stories in their own words.

I am truly energized by those who have and continue to pave the way for women to be the influential storytellers they are meant to be. I'm so excited to share these special conversations with you, our community.

Sincerely,

Kim Snyder (President and CEO, Panavision): What impact do you hope Women's History Month may have over the course of time?

Chris Wairegi (cinematographer and camera operator; founder, 600 Black Women): I hope we inspire future generations to do things we never dreamed of. I hope Women's History Month gives a little girl the strength and courage to chase big dreams and to not listen to anyone about what she can't do. I hope we inspire anyone in need of a little inspiration and that our presence here shows them they can do it too.

Chris Wairegi (photo by Sophia Romulo)

Autumn Durald Arkapaw, ASC (cinematographer): Encouraging women to believe in their strength and abilities is important. You need to see you to be you.' That's one of the best quotes Ive heard recently in regard to women mentors today. Unfortunately some of the greatest accomplishments of women in our community or around the world are not highly publicized. Its important for women to seek out other women in their industry and get advice.

I would never have picked up a camera had I not read two words: Ellen Kuras. She is the reason I started to believe that I could one day do this job. Early on I was told by someone in the business that only men were cinematographers. Ellen's name changed that for me, and I am forever grateful for her existence and amazing accomplishments.

Kira Kelly, ASC (cinematographer): I hope that more and more we can use the frame of Women's History Month to honor the women who laid the path for us, but also look towards the future.

Terra Bliss (managing director, Panavision UK and Ireland): I hope that celebrating the achievements and contributions of women will help inspire future leaders and innovators, to see people who look like them achieving success.

Johanna Gravelle (managing director, Panavision Canada): I actually hope that by highlighting and celebrating women today, these kinds of things become unnecessary in the future. I hope there will be a time when everyone is on a level playing field with opportunities and salary, where hard work and talent counts more than gender and the color of a person's skin.

Johanna Gravelle

Patti Lee, ASC (cinematographer): I really don't know how to answer this question. I'm glad the accomplishments of so many extraordinary people get highlighted, but I'm also looking forward to a time when being a woman' isn't a qualifier we have to use.

Polly Morgan, ASC, BSC (cinematographer): I hope that as we learn to recognize the incredible achievements and contributions of women, that gender equality will become less of a struggle and we will break the barriers of inequality. I hope that women will be given new opportunities and have a chance to develop more self-respect and that we lose the idea of imposter syndrome.'

Sandy Ferguson (chief human resources officer, Panavision): When I first got to the level of leading HR teams, I was usually the only female in the executive team meeting. This has changed over time, and my hope would be that business culture continues to evolve so that traditional stereotypes surrounding female leaders continue to change. I also hope that women can continue to support each other in their career growth, and by learning about experiences of women in leadership, I hope it inspires more women to believe they can be successful.

Mandy Walker, AM, ASC, ACS (cinematographer): I hope that more women become empowered to pursue their career goals and that the industry embraces a more equal and diverse representation on set.

Laura Merians Gon alves (cinematographer): [I hope] that there will be no more qualifiers that a woman will naturally be seen in the role as a DP.

Laura Merians Gon alves

Michele Channer (business development director, Panalux; managing director, Direct Digital and Island Studios): By acknowledging the careers and journeys of women, we can inspire others to reach for their goals, whatever route that may take them. Careers are not just an upward trajectory at a steady pace. We hit crossroads and at times go off in different directions. By highlighting in Women's History Month the various journeys we make, maybe we can inspire a few along the way. I was seriously lacking role models in my career development, but now I see fabulous role models all the time. It's exciting to see, and now we can showcase them. My daughter is already an inspiration to me, and I hope that I have had a little impact on her.

Victoria Emslie (actor; founder and CEO, Primetime Network): Women's histories have received relatively none of the attention and immortalization in comparison to men. One of the questions Primetime was founded on was, Where are all the women?' We all
LINK: https://www.panavision.com/highlights/highlights-detail/women-making-h...
See more stories from panavision

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

30/06/2026

Telemundo, Peacock See More Record Setting World Cup Audiences

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

FOR-A America Adds Two Execs to U.S. Sales Team

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

A3SA Disputes Weigel Assertions that NextGen TV Threatens EAS

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

MainStreaming Selected by ITV to Support Delivery of ITVX...

MainStreaming, the award-winning and innovative Edge Video Delivery Network, today announced that it has been selected by ITV to support the delivery of ITVX, I...

30/06/2026

Chyron Launches New Chyron Academy

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

Clear-Com Upgrades Communication Systems for Jeopardy and...

When Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! needed to upgrade their wireless communications system, they turned to Clear-Com FreeSpeak wireless for their iconic televi...

30/06/2026

Supreme Court Gives Trump Tight Control over Independent Regulators

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

Rocket Lab to Acquire Iridium in $8 Billion Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

Kyocera AVX Releases New Web-Based Antenna Integration Tool

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

YouTube Shorts Get a Makeover

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

Rise Announces 2026 Worldwide Mentoring Cohorts

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

30/06/2026

Other World Computing Launches New Atlas Core Line with 256GB CFExpress 4.0 Type B Memory Card

Other World Computing Launches New Atlas Core Line with 256GB CFExpress 4.0 Type...

30/06/2026

DaVinci Resolve Studio Used for Taketoshi Sado's Perfume Cold Sleep -25 years Document-

DaVinci Resolve Studio Used for Taketoshi Sado's Perfume Cold Sleep -25 year...

30/06/2026

How NVIDIA's Inference Software Stack Powers the Lowest Token Cost

As organizations move from AI pilots to production AI factories, infrastructure decisions have shifted from peak chip specifications to cost per token: how many...

30/06/2026

Into the Omniverse: Three Workflows for Improving Vision AI Agent Accuracy With Synthetic Data and Fine-Tuning

Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...

30/06/2026

June 29, 2026

Scripps Research scientists demonstrate a faster, cheaper route to making critical drugs using common table sugar New method illustrates how to build a tough ch...

29/06/2026

Op-Ed: Why the 2026 World Cup Is Redefining the Economics of Live Sports Production

By Andy Rayner, CTO, Appear The 2026 FIFA World Cup is the largest football tou...

29/06/2026

Study: Esports Plays Major Role in Gen Z Media Habits, Purchasing Behavior

A new multi-country study from ESL FACEIT Group, Hero Esports, and Niko Partners estimates that 400 million Gen Z consumers regularly engage with esports, under...

29/06/2026

ESPN Sets Multiplatform Plans for America 250 Celebration

ESPN will mark America's 250th anniversary with a series of content initiatives across its linear, digital, and streaming platforms, including a special edi...

29/06/2026

OBSBOT Named Official Camera and Webcam Partner of Esports World Cup 2026

The Esports Foundation has named OBSBOT the Official Camera and Webcam Partner for the Esports World Cup 2026, bringing the company's AI-powered imaging tec...

29/06/2026

Insight Productions Launches Insight Storm, 53-Foot Esports Broadcast Truck

Insight Productions has launched Insight Storm, a 53-foot mobile broadcast unit designed specifically for esports production, live entertainment, and digital-fi...

29/06/2026

Gravity Media Delivers Global Distribution, Streaming Services for World Economic Forum in Dalian

Gravity Media once again provided broadcast, streaming, and content-distribution...

29/06/2026

Wimbledon Introduces AI-Powered Fan Features, Modernized Digital Platforms for 2026 Championships

The All England Lawn Tennis Club and IBM have introduced new and enhanced digita...

29/06/2026

Evolve Dark Matter from Excite Audio

Four-layer instrument aimed at dark electronic music Excite Audio's latest software instrument has been designed with dark drum and bass, atmospheric te...

