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Industry

Let’s talk about Airbrushing

After a twelve-year hiatus working as a counsellor, I finally made my way back to acting last September. I can’t lie; I fully expected to return to a more ‘grown-up’ industry - one where difference and diversity were celebrated and certainly one where women were making great strides. I mean…come on,…
Industry

Set Assistant Diaries: Guerilla Tactics

Nobody has ever assumed the role of set assistant was a glamorous one. I knew that even before I found myself hiding beneath a tree on a rain-drenched afternoon while a drone hovered overhead. Naturally, my assigned position beneath this tree was not out of consideration for wellbeing. It was…
Industry

Ladies! Be More Like Jessica Pearson

If you 're not familiar with Suits, congratulations! The first 8 seasons, and the currently airing 9th season, are on Netflix. What are you waiting for? Suits doesn't struggle for strong characters, but Jessica Pearson- head of Pearson Hardman (and all its other names) is the character that all women…
Industry

Own your sparkle!

I know it sounds a little cheesy right; maybe even clichéd; but the truth is, that when you own your sparkle, you navigate life more confidently. I’m a singer-songwriter and at this point in my life I feel so blessed. I get to travel the world and sing to thousands…
Industry

Setting Boundaries

Boundaries, like self care, has become a bit of a buzzword. A lot of us talk the talk, but struggle to actually walk the walk. And in film, it’s not surprising. Filmmakers constantly get asked too much of. Whether it’s working <12 hour days or trying to juggle a stressful…
Industry

She’s a bitch

Picture this - I’m in a club (underage) with Malibu & Coke in one hand and the other I wave about as though I’m conducting an orchestra. I’m singing along to Missy Elliot’s catchy song She’s A Bitch.  That beat, the music video – you must have seen it. Everyone…
Industry

Art as Activism

In 2014, ISIS invaded the Sinjar Mountains, home to the Yazidi community in Kurdish Iraq. They bombed and burned the houses, killed most of the men, and captured the women and girls to be traded as sex slaves in Raqqa. In 2017, artist Hannah Rose Thomas went to Northern Iraq…
Industry

What would Elaine Benes do?

Seinfeld is lauded to be the show about nothing, but it is everything to me. A rainy day classic, able to be repeated again and again; a perfect, genre defining sitcom with the mileage to match. It first debuted in 1989, and has been gracing our screens ever since, despite…
Industry

Women in Hollywood

I just love the old Hollywood movies! The Wizard of Oz, Easter Parade, Singing in the Rain, Gone with the Wind. Stars such as Judy Garland, Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Cary Grant, Rita Hayworth and Joan Crawford exuded a sophistication that was breathtaking and memorable. Hollywood movies made a huge…
Industry

Crisis of Confidence

I had been working in the UK factual industry for 15 years and was a producer of a broadcast travel programme. It had always been my dream to direct documentaries. So when I asked my then boss why he didn’t hire females as directors, his answer was, ‘Women make better…