On Sunday at 7pm to celebrate Women’s Month, the Shnit International Short film festival is showcasing the work of eight woman film directors, at Alexander Upstairs in Strand Street.
Three of the directors are South African and five from overseas. Sarah Summers (Baby Daddy) and Jessie Zinn (Into Us & Ours) are from Cape Town. Zamo Mkhwanazi (The Call) is from Joburg.
The international list features Emma Thorsadner (Embryo) from Sweden, Coralie Fargeat (Reality Plus) - France, Caroline Bartleet (The Operator) - UK, and Cristina-Picchi (Zima) from Italy. They range in age from 23 (Zinn) to 41 (Fargeat).
Since April, Shnit has been hosting Taste of Shnit each month at the Alexander, as a lead up to the Shnit South Africa festival which is on from October 8 to 22, at the Labia and other venues in Cape Town, and at the Bioscope in Johannesburg.
Shnit will take place simultaneously in eight: Cape Town, Bangkok, Bern, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Hong Kong, Moscow and San José. It is considered a major international short film festival.
The films in the showcase on Sunday have been screened in Shnit festivals during the past two years. The directors have been nominated, and many have won, prestigious awards on the African continent and internationally.
Let us get to the crunch: money. It is tough for film-makers to get funding, but it is more challenging for women. Every Taste of Shnit screening is followed by a Q&A with the some of the film-makers and the issue of funding is bound to be a key talking point.
Team Shnit SA is in Switzerland, on a bosberaad with representatives from the Shnit chapters around the world to get up to speed for this year’s festival.
In the city, the Shnit SA fort is being held by Frankie Stromberg (festival production manager) and Thea Small who is social media manager and part of the programming committee.
Small, 26, had two of her films featured at Shnit. Last year, she was a recipient of Shnit’s Real Time commission.
Real Time is a platform where three selected Shnit film-makers are provided with equipment - rigging and other gear - and given 72 hours to make a film which is then screened during the festival.
As a woman working in a white male-dominated industry, she has been there and done that.
“It’s always been a boys’ club. In my third year at Afda, there were only three female directors out of, I think, a class of 17. People always assume you’re in wardrobe or production and look dumbfounded when you tell them you’re a director - as that’s a ‘thing’.”
Disclosure: Zinn is my daughter. I have been astonished at the gender discrimination in the industry and peoples’ attitudes to women in the position of director.
We cannot point fingers at men.
Small: “It was upsetting when I was at film school that many female producers said they preferred working with male directors.
“In an already tough and marginalised industry - when your woman peers stipulate they prefer working with men - it makes it harder.
“I think the newly-formed organisation, Swift (Sisters Working In Film & Television), will help tackle this issue.”
It goes beyond being gender marginalised: “I don’t think it’s an active resistance towards women but more of the lack of action by industry players with access to financing and greater networks.
“There needs to be a greater intentionality with film companies to seek out female film-makers and give them a platform to make movies.
“Women can band and try to carve out our own path, but we also need people - particularly males - with access, to bring us into that arena.
“We are seen as a huge risk and women are not given the space to make mistakes.
“When male film-makers make mistakes, it’s looked at as part of the process, but with women it’s more of a death sentence.
“When we are given an opportunity - it is make or break - which places us under even greater pressure. The NFVF (National Film Video Foundation) runs the female film-makers programme - to make a short film. I think this is a great initiative, but we need more of this type of access.
“How are we supposed to become film-makers with experience - so we can secure funding - when no one is willing to give us a chance?”
* Tickets for the Shnit women directors from SA and the World
on Sunday, 7pm at Alexander Upstairs, cost R80, visit alexanderbar.co.za and R90 at door or call 021 300 1652.