Women Besides the Screen A2 Sue Maslin Interview

Prompt 1 – Interview

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Prompt 2 – Interview Reflection

The industry person I chose to interview was Sue Maslin, she is one of Australia’s most successful film, television, and digital content producers. I had the great opportunity to interview with her via Zoom spoke about a variety of topics ranging from her expansive 35-year career in the film and television industry to the importance of telling women’s stories and the role women play within the film industry. I will also discuss through readings the importance of the topics discussed in our interview with academic resources.

During our interview, I asked Sue Maslin a range of questions about her career and I wanted to gather a larger perspective of her opinion towards the impact of women within the film industry and whether at any point she ever felt questioned or seconded guessed because of her gender. One encounter she faced was when she was raising funds for the film The Dressmaker she was in a board room full of executives convincing them that having a female protagonist was not an issue and would find an audience, in particular women. Evidence shows that 50 percent of cinemas seats are occupied by women. Sue Maslin emphasized the importance of telling women’s stories for women audiences “the recent success of projects such as The Dressmaker has made a strong commercial case for a greater number of independent films helmed by women for a female cinema-going audience.” (Screen Australia, 2015 p.2) in order to do this you need women leading in key roles for instance producers, directors, and writers.

As the interview carried on I wanted to know more about being in control and being able to direct the narrative, taking control of telling stories from a female perspective and that can only be done when women are in charge of key senior positions. Sue Maslin mentions when she is working on a project she aims to work with a female writer and director to maintain that focus on female perspective “women have the talent to drive a successful industry, and the fact that they are still not achieving equal participation is a significant problem for the industry.” (French, L 2015)

One thing I took away from the interview was her advice for younger generations. Her advice ‘find your tribe’ and ‘maintain focus’ supporting other women is important, to do these spaces need to be created to share stores and network. Events such as the Melbourne Women’s Film Festival create an opportunity to connect “Our festival recovers and builds a legacy of Australian women’s cinema. Yet as with our first event, our aim is not only to screen the works of the post.” (Kaufman, T. 2009 p.165). Having spaces to share stories creates an archive “the festival brings into a dialogue of the past and the present of Australian women’s filmmaking and encourages emerging filmmakers to break a new ground.” (Kaufman, T. 2009 p.165)

I feel grateful for the opportunity to speak with Sue Maslin getting to know more about her process and experience of being in the film industry is a great insight for younger generations and words of wisdom to inspire the next generation.

 

 

 

Reference:

“Gender Matters: Women in the Australian Screen Industry” report (2015)

French, L., ‘Does Gender Matter?’ Lumina: Australian Journal of Screen Arts and

Business, No. 14, May 2015, pp. 139-153.

Kaufman, T. 2009, Film Festivals: LOOKING FORWARD, The Australian Teachers of Media Inc, St Kilda

Smaill, B. 2009, The Documentary: Politics, Emotion, Culture, Palgrave Macmillan Limited, London.