Heroines of the Media Industry

The Heroines Of The Media Industry was a successful seminar providing practical advice for media students making their way into the workforce, and facilitating a discussion around gender discrimination in the media industry.

Our guests Mitu Bhowmick Lange, Celeste Liddle and Helen Gaynor all discussed their entries into their respective fields. Mitu and Helen both started volunteering on films and TV productions in India and Australia respectively when they first entered the industry and worked their way up from there. Celeste Liddle came into journalism accidentally after her blog Rantings of An Aboriginal Feminist was noticed and she was asked to write for Daily Life. All three women gave the advice that to succeed, persistence is key. Mitu mentioned many times that for young filmmakers, the most important thing is to begin creating. If you have an idea, just do it! No big budget necessary, especially as there have been films released recently that have been shot on an iPhone. Celeste advised budding writers and journalists to have a unique voice to bring something new to the table, and to keep writing and putting your work out there.

Our guests spoke at length on the topic of gender discrimination in their fields of work. Helen discussed in particular that film and TV crews often seem to be dominated by males, despite a large number of producers being women. She is a teacher and shared her idea of holding women only classes, seeing as men often seem to dominate in the classroom as well. Mitu noticed gender bias most after she became a mother, and her abilities to juggle both family life and work were questioned, whereas her husband never faced the same doubt. Celeste has experienced a large gender bias, and also discrimination on the basis of race as an Indigenous woman. Celeste has found that she will often only be approached to write about speciality topics concerning racism and feminism, as if her identity as an Aboriginal feminist means that she can only cover these areas. A very interesting point made by Celeste was that the middle class white male voice is seen as ‘neutral’ and everyone else from outside this category is biased, however there is a bias coming from this privileged position too that is almost invisible.

The take away from this seminar and the inspiring discussion by our guests was that while a gender bias definitely exists within the media industry, and indeed all industries, it’s still very possible for women to have successful careers. All guests stressed the importance of helping other women, and the importance of men helping to give women a voice. It was reiterated by all that rejection will occur frequently, however it’s necessary to keep trying. To put in the work and create opportunities, and to take the opportunities when they come.

 

The Team

 

Prani Harrison: Host, Guest Liaison to Celeste

Mollie Cowell: First Assistant Director, Staging Assistant

Karen Anne Sophia Wei: Guest liaison to Helen, Social Media Producer for HeroinesOfMedia Twitter page.

Maree Prokos: Guest Liaison to Mitu,

Elaine Joeng: Lighting Assistant, Social Media Producer, collected twitter questions

Alois Wittwer: Lighting and Stage Assistant, Social Media Producer

Sam Kininmonth: Director, Lighting and Stage Assistant

Matthew Montalvo: Staging Director

Sarah Petrie-Allbut: #1 Camera Operator, Head of Post

Mia Campion Curtis: Camera Operator #2, Head of Catering

Kimberly Teoh: Camera Operator #3, Catering Assistant

Mardy Bridges: Stills Camera Operator

Maddie Roux: Stills Camera Operator

 

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