by Jenna Colley

I first met Anna Julia three months ago. I had seen a flyer with words...First meeting tonight for women in film group. Hmmm, women in film...sounded like something I could get into. So that night, I fired up my Chevy and headed to Women and Their Work Art Gallery at 1710 Lavaca, hoping for something, but expecting very little. Two hours later, I left the meeting after having experienced much more then I could have imagined. I had found a group that made sense. A group of women who were searching, and striving for the same things: to produce, write, direct, film, act, and watch movies; a group where women could come together -- void of all pretentious bullshit and get things done. Anna Julia's idea had taken form. REEL Women had been born, and what a pretty little baby she was.

Three months later, I'm sitting across from the founder herself. The group is still young, but it slowly taking its first steps towards maturity. Serving as a meeting place for women to discuss all aspects of the film industry, the group is the first of its kind in Austin. Not only is it a place where women can go to make connections with other women, but also a place where they can voice their concerns, vent their frustrations, share their knowledge, or express their many fears about the industry. These women aren't coming to boost their egos, they simply don't have to. No one here is trying to out rank or out score anyone else. Each woman comes to the meeting in the hope of validating their self-worth in a business that is constantly challenging their ability. These women know the unpredictability and stress that they are up against and have chosen to face it together.

Anna herself is a struggling director. She understands the need and power of such a group, "I think that they (the women in the group) all just want to make good films. We all have a level of commitment to making quality. Even though some of the women have worked in the industry for a while, there is still an energy they have that typifies the group. At every meeting there's always someone who says 'I know so and so whose doing this film' and so on. Many are just starting out and they need a place to say 'hey, where can I meet these people?' So, that's why we did something different."

Unlike Houston's Women In Film group, REEL Women doesn't restrict the meetings to just members or charge dues. They know that there are too many restrictions against them already. Why waste time on the inconsequential?

REEL Women also tries to cater to the Austin filmmaker. Their meetings now take place at WATER: Women's Access to Electronic Resources, another group in town that focuses on providing video equipment and training to women. This support of other local groups only adds to the growing voice of women and film in town. "I think that the group has an important place in Austin in the fact that Austin is so independent oriented and there aren't a lot of paying jobs in this town...I think that women just want a place where they can come and find out what's going on."

Since its birth, the group has attracted a wide range of women with different skill levels. "One of the women that's producing Aunt Vivien's Wedding came to one of the meetings. I think she was 24 or 25 and her partners are even younger. I was very impressed with her and the energy that she brought to the meeting. There was another woman who came to the meeting who was working on her second film, that she was directing and producing so I was really glad she came also. Hopefully she was able to get in touch with some of the women in the group." It seems that all of the members take pride in lending a hand to their colleagues. They all understand that not only do you take an enormous risk by entering this business, but an even bigger one if you want to be successful in it.

Many of the women seem to be exploring documentary work. "Documentaries are able to show life in some form or another and do it in a way that people will look at it -- whether the subject is pleasing or not. You're taking a subject and saying that this is what it's all about." When asked why she thought women were more inclined to do documentaries, Anna replied, "I think that nurturing, which is such a part of this -- being a woman -- perhaps makes us want to do something to make things better, just take care of things. There's one woman who wants to work in Chiapas. She basically needs one sound person and one camera person and that's it." And why not? Why can't women score the jungles recording the efforts of human struggle? Or conversely, why can't they splatter the screens with sex, and violence? Our society pretends to be concerned with gentilizing the entertainment industry in the hopes of "protecting" women while simultaneously exploiting them at every turn. The time has far passed when women can allow themselves to sit back or be pushed back while men dominate the industries that shape their representation in society. The time for actionless complaints has come and gone. Women can't rely on the government or the conscious of society to regulate: we must take up arms in the form of images. We must grab out cameras and write our scripts, because our time is now. Women like Anna serve as testaments to what we can be if we choose to exert and combine our strengths. Women are steadily making their way into all facets of the business world. Without women behind the camera as well as in front on it, the perpetuation of the stereotypes that have come to be called convention and the existence of patriarchal society will persevere. What legacy do we leave the daughters of the women's movement? Strip Tease and Barb Wire? I choose to hope not.