Kiwi film company breaking the mould

Two women are changing misconceptions in the movie industry, writes

Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek are the multi-talented faces of The Breaker Upperers, but the movie is also an important milestone for two other woman.

The Kiwi comedy, which has already gained rave reviews after it debuted at America’s South by Southwest Film Festival last month, marks the debut project for New Zealand-based production company Miss Conception Films.

The brainchild of Ainsley Gardiner and Georgina Conder, Miss Conception was set originally set up in 2015 aiming to produce strong female stories, working with female writers, directors and key creatives.

‘‘We really want to make films about women that we’re interested in,’’ says Gardiner, whose previous producing projects have included Eagle vs Shark and Boy. ‘‘I’ve got three daughters, so I’m also interested in making movies that they will be interested in.’’

She says The Breaker Upperers’ tale of two cynical women who run an agency aimed at helping people who want to ‘‘consciously uncouple’’ appealed to them for many reasons.

‘‘It was first and foremost about the script. I loved that the characters were kind of anti-heroes, unorthodox female kind of role models, who are a little bit despicable, but actually are loyal and loving. The further I investigated the material, the more I liked what it had to say.

‘‘Obviously I love Jackie and Madeleine and the kind of irreverent comedy they do, but it was also appealing to work on a project that was nearly fully formed. We shared the producing with [Piki Films’] Carthew Neal, so we didn’t get burnt out and were able to work to our respective strengths.’’

Neal looked after things on either side of the main production period and Gardiner and Conder, who had worked together before, took on different roles. ‘‘I had more flexibility with my time,’’ recalls Gardiner, ‘‘so I was able to be more present through the shoot. George oversaw the logistics – the budget, the crew and the day-to-day running of the machine.’’

One of Miss Conception’s goals has been to try to complete a project with an allfemale cast and crew. ‘‘We tried to set it up in Wellington on a short film, but couldn’t quite get it over the line,’’ says Conder. ‘‘In Auckland, it might be possible if you had more lead time, but the problem is commercials come up all the time.’’

She says about 60 per cent of Breaker Upperer’s crew was female. ‘‘The camera crew only had one male and five females and we also had a female lighting assistant. But we’ve never worked with a female sound recordist and I’ve only encountered a female grip in Wellington. Those kind of technical roles seem harder to crack.’’

Gardiner says that even with only a slight female majority, the feeling on set was very different, something this movie shared with last year’s critically acclaimed drama Waru. Gardiner was one of Waru’s nine female film-makers.

‘‘What I most enjoyed about Waru was how nine women could come together with different stories, different opinions and different viewers, disagree absolutely, but argue robustly and make decisions quickly. It showed me a way to supercharge the creative process – allow people to be heard and come to an agreement. We did have to do things quickly here and when you don’t agree, the speed at which you have to make decisions can leave a bad taste in your mouth if you are the one who loses out. But there certainly is a way that you can engage in the process and have a creative win.’’

But she warns that while film schools seem to be producing more female graduates than males, there still needs to be a willingness within a crew to hire and nurture them.

‘‘I do think some of our community are a littleblack-and-white about the best-personfor-the-job approach, like some inherent, oldschool misogyny. Hiring women for the job is seen by some as some kind of positive affirmation that’s detrimental to the operation of the crew, whereas in fact it has never been the case. It was the same earlier in my career when we actively tried to hire Ma¯ ori trainees.

‘‘I had children fairly early on in my career, so it’s never been an option to discriminate against other mothers and fathers who wanted to try to make it work.’’

Gardiner admits she has been lucky that she’s never experienced any kind of discrimination or prejudice during her career.

‘‘In fact, my mentor Larry Parr [a writer and producer whose credits include Kiwi classics like Sleeping Dogs, Smash Palace and Came a Hot Friday], was the opposite. He proactively promoted women and Ma¯ ori. I’ve got to where I am because other Ma¯ ori and women have actively fought so I don’t have to experience prejudice and struggle. I know there’s an obligation on me to do exactly the same thing. If we can foster the talent, we might always be able to have the option of an all-female crew if we choose to.’’

Likewise, Gardiner feels upbeat about the future. ‘‘I feel like we’ve got a CEO at the [New Zealand] Film Commission [Annabelle Sheehan] who is motivated to represent the groundswell of social movement in our industry. I also think there’s a global push to represent under-served voices in our communities.’’

However, Whakatane-based Gardiner says she has no desire to get involved in the politics of the film industry, preferring to let her creativity do the talking. For Miss Conception, that includes developing a few more female-led comedy ideas and shepherding projects like Rachel Craw’s Young Adult book Craw and Patricia Grace’s 1992 novel Cousins to the big screen. But first, there’s a