from gat

Following a fall festival tour for her latest feature film, The Animal Project, Ingrid Veninger returned to Toronto with a desire to see more fiction features written and directed by Canadian women. On November 18th, she proposed the idea of a screenwriting lab on her Facebook page, and received 20 submissions.

“I want to galvanize the Canadian women who have already completed at least one feature film”, says DIY Queen Ingrid Veninger, “and who want to pursue their filmmaking with an eye on taking bigger creative risks.”

“When I won the EDA Award for The Animal Project at the Whistler Film Festival from the Alliance of Women Film Journalists,” adds Ingrid, “I decided to take a chance at the podium. I offered a first look at the 6 scripts written in the Femmes Lab, to the first person who stepped up with $6000… The room was stone silent until Melissa Leo stood up and shouted, “I’ll do it!”… she’s is a true champion. Over the holidays I received Melissa’s cheque, which will be shared between the participating women. Then TIFF offered us a place to meet at the Lightbox. So it’s on!”

pUNK Films FEMMES LAB will run a total of six months, from January to June, 2014, where the 6 participants will meet once a month. At the end of the six months, six feature film screenplays will be complete.

“Anais and Mars have ideas for their scripts so their feet are already in the water, but the rest of us, myself included, are back at the beach. We had our first lab session the other day, and each of us defined our goals for February. It’s going to be intense, but I am so excited about this Lab, and I’m so grateful to Melissa for taking the leap with us.” – Ingrid Veninger

The 6 participants of the pUNK Films FEMMES LAB are: