Raising Films raises awareness of the persistent structural challenges for parents and carers working, or wanting to work, in film and television. We are a community and campaigning organisation working toward a more equal and inclusive creative industry. In July 2017 we published ‘Raising Our Game’, a landmark research report that exposes the failure of … Continue reading “An Open Letter to the UK Film Industry on Addressing Harassment and Discrimination”
Interview: Gemma Whelan
Can you tell us about how it’s going working on Game of Thrones (no spoilers) and The End of the F***ing World? How are you making it work around and through your pregnancy? I have been very lucky with my timing I think. GoT had wrapped for season 7 before I was pregnant and IF … Continue reading “Interview: Gemma Whelan”
Making it Possible 2017
With 50 people benefiting from our Making it Possible personal and career development days in 2016, we are delighted to announce that applications are now open for another 36 parents & carers from all roles across the film & TV industry to take part. You might be planning for or still be on maternity/ paternity … Continue reading “Making it Possible 2017”
Esther May Campbell: Radical Tending at Elm Tree Farm
Water Salad on Monday arrives this September: a book and exhibition of beautiful black and white photographs that tenderly picks their way through the special natures that exist at the magical Elm Tree Farm, a working farm comprised of animals, plants, volunteers, carers and adults with learning disabilities. Film maker and photographer Esther May Campbell has been in situ here … Continue reading “Esther May Campbell: Radical Tending at Elm Tree Farm”
Interview: Mattia Storni, Locarno Film Festival
You’re Head of Marketing for the Locarno Festival – which provides childcare for its guests and delegates! Can you tell us about how the Festival came about with that decision? The Locarno Festival has always tried to offer a 360-degree experience to its visitors. We know how difficult it is to combine family and work … Continue reading “Interview: Mattia Storni, Locarno Film Festival”
Raising Films launch #RaisingOurGame
The Raising Films founders today launched our most wide-ranging report to date to an audience of industry influencers at BFI Southbank. Entitled Raising our Game the report, by Dr Tamsyn Dent, looks at next steps for the Film & TV industry and recommends a framework of accountability to ensure that diversity and inclusion are widely … Continue reading “Raising Films launch #RaisingOurGame”
Testimonial: Dieudonnée and Keir Burrows
Thanks for having us on! So we’re a wife-and-husband (and kids!) filmmaking team. Our debut feature film, sci-fi noir Anti Matter, was developed on Film London Microwave and is out now in the UK on DVD and VOD, via Kaleidoscope. It opens with a limited theatrical run in the US in September. We’ve had very … Continue reading “Testimonial: Dieudonnée and Keir Burrows”
Testimonial: Katherine Beacon
In the garden centre last weekend I asked the man in wellies and a tabard if he could point me in the direction of a fast growing, evergreen, tall, narrow tree that possibly flowered too and wasn’t too expensive. He sighed, “The Holy Grail then?” Well, yes actually. That’s what I want. And maybe it … Continue reading “Testimonial: Katherine Beacon”
Testimonial: Anne-Marie O’Connor
Anne-Marie O’Connor has written for the theatre, penned three novels and ghost written a number of best selling books but has since changed focus to TV. Writing on Waterloo Road before co-creating Sky 1’s Trollied. She is currently working on returning dramas both in the UK and in the US and has written her first … Continue reading “Testimonial: Anne-Marie O’Connor”
Slog: How the True/False Festival Added Childcare to their Lineup
Paul Sturtz is Co-Conspirator (with David Wilson) of True/False, an “transformative, rambunctious, ecstatic” film festival and community in Columbia, Missouri. The festival is committed to nonfiction filmmaking and to environmental and social justice. In 2017, True/False partnered with Kickstarter to support childcare provision at the festival, and help create career sustainability for documentary-makers – this is how they are #RaisingFilms. … Continue reading “Slog: How the True/False Festival Added Childcare to their Lineup”
