Meet The Team | Girls On Film Festival 2015

Isobel Taylor-Rodgers is Melbourne based artist, curator and event manager. She is a graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts, recipient of the Chin Chin Wall of Art prize in 2013 and has exhibited work nationwide. Isobel works as PR manager and contributor for the online feminist magazine Tigress, which was founded in 2014. She most recently spent four months overseas researching global independent filmmaking and video art and is now looking at commencing a Masters in Arts and Cultural Management in 2016.

Karen is the director and co-founder of GOFF. She is the creator and host of Cherchez la Femme, Melbourne’s monthly feminist talkshow in the pub, held on first Tuesdays at the Duke of Wellington, and a four-time organiser and MC of SlutWalk Melbourne. She has written about gender, activism, politics, pop culture and current affairs for The Guardian, The Age, The Drum, Crikey and New Matilda, and has appeared at the Wheeler Centre, MWF, EWF, NYWF, ACMI and on The Project, Radio National and ABC 774. She’s in love with movies and women and feminism and directing a festival celebrating all three is a dream come to life.

Gus is an independent filmmaker who also runs popular film events through his production company Gusto Films. These include short film night Red Hot Shorts in conjunction with ACMI, the roving Blow Up Cinema and much beloved St Kilda icon The George Revival Cinema.

He also facilitates filmmaking workshops in remote indigenous communities across Australia.

Critic, broadcaster, programmer. UK based, Tara is currently Co-director at video library 20th Century Flicks, Events Co-ordinator at Curzon Cinema & Arts, Chair of the Bristol Film Critics Circle and a member of the film programming team at The Cube. Tara also co-hosts Movie Mondays, a weekly film review segment on Made in Bristol TV’s culture program, The Source. An active member of the Women Film Critics Circle and a freelance writer, Tara has contributed to Senses of Cinema, Desist Film, The Vine, Broadsheet Melbourne, Overland, Metro, Screen Education, The Big Issue and Time Out Bristol. She has been heard across the airwaves on Triple R, JOYFM, ABC 774, Radio National and Monocle24. An English language editor for FIPRESCI, Tara has served on a number of festival selection committees and juries including IFFR, Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, MIFF, Revelations Film Festival Perth, Encounters Short Film Festival Bristol, MIM and the AACTA and ATOM Awards.

Lucy is the self-appointed feminist killjoy of her filmmaking class and fiction editor at Voiceworks, a national magazine featuring writers under the age of twenty-five. She produces podcasts for the Melbourne International Film Festival and was the editor and coordinator of MIFF’s Buzzcuts program, which trains young writers in arts reviewing. Since completing Honours in Film and Literature at Melbourne Uni, she has also appeared on SYN radio as the host of film criticism and comedy programs. Her latest role model is The Girl from A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, and she too hopes to one day take to the streets and exact vampire vigilante justice.

Claudia Long is a student journalist, community broad caster and writer. Currently producing, reporting and presenting news programs at SYN Media, freelance writing for Catalyst (www.rmitcatalyst.com) and Birdee (www.birdeemag.com) among others and volunteering at RRR radio, nothing makes her more happy than a good movie and a choc-top with her girl gang.

Bryanna is a self confessed travel and tech geek. Anything to do with exploration, creating, producing or filming and Bri is your girl. She loves to spend her time learning about new cultures and methods of communication through technologies. Bri is an international vlogger for magazine’s, blogs and various YouTube channels directed at inspiring other women. Having recently graduated from Monash University with a Bachelor of Professional Communications, in which she focused on journalism, film and television she hopes to one day be a foreign news correspondent. Bri’s favourite thing to do is travel with her family and watch travel documentaries. Bri is currently filming a documentary and writing a book with her sister about society and travel in India for young women. She looks forward to working with the beautiful GOFF team again this year.

Cat Scobie is a designer, artist, events manager and performer. She has worked across multiple roles in the events industry since 2004, including most recently: GrrlFest, Found Festival, Finucane and Smith, and V ictorian Dog Rescue. She graduated with a Masters of Communication Design and Graduate Diploma of Graphic Design in 2014. Career highlights include painting next to Banksy at the Glastonbury Festival, touring on motorbikes with the Caravan of Dooom, discovering the “Fourth Wave” of Feminism whilst making a website for GrrlFest and writing a graphic novel. She loves motorbikes and plays bass in Creepcake.

Emily works in research management by day and voraciously consumes popular culture by night. Her Honours thesis in literature focused on crime fiction, genre and place. Ever distracted by interesting concepts circulating in popular culture, her present research interests range from gender and artificial intelligence to the colonial history of condensed milk. Emily is delighted to join the GOFF team this year in general admin and production roles. She contributes experience in project coordination and arts administration, and boundless enthusiasm for awesome women and awesome movies.

Emily is an occasional author of short fiction, which is even more occasionally published.

Sometime around 1986, Fury woke up in a lab with thousands of tiny electrical poles running wires off their body into a giant, eyeless machine. Terrified of what was happening and having no clue of how they had arrived there, they tore the wires from their body and fled the scene leaving only the receding sound of their flapping nightgown.

