The South by Southwest Spring Break season in Austin has become an annual tradition in our media and entertainment community. It brings the world into the heart of Texas.
This year, as we emerged from the pandemic with caution and anticipation, the in-person edition of the SXSW conference and festival felt like a full breath of fresh air. Finally, since the world shut down in 2020 and SXSW was cancelled that year, we were able to step back out on the scene and rub elbows with out-of-towners, still masked, and now vaccinated, of course.
I’m proud to say, as a woman in film myself and founder of our local chapter of Women in Film and Television International in Austin (WIFT ATX) that SXSW has historically been a reliable and strong supporter of female interests in gender parity in our industry. This year, also very proudly, I’m happy to report that women directed or co-directed nine of the sixteen Feature Competition films at the fest this year – 56%.
Now, that’s more like parity.
Austin’s media community has not only supported and received our emerging WIFT ATX chapter with a warm welcome, but we’ve found ourselves right at home, in a sense. This community has, after all, been led all along by so many influential women in film and media as foundational entrepreneurs building our scene.
Janet Pierson, for example, took over as head of SXSW Film in 2008, and has since shaped our global tastes with the increasingly prestigious film lineup that she offers every year.
Similarly, Barbara Morgan, Executive Director of Austin Film Festival, built the first screenwriters festival and conference, where she honors the quietest and most prolific writers among us with the overdue recognition that they deserve.,
Let’s not forget, of course, star women like Anne Richards, who have put female leadership in Austin on the map.
WIFT ATX’s Beginnings
Since WIFT ATX’s first founding meeting at the Austin Public studios space in November 2018, Austin Film Society (AFS) has had our back and guided our growth. Naturally, they were our initial fiscal sponsors before we could establish official 501(c)3 status for our chapter, and they’ve remained some of our strongest supporters, along with SXSW and AFF. These three core establishments of the Austin media and entertainment business, as well as the Texas Film Commission, have all been enlisted as integral partners with WIFT Austin since we were born.
We officially launched in November of 2019, with a party at Epoch downtown, and we never could have expected to be swept right into the pandemic along with the rest of the world. In a strange way, being a pandemic baby chapter actually worked out in our favor, since the ground-laying work of all the technicalities, like our bylaws, went right along with the quarantine phase of life. Zoom events became our sustenance as we set up our official policies and procedures, only to be ready to arrive, finally, in the Austin scene just in time for SXSW 2022 — the year of resurgence from the pandemic.
This year, WIFT ATX hosted an unofficial SXSW event at Halcyon Mueller, where networking and mingling among the packed house was the main objective. The WIFT mission, after all, is to “Connect, Support and Empower Women in Film and Media in Austin and Central Texas.”
March 17 was Saint Patrick’s Day, by coincidence, so the official drink for the event was an Irish Car Bomb, in the name of the larger holiday festivities. The mood was jolly, to say the least, and there were over 50 women in attendance, spilling outside the Halcyon space, most of whom were not from Austin. Producers, directors, editors, writers, actresses, composers, and artists of all kinds were able to gather and connect in the Central Austin venue under the recognizable umbrella of Women in Film and Television.
New Leadership
I was very pleased to step down from the inaugural board as acting co-President with my partner in awesomeness, Elizabeth V. Newman, in September 2021, to induct our first elected President, Laura Annalora, to the new board of WIFT ATX. One of her main goals with this next establishing phase of the organization is growth, and since her takeover, WIFT ATX membership has more than doubled. The transition from the founding board to the newly elected one has been a process of discovery rather than a clean transition. We’re building a board transition procedure from what we’ve learned in this experience.
The turnout for the event this year was a testament to the visibility that we’ve built for our chapter, considering it wasn’t officially listed in the programming for SXSW. Because of SXSW’s unique timing, not only on the heels of the pandemic shutdown, but also the first year of our WIFT chapter under a newly elected board and admin, we didn’t have the relationships solidified in time to be on the schedule. In years past, we’ve not only been invited to participate on Women in Film panels and events, like the Female Filmmaker Meetup this year with Leah Meyerhoff of Film Fatales and Michelle Mower of Imagination Worldwide, but we’ve been able to offer a generous discount on SXSW badges to any member of Women in Film and Television International, our overarching grandmother organization.
In the case of SXSW, and our ongoing relationship with one of the largest media enterprises in the Austin landscape, we intend to maintain a strong partnership, going forward. Our mentor chapter, WIF Dallas, had been our liaison with SXSW in years past, and the pandemic brought us all into transitions that resulted in some of those critical connections falling through. We won’t let happen again. And hopefully, we won’t have another pandemic, either.
The Film Festival
In terms of this year’s film content, several features in the competition were not only female-directed, but female-focused. For instance, Shouting Down Midnight, directed by Gretchen Stoltje, shares the powerful story of senator Wendy Davis’ historic filibuster of the SB5 legislation to restrict abortion access in 2013, which raised awareness and began a movement of Women’s Health advocacy in Texas. I was privileged to attend one of the premier screenings, and I was honored to share some tears with Wendy Davis herself, who was also in attendance. Not only is this documentary well-timed amid new legislation proposed with SB8, which passed, like SB5, but it covers the intimate details of what this controversial decision for lawmakers really looked like, and why it matters so much that women have the choice to govern our own bodies. It’s a must-see.
Another documentary of note is Daresha Kyi’s film, Mama Bears, which shares the story of the Christian mother’s organization for trans and LGBTQ civil rights, by the same name. I had no idea, frankly, that such a powerful and positive organization even existed, but when I learned the depth of the urgency for this cause, I was motivated immediately to join Mama Bears, myself. Both of these films are great examples of the power of the female voice in our cinematic diet. I feel honored to be part of such a healthy and progressive community, like Austin, where such artistic features are celebrated.
The only regrettable thing about SXSW for women, and especially mothers, in film is competing with Spring Break. If you’ve got a family, while the kids are on a break from school it’s hard to do things like work. Not to mention, the appeal of a trip and escape from town during the influx of traffic is hard to trade for a badge. It’s a glaring reminder of just how this society was not built to serve women, and especially not mothers. Childcare support systems would fix that, so here’s hoping we’ll evolve to the next level of gender parity on the national scale.
Still, opportunities for the film, music and entertainment business are unparalleled in Austin during SXSW, and for Women in Film, we’re among the beneficiaries. We look forward to watching our community continue to highlight the accomplishments of Women in Film as we grow and cultivate collaborative relationships with strong supporters, like SXSW.
