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ON THIS MONTH: FILM<br />
Photo by Sharon Kilgannon<br />
Photo of Nuala O’Sullivan by Daniel D Reimer<br />
Amanda Donohoe<br />
W0FFF<br />
Women Over 50 Film Festival<br />
Director Nuala O’Sullivan founded The Women<br />
Over Fifty Film Festival (WOFFF) in response to<br />
the evident lack of roles for older women in front<br />
of and behind the camera.<br />
“What I find, as a woman who has gone through<br />
the menopause,” Nuala tells me, “is being over<br />
fifty can be an incredibly positive and creative<br />
time. Talking to women in their fifties and beyond,<br />
it’s kind of like they have a whole new lease<br />
of life. I think the quality and quantity of work<br />
we see submitted to WOFFF really reflects that.”<br />
Sadly, the need for events like WOFFF is clear,<br />
because this work just isn’t often seen. Of the few<br />
women who direct feature films an even smaller<br />
percentage create a second, and numerous barriers<br />
prevent gender equality, including motherhood and<br />
other caring responsibilities, as Nuala explains.<br />
“We’re also talking about ageism and sexism…<br />
the ‘glamour’ and ‘beauty’ of the movie industry.<br />
All of these things mitigate quite badly against<br />
older women. As a writer and producer, I wanted<br />
to take something that was quite negative and<br />
make it into something positive, something community<br />
focused and fun.”<br />
WOFFF started four years ago, says Nuala, “at a<br />
wee community hall in Seven Dials”. This year it<br />
is a four-day festival. The event will encompass<br />
screenings of two features and over fifty short<br />
films, workshops, networking events, talks, panel<br />
discussion and an awards ceremony.<br />
“Equality in film is something everybody has to<br />
push at,” says Nuala. “I think movements like<br />
#metoo and #whatsnext have made a massive<br />
impact in terms of how people are making work;<br />
what film crews are looking like; what behaviour<br />
is like on set and what kind of stories we’re seeing<br />
on screen. It’s made audiences and filmmakers<br />
aware of, and crave, other stories - not only<br />
those of cis, white, straight, young men.<br />
“The thing I can do, in my way, is to celebrate<br />
older women. Organisations like Raising Films,<br />
Directors UK, Women in Film and TV are all<br />
looking at it from different angles and I think<br />
that’s the way to go. Audiences are really important<br />
- they have the power. What films do they go<br />
and see, particularly on opening weekends?”<br />
The premise of everything shown at WOFFF<br />
is that there must be a woman over fifty really<br />
driving the action on screen or as part of the core<br />
creative team. “What this means,” says Nuala,<br />
“is we’re a really inclusive festival – a documentary<br />
by a 16-year-old boy about his 53-year-old<br />
grandmother would be welcome at WOFFF.<br />
I think women in their fifties and beyond are<br />
experienced and complex and layered and angry<br />
and exciting and sexy, so the binding theme of<br />
the festival, if there is one, is that the stories are<br />
good. It’s about weaving all of their experience<br />
and their life and their love into the work that<br />
they do… The breadth of work that’s submitted<br />
is quite amazing.”<br />
Chloë King<br />
20th-23rd Sept at Brighton Duke of York’s Cinema<br />
and <strong>Lewes</strong> Depot. wofff.co.uk<br />
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