by Thinus Ferreira 

Women working in South Africa’s film and TV industry shared their shocking anecdotes, challenges and suggestions during a panel session about women in film at the 10th Silwerskermfees – with one producer revealing how a male Canadian cinematographer literally had to be fired recently because he refused to listen or take orders from the female director.  

Kaye Ann Williams, senior manager: M-Net 101 script, reality, films, co-productions, was the moderator of a Women in Film panel discussion at kykNET’s 10th Silwerskermfees taking place at The Bay Hotel in Camps Bay, Cape Town, where female panellists in film and TV production shared their experiences of the local industry and how to foster opportunities and embrace challenges.

Kaye Ann Williams said women in South Africa’s film and TV industry “often find themselves in a room where you’re meant to get a project off the ground and you need to convince everyone that you’re credible, that you know what you’re talking about”.

“Often women think ‘Do I belong here? Am I being too bitchy? Am I too loud? How can I be more assertive?’ There are all these questions that men don’t ask themselves in these spaces, they just go and talk and do what they need to do.”

“Female to female mentorship is so extremely important to me in the film industry.”

Layla Swart, co-owner and producer of Yellowbone Entertainment doing Blood Psalms for MultiChoice’s streamer Showmax, said “my biggest challenge has always been to try and not get into a mindset of being a victim. And often it’s hard because often you are – often you are judged, often you are looked at differently, often you are not as trusted as your older or male counterparts.”

“I’ve cried in meetings against my better judgment, fighting against who I actually am all the time until I got to a point where I said to myself I’ve got to live in the power of being a woman, of being the feminine and knowing what I can contribute to a space or environment or a project.”

Screenwriter and director Amy Jephta said if she were to ever write a memoir about her career the title would probably be “Three white men and me”. 

“That has always, almost always been the ratio of the spaces and places I find myself in – me and two white guys, me and three white guys”.

“The spaces where it’s been equal, who look like me – who are black and women – are spaces usually that I’ve created, it’s rooms where I’ve consciously tried to diversify that. You can never forget your positionality in that room, you can never forget your politics and the politics of your body in that space.”

Creating a space for women

Thandi Davids, executive producer at StoryScope and co-chairperson of the Independent Producers Organisation (IPO) said that “at our last big feature doc we had to fire a director of photography who came in from Canada because he refused to take direction from a director. He literally would not listen to her; it was completely astounding.”

“It’s really important for us to create an enabling environment on every level, and look at bringing women in on every level,” she said and noted that on a recent project “We’ve just tried to find a female composer – you can’t find a female composer.”

“If you pitch a project, knowing you’re going with women, and pitch with a female writer, or pitch with a female director – if this is what your vision is for the project, say you’re not going to change that. [Someone says] a male writer will be better. No. No, I want a female writer, I want that voice in the room.”

Thandi Davids also shared with delegates a story of how sometimes it’s also women – not men – bringing the women down, telling delegates a story dating back to her time when she was working as an executive at FOX and National Geographic now part of Disney, but then still FOX International Channels.

“I went to a meeting with 17 people in the room and I was the only black person and one of only two females.”

“And I went to the bathroom and she follows me into the bathroom and she says to me ‘I don’t think you’re going to work with that hair. The hair doesn’t work on a global level.’ And I said my hair? And she said ‘Yes, yes. You’re not going to get far in this organisation with your hair like that.”

“And I literally had to go at her. Why is my physicality and the way I look such an issue for you? Why are you coming in here and not having a discussion about the difficulty we are having inside that room? You’re coming in here to tell me the problem is the way that I look and my hair? What’s that about?”

She said it’s also important that women don’t just open the door for other women but create and change a team to move things forward. “If you’re out the door, that idea is out the door. If you’re trying to change something, take a team with you, bring people with you so that when you’re gone that vision remains.”

Vlokkie Gordon, owner and producer of Advantage Entertainment said “I often say the hardest thing is your first three no’s.”

About getting more women into the industry Kaye Anne Williams said “It can’t just be the producers thinking ‘I need a female DOP’, it needs to be the broadcasters, it needs to be the government institutions, it needs to be training platforms.”

“We should all be intentional about filling up those spaces or at least equalising and balancing them out. That’s a responsibility we should all bear – it doesn’t just lay with AFDA or just the broadcaster.”