Check the listings at your local mainstream movie theatre and you’d be hard-pressed to find a female director behind any of them. The world of independent filmmaking is no different, but a new initiative by The Winnipeg Film Group aims to change that.

Launched in the fall of 2008, the Mosaic Women’s Film Project comes to fruition this Sunday, Mar. 22 when Caroline Monnet and Columpa Bobb screen their films and give an artist talk at Cinematheque.

“These voices need to be heard and we felt there was an underrepresentation in the film world just in general. So, we thought this would be a good idea,” Mike Maryniuk, production programs co-ordinator at The Winnipeg Film Group, said of the project.

The Winnipeg Film Group created the production award and mentorship program in collaboration with Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art (MAWA) to support the development of two women of aboriginal or diverse cultural backgrounds to make a three to five-minute film.

Monnet and Bobb were chosen through a juried process and given money to make their films, as well as some money to pay for their living expenses during the filmmaking process.

For Bobb, who has spent the last 21 years in theatre, the program happened at the perfect time.

“I’ve always been interested in getting into film, but I don’t have a lot of my own time – work takes a lot of time,” she said. “I just thought [this] was the perfect opportunity to take to make a short film and, first of all, see if I could do it.”

For Monnet, whose first film, an award-winning documentary made with the National Film Board called 360 Degrees, is currently doing the festival circuit, the program offered complete creative control.

“The Winnipeg Film Group was really, really supportive in my creative process and made sure I had full liberty in doing what I wanted to do,” she said.

Both women are looking forward to making more films in the future. Bobb is hoping her next project will be a collaboration with some of the youth she works with at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People.
That’s the sort of thing Maryniuk said is encouraging to see.

“[Monnet and Bobb] almost turned into mentors to other emerging filmmakers, and that’s the cycle – one person does a project, others collaborate on it and that’s how you get involved,” he said.
“It inevitably helps develop a community, or broaden the existing community, of filmmakers in Winnipeg.”

The Mosaic Women’s Film Project screening and artist talk takes place this Sunday, Mar. 22, 2009 at Cinematheque (100 Arthur St.) at 2 p.m. Admission is free.

Published in Volume 63, Number 24 of The Uniter (March 19, 2009)