Geralyn Abinader and Alison McMahan served as co-presidents of Cinewomen NY from March of 2007 until September of 2008 when CWNY joined forces with NYWIFT. Working with Cinewomen board members Ylana Kellar, Maria Pusateri, Maria Cabrera, Jessica Burstein and Nyna Sargent we continue to facilitate the complicated process of bringing Cinewomen's most popular activities to NYWIFT throughout 2008 and into 2009.
During our tenure CWNY offered support services to filmmakers at every stage of her filmmaking process. The Screenwriter's Group, headed by Maria Cabrera, provided a venue for writers to develop their work. The Producer’s Group, currently headed by Robin Moore, helps the filmmaker develop her plan to produce the film (This group was previously headed by Lisa Marie Cacace, and Julia Suo). Technical and creative issues can be worked out in the Filmmaker's Group, headed by Nyna Sargent. She could cast from the Actor's Gallery that Ylana Kellar put on our website and crew up with people she met from CWNY and partner organizations at our various soirees.
Once she had a rough cut Show 'N Grow provided the venue for a test screening. This series, run by Alison McMahan, was sponsored first by World Wide Audio and currently by Splash Studios. And once she had a finished film she could screen it in the Screening Series, curated for CWNY by Maria Pusateri, at Two Boots Pioneer Theatre (which has now moved to DCTV) . As a result of this screening she might get one of the CWNY awards and be included in a CWNY sidebar at such festivals as Rochester High Falls, Kansas City, MO, Film Festival, or the Non-Violence International Film Festival in Waterloo, Ontario. All of these activities have been carried over intact to NYWIFT.
Highlights from our two year presidency: the logo re-design, spearheaded by past-president Jessica Burstein; NYWIFT’s partnering with CNWY on the screening series, which continued at Two Boots; continuation of our annual awards recognizing the best works in fiction, documentary, and experimental or animation films, as well as the most promising filmmaker (the "Someone to Watch" award) chosen from films screened in the series; and fundraising/awards galas held every spring. The screening series was headed by Maria Pusateri and later joined by Josefa Jaime of NYWIFT. It was very exciting when one of our members, Cynthia Wade, who had received CWNY’s Best Documentary Award, also got the Oscar for Best Documentary Short for her film, FREEHELD.
Geralyn Abinader ran the CineNYtes, which met at Women Make Movies, until we decided to replace CineNYtes with Soirees, our networking parties co-hosted with partner organizations such as NYWIFT, DCTV, ShootingPeople, IFP, and WIP. We continue the soiree tradition as part of NYWIFT. Ylana Kellar, Maria Pusateri and other board members organized panels with invited speakers such as Jim Arnoff and Joy Butler and makeup for HD demonstrations at MAC, and Alison McMahan organized a panel on Women Digital Filmmakers with Elizabeth McMahon at the Donnell Library.
It is always sad when an organization that has thrived and helped so many for almost fifteen years has to shift shapes. For the last two years we were struggling to maintain our activities in the face of an economy in an increasingly downward spiral. We were enabled by the heroic efforts of our long-standing treasurer, Maiko Sakai, and fundraising efforts by everyone on the board. Even as we were struggling we realized that Cinewomen LA had shut down, without giving us any notice. The writing on the wall was clear.
Our priority was to continue to offer the support activities that filmmakers need. In the end it seemed clear that our choices were to join forces with NYWIFT or to cease activity completely. NYWIFT welcomed our 200+ members with open arms and is supporting our various groups and activities, so that we can continue to offer women filmmakers what they need to do their work, even if under a different name.
Geralyn Abinader
Alison McMahan
the last CWNY Co-Presidents
December, 2008
