Women’s Panel (Santa Barbara International Film Festival, 2011)

Reviewed by Sanni Frostenson at Santa Barbara 2011.

The Women’s Panel is one of many panels held during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. It consisted of six women who are all well known in the film business, although I had honestly never heard about them before. The moderator was Madelyn Hamilton, and she did a good job interviewing these successful professionals.

First we have Darla K Anderson, who has worked both as a producer and with visual effects on many animated movies. Among the most well known are probably Toy Story, Monsters Inc and A Bug’s Life, and she also holds a place in The Guinness Book of World Records for producing the animated movie that has done best at the box office, Toy Story.

The second woman was Colleen Atwood, an original costume designer. She has been working with the talented Johnny Depp in several movies, including Sleepy Hollow, Sweeney Todd, Alice In Wonderland, and most recently, The Tourist. Her job is highly lusted after by many young girls out there. Colleen has been in the business of dressing stars on set for many years, and she tells us that she has several thousand girls applying to do internships with her on every film. Her best tip is to “be around and fetch the opportunity,” even if it means to only be making coffee. Sooner or later the opportunity you have been waiting for comes up.

Gloria Borders started working as an assisting sound editor for George Lucas on Star Wars IV Return of the Jedi, and she tells us a little about that experience. Her latest project was the newly released Tron, and she has been the sound editor for other famous projects like Terminator 2: Judgement Day, for example. Gloria agrees with Colleen, that the only way of getting a foot into the film business is to, “Just get in there.”

Lesley Chilcott (pictured) went from working on the MTV Movie Awards to winning an Oscar. She is a producer and sometimes second unit director on a lot of Documentaries, like An Inconvenient Truth with Al Gore (the Oscar winning film), and Waiting for Superman. She told us that she was shocked looking at the statistics they had for the latter, because such a high percentage of American children are dropping out of school at an early age—which is related to the crime rate in the U.S.

Last but not least we have Alix Madigan, a producer who recently worked on the well mentioned Winter’s Bone, released in 2010. I have seen one of her earlier productions, Case 39, which I think should have gotten more recognition.

These women are all very inspiring. To anyone—not just other women. They have all been in the business for a long time, even though we seldom hear about them. But on the other hand we rarely hear about the people behind the camera, if we don’t take a certain personal interest in them.

I think there is a split value of having the gender specific Women’s Panel. On one hand these women definitely deserve all credit they can get—no discussion that. And I’m sure things like the panel was and is very needed for people to finally understand that women do an equally good job at making films—if they get the chance. But on the other hand it feels a little strained having to point out women like this. Apparently the female sex has made it in the film industry more or less already (looking at all the women that are involved in the business) and the question is: Has the dream about gender equality taken the wrong turn? There is no Man’s Panel as far as I know, and if we are truly equal we shouldn’t have to separate the sexes.  But hey, you should go next year and make up your mind for yourself.