Cirrus@Austlit

'This pilot webisode opens with an interview between two women, a filmmaker and an entertainment reporter. This is revealed to be a scene from a comedy film by rising Hollywood star Marty Madden – who exists in a world where our familiar gender roles are reversed. Marty in turn has reversed the roles of his world, thus presenting us with a version of the world we know as if it were an imagined satire. The context is the opening night of a Men’s Film Festival, the brainchild of organiser Andy Lederman, whose journey through the week of his festival provides the arc of the series. Mounting the Men’s film festival is set in a world where male filmmakers bristle at being called ‘male filmmakers’, where men are tired of being asked how they balance work and family and where women might take their privileged position for granted. As part of wider doctoral research into female perspectives in screen comedy, particularly the relationships between comedy, point-of-view and gender in dominant screenwriting models, this script speaks to the satirical device of using gender switch narratives, and puts into practice scholarly questions around the benefits and limitations of this approach.' (Publication abstract)