Slog: Annemarie Jacir on Baby Troubles at Cannes
Annemarie had two films premiere as official selections of the Cannes Film Festival. One in Venice and most recently Berlinale where W hen I Saw You won Best Asian Film. Founder of Philistine Films, she’s made over sixteen films and collaborates regularly with fellow filmmakers. She teaches screenwriting and works as a freelance editor and … Continue reading “Slog: Annemarie Jacir on Baby Troubles at Cannes”
Interview: Georgette Turner
Can you tell us about working on WONDER WOMAN – you were location managing while pregnant with your second child, is that right? I was five months pregnant when I went on the film, and seven and a half months when I left. Because I’d done a big number before in Trafalgar Square – we … Continue reading “Interview: Georgette Turner”
Interview: Ming Ho
Photo by Eloise Ross Ming Ho is an experienced screenwriter, script editor, and active campaigner on dementia and carer issues. She began her career as Script Executive at independent Zenith Productions, working across a slate of British film and TV drama, including Hamish Macbeth, and later wrote for EastEnders, Casualty, Heartbeat, and The Bill. Ming took a career … Continue reading “Interview: Ming Ho”
Slog: Helen Grace of Left Films on (Not) Breastfeeding at Cannes
I went to the 2017 Cannes Film Festival to acquire some DTV films for UK release on my distribution label, and also to help find distributors for the slate of British and Irish films I had brought to the market for international sales. As a solo mum of two, where I go my children go, … Continue reading “Slog: Helen Grace of Left Films on (Not) Breastfeeding at Cannes”
Slog: Mathilde Dratwa and Christy Lamb on Providing Mobile Childcare for Festivals
The biggest takeaway from our experience providing free childcare in a mobile unit we named the Wee Wagon, at SXSW 2017, was this: it’s possible. That may seem unremarkable compared with the incredible response from parent-filmmakers, who called the Wee Wagon “an oasis for families,” “dope,” “a necessity” and “a game-changer for gender equality!” And while … Continue reading “Slog: Mathilde Dratwa and Christy Lamb on Providing Mobile Childcare for Festivals”
Hope Dickson Leach and Alice Lowe Do Festivals
Hope Dickson Leach: ALICE. Alice Lowe: Yes Hope. HDL: We met in person for the first time in Toronto. You’d just come from Venice and for me it was my world premiere. I had left my children at home and you had your baby with you. This being the first feature I had made, I … Continue reading “Hope Dickson Leach and Alice Lowe Do Festivals”
Testimonial: Ashley Sabin
Ashley Sabin produces, directs, photographs and edits critically-acclaimed cinematic documentaries that have screened internationally in festivals and on television worldwide at Sundance, Toronto, Cinema du Reel, Rotterdam, Visions du Reel, RIDM, MoMA, and Viennale Film Festivals and on PBS, POV, BBC, CBC, DR, ARTE, and NHK. Her new film Do Donkeys Act? has its UK premiere … Continue reading “Testimonial: Ashley Sabin”
Kerri Burbidge on CTBF’s Helping Hand for a Two-Partners-in-Film Family
We took each day as it came during my unpaid maternity leave when I had my second baby. We are not entitled to anything, I thought, this is a result of our chosen careers, the careers we love. I work as a freelance TV drama production coordinator and my partner as a freelance film and … Continue reading “Kerri Burbidge on CTBF’s Helping Hand for a Two-Partners-in-Film Family”
Interview: Robin Swicord
Robin Swicord is the award-winning and Oscar-nominated screenwriter of a significant body of films that often put the family lives of women front and centre, including Little Women, Matilda (with her husband, Nick Kazan), The Perez Family, Practical Magic, and Memoirs of a Geisha, as well as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. She also adapted and directed The Jane … Continue reading “Interview: Robin Swicord”
Slog: Manjinder Virk on With Love From Calais
On February 14th 2016, I decided to go to Calais with a cinematographer friend of mine, Annemarie Lean-Vercoe. We were going to go the now infamous “Jungle” refugee camp. Partly to document what we saw, partly to give donations but also to see with our own eyes what was going on. The camp was continuously … Continue reading “Slog: Manjinder Virk on With Love From Calais”
