---

The Women's Film & Video Collective was formed in the Fall of 1995 by a group of women in the Department of Film & Media Arts at Temple University. In general, women in the department felt comfortable in the realms of video and documentary but unequipped to handle narrative film production. While many of us were eager to work on other students' film shoots, it seemed as if men students continued to be chosen as DPs and ACs while women were asked to take on administrative roles like production manager and assistant director. The collective formed primarily as a means of getting women in the department up to speed on a variety of technical skills. Once equipped with more knowledge and hands-on experience, we could start taking on these more important and challenging roles. Although the collective started as a conversation between a small group of people, it has continued to grow as more and more women in the department, including graduate and undergraduate students, have expressed a desire for a better grounding in technical skills. Collective projects have since grown to include women in other departments as well as women artists and filmmakers outside of Temple University. The collective has offered hands-on workshops in all areas of film production in addition to functioning as a rotating production crew. In the Spring of 1996, the collective produced IF THIS THEN THAT -- six women directors shot six short films, each short dealing with a different superstition. Key positions were rotated between collective participants so that everyone gained experience in all major areas. The collective is currently organizing production for Spring 1997 projects.