In her own voice

Reflections on the Irish film industry and beyond

Abstract

International research highlights a paucity of female screenwriters and directors in contemporary cinema. The consequences, in terms of employment equality and on-screen representations, have been well documented. However, few studies interrogate the film industry from the point-of-view of the female practitioners themselves.  Certainly, these issues have not been comprehensively explored in an Irish context; something which this paper, as part of a wider study on Irish women screenwriters and writer/directors, sets out to address.

 An analysis of three in-depth, exploratory interviews with produced female writers of film and television is presented here. The purpose of the interviews is to tease out the experiences, work practices, perceived barriers and narrative preoccupations of this underrepresented group. Although generalizations cannot be made on the basis of three interviews, many of the views expressed by these practitioners correspond to theoretical and empirical work emerging in the field.  Other insights shed new light on aspects of women’s creative labour in the Irish film industry.