This week I’m joined by Corrina Antrobus, who is very much someone I started the podcast with the intent to interview.
As you can tell by the runtime, we covered a lot, which is predominantly due to the fact that Corrina is a very busy woman and has had a really dynamic career, so there were lots of threads to explore. Corrina started out in VOD marketing for Virgin Movies, having worked her way up from receptionist and then moved over to Picturehouse Cinemas & Picturehouse Entertainment to become their Communications Manager, handling press and PR for releases such as God’s Own Country, Animals, The Wife, Out of Blue, Capernaum, The Last Tree and Monos.
She recently left that job to become Arts and Culture Communications Officer for Hackney, so we talk about what prompted that move, how she felt about slightly leaving the world of film and what projects she’s currently working on.
And then on top of that Corrina is the founder of Bechdel Test Fest - an ongoing screening collective who present films with a positive representation for women in film that she runs alongside Beth Webb, Steph Watts and Caitlin Quinlan who are all incredible women with many a side hustle in their own right.
The first event I ever went to was a 25th anniversary screening of Thelma & Louise, and I’ve since been to several sold-out screenings that they’ve put on, always with a really thoughtfully considered panel that provides fresh context to older films.
We devote a big chunk of the interview to talking about what prompted Corrina to start the festival, what her programming principles are and how she got the thing up and running. Alongside that we talk about the power of social media, the importance of seeing positive representations of women and people of colour, what Corrina has learnt since setting up the festival and the advice she would pass on to anyone wanted to run their own collective. And in a podcast first, we also discuss redundancy and how Corrina dealt with her experience of that.
It’s a really lovely episode I think - Corrina is incredibly smart and thoughtful and there are lots of other topics I could’ve and would’ve love to pick her brain about, but I think we’ve done a pretty good job of covering her many passions and pursuits and I hope you enjoy hearing about them.
This is episode 45 of Best Girl Grip.
Episode 060: Grace Snell, Costume Designer
Episode 059: Mahalia John, Central / Clapper Loader
Episode 058: Rebecca Horsburgh, Grip (Key Grip & Best Boy Grip)
Episode 057: Lara Manwaring, Casting Director
Episode 056: Rina Yang, Cinematographer
REISSUE: Episode 045: Corrina Antrobus, Founder of Bechdel Test Fest
Episode 055: Anna Bertmark, Sound Designer & Supervisor
Episode 054: Cat Marshall, Production Supervisor at Warp Films & Producer
Episode 53: Emma Norton, Producer at Element Pictures
Episode 52: Meroë Candy, Story Research & Production Consultant
Episode 51: Rosie Crerar & Ciara Barry, Producers
Episode 050: Lizzie Francke, Senior Production and Development Executive at the BFI's Film Fund (Live at the Glasgow Film Festival)
Episode 049: Roxana Adle, Talent Agent at Independent Talent
Episode 048: Sanne Jehoul, Co-Director of Glasgow Short Film Festival
Episode 047: Clarisse Loughrey, Chief Film Critic at The Independent
Episode 046: Nia Hughes, Organising Official at BECTU
Episode 044: Gini Godwin, Production Designer
Episode 043: Kharmel Cochrane, Casting Director
Episode 042: Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, Composer
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Sackhoff Show
Toon’d In! with Jim Cummings
Still Here Hollywood
Team Deakins
You Can’t Make This Up