GIRLS IN GEAR GE AR .
Mikkelsen found her way into the industry through a school project on space shuttles when she was in recovery. “Now my life has come full circle, where I’ve found myself in a dream job, collaborating a great deal with the space industry,” she says. “My goal is to advance filmmaking as we know it today, and expand the stories we’re able to capture and portray. I learnt so much pushing the boundaries of what is possible on productions with Sir David Attenborough and the rock band Queen – they presented seemingly impossible challenges, but allowed my team and I to engineer new tools to make them happen. I’ve never felt as at home as I do in the film industry. However, it is strange that I am often the only female in my team. I still don’t know why this is, but I strongly urge women who wish to be part of this business to contact me. I can only hope to be as influential to you as my mentors have been in my life.” You can always find Mikkelsen on Instagram @jm_fnf
CREDITS One More Orbit (2020), The Show Must Go On (2019), Great Barrier Reef with David Attenborough (2016)
Jannicke Mikkelsen, first AC
Mikkelsen is a cinematographer and self-proclaimed tech geek from Norway. Lately, she’s been exploring virtual production in the Netflix film Stowaway , and loves all things sci-fi and fantasy, because it combines her two greatest passions: adventure and technology. “Researching next-gen tech has always been part of my life. After a traumatic head and neck injