Reel Woman, Real Goals

The first Monday of every month the film group known as Reel Women gather to discuss the current month's agenda.

Reel Women, led by executive director Sherry Mills, is a non-profit organization that provides local support for women of all experience levels in the film and video industry. The monthly goal for Reel Women is to make their prescence in the community known, so women can fully compete in the Austin/Third Coast film industry.

Reel Women meetings are conducted for the 10-member board of directors to plan out the the meeting mixers and work in contention for the group to lobby behind.

The mixers are a place for women of the industry to gather in a social setting to meet members of the film and video community. For the current week, the host of the mixer is Deena Kalai, voted on by the board members. As mixer host, Deena is expected to organize, advertise and schedule a speaker for the event.

Other topics of the day included ways to involve more women with their group. As a whole the organization still felt under-represented in the Austin film community.

"I came to Reel Women when I first moved to Austin as a place to meet people when I didn't know anyone," said Ballard. "I knew that I wanted to work with film, and they welcomed me into their board right away."

Cheers were given to Elise Ballard for her recent success with the documentary, "Lord of the Weens" based on the Buda dog races held annually.

"We want this to be a place where women can come and help each other out," said Mills. "The industry in Austin has so much going on that it could be hard to get a film like Elise's screened without the support of an organization like this."

Another topic of discussion for the weekly meeting was the Reel Women promotional video compiled by the board members for the review of their executive director, Sherry Mills.

At the end of the 2-hour meeting, the group gathers around a small laptop to watch and critique the video.

Sherry Mills graciously thanks the members for their attendace. The casual meeting ends like a night out with girlfriends, and the members stagger out one by one, until next time.