29/06/2026

Tracktion unleashes Waveform 14 DAW

New AI Assistant, Multi-channel Audio, ARA2 improvements & more Tracktion's DAW software has just received its latest major update, gaining a selection ...

29/06/2026

Focusrite publish 2026 Sustainability Report

Details environmental policies & results The Focusrite Group have just announced that following a long audit process, they have published their 2026 sustain...

29/06/2026

Comcast to Spin Off NBCUniversal, Sky

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/06/2026

Supreme Court Rules Trump Can Fire FTC Commissioner Without Cause

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/06/2026

CVP Launches Warranty plus to Protect Professional Equipm...

CVP, one of Europes leading suppliers of professional video and broadcast solutions, has announced the launch of CVP Warranty , a new extended warranty programm...

29/06/2026

TitanTV Hires Mark Hadley as Technology Specialist

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/06/2026

Fox Sports Delivers Another FIFA Mens World Cup Audience Record

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

29/06/2026

Claude Meets Blackwell Ultra: Anthropic's Models Now Run on NVIDIA GB300 in Azure

Anthropic's Claude models in Microsoft Foundry - hosted on Microsoft Azure a...

29/06/2026

Arvato Systems Achieves AWS Cloud Operations Competency

Arvato Systems Achieves AWS Cloud Operations Competency The team behind the AWS Cloud Operations Competency (from left to right: Philipp Hellmich, Johanna Bod...

29/06/2026

Ger Gilroy to join RT to present a Daily Sports Podcast

RT today announced that Ger Gilroy will join the RT Podcasts team to present a daily sports podcast. Launching later this year, the new show will set the spor...

29/06/2026

OUTsurance announced as sponsors of Oliver Callan on RT Radio 1

RT Commercial announced OUTsurance as sponsor of the Oliver Callan show on RT Radio 1 from Wednesday 1 July. Oliver Callan doubles the fun, delivering two ...

29/06/2026

Open Models, Closed Environments: Palantir Brings Secure AI to US Agencies With NVIDIA Nemotron

Showcasing the importance of open source innovation in American AI, Palantir'...

28/06/2026

Softube unveil lower cost Console 1 Compact

Half-size model joins Console 1 line-up Shortly after the release of their new Flow Studio controller, Softube have announced the launch of another new surf...

28/06/2026

EVE Audio introduce EVE Origin

New EXO Series DSP control software announced EVE Audio's EXO Series monitor range has just gained a new software element that provides remote access to...

28/06/2026

Freedman Labs Releases PrepMyMedia and ViewMyAttic for Post Production Professionals - 50% off for COWs!

Freedman Labs Releases PrepMyMedia and ViewMyAttic for Post Production Professio...

27/06/2026

Through Their Lens: What Cinematographer Amy Vincent Saw at the 2026 Directors Lab

There's no doubt that you've seen the world through Amy Vincent's ey...

27/06/2026

UJAM release Retrocraft

Brings together saturation & lo-fi effects Following on from the release of their Voxcraft vocal-processing plug-in, UJAM have announced the launch of Retro...

27/06/2026

A record 4.84 million Australians choose SBS as the Socceroos advance at FIFA World Cup 2026

A record 4.84 million Australians choose SBS as the Socceroos advance at FIFA Wo...

27/06/2026

Apogee CRAS Symphony Mkii Education Feature Blog

Why CRAS Upgraded to Symphony I/O MK II When an audio school runs studios all day, every day, gear doesn't just need to sound good , it needs to survive rea...

27/06/2026

MultiDyne Acquires the Assets of MRMC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/06/2026

Spectrum Intelligence Ventures Launches Latis

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/06/2026

Krotos Video to Sound Plugin Now Available for Adobe Premiere Pro

Krotos Video to Sound Plugin Now Available for Adobe Premiere Pro Brie Clayton June 26, 2026 0 Comments Editors can analyze footage, generate synchron...