Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1382552
22 C I N E M O N T A G E C O M M I T T E E N E W S By Kristin Marguerite Doidge #TimesUp. #BlackLivesMatter. And a pandemic that shut down much of the in- dustry around the world for nearly a year. To celebrate Women's History Month t h i s y e a r, C i n d y M o l l o, AC E , Fa r re l Levy, ACE, and the members of MPEG's Women's Steering Committee (WSC) knew they wanted to plan something ex- ceptional—something that wouldn't just bring members together in conversation about diversity, but that would inspire them to be a part of change. "People have been isolated and we've all longed for human contact," Levy said. "Everyone has needed something that's going to make them feel better, and you know what everyone did? They turned on their televisions, and that's where our community comes in—through the work that we do, we actually make people feel better." Following a joint event with IATSE Women's Committees and the WSC in February -- and with women currently accounting for about 25% of the 8,400 members of the Guild – WSC leaders k n ew t h ey wa n te d to c re a te a m o re inclusive event that not only showcased a wider range of ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds, but also a diverse set of classifications that showed women at work in a variety of interesting roles. T h e re s u l t ? " Wo m e n We A d m i re Who Inspire," an online event that took place over Zoom in March. To foster an additional layer of connection for the speakers and listeners, the WSC asked its members to recommend women whom they admired and who inspired them. They also specifically asked everyone to WOMEN'S COMMITTEE EVENT SHINES A LIGHT ON ACHIEVEMENTS ACROSS DIVERSE CLASSIFICATIONS "think outside of the picture editor box" so that, throughout the afternoon, they could trace the storytelling process from story analyst through post-production finishing. The woman nominated in each craft classification who received the most votes was then interviewed by one of the women who nominated her. It was the first time an event featured all of the classifications together in one conversation, and award-winning artists — from story analysts to picture editors to Foley artists and sound and music editors — shared their stories, advice, and thoughts on the future in a series of paired interviews. The first pair to kick off the event was Alegre Rodriguez, a story analyst at Universal Pictures and Holly Sklar, a longtime story analyst for Warner Bros. Sklar pointed out that story analysts have played an important part of the moviemaking process since the dawn of the industry, adding that they 've been unionized since the late 1930s, and joined the Editors Guild in the year 2000. Indeed, in the 1930s and 1940s, Sklar said, story analyst departments were made up of almost all women. Historical portrayals of story analysts can be traced back to films like Billy Wild- er's 1950 classic, "Sunset Boulevard," filmed in a real reader's office on the Paramount Pictures lot, and Sydney Pol- lack's 1973 drama, "The Way We Were," in which Barbra Streisand's character, Katie, works as a story analyst during the Hollywood blacklist era. Next, Levy interviewed editor Anisha Acharya, whom she first met at AFI. She said she'd had her eye on her, and when she needed an assistant for her editing work on "Nashville," she made a point to reach out to see if she might like to collaborate after making a personal com- mitment to hiring women for projects and helping to bring more women into the union. "I respected her work ethic and her intelligence," Levy said. "I knew that she didn't have a lot of experience in scripted [content], but I just figured she was going to figure it out." Their work together flourished, and Acharya said it's been opportunities like those with Levy and with other women, such as Dody Dorn, who've helped her to rise up by showing faith in her abilities before she could see it for herself. "It's been really special," Acharya said. "I'm really grateful to all of those women who have vouched for me." I n t h e n ex t s e t o f co nve rs a t i o n s, Emmy Award-winning editor C. Chi-yoon Chung shared a special clip from "Feud," w h i l e WSC C o - C h a i r D o r i a n H a r r i s, ACE, discussed Chung's transition from Women We Admire