The Diverse Perspectives in Digital Media & Design: 2021 Speaker Series presents:
From Festival to Distribution: Getting Your Film Seen as a Female Filmmaker
Friday, March 19, 2021, 5:00 PM, EST
Featuring CherryPicks and SXSW 2021 female filmmakers:
Paola Calvo, Director of “Luchadoras”
Leah Purcell, Director/Writer of “The Drover’s Wife (Legend of Molly Johnson)”
Meg McCarthy, Content & Programming Executive at CherryPicks
Moderated by: Nikki Stier Justice, Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Connecticut and Head of Distribution, Buffalo 8
Film festivals play a critical role in shaping cinematic tastes - and filmmakers’ careers. But the distribution landscape is constantly evolving, and women face significant obstacles from buyers. In this panel, we spotlight talented female directors with films at SXSW 2021, highlight how festivals provide a platform for the global film industry to showcase stories created and told by women, and discuss the ways that they have utilized their festival experiences to launch their directing careers.
LEARN MORE AND REGISTER: https://dmd.uconn.edu/experience/diverse-perspectives/cherrypicks/
About the Panelists:
Paola Calvo is a Venezuelan born Director and Director of Photography. The feature length documentary “Violently Happy“ was her graduation film at dffb (German Film and Television Academy Berlin). She received the National Prize for Cinematography at IFFF 2017 for it, and was nominated for the Michael Ballhaus Camera Prize at the prestigious First Steps Film Awards. LUCHADORAS is her most recent feature documentary.
Calvo’s film, Luchadoras portrays the courageous female wrestlers of Ciudad Juárez, a city known for its high femicide rates. There is Mini Serinita who's biggest dream is to become a full time Luchadora and leave the factory work that disenfranchises so many women for good. Lady Candy who can see the US Border, where her daughters were taken, from her house but due to visa regulations can never cross it. And Baby Star, the young single mother who was a Lucha Libre Star at an early age and now makes her way to a comeback. With Mexican passion they present a new image of what it means to be a woman in Mexico.
Leah Purcell is a proud Goa-Gungarri-Wakka Wakka Murri woman from Queensland, Australia. She is an internationally acclaimed playwright, screenwriter, director, novelist and actor and a cultural icon and activist, whose work stands at the forefront of the Black and Indigenous cultural renaissance and protest movement sweeping Australia and the world. Australian Financial Review named Purcell as one of Australia’s Top 10 culturally influential people because ‘she allows white audiences to see from an Aboriginal perspective.’ The Drover’s Wife The Legend of Molly Johnson was written by and directed by Leah. She stars in the leading role of film, and is a co-producer through her production company Oombarra Productions.
Leah Purcell’s THE DROVER'S WIFE THE LEGEND OF MOLLY JOHNSON is a reimagining of her acclaimed play and Henry Lawson’s classic short story. A searing Australian revenge tale and a stark revisionist Western, the film offers a powerful new interrogation of Australian history and a universal story of what a mother will do to protect her children.
In 1893, on an isolated property, a heavily pregnant woman named Molly Johnson (Leah Purcell) and her children struggle to survive the harsh Australian landscape; her husband is gone, droving sheep in the high country. Molly then finds herself confronted by a shackled Aboriginal fugitive named Yadaka (Rob Collins). As an unlikely bond begins to form between them, secrets unravel about her true identity. Meanwhile, realizing Molly’s husband is missing, new town lawman Nate Clintoff becomes suspicious and sends his constable to investigate. The deadly encounter between Molly, Yadaka and the constable results in a tragic chain of events with Molly becoming a symbol of feminism and anti-racism.
Meg McCarthy is the Content and Programming Executive at CherryPicks. At CherryPicks, she hosts the hit IG live series, CherryChat, a platform to share options, advice, personal experiences, and promote womxn in entertainment. Meg also hosts and produces CherryPop, a podcast exploring how the representation and misrepresentations of sexuality, intimacy, beauty, and more have culturally impacted womxn of all ages and gender expressions.
Meg has worn many hats in her professional career: Host, Writer, Director, Producer, and Social Media Strategist. She directed and wrote an animated short film winning awards at multiple festivals. Meg was the Writer, Producer and Host of weekly web shows for some of the largest YouTube movie content networks including Movieclips Trailers. At Fandango, she continued to develop web shows and worked as a contributing writer and content creator. As a social media strategist at Turner, she produced digital content across all platforms for TBS and TNT.
About CherryPicks: In 2018, co-founders Miranda Bailey and Rebecca Odes decided enough was enough with very little to no representation of the female and non-binary critical voice. So they started CherryPicks...we’re now known as the best place to find out what womxn think about movies and television. Our community is built on not only reviews & recommendations for what to watch, but also new talent, directors, and writers to look out for. Furthermore, CherryPicks provides a safe space for ideas and communication. Our unique scores are based on reviews solely from womxn and non-binary critics.
This event is brought to you by UConn’s Department of Digital Media & Design.
About the Diverse Perspectives in Digital Media & Design: 2021 Speaker Series:
To paraphrase James Baldwin, nothing can be changed until it is faced. This is certainly true of the inequities that have historically shaped digital media content, fields, and careers. Join UConn’s Digital Media & Design department in welcoming industry professionals, artists, and media scholars from film, game, design, cultural and other sectors to discuss how issues of equity manifest in their work, creative processes, and professions, allowing us to reflect on how our own practice can support greater equity, diversity, and inclusion.
For more information, contact: Stacy Webb at stacy.webb@uconn.edu