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Four Days From Copenhagen |
Cynthia Salzman Mondell, our WIFTI Representative, shares her stories and photos from the Mini-Summit in Denmark.
DAY ONE FROM COPENHAGEN -- Thursday, August 14, 2008
Today was our first official meeting . The WIFTI Board is being hosted
by Women In Film Copenhagen and Women In Film Sweden. We were driven
from Copenhagen to Sweden. Our driver was introduced as" the driver".
She turned out to be a film producer who was once a chanteuse who sang
Bob Dillon and the Eagle songs. She has degrees in documentary
filmmaking, worked for a film production company and just competed a
personal film about a woman struggling and overcoming a brain tumor.
The government had given her over $100,000 for her production.
We were accompanied by an art director who wore lovely purple nail polish, had flaming red hair and had worked on many Swedish features. The Swedish chapter took us to a
Culture Center where lunch was served and we were treated to a glimpse
into a the newly created Media Center.
We were then shuttled an hour and a half away to a film set in Ystad
for a popular television show about Detective Wallandar This was set on
the water. The Swedes and Danes were excited, but we knew nothing about
the show. It would be like someone taking a visitor to see the Sopranos
being shot, but the visitor never heard of the show.
What was exciting, I met Ana Asp, the Oscar award winning set designer
for Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander. She was designing the sets
and we immediately clicked. She is extremely talented and if anyone has
ever viewed that film, they will never forget it. She had to dress a
sumptuous set for 365 degrees of shooting.
We were then fed at a beautiful restaurant on the water, while watching
the sun set and talking about film. The tab was picked up by the
Swedish Film commissioner. It does pay to be a woman in this business.
The meetings begin tomorrow at the Film Center in Copenhagen. If anyone
has any questions for me or the WIFTI Board, please email me. Tomorrow
night the Presidents of many WIF chapters from around the world will
meet and exchange information on a conference
call. Our fearless leader, President Meredith Stephens will represent
our chapter. She was one of the first Presidents to respond to the
invite to participate.
More later...
From Copenhagen,
Cynthia
DAY TWO -- Friday, August 15, 2008
 Today started with a meeting at the Film Works in Denmark. It is a cool
building bustling with activity. Many filmmakers work out of this
building. It has a cool restaurant with a film bookstore. Laarke, our
Danish host pointed out several actors at the next table. But I didn't
recognize anyone.
Today, we had an eight hour meeting discussing the nuts and bolts of
Women In Film International. Then we walked down to the Film School - a
couple of miles away for a reception and tour of the school. The sad
fact is - 12 students get in every other year to learn to be directors.
Few are women and only one woman usually graduates in the feature film
director's class. Ladies, this is why WIF.Dallas and WIFTI are
important. We want to change those numbers. Better news to report in
the documentary classes-most of the new students are women. We can make
change.
Tonight, our Prez, Meredith Stephens, made history. She participated
in the first WIFTI sponsored call with Women In Film Chapter Presidents
from around the world. They spent one hour exchanging information. And
of course Meredith was great and articulate as ever. It was so exciting
for me to hear all these women communicate and network. It was 9:00 pm
in Denmark, 3 pm Dallas and 5 am in Wales. And no matter what time it
was or where they were....Women In Film is working for you.
Some of you have emailed me asking questions. I am getting answers and will get back to you after the Board Meeting.
Good night...
Cynthia
DAY THREE -- Saturday, August 16, 2008
It is now 1 am, so I will be brief. The WIFTI meeting went long and
furious as we worked hard on business that will help the growth of
WIFTI and its Women In Film Chapters. It is amazing to see so
many women from all cultures working together. The United Nations
should take lessons from us.
We ended the meeting today by meeting the women from the Copenhagen
chapter for some wine and snacks at the park outside our building. It
was a lovely day - about 78 degrees.
The Copenhagen chapter is full of interesting women. I met one woman,
Anne who just finished a book. It turns out that she is a well-known
writer and TV personality who graduated Columbia University with one of
our WIF Dallas member, Sylvia Komatsu. And she was at the PBS INPUT in
Ft. Worth with me several years ago. The world just keeps getting
smaller.
Copenhagen's lovely young President greeted us and talked about a study
they did on the gap between women and men in the Danish Film Industry.
The study is in Danish, but I will try to get some other studies in
English for anyone interested.
Other women I met were: A former ballerina who is now making her own
films at the age of 70. A 30-year-old film producer working on a
documentary about a dramatic play for one-year olds. Two competing
feature film distributors. An editor, a script supervisor, a camerawoman, a producer for films to be shown on phones...
I have received emails from some of you requesting contacts in Europe
and crew suggestions in Denmark. I will get back to you soon.
In the meantime...eat some herring and cheese and toast our hosts in Denmark.
Best from Copenhagen,
Cynthia
DAY FOUR -- Sunday, August 17, 2008
Today was our wrap-up day. The WIFTI Board had breakast with some
of the Danish Women In Film Chapter members. I spoke to Laerke Pederson
at length. She worked for the miltary on a contract basis and was sent
to Iraq to interview Danish Soldiers. She spoke about the soldiers
concerns. She had to report back to her government. Laerke is
30-years-old and is doing this type of work. I was inspired by her
intelligence combined with her fearlessness . There are so many women
in our business doing good work. It is very encouraging. There must be
a way we can exchange these stories.
After the wrap-up-I went to the Jewish Museum. The Danish Government
protected their Jewish Population during the holocaust. So most of the
Jewish people were saved. But the Jewish population is still very small
here.
I then went to Christiania on water taxi - Christiania is a social
experiment with self-government and a democracy based on dialogue
replacing majority voting. Some call them anarchists or hippies.
Christiania was started in an abandoned army baracks in Copenhagen,
Denmark, in 1971. The art work on the buildings- is pure outsider art.
You may not like the art...but the colors are vibrant.
With that note....I will close.
From Copenhagen were the sun is shining and the temperature is only about 75 degrees,
Cynthia
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