MWFF DAY FOUR: ANOTHER YEAR DONE
The 'Representation Starts Here' panel. From left to right: Vyshnavee Wijekumar, Damienne Pradier, Fatima Mawas, Kimberley Benjamin and Penelope Chai.
By Tiia Kelly
After a fantastic three days, the final day of the Melbourne Women in Film Festival continued its exciting pace with two sessions of shorts, a panel, and the final awards ceremony.
First up was ‘Stranger Than Fiction’: a session of thrilling, thought-provoking and emotional documentary shorts. The audience was treated to appearances by some of the line-up’s directors and subjects, including Peter Waples-Crowe of insideOut, writer-producer Shirley Pierce of No Means, Carol George of Rapping it up, and director-producer Kerreen Ely-Harper of Girls Can Do Anything — the latter of whom expressed her gratitude that her film had truly “found its home” with MWFF. The room was full of a warm, supportive energy, with various filmmakers, friends and families mingling across rows of chairs after the session was complete.
(From left to right) Tess Emerson, Tessa Muskett, Llewellyn Michael Bates, Em Baker and Lauren Rose Beck discussing their work before the screening.
After a break, we were back with our ‘Representation Starts Here’ panel. Moderated by Vyshnavee Wijekumar, we heard from Fatima Mawas, Kimberley Benjamin, Penelope Chai and Damienne Pradier on what representation, both on- and off-screen, means in our current media landscape. Our panellists discussed ideas around taking up space, recognising the limitations of your own experience and providing members of underrepresented communities the positions that allow them to succeed. The consensus was an urge to disrupt the established frameworks of white, colonial and capitalist spaces. Fatima Mawas: “if you want to be accessible, and think about race, you have to start at the beginning.”
Later in the afternoon, we were back with ‘Freshly Squeezed Shorts 2’. Again, we were treated to appearances by multiple people involved in the shorts: writer-director Tess Emmerson of Natalie; writer-director Tessa Muskett of The Taint; screenwriter Llewellyn Michael Bates of Deluge; and writer-director Em Baker and producer Lauren Rose Beck of Dolphin. The short films explored gendered and racial power dynamics, relationships and sexuality; many through a humorous or highly conceptual lens. Enthusiasm was great for the creative work on show.
The night concluded with our awards ceremony and after party. This year’s critics were excited to present their very own critics’ award to Kaya, directed by Lara Kose, with honourable mentions given to Walk a Mile, Old Habits, El Niño, Fez and Triple Swear. A special shout out was also given to Indigenous filmmaker Sasha Sarago, whose two shorts — insideOut and Too Pretty to be Aboriginal — were favourites among the lab.
Congratulations to the evening’s other big winners: Drum Wave, Frightened Rabbit and Moth! After screening the victors, we were treated to the world premiere of Stalling, a short film written by Nik James and directed by Olivia Altavilla, produced through the inaugural 2019 Creative Futures Initiative.
The MWFF closing night afterparty was chock-full of wine and cheese — a great end to a great weekend of watching and talking about film. As a lucky member of the Critics Lab, I’ve felt so fortunate to be surrounded by such a supportive and welcoming team of people. A huge thank you to everyone who attended the festival. See you all next year!