Once leaving this scientific laboratory, they travelled through the desert and found refuge in several places including barns and abandoned petrol stations. They discovered, over time, that who* was experimenting on them had turned them into a cyborg. It was lucky that they were not installed with a red button because for a long time they were self destructive; falling in love with emotionally unavailable toasters and drinking their weight in motor oil. Now they have embraced their cyborg identity and settled down with a nice audio system. They campaign for the rights of trans people (for some reason) as well as write articles and poetry about how strange humans can be. You can find more about them at thisisnotapipedream.com

*or what

Jess is a photographer, DJ, radio broadcaster and occasional fairy floss spinner with a passion for social justice and community initiatives. She has recently returned from a year of travel that saw her traverse through Europe and land in the Middle East, where she spent two months volunteering with grassroots organisations in the West Bank. Upon her return to Australia, she organised a short film screening and photography exhibition about her time in the West Bank. Since then, she has been volunteering with social enterprise organisation SisterWorks as a mentor to migrant, refugee and asylum seeker women and is currently a camera operator and video editor for community radio station Three Triple R. Being involved in GOFF is not only an incredible opportunity to work with an inspiring team of super talented Power Babes, but also the perfect amalgamation of all things Jess loves- film, music, community, Power Babes and popcorn!

Joel Turner is a writer and podcaster recently transplanted from Sydney to Melbourne. He recently completed a year watching, reading, playing and listening to pop culture about women. Look for on Facebook for more on that project

Lauren is our self-proclaimed Communications Casanova, helping out with PR, festival coverage and other cool stuff. A member of the original team in it’s inaugural year, Lauren is super thrilled to ride the roller-coaster all over again! Lauren is a bit of a wannabe Renaissance woman, her fingers in several different artsy pies at the moment: music, poetry, philosophy etc. Lauren’s interest in feminism sprung early in her teen years, when she developed an interest in rock n’ roll figures like PJ Harvey and Courtney Love. Going on to study English Literature and Anthropology at the University of Melbourne, she was able to fine-tune her feminist sensibilities in an academic environment. Lauren loves to write intense short stories and her work can be seen in online publications Grouch and Mildred. Her top ten favourite things in the world would be bubble baths, her best friends Daryl and Mary, intense crushes that will never be realised, laughing attacks, travelling (both astral and physical), spooning, her close-knit family, performing on stage, 90’s shoe gaze music and probably gnocchi.

Myf joined GOFF last year as a volunteer at the festival and is incredibly excited to be a part of the team in 2015. With over ten years experience working in the arts, notably in marketing, publicity and front of house for companies including Platform Youth Theatre, Melbourne Workers Theatre, St Martins Youth Arts Centre, La Trobe Student Theatre and Film, Verve Studios, MKA and The Rabble, Myf also has degrees in Arts Management and Journalism and currently sits on the board of The Dog Theatre. In her spare time, she writes for Beat Magazine, attempts to maintain her own blog A Short Girl in Melbourne, goes to a lot of shows and daydreams about the day she gets to become best friends with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. Myf also wrote her honours thesis on Buffy and has a great love for teen film/television.

Rachel is psyched to join GOFF this year as a part of the communications team. Her favourite film is Bridesmaids and she has seen it at least once for every day of the last two years, second only to Ten Things I Hate About You. Rachel is a freelance writer who has worked for Broadsheet Melbourne and Sydney, The Age’s Good Food, and Spook Magazine. She is currently studying at RMIT and really loves whiskey in bed.

Ruth is a freelance producer.

Her short films have screened at local and international festivals and sold to the ABC and SBS for broadcast. She has also produced a range of short form projects including music videos for Owl Eyes, World’s End Press and the ARIA nominated Alpine ‘Hands’ video.

Ruth was honoured to sit on the Shorts Awards Jury at MIFF 2014 and is currently developing a long form multi-platform series, a satirical web-series and a short film exploring Gen Y relationships, double denim and the end of the world.

Suzanne is still deciding what she wants to do when she grows up. She hit reset about five years ago and swapped full time work for a volunteering extravaganza spending time at 3RRR and the AFI/AACT A along with a variety of festivals (MIFF, Fringe, MIJF, MIAF). Suzanne is currently working in a bookstore that keeps her happily in books and has returned to study – this time a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Screen Studies). She can be found square eyed behind a book or in front of a screen and is thrilled to be part of GOFF in 2015.

Tam Zimet is a publicist. She has worked at the Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas in for four years, managing the publicity schedule for the more than 200 events held at the Wheeler Centre each year.

Tam is on the Junior Advisory Board for the Melbourne Festival, and also consults on independent arts and feminist activism projects. She previously worked in public relations at a creative agency and has a BA in Communications (Professional Communications) from RMIT and a Diploma of Youth Work, having run leadership and self esteem workshops with The Reach Foundation (Reach).

She is a supporter of small and medium sized Australian arts organisations and believes in their right to create freely, without intervention or fear of punishment by any political body. She would like to live in an Australia where art and culture are available and accessible to everyone. Tam finds writing her personal bio to be pretty difficult, which is ironic considering her occupation.

