Launching today, Super Women is a new platform from BBC music broadcaster Georgie Rogers and documentary film director Alice Smith.
The duo joined forces with a crew of aspiring female filmmakers to create real opportunities for women in the industry and address gender imbalance behind the camera.
LAUNCH EVENT
Location: Redon, Cambridge Heath Road, London.
Date: Thursday 30th May 2019
Time: From 6.30pm-Midnight
Live Streamed Panel on Instagram Live and Facebook (7-8pm BST): Super Women co-founders Georgie Rogers and Alice Smith lead a discussion going behind the lens on women in film and tech with guest speakers Justine Kershaw, co-founder of Blink films, award-winning cinematographer Petra Graf, Code First Girls CEO Amali De Alwis MBE and writer-director Yero Timi-Biu.
DJs: Femme, Jay Carder
From Elspeth Beard, the first British woman to motorcycle around the world in the 1980s (at the age of 23), to an award-winning record producer Catherine Marks, tech pioneer and Code First Girls CEO Amali De Alwis MBE and Labour MP Dianne Abbott, the films in Series One highlight what it took for women to blaze the trail across business, music, motorsports, politics, tech and culture to realise their dreams in the most extraordinary ways.
Super Women movement founders Georgie and Alice both had to break through in the male-dominated film and music radio industries. Revelations from the Golden Globes this year showed that the percentage of female directors dropped from 11% to 8%. With female influence and perspective from production through to film-making lacking these numbers are a stark reminder that the only way to redress the imbalance behind the camera is by nurturing new talent.
Super Women provided mentoring to five female camera crew and opportunities to three female editors across the shooting of eight films in the debut series.
Georgie Rogers, an established broadcaster, music journalist, voiceover and DJ said: “The fact is that the film, music and radio industries are starting to call themselves out for failing on diversity and gender parity so it is great that rhetoric is changing but the reality is progress isn’t fast enough. We are passionate about the power of positive female story-telling and its universal audience.”
Alice Smith, a documentary filmmaker (previously worked with the likes of BBC, BFI, National Geographic & Netflix) said: “Working in the TV/Film industry for the last decade I know firsthand that women are consistently pigeon-holed into producer or logistic roles. We are massively underrepresented as directors and in more technical roles like camera operating or post-production. Georgie and I wanted to make content that appealed to our interests whilst creating an encouraging and supportive environment where women could learn practical and technical storytelling skills. So far we’ve worked with 8 female filmmakers – some at the very start of their career and others looking to expand their skills. Watching these women blossom and growing in confidence has been incredible so we’re more determined than ever to continue to create these opportunities for women.”
FUN FACTS
- Revelations from the Golden Globes this year showed that the percentage of female directors dropped from 11% to 8%.
- In the Academy Awards’ 90-year history, only five women have ever been nominated in the directing category.
- In music only 17% of PRS for Music’s registered songwriters are female.
- The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative has documented the prevalence of women in the music industry over seven years and showed little has changed for women over that time. Women make up 21.7% of artists, 12.3% of songwriters and 2.1% of producers. (Inclusion in the Recording Studio report)
- At major music companies the pay gap averaged at 30%.
- Just last year in sport the Women In Sport report Beyond 30 Workplace Culture showed that 40% of women experience gender discrimination in the industry.
Join us in spreading the word and building a community with the hashtag
#SuperWomenBTS
Super Women Extended Podcast Channel
