Lights, camera, action!

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This article was published 14/09/2023 (732 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A former governor general is getting top billing at this fall at a conference aimed at boosting opportunities for women working in the film trades in Manitoba.

Michaëlle Jean will deliver the keynote address at the Canada’s Supporting Women in Film Trades (SWIFT) conference, set to be held at RRC Polytechnic’s Manitou a bi Bii daziigae Nov. 25-26.

Jean served as governor general from 2005 to 2010, becoming the first Black person and third woman to hold that prestigious office in Canadian history.

The choice was announced at the official conference launch event Thursday morning at the Polo Park area offices of Frank Digital, a production company also acting as a partner for the conference.

As a woman who made strides in male-dominated fields including politics, journalism and filmmaking, Jean was a natural choice to headline the conference, says Adam Smoluk, the executive director of Film Training Manitoba, the non-profit organizing the conference.

Before the first SWIFT conference was held in 2022, Film Training Manitoba gathered labour market information showing the local film industry had an untenable gender imbalance: less than 30 per cent of film workers in the province identified as women as of October 2021.

That revelation led a committee of 15 women to found the SWIFT conference.

The first conference quickly sold out its 85 spots, which led organizers to nearly double the availability for this November’s event, which will feature seven panel sessions on topics such as entrepreneurship, mentorship and navigating the various trades within the film industry.

Attendees at Thursday’s media announcement made it clear that an increase in gender equity and diversity is desperately needed on film sets within the province.

It’s not a new issue, says Ellen Rutter, a SWIFT board member and line producer with nearly 40 years of film experience. When her career began, “it wasn’t exactly a welcoming environment for women,” says said, but she quickly found that people working in the industry were eager to become mentors and help newcomers get their footing.

Still, she could count the women working on the technical side of film production on one hand.

Libby Lea, the vice-president of production for Frank, directed her first documentary in August for CBC.

“It made me realize how important it was to get more women in the industry, because every single person on set was a man,” she said.

Ami Buhler, a 27-year-old board operator, started working on productions in 2017 after a business agent for IATSE 856, the union local representing many film workers in Manitoba, spoke to her university theatre class. At that point, she said, there were no other women she knew of working in the lighting department.

Now, Buhler, who will speak on a panel at the conference, said she knows of five or six women working in lighting. “It’s still an extremely low number, but it’s better than when I started,” she said.

Cinematographer Tamara Roshka, who will participate in a panel on women’s creative roles during the conference, told the crowd that she was often the only woman-identifying crew member on set when her career started a decade ago. Her experience in the camera department was much like Buhler’s in lighting.

At the last conference, attendees said they wanted to get more comfortable behind the camera. As a result, Roshka and fellow cinematographers Eden Carter and Laina Brown led a sold-out women’s camera lab.

Another request organizers got from attendees was to have more learning opportunities from women in other industries, not just film, says Smoluk.

That led Jean to get involved, but also drew interest from crown attorney Chantal Boutin and former Winnipeg mayor Susan Thompson, both of whom will participate in panels during the conference weekend.

“This is a great industry, or I should say a stellar industry, due to all the wonderful women (involved),” said Thompson, who occupied the city’s top office from 1992 to 1998. She is the first — and to this point, only — woman to hold the office of Winnipeg’s mayor.

“Within Canada’s film industry, there’s certainly space and room for women to thrive and grow,” added Thompson, who wore a pink blazer and shoes and gave a shout-out to Barbie writer-director Greta Gerwig and Canadian filmmaker Sarah Polley, fresh off an Oscar win for her big-screen adaptation of the Miriam Toews novel Women Talking.

“Changing workplace culture and attitudes is very challenging,” Thompson added. “It’s been my life’s work.”

In reference to the 30 per cent figure, Thompson said she hoped that some day soon women would represent at least half of Manitoba’s film trades workers.

Rutter said the conference could help the industry reach that benchmark. She said that the fact the conference sold out last year should serve as evidence the goal is certainly possible.

“I think it shows that Manitoba can support an industry like this and shows there’s a lot of interest in this business and art form,” she said.

According to Manitoba Film & Music’s most recent annual report, there were 88 film and television projects in the province in the 2021-2022 fiscal year, with a total global production budget of $364 million.

“I think young women come in now and say, ‘Why can’t I be in lighting?’ ‘Why can’t I work in the grip department?’” she added.

More information on the conference can be found at filmtraining.mb.ca. The two-day conference costs $90 to attend.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com