Reel Women Media is a filmmaking

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

, USA, that provides support to women in the

film industry The film industry or motion picture industry comprises the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking, i.e., film production companies, film studios, cinematography, animation, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, p ...

Background and history

Ally Acker Ally Acker (born August 17, 1954, New York) is an American filmmaker, poet, author, and film historian. Her book, ''Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema'', was the first on the market to reveal the entrepreneurial, and transformative roles that wom ...

used the term "Reel Women" in 1984 for her book ''Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema, 1896 to Present'' and documentary series. This was the first production in the market that revealed the transformative roles women had within the film industry that were not as widely recognized by prior film history studies. The term had previously been used by a group of women filmmakers in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Australia, in the 1970s. Reel Women began in 1995 as a collective of women media-makers who were helping each other out on film projects. From there it grew into an organization of about 700 people, both men and women, young and old, anywhere from amateur to professional. Reel Women serves as a resource to the film community over the years by planning guest speakers, workshops, mixers, and screening events. Its members worked with other non-profit organizations in Austin, including the

Austin Film Society The Austin Film Society (AFS) is a non-profit film society based in Austin, Texas. Founded in 1985 to exhibit independent, experimental, foreign and various other non-mainstream art films, the film society has grown from just film exhibition to fos ...

, The Austin Creative Alliance, Austin Film Meet, Picturebox Productions, and

SXSW Film Festival South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, T ...

. Reel Women has taken part directly in filmmaking by organizing film shoots and planning filming projects, as well as making their own educational films and books. These include the '' Filmmakers on Film'' 10-Disc DVD set and Ally Acker's films ''Reel Herstory with Jodie Foster'' (2014) and ''Flowering Little Crone'', as well as the books ''Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema, The First Hundred Years'', ''Volume 1 and Volume 2''. Reel Women was the local sponsor for the

48 Hour Film Project The 48 Hour Film Project is an annual film competition in which teams of filmmakers are assigned a genre, a character, a prop, and a line of dialogue, and have 48 hours to create a short film containing those elements. The competition has been ac ...

, a competition created in 2001 to make the best short film in only 48 hours using predetermined elements. Reel Women organized LUNAFEST, a traveling film festival with films for, about and by women. Reel Women also organized the Austin Film Industry Holiday party in December that served as its yearly fundraising event.

Description and functions

The Reel Women in Film Collection, housed at the

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

, collects interviews with many prominent women in the film industry past and present. , Reel Women is a full service facility that provides pro bono editing services to clients with educational projects. Their current clientele include NBC's ''Today Show'', ABC's '' Good Morning America'', National Geographic's ''Explorer'', Lifetime, and

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

References

External links

{{portal, Film
Reel Women Brings Lunafest to Austin

IMDB IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

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YouTube

The Austin 48 Hour Film Project
Women's film organizations Film organizations in the United States Organizations based in Austin, Texas Arts organizations established in 1995 Arts organizations disestablished in 2011