Dubbo filmmakers celebrate International Women's Day

The films were selected by curator and Dubbo Filmmakers secretary, Erifili Davis, from across ten years of the popular One Eye Film Festival.

"I was absolutely spoilt for choice," Mrs Davis said.

"We have had so many amazing projects from women filmmakers in the decade of the local film festival."

Although not following any strict criteria, the films were selected based on having a woman creative in at least one of the key roles of writer, director, producer or lead performer. In many cases, women performed two or more of those roles in the projects selected.

"We have one project, 'Pace' which is a collaboration between husband and wife team Peter and Vicki Aland and features Vicki's exquisite dancing," Mrs Davis said.

"I think that one comes from the very first One Eye Film Festival and then we have a film from a first time entrant at last year's film festival, Sonia Oldfied, which is an absolutely delightful romp featuring foster kittens."

The night featured short films across genres including comedy, drama, fantasy, documentaries and music video, with the films ranging in length from one minute to nine minutes.

With the hashtag 'embraceequity' as this year's International Women's Day, women continue to be underrepresented in key roles in the screen industry.

For example, in 2021, of the top 200 grossing US films, only 17 percent of them were directed by women. In contrast, approximately 50 percent of all film school graduates globally are women.

Whilst Dubbo is a long way from Hollywood, independent films are often a pathway into the industry for women.

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At the 2022 One Eye Film Festival, 65 percent of the films screened were written, directed or produced by women. On a national level, Screen Australia has a number of initiatives to increase the representation of women in key screen roles both in front of and behind the camera.

"Dubbo Filmmakers is all about encouraging local people of all backgrounds to tell their story on screen," Mrs Davis said.

"Whether it's because you want to do it as a passion project or you're interested in getting into the industry.

"As well as networking opportunities and skills development, one of the important things Dubbo Filmmakers offers to local screen content creators is connecting them to audiences."

As well as the short films, the evening included two songs by pioneering song writer, Carie Jacobs-Bond, to be performed live by singer Milla Ross and accompanied by Andrew Tarry on guitar.

Carie Jacobs-Bond became the first woman to sell one million copies of a song in 1901 and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.

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