Development-the-Movie

THE STORY

Ancient Emily is losing hope, and filmmaker Viv has lost it. When they meet in an imaginary corner of Wellywood and engage with other women who want to make movies, everyone has to make some hard choices.

SCRIPT

Marian Evans (a winner of the Embassy Theatre Trust Award for scriptwriting) wrote Development for her PhD at the International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) Victoria University of Wellington.

The script has gone through a rigorous development process. Marian's supervisor, Ken Duncum (the IIML Michael Hirschfeld Director of Screenwriting and 2010 Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellow) describes it as 'elegant and powerful'. Los Angeles-based script surgeon Linda Voorhees recommends the script as 'exceptional'. You can read more about the process here.

In January 2010, part of the film was shot, and Marian wrote about that here. Our promo, made for the PassItOn website incorporates a taste of that footage.

In October 2010, Marian attended the Branchage Directors Lab to get a fresh perspective on the project, and is now working on a new draft.

Development-the-movie may be extended into a game (ideas welcome).

THE CONTEXT

Development-the-movie is the fictional element of the Development project, which mixes fiction and non-fiction.

The project began with Marian Evans' PhD, DEVELOPMENT: Opening space for New Zealand women's participation in scriptwriting for feature films? It includes the Wellywood Woman blog, its United States sister blog Her Film, and Twitter accounts, encounters in-person, by phone and in emails, and Development-the-movie.

The Development project is also part of an informal international movement to increase the numbers and diversity of feature films by and about women, for women as primary audiences.

PRODUCTION

The production is modelled on the structure Sally Potter used for her classic feature about women, movies and gold — The Gold Diggers, starring Julie Christie and Colette Laffont. The core crew will be all women. Actors and crew members will all be paid the same. It will also be a 'no-trucks' shoot. Our production and post-production budget is $150,000, thanks to generous contributions of equipment and facilities.

You can read about some of the cast and crew in the Notes on our Facebook page.

DELIVERY

After a gala premiere, Development will be available right here, for free.

We’ll also provide space for you to engage with the film itself, and to contribute to the global debate about women’s filmmaking.

FUNDING

Thanks to the Victoria Foundation’s support, we have adopted the fiscal sponsorship concept from Women Make Movies. This structure provides donors with tax benefits, in NZ, the US and the UK.

THE FUTURE

We want Development’s model to inspire other women—especially New Zealand women—to use a similar model.

Women wrote and directed only 9% of New Zealand features 2003-2008. More recently, there are signs that they are participating more strongly state-funded feature programmes. But after many decades when women's participation has been low, globally, any gains—even in New Zealand—are fragile.

New Zealand led the way with women’s suffrage. We could become the first country in the world where women write and direct half of all feature films.

SPIRAL

Poet Heather McPherson founded Spiral in 1976, as a women’s arts and literary journal, to support and promote women artists and writers. Later the collective's ‘floating’ imprint moved to Wellington, was associated with The Women’s Gallery Inc, and published poetry and fiction, most famously Keri Hulme's Booker Prize-winning the bone people. Other collectives also used the imprint, as a brand that spoke of innovative and risk-taking commitment to women artists and writers. From 1997 Spiral has had some association with film, for example the Mahi Ata Mahi Ahua film festival and associated programme in 2003. Until 2005 The Women’s Gallery Inc was a registered charity, as the umbrella for various Spiral projects.