Fuelling the Fire: WW: Where do you draw your personal power from?
Plenty of sleep and great colleagues and friends, and a tight creative community. WW: What activities or thinking disciplines keep you motivated, fresh, focused and on track?
I walk up Mt Victoria a couple of times a week, see movies, plays and I like to dance. I love writing – getting myself engrossed in a story. Very seductive. I live in two time zones – the time of day and the time and place of the story in my head. WW: How do you think women in film are perceived by their male counterparts in 2012? As equals, or lacking in competence at the higher levels?
I think I get respect, and I am blessed with longstanding great creative relationships, but I do think I am not taken as seriously than I would be if I was a man with my track record. The fact that my production office is in my home, and that I pursue the Atlier model rather than the industrial model also contributes, but the Atlier model has contributed to my being able to bring up my daughter and look after my ailing mother until she dies, while still taking a leading role in New Zealand Filmmaking. WW: Generally speaking what do you think distinguishes women's film production style from men's?
Every director has a different voice who ever they are, but only 8% of the world's feature films are made by women so the female point of view is by definition unusual. WW: Which women filmmakers have you watched with interest?
Agnes Vajda, Jane Campion, Claire Denise, Andrea Arnold, Katherine Bigalow
Top left-right: Gaylene and her team on set of Mr Wrong; Gaylene Preston and Robin Laing; On location for the film, Mr Wrong.
Bottom left-right: Gaylene Preston, Heather Bolton and Robin Laing; Gaylene and the Bread and Roses team; Gaylene and Mr Wrong promotional merchandise
WHO'S WHO 2012 | 17
