Susie Francois, Patrice Francois, Joanna Pickering, Lisa Russell, Francesca Andre, Kim Hoyos, Christina Raia, Danielle Earle, Hillary Cutter
The Imagine This International Female Festival (ITWIFF): Girl Summit took place March 24, 2018, in New York. . It was arranged by CEO Patrice Francois and Susie Francois.
Imagine This Women’s International Film Festival Productions (ITWIFF) is dedicated to providing aspiring women storytellers and filmmakers with a platform to encourage and develop new creative projects. ITP strives to support women by sharing their work with the public, promoting equal opportunities, encouraging professional development, and serving as a resource and information network. Learn more here
Actress, writer, producer, Joanna Pickering, represented by 3 Arts Entertainment, and published activist for gender equality and diversity, opened for the festival—speaking on creating intellectual property, protecting yourself with other female networks and addressing how important these events can be. She moderated “Women Entrepreneurs at The Helm,” and interviewed Hillary Cutter, from Cutter productions. Cutter is a broadcasting media executive producer, as well as an industry leader in women’s diversity, and is regarded as a CEO role model for young women. Cutter spoke openly on her journey in a male dominated industry.
Sam Reetz, Christina Chironna, Lauren Magura
The program then led to “Through Her Lens – Directors Talk” moderated by Kim Hoyos, founder of The Light Leaks, with a panel of female directors—Lisa Russell (Emmy winning filmmaker and producing campaigns for UN/NGO agencies), Francesca Andre (filmmaker and CEO of Optik 21), Valentina Caniglia (award winning director of photography for Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime), Dainelle Earle (Writers Guild member and director of critically acclaimed LGBT feature “Lover’s Game”), Assal Ghawami (Director with films showing at Cannes, Berlin and director, GUM studios), Christina Raia (filmmaker and web series maker and CEO Seed&Spark).
Dialogue across the panel, and in both sittings, highlighted— the need for women to show confidence to match male industry assertiveness, to gain that confidence by surrounding with other empowering female networks and film makers, to find mentors and to mentor, to have the courage to speak up, speak out, to get angry, to learn strong communication skills in particular for addressing men, to network for other females and to open doors, and to have strong and clear objectives as filmmakers..
Actress, writer and producer Naomi Mcdougall Jones at The Imagine This International Female Festival (ITWIFF)
Christina Raia then followed with a workshop on crowdfunding to build independence, and the need to assert —what you can give— when asking.
This was followed with HBO talent acquisition Antoinette Miller—discussing skills females need to develop to get hired competitively in the industry.
Next up—hosted by Sam Reetz, founder of Millennial Ethics Productions, which charts a new course for streaming original content that is female forward and rooted in social impact—was Lauren Magura from Cinematcher “the tinder of film world” and Christina Chironna from FilmUP Inc, discussing revolutionising the film industry with start ups.
Closing keynote was given by award winning writer and actress, TED speaker Naomi McDougall Jones (I’m Beautiful), concluding that it is a female filmmaker duty not to self select out. She urged young females to get films made at feature film length, and highlighted that storytelling from the female perspective remains unknown and of vital importance.
Each panel was followed by Q and A from a predominately female audience. Coffee networking, and dinner, were served to allow informal chats with speakers, industry film makers, and change makers
The following female directed short films were screened throughout the day—
– The Hunted, Season II directed by Crystal Arnette
– The Method directed by Michela Monte Negro
– Tall and Taller directed by Kristi Gatto
– Penny directed by Louisa Harris
– Love is Blind directed by Jing Jing Tian
– Den directed by Sydney Waltz
– Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls by Julianna Notten
– Esther directed by Rain (Xiaolin) Zheng
– Wild Woman directed by Vanessa Sweet
– I’m On A Cleanse directed by Claire Autran
The festival thanked its speakers for empowering and inspiring the attendees at the summit and thanking the attendees.
The next Imagine This Female International Film Festival is in November in New York City. For full details and live footage of the discussions follow The Imagine This Festival here.
Joanna Pickering, Hillary Cutter, The Directors Through Her Lens Panel, Antoinette Miller. Naomi McDougal, Jones. Photography by Andreya Matthew @AmProductions1
In Conversation with Michael Oblowitz Director of Confidential Informant
Confidential Informant stars Mel Gibson, Dominic Purcell, and Kate Bosworth
