Write a short summary of what happens in the film

The film opens on young, up-and-coming Australian actress Miah Madden explaining the Aussie phrase ‘she’ll be right’. At first, she uses the phrase to dismiss unimportant problems, like cars breaking down or losing a ball over the fence. Suddenly, she begins to reference statistics on how ‘she’ is still unequal in Australian society – dismissing them using the same phrase. Depicted in native Australian bushland, Miah nonchalantly chops wood with an axe that punctuates each statistic, a traditionally masculine act that graphically signals violence, before building a fire – symbolic of the trouble and unrest Australians sit by and watch, unphased. As she speaks we see eery vignettes of spaces where women are still not equal: public spaces, workplaces, their own homes. At the end she turns to camera and questions; when will she be right?

Please tell us about the cultural insight that inspired the work

Australians are happy-go-lucky people. We’re known for our laid back, easy-going attitude. And we have a phrase that represents that attitude – if something goes wrong, we just say “she’ll be right”. It means any old problem will sort itself out with time. It’s often seen as an optimistic outlook, but it also encapsulates our cultural complacency. As a nation, we are often apathetic to issues, big or small, and have an inherent belief that things will work out, without any effort at all. It’s a phrase that absolves us of responsibility or the need to take action. So we used the phrase to talk to ‘she’ in a literal sense. Forcing Aussies to look at our terrible, declining position in the world on gender equality, and realise that ‘she’ is not right at all.