Industry

A power panel of producers got together at SCAD Savannah Film Festival for what turned out to be a master class on producing. The crowd packed into a standing-room-only event entitled Wonder Women, made up of Alison Owen (Suffragette, Harlots, Saving Mr.

“There's nothing inherently gender-specific about the work that I do,” notes Riva Marker, co-founder of Nine Stories, the production company that has a first-look deal with Bold Films and which producer the Jake Gyllenhaal starrer, Stronger. Jake also happens to be her producing partner, and the two are spearheading a drive both to bring intimate, more character-driven movies to the screen, as well as strong portrayals of women.

Lena Waithe is so fly and so swaggy. That she also happens to be the first African-American woman to win an Emmy for outstanding writing for a comedy series, which she shared with Aziz Ansari for the Thanksgiving episode of Master of None, based on Lena’s real life when she came out to her family, is payoff for a life of stepping up.

Designer sisters Kate & Laura Mulleavy premiered their debut film Woodshock at the Venice Film festival this year. It is the story of a woman trying to hold her emotional balance in even while making heavy use of cannabis.

“Yes, I am still interrupted in meetings,” notes Executive Vice president of Original programming for TNT, Sarah Aubrey. “That’s a situation that women experience as part of group dynamics and I’m not exempt from them”, says Aubrey, who produced movies like Lone Survivor, Friday Night Lights, Bad Santa and Lars and the Real Girl, prior to joining TNT.

“The climate crisis is not a partisan issue. It never should have been, but it has become one.

“I am so excited to see women and women of color as directors, making strides, and getting to work,” says Zetna Fuentes, director of the 7th episode of Snowfall, the FX series that chronicles the proliferation of cocaine in LA’s inner city and the connection to the CIA in its quest to fund a proxy war in Central America. The series involves a diverse cast, and is in two languages, with subtitled Spanish dialogues.

 Every two years, since 2009, the Disney empire pounds the drums, sounds the clarions and gathers the tribes of fans and franchisees for one massive get-together: D23 Expo, two and half days in late July/early August dedicated to all things Disney. The event – named after the year the studio was founded, 1923- takes over the entirety of the massive Anaheim Convention Center – conveniently placed one mile away from the resort that included the Disneyland and California Adventure parks – and serves a variety of key purposes for the Disney multi-verse.

“What’s it like to be a guy? To just get to be funny and not have someone yelling something about your tits every time you step on stage?” The lines are spoken by a female comic in Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here (Jim Carrey is one of the Executive producers) in an episode entitled: Women Are Funny Too, written by Cindy Caponera. Set in LA in the 70s, the show is based on a nonfiction book by the same title and follows a group of stand-up comics.

“I felt more experienced and more correct for the job than many people before me. ” Notes Patty Jenkins, the director of Wonder Woman, which has already garnered $573 million world wide and established itself as benchmark for female driven blockbusters.