I think it's safe to say that Women Making Waves 2020 was a banner conference weekend. Not only was it a particular anniversary year, but it was also the last weekend we would all be gathering like that for a long, long while. For many of us, it was our last social event of the 2020 year.

It only made sense that we would want to recreate some of that connection, opportunities and space for our 2021 conference but the 'how' during the restrictions was a huge question.

I also think it's safe to say that the committee and forces that made Women Making Waves 2021 happen are forces.

Not only was the conference still happening and all over various webinar platforms, but it was one of the most accessible events yet.

Highlights for me:

Using the Medium of Film as a Tool for Activism with Elena Rossini and Donna Davies.

Elana's passion and compassion for others are evident not just in her documentary The Illusionist but also in her presence, conversation, and how she articulates her approach with her work.

What do Script Suprivisors Do Anyway?

As a writer, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Daniela Saioni's methods of madness to keep continuity and intention behind a story in the front of her work and methods as a script supervisor. She also had many antidotes as a writer herself that made me fully enthused about taking notes the whole time.

Nothing About Us Without Us Understanding What With Us Truly Means

Kay Douglas, Sarah Podemski, Nathalie Younglai, and Lindsey Addawoo were absolutely on fire with their grace, insight, depth, and honesty. They managed to create a space where they honoured each other in the process of their sharing. These are women blew me away with their ability to sink into each other and the topics discussed.

My Take-Aways

• Work to create the space for others outside of yourself. When you think you've done that, create even more space. There's always more room to grow and discern what voices you are missing at the table.

• The message behind who you are and the work you are doing matters. It can have other outlets that come from its one main form.

• Appreciate each other.

• Embrace your methods of madness in work.

• Don't be a jerk when giving feedback. Be appreciative of the work it took to create and think deeply about what this creator may need to be asked to bring it to its next best level of itself.

• Sometimes there are technical difficulties, but we're all doing our best to show up, muddle through, learn and create something along the way.

Women in Film & Television Atlantics ‘Women Making Waves’ Conference sets the bar

for what it means to connect, find solidarity and hone in on one’s own personal and professional directive.

Every single woman (and man) who attends this conference brings their own unique skills and experience to the table. To witness this communing and celebrating what each of us brings is something I continue to be amazed by. This year was no different.

Highlights of the Conference

Friday Workshops

This is the first year I have been able to attend the add on workshops that kick start the conference. I had so many personal and professional takeaways from my time in the sessions I attended.

Really I’d Never Considered That! A Career Strategy Session with Sharon McGowan

Sharon approaches the industry in a unique and relaxed way. She is passionate about the work and also practical in her thinking about it. She does have an immense amount of experience behind her, which I believe is also why she can approach the journey with insight as well as a healthy dose of practicality. My take away’s from Sharon is the tenacity and how she doesn’t approach the industry with a clad iron fist of ‘now or never’ but with consistency, love for the work and showing up to continue pushing boundaries that have come against women for decades.

How to Create a Binge-Worthy Show in the Era Of Global Streaming with Amy Cameron

Having the opportunity to interview Amy Cameron for the Tidings a month before her coming allowed me the knowledge of what this woman brings to the table. Insight, discernment and a passion for the creative drive. You can see that with all the work she has done in the past and all the work she is pushing forward now lines up with her values and determination to create projects and storytelling that gives a hearty edgy wink while also making us think deeper than the mere surface.

Spotlight Conversation with Meredith MacNeill: Playing the Game While Changing the Game

Meredith made us laugh and she also made us think. I was most surprised and elated by her because admittedly I am behind in watching her sketch comedy and previous work. Her story is a story that although we might not all have, we can all relate to it. To hear her carve out space for the many elements of her life both personal and professional is refreshing and something we all need to hear again and again. It makes me less ashamed to have put my young daughter a focus the past few years and celebrate that by honouring my desire and need to be her primary caregiver I will also be able to grow into the professional and woman I need to be.

Musical Chairs Networking Lunch

This is the second year of the musical chairs networking lunch, (where everyone is given two numbers on two different coloured papers, sits at one table that corresponds to one number for the first twenty minutes of lunch and then a second table the last twenty mins.) Although I was hosting a table this year, I still gained the benefits of it. I would never have met the women and man who sat at my table if not for this unique way of getting us talking, connecting and celebrating the work we do.

The IOM Media Ventures Wave Awards Celebration Dinner

Ending the night with friends and, new connections with food drink and celebrating the work of others is all apart of creating a healthy and dynamic growing industry. A lot of exhaling was happening around the table I sat at & I was so thankful for that time.

THANK-YOU

To have something in the Maritimes with this amount of accessibility is phenomenal. From the New Waves program which introduced me to the industry, to writing for the Tidings here and there, joining the board, finding my way and connecting with women who want to see me grow and be challenged has been life-changing. We have so much to thank the founding members for spearheading this WIFT chapter form the very beginning. If anything, I hope to lift up and celebrate as many women as they continue to do.

Women in Film and Television Atlantic's Women Making Waves conference is fast approaching.

Not only does the conference land on the weekend leading up to International Women's Day, but it's also the association's tenth anniversary.

Women Making Waves is special to me.

WMW. 2019. photo: Claire Fraser Photo video

It's where I saw, felt and heard that writing for the film and television industry is possible. I have started describing my experience with WIFT-AT akin to an open door. I wasn't aware that it was there, but when I found it and attempted to step in, there was an instant acceptance and making room for the new. This conference also does this. It brings top-level professionals to the Maritimes and seeks to create unity, growth and conversation to the women who work here. For me, it succeeds every time.

In the lead up to this conference, everyone has been busy at work to prepare.

Especially the WIFT-AT executive board members. For myself, I have been advance interviewing a handful of the women flying in to give talks and workshops, seeking out silent auction donations, and committing to 'hosting/facilitating' different sessions.

During one of my recent interviews, it was pointed out to me how miraculous WIFT-AT is as an association. With only one paid staff, spanning and providing opportunities for four provinces, a yearly conference, a five-week crash course on the industry, and so much else, all for women in the film and television industry.

I have to admit,

I am proud to be serving on the board. To have a chance to find my place in the association, meet and interview the women who make our industry thrive and to learn as I go. It's an honour to be alongside these women who serve on the board, have created WIFT-AT to be what it is today and to continue to find my place in it.

Women in Film and Television Atlantic is a chapter of the international ‘WIFT’ that is found all around the world.

Here, in the maritimes, ours started in 2009.

WIFT-AT is coming to it’s ten year anniversary of the Making Waves Conference which is a yearly conference that brings in women in the screen based industry from far and wide to give workshops, panels and encourage growth and solidarity for women in the Atlantic provinces.

There are some exciting changes coming this new year for WIFT-AT

and although we haven’t had a chance share them all, they will be rolling themselves out in the next few months.

As a new board member I am still learning exactly how I fit into the organization and am starting to see where those places are, which is exciting and re-affirming for me.

Currently, I am writing and creating monthly article ideas for the Tidings the newsletter and aiding the communications committee with their outcomes.

I am so excited and honoured to see where this first year on the board will bring us to.

Tidings Articles from the past few months:

Interview with Martha Cooley

FIN Fast Facts

Interview with Claire Fraser

New member Profile: Marie David

Laughing with my co-creator in Brilliansea & colleague : Claire Fraser

I started going to this conference two years ago upon acceptance into the New Waves Program. At the time I was coming down with a terrible flu-like cold and was down for the count for over a week. Midway through recovery a call came in saying that I was accepted and was receiving free admission to the conference that weekend. I was encouraged to go, so go I went with my herbal tea & big doe eyes wondering what was in store for me there.

This year was no different. I looked around the room and saw many faces I didn’t know or am slowly learning to know & yet also, more faces I now know.

As a writer in the industry, it’s easy to be in your own little world and not notice what is going on around you. This event allows me to meet the people on the other end of emails , phone interviews & conversations being had.

Women Making Waves 2019

Highlights

Screening: Mouthpeice with Q/A with Director / writer Patricia Rozema

This film was beautiful. Lyrical in movement, raw in presence, provoking in layers and utterly captivating. Be it that I am still a fresh new mama heart with an almost four year old (it still feels new on so many respects), that the relationship depicted between mother & daughter felt so uniquely similar to my own with my mother, or that the main characters age is 30 (which I will soon be), it felt so accurate, so real, and so beautifully captured. I would rewatch this again and again.

Workshop: Observationsal Documentary: Pay Attention. Be Astonished. Tell About it. with Robin McKenna

This workshop was invulable. As Claire and I are working on this doc concept & learning how to interview our subjects to gain that authentic capture, hearing from a professional in the field about different ways to be ‘aware and mindful’ has given us a lot of food for thought on how we approach our projects.

Out of the Box Networking Lunch

This year they gave you two cards (randomized) as you walked in for lunch, each with a colour and a number which told you which table you would sit at for the first half of lunch, and which for the second. This idea was INGENIOUS! It acted as a professional speed dating opportunity in which you got to not only say who you are and what you do, but were able to hear the same things from the faces around your table. I had one of two very deep and inspiring conversations from my time at the conference at one of those tables and I am so glad I was there to have them.

I often feel like an unconventional duck at film and television events, as my way into the industry has been unique and ‘untraditional’, but despite my own ‘imposter complex’, these events continue to be where I find the deepest women, the best professional development opportunities and a community that seeks to create improvements in the world they live in by the stories they tell.

Over the weekend I attended the Women in Film and Television Atlantics (WIFT-AT) yearly conference 'Women Making Waves' at the Lord Nelson Hotel in Halifax.  

I attended last years' due to being accepting into the New Waves Program where WIFT-AT accepts emerging and exploring film-makers into a five class workshop series.  Needless to say, I LOVED it.

Since the New Waves program I have been working to hone and focus my writing into the performing arts (learning screenplay writing and culture etc) and it was exciting to attend this years conference knowing that my projects and visions were even more aligned with the industry.

 Re-connecting with peers, hearing from other creators and celebrating the work that comes out of women who are aiming to collaborate, work, and essentially make a difference through their medium of passion was the refresh I so desperately needed.

It was hugely inspiring to be able to hear from Carmillas co-creator Steph Ouaknine, Mohwak Girls Creator and director Tracy Deer, Ava creator and director Sadaf Foroughi and 'Bens at Home' creator and director Mars Horodyski about how they created, were impassioned to pursue their work and how they pushed through to get them where they are today.

This weekend I learned these things:

1. Keep showing up for your work and always put it out there.

2. What you are passionate about has a niche.

3. Find that niche and hone it.

4. Work with those whom you click with.

5. Know why you do it. 

6. Anyone who attempts truth telling is extrodinarily brave.

I am so thankful for the journey I am on and the opportunities I have along the way that connect me with passionate women, remind me of why I do what I do and keep my feet planted on the ground.