How women won the West

A GALLOWAY film-maker is putting a female spin on traditional Western movies.

While Jessica Fox’s Spaghetti Western production will feature all the usual Hollywood elements, including sheriffs, gun-toting outlaws, saloons, bar brawls and shoot-outs - it will be very different from old-fashioned cowboy films.

For not only is the entire project female-led, aiming to be fully funded by women and coming from Scotland, it will also have a flavour of Sicilian cooking.

US-born writer and director Jessica now lives in Wigtown and she’s trying to open the door for more female influence in the movie industry.

She has teamed up with producer Diana Phillips for the forthcoming Spaghetti Western story. Set in 1881 Elena Fardella, a young Sicilian widow, finds herself thrust into the battle for control of the remote, dust-blown town of Eden, New Mexico.

Her only weapon is her skill as a cook and determination to use food to bring people together. Will the penne prove mightier than the sword?

Development funding is in place for the big screen movie, thanks to female angel investors, and the team is calling on other women to seize the chance to be part of a project aiming to change the movie-making landscape.

Fox, above, said: “It’s a fun, authentic, deliciously different take on the Wild West – how it was really won, as gun toting bad guys face the ultimate showdown when Sicilian cookery comes to town.

“But the project is far bigger, it’s about empowering women of the 21st century to start transforming the movie industry, by getting involved as investors, directors and producers.

“It’s a sector that’s overwhelmingly dominated by men. Men decide who and what to fund, the film and TV that we watch and our cultural narratives. Even the films with female central characters are largely made through the male gaze.

“It’s time that changed, with fresh stories and ideas that bring new perspectives to the big screen – and with that, new audiences.

“The only way that’s going to happen is if we begin making movies that are funded by women and offer the insights and experience they need to truly take the leading role.

“She who holds the purse strings tells the story.”

Investors are being offered a variety of benefits in addition to a potential return, including the chance to make an appearance on film.

Phillips said: “We have a brilliant script, a great creative team, the music has been recorded and development funding is in place – now we are looking for women to come forward as investors and collaborators so we can make a great movie and a real difference to the movie industry.”

It is hoped filming will begin early next year.

* For more about Spaghetti Western, go to www.spaghettiwesternthemovie.com

Photos by Colin Hattersley