A new report released by the Australian Screen Production Education and Research Association (ASPERA) shows that there is limited on screen diversity within students' capstone projects at film school, and behind the camera, crew roles are gendered.
"If you look at what the Gender Matters funding has done for female film filmmakers, that has not trickled down to those who work below-the-line."
With Create NSW’s ‘50:50 by 2020’ gender equity target now at a halfway point, the New South Wales Government has announced a $100,000 development initiative to increase the number of women directing TV drama.
The percentage of female feature film producers in Australia is already well above the global average and continuing to improve.
Screen Australia met its overall Gender Matters target in the 2017-2018 financial year for the first time since the initiative was launched, with 51 per cent of all projects receiving production funding having at least half of the key creative roles occupied by women.
The Australian Cinematographers Society’s A Wider Lens report, which examines career pathways into cinematography, and the workplace and recruitment experiences of camera professionals, paints a picture of inequality, discrimination and a lack of diversity. It recommends an "industrial scale" effort to address a toxic work culture, finding many workplace conditions, as well as commonplace bullying, harassment and discrimination, are resulting in significant mental health consequences, to the point of threatening the industry's long-term sustainability and growth.
Screen Australia’s Gender Matters initiative is not tackling the male dominance of the film production industry, according to Professor Deb Verhoeven, who proposes a radical solution: deny funding to men who don’t employ women in their creative teams.
Erika Addis, head of cinematography at Griffith Film School and Australian Cinematographers Society (ACS) Queensland president and national vice-president, chairs the ACS' Women's Advisory Panel. She reflects on why cinematography remains male-dominated.