2016 NUWFA Grant

ABOUT OUR GROUP

The Northwestern University Women Filmmakers Alliance (NUWFA) is a student group dedicated to unifying, educating, and promoting female filmmakers, not only at Northwestern, but in the Chicago area as well. We promote the development of visual media created by women, aiding women filmmakers in production, and encouraging women’s involvement as leaders in the radio/television/film community at Northwestern.

ABOUT OUR PROJECT

We want to raise $2,000.  We hope to continue our annual $1,500 grant to a short film project with a woman as the writer or director, and hopefully raise enough funds this year to give TWO NUWFA grants for the first time ever! There are so many talented women interested in making films, and we want to give twice the amount of people the great opportunity to more directors, writers, and crew members to participate in a NUWFA grant! The NUWFA grant is the best way that our student group can accomplish our mission. For the past decade, our grant has aided women filmmakers in pitching, developing, and creating student films, and it has encouraged the representation of scripts with female characters and feminist values among the Northwestern film community.

Many freshmen come into the RTVF major at Northwestern saying that they want to direct, but with limited opportunities, most women graduate never having directed a project. NUWFA is at a crucial point as we take immense strides to promote female filmmakers; the only way to fully accomplish this mission is through finding the funds to support our original grant. Ideally, we could give two grants in the upcoming year to two of the many deserving women on our campus. We hope to continue our legacy of helping women filmmakers begin and develop their careers.

We also take an industry approach to feminism in film because we feel it is important to begin tackling this overwhelming issue during college. Most people are aware of the alarming gender disparities and forms of sexism in the film industry. In fact, the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations are currently investigating gender discrimination within the industry structure. There are endless statistics that show the atrocious disparities in film (only four women filmmakers have been nominated for Best Director in Academy Awards history), but the most important fact is that there has been almost no change in these disparities since 1998, despite heavy media attention and efforts to fight inequality. As young female filmmakers who plan to break into this industry, we feel it is of utmost importance to band together and equip our peers with empowering experiences.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Each donation will help us directly support the vision of the recipients of the 2016 NUWFA Grant. Every small donation will make a huge difference to this project. Please consider contributing to our cause.