Welcome To Refinery29's Shatterbox Anthology, 12 Short Films Directed By Women

Today Refinery29 UK is proud to launch Shatterbox Anthology, an original series of 12 short films created by women directors and writers. And there's one thing you need to know about it: we're not here to make you comfortable — we're here to tell the true stories of power and loss from our own point of view.

There has never been such a need to get more women behind the camera. In 2016, just 7% of the 250 top-grossing films in the US were directed by women. The report, conducted by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, also disclosed that 35% of films employed no women in key roles behind the camera, including writers, producers, cinematographers and editors.

And the situation is no better in the UK. A report commissioned by Directors UK last year found that between 2005 and 2014, just 13.6% of British films were directed by women and only 14.6% of those had a female screenwriter.

So R29 has joined forces with both new and veteran filmmakers to bring you creative storytelling that tackles gender, sexuality and power, all under the umbrella of the female experience in this world.

We’ll be kicking things off this Wednesday 2nd August with The Good Time Girls, directed by Courtney Hoffman and executive produced by Quentin Tarantino. Starring Laura Dern (Big Little Lies) and Alia Shawkat (Search Party), it is a rip-roaring female-driven Western short.

Over the next few weeks we’ll also be sharing with you Kristen Stewart’s 18-minute directorial debut, Come Swim, which was shown at Cannes earlier this year. Precious star Gabourey Sidibe’s The Tale Of Four, a multilayered story that spans one day in the life of four different women who are connected through their quest for love, agency and redemption, will follow. Then there’s Chloe Sevigny’s Kitty, which has already captivated the Sundance Film Festival. Look out, too, for Anu Valia’s Lucia, Before And After, which explores the limitations to abortion access still faced by women living in Texas.

We'll also be showing some incredible documentary shorts, including Pamela Romanowsky’s identity-exploring Watching You, Watching Me and Jessica Dimmock’s The Convention, which follows attendees of the Esprit conference, an annual week-long gathering of transgender women in their 50s, 60s and 70s.

Only by putting women in front of the camera, behind the camera, on set, and in the writer's position will we see truly realised depictions of women on film. We're not here to show you a pretty picture of our lives. We're here to show you something real.

Watch the video below to hear more from the female visionaries changing the film industry from the inside.