GENDER QUOTAS WILL TURN OUR FILM BOARD INTO A LAUGHING STOCK

The IFB has launched a new funding scheme for writers and directors and only people without a penis may apply. The only thing ground breaking about this is its stupidity. The problem is lack of talent among our female filmmakers not sexism. The only impressive recent title made here by a woman was Snap and that didn't even get a DVD release. The rest were mostly dire: Dollhouse/48 angels/Death games/Goldfish memory and so on. Most talented Irish filmmakers don't need the IFB - the director of Cardboard gangsters would still be making features if our Film Board closed down. Now we can expect one awful film after another because its director is a woman. Bland, dull, PC, inoffensive, diluted, over-directed, stylish, glossy crap that will only appeal to feminists attending the Galway Fleadh. Can anyone in Ireland make their own feature without State assistance? There's nothing diverse about this scheme either - where are the Irish feature films by muslim/black/blind/Loyalist/underage/Plymouth Brethren directors? Films from these people would be more interesting than from some middle-class, 'oppressed', female film graduate.