Wānaka woman Hannah Marshall was sitting in the audience watching the credits roll and could not believe her eyes.
"The film credits were all men. It seemed strange stories about women were not being told by women," she said.
Wondering if she could make a film, Marshall decided to create a course for female film-makers.
She found five Wānaka and Queenstown female film-makers who were keen to mentor newbies and got 80 applicants, proving many women want to learn and share the craft of filmmaking.
The hopefuls were whittled down to just five film-makers, who spent last winter creating a 14-minute film, Ladies Behind the Lens, featuring Austrian free ride athlete Siobhan Challis.
The low budget project was powered by enthusiasm and love, Marshall said.
Mentors donated their time, everyone paid their costs and support came from North Face, Dragon, Howler, Film Queenstown Lakes and Aspiring Guides.
Excitingly for the mentees and their mentors, Ladies Behind the Lens won a special jury award at this year’s mountain film festival and now Marshall is keen to organise another course for next year.
"My dream is to see another group of applicants come through. I would like to sit on the side and see five new chicks come through and say I want to make a climbing film, or a biking film or a trail running film," she said.
Mentor Deanna Gerlach of Wānaka also had her own film, The Wahine Job, screen at this year’s festival, taking home the runner-up prize for best mountain culture film.
"It is awesome having the film festival to inspire you every year," she said.
"I was sitting there yesterday watching a film and thinking, ‘yeah, I want that to be me next year’.
"I am super proud but I don’t want to forget this feeling either ... you have to start now," Gerlach said.
Zynya (Zee) Jackson of Queenstown was also a mentor.
She said the attention given to a film by an audience was quite different from the attention given in making it, so the women decided to watch the final version just once before it hit the big screen.
Watching it as part of the community had been fun, she said.
"Maybe we will try and enter more film festivals and see how it goes. I don’t think we were expecting this one to happen," Jackson said.
Jackson’s next passion project is to tell a story about three generations of female surfers in Riverton, which she is trying to get funding for at the moment.
Gerlach’s next project has the working title "Noodles for Breakfast" and is about a family hiking the length of New Zealand, which she hopes to enter into the 2025 film festival.
MORE INFO: Ladies Behind the Lens had its world premiere on Sunday at the Lake Wānaka Centre and screened again in Wānaka during the festival’s youth programme on Monday [June 24]. It screens in Queenstown’s Memorial Centre on Friday from 3pm.
The festival’s Wahine Leading the Way session was in Wānaka on Tuesday and featured a presentation and films by Frederique Olivier, of France and Via Sedna, a film by Ramona Waldner, of Austria.