Wendy is ecstatic to be back working with GOFF as the PR Manager this year, having been part of the PR & Marketing team for the inaugural Girls On Film Festival. A strategic thinker and keen eye for detail, this PR and communications specialist has worked across a wide range of accounts in arts and entertainment including the Australian Open, Melbourne International Comedy Festival and Oz Comic Con. Wendy’s expertise lies in events and she is skilled in publicity, media relations and marketing communications. As a recovering binge watching addict, she’s your go-to girl for TV talk and admittedly enjoys a cheesy rom com every now and then. Besides being a full time Mindy Kaling aficionado, she is also a PR & Marketing Coordinator for Melbourne Web Fest.

Grace Edwards is a public health and gender studies student who spends her spare time as a sexual health and consent educator to young people, napping, and spending too much time on the internet. She’s excited to be joining the GOFF team this year for the first time in not only a producing role but also as head ticketing manager and as a social media manager. She’s passionate about amplifying the voices of those around her who don’t always get the chance to be heard.

Mimo Mukii has been going to the cinema and film festivals solo for years, and is ecstatic to join GOFF this year to party and freak out about amazing films with awesome feminists. She is currently a media student, focusing on film and television, and volunteers on various RMITV productions, including her recent work as the production manager for the feminist panel show, The F-Word. Mimo produces and directs independent films in her spare time, including a documentary about Reclaim Australia and a short film about a zombie who is self-conscious and uncomfortable in her own body, played by a giant puppet. She is passionate about issues facing women of colour, and dreams of making films that help women around the world.

Currently tackling some graduate studies in literature and theatre, Lauren is all about feminist representation in the arts. And definitely likes to incorporate the regular Monday cheap Nova sesh for some cross-disciplinary (and very necessary!) productive procrastination.

Previously working for her student union, she fine-tuned a great love for event management, administration and creative and everyday activism. Being a producer for GOFF 2015 has proved the dream project for channelling all of this into and she’s loving being a part of the team.

Gabriella Bjorklund is a Melbourne based graphic designer with a background in running community events. Two years ago she left her hometown of Stockholm for love and now that she has finally found fellow feminists in Melbourne, her life is complete. Gabriella only joined the GOFF team in September, 2015 and has played a part in updating design material as well as creating some original design. If you’re interested in her work you can find it herehttp://gabriellabjorklund.com

A queer sex-positive feminist, Tahlia has a keen interest in sexual education and education regarding healthy and abusive relationships. She was a presenter on the Channel 31 TV show, The F-Word, and is currently a co-host of a gaming a pop-culture YouTube show, Mana Mojo.

With her strong female idols including Buffy Summers, Kara “Starbuck” Thrace and Special Agent Dana Scully, Tahlia is also a bit of a geek and has worked in the gaming industry as a presenter, reviewer and salesperson.

Tahlia writes a blog on sexuality and relationships and hopes to one day pen a graphic novel.

Emily Connolly considers herself a bit of a freelance feminist (killjoy) and likes to throw herself into various community projects and events.

Emily studied Gender Studies and Sociology at the University of Melbourne where she had the absolute pleasure of writing her honours thesis on SlutWalk. She has been a part of Social and Community Development Programs at the ASRC since May 2014 and is currently working to create programs for women seeking asylum in Melbourne. Emily was also part of the SlutWalk Melbourne Team in 2015, which gave her the chance to live her feminist politics – and she LOVED every minute of it!

Emily enjoys having polite but angry rants about society, eating cheese and basking in the magic of being in a room filled with feminist babes.

After volunteering at the dream that was the inaugural GOFF, she is thrilled to be Co-Producer of Girl Germs and Volunteer Manager for GOFF 2015.

Bridget is the office manager of a community television production house. She crews on various television productions as a screen editor, writer, floor manager, camera operator and audio technician. She currently runs a comedy writers room for women and produces comedy web sketches. She is a proud feminist killjoy and in her spare time she performs improvised comedy on a house team at The Improv Conspiracy.

Emerald Cowell is a freelance media coordinator and community radio broadcaster. She completed her Bachelor of Professional Communications at RMIT University at the start of this year, after living in Vietnam for seven months. She hasn’t quite got over not being able to ride her motorbike everywhere, or pay only 50c for a pork roll. Since, she has volunteered her time at Oaktree, as Communications Director for the Live Below the Line campaign. She also worked on MIFF, in between running the social media channels for Melbourne jeweller inSync design. She is a massive local music enthusiast, and loves spending her time hanging out in the Triple R studios from 2-6am monthly. As a huge film junkie, she feels super lucky to have joined the GOFF team this year, helping as a projectionist and co-producer.

Kassi is a library lover, a feminist, and a lover of stories. Her obsession with female-led narratives began with Mary Poppins and is currently fawning over Minnie from The Diary of a Teenage Girl. For GOFF she is the Ticketing Manager and general helper-outer. When not working at the library she can be found reading too many books, watching too much TV, and listening to Harry Potter audiobooks on repeat.