Interview: Marie Kreutzer
Marie Kreutzer is an Austrian writer-director whose third feature film We Used to Be Cool has its UK premiere at the LOCO Comedy Film Festival 2017 on 5 May, with a special parent and baby screening. Her first film The Fatherless dealt with children growing up in communes, and We Used to Be Cool looks at a new generation and … Continue reading “Interview: Marie Kreutzer”
Cinema Circle
CINEMA CIRCLE When did you last go to the cinema? With a real audience? And your partner? To see something that isn’t a children’s film? Would you like to? Raising Films wants to get parents and carers back into cinemas. We are filmmakers. We all fell in love with films in darkened cinemas, watching larger … Continue reading “Cinema Circle”
Raising Our Game: Raising Films’ First Conference – and Next Steps
By Dr. Tamsyn Dent, Raising Films’ Research Manager In February, Raising Films brought together a group of 50 representatives from across the film and television industries along with delegates from support organisations for a half-day conference to talk about what we need to do as an industry to make change for parents and carers. The … Continue reading “Raising Our Game: Raising Films’ First Conference – and Next Steps”
CLOSR Coaches Confirmed
We are delighted to confirm the wonderful Pippa Best and Jan Armstrong have come on board as coaches for our CLOSR Development Programme. Pippa has worked in feature film development and as a script consultant for over 20 years. She project managed two significant EU-funded media development projects: the Cross Channel Film Lab (a … Continue reading “CLOSR Coaches Confirmed”
Interview: Zeb Achonu
Zeb Achonu is an Associate Member of the Guild of British Film & TV Editors (GBFTE) and has extensive experience in editing across a wide range of genres, most notably factual and entertainment. She spent 9 years working for the BBC before going freelance and moving to Paris. During her 2 years there she started … Continue reading “Interview: Zeb Achonu”
CLOSR Development Programme
Applications now open for CLOSR Development Programme for Director/Producer/Writer Parents and Carers in the English Regions CLOSR (Closer to Home) is a response to our 2016 Making it Possible survey, which found two consistent barriers for parents and carers looking to attend networking and career development sessions: a lack of time, and the cost of … Continue reading “CLOSR Development Programme”
Interview: China Moo-Young
China Moo-Young went to the National Youth Theatre before studying Drama at Bristol University, where she graduated with a First Class Honours BA in Film, Theatre and Television. She was named a Star of Tomorrow in Screen International’s annual review of British film-making talent and was selected as a Breakthrough Brit on the prestigious UK Film Council … Continue reading “Interview: China Moo-Young”
Case Study: Miranda Bowen Sets Off for The Last Post
A week today I am due to fly to Cape Town, South Africa to start prepping the second block of a BBC drama, The Last Post, a Peter Moffat scripted story set in Aden in the 60s about the end of the British empire as played out between the husbands of the royal military police … Continue reading “Case Study: Miranda Bowen Sets Off for The Last Post”
Interview: Gaby Chiappe
Gaby Chiappe is an experienced TV writer, who has written extensively for long-running series such as Family Affairs, Doctors, EastEnders, Casualty, Survivors and many more. She also wrote for the series Lark Rise to Candleford, Shetland, Vera and recently created and wrote (with Alexander Perrin) the series The Level for ITV. Her first feature film, … Continue reading “Interview: Gaby Chiappe”
Testimonial: Lorna Martin
The challenges of trying to combine motherhood with a creative career hit home for me a couple of years ago when my older daughter, then four, was doing a project in nursery about summer holidays. She informed me that all her friends were going to France, Spain, Portugal and Florida. Then she asked where we … Continue reading “Testimonial: Lorna Martin”
The Slog: Lucy Baxter on Running a Creative Company & Changing the Industry
Flexible working, job sharing, genuine diversity in gatekeeper roles as well as in front of and behind the camera, paying key creatives properly and respect for people as rounded human beings who can get the job done in their own way and their own time – these things are key to the future health of … Continue reading “The Slog: Lucy Baxter on Running a Creative Company & Changing the Industry”
Screenwriter Pete Jordi Wood on Supporting “Carer-Talent”
A deeper dialogue needs to happen between employers and employees of what the day-to-day responsibilities carers undertake alongside their film or television work actually entail. Only then will we start to see a little empathy begin to bloom. In a world where juggling child support with employment is still, sadly, an epic challenge for many … Continue reading “Screenwriter Pete Jordi Wood on Supporting “Carer-Talent””
CTBF Family Support Fund
Balancing work and family life can be challenging, especially if you have people depending on you for their care and wellbeing. Working in the turbulent world of film and commercial TV can make it even harder to fund alternative arrangements to ensure the people you care for are looked after when you are away from … Continue reading “CTBF Family Support Fund”
Interview: Shakyra Dowling
Shakyra Dowling founded her own successful theatre production company in the 1990s, and then went on to work for a well known producer, assisting in the casting of several West End shows, before moving to the film and TV industry as a Casting Director. She is a founder board member of the Casting Directors Association and a voting … Continue reading “Interview: Shakyra Dowling”
Interview: Of Love and Law
OF LOVE AND LAW is a documentary, currently crowdfunding, about Japan’s first LGBT law firm, run by partners Fumi and Kazu, and looking at issues including adoption, same sex partnerships and undocumented people. We talked film-raising with the international team making the film: director Hikaru Toda, producer Elhum Shakerifar, and co-producer Estelle Robin You. * Can you … Continue reading “Interview: Of Love and Law”
Hope Dickson Leach and Nanu Segal on The Levelling
Evening Standard, 5 October 2016
Cate Blanchett and Hope Dickson Leach are quoted in this article discussing filmmaking and parenting. Alistair Foster writes: Cate Blanchett spoke of the struggle faced by parents in the movie business — as she presented a new £50,000 award to a filmmaker who said she would spend most of it on childcare. British filmmaker Hope Dickson Leach, … Continue reading “Evening Standard, 5 October 2016”
Philippa Lowthorpe and Andrea Gibb on Swallows and Amazons
I, Daniel Blake: Line Producer Eimhear McMahon on Bringing the Team Together
From the moment we met Alison [Carter-Goulden, assistant editor] and started talking, her competency and efficiency convinced me that a job-share could work well. Her and Erline [O’Donovan]’s relationship with Jonathan [Morris, editor] was the most important thing, and that worked perfectly. Alison and Erline set out very plainly how they saw it working – and once they introduced us … Continue reading “I, Daniel Blake: Line Producer Eimhear McMahon on Bringing the Team Together”
Interview: Julie Dash
Julie Dash has been making films and television for four decades, and is part of the LA Rebellion generation of filmmakers. Her feature Daughters of the Dust (1991) was the first full-length film by an African-American woman with general theatrical release in the United States. Dash is the film’s producer, screenwriter and director. In 2004, Daughters of the Dust was included in the National Film … Continue reading “Interview: Julie Dash”
Screen Daily, 5 September 2017
In a feature looking at ‘How the UK film sector is trying to improve workplace conditions,’ Andreas Wiseman draws attention to: the publication of a stark report claiming “unlawful, invisible and unfair” employment practices that discriminate against people in the UK film and TV industry who are parents and carers. The BFI-backed investigation, titled ‘Raising … Continue reading “Screen Daily, 5 September 2017”
The Independent, 6 July 2017
Game of Thrones and Prevenge star Gemma Whelan gives us a shout-out in an in-depth interview with Kaleem Aftab – shout-outs too to Film Raisers Alice Lowe and Kharmel Cochrane: She is a big fan of Raising Films, formed two years ago to put pressure on the film industry to do more to support working parents. … Continue reading “The Independent, 6 July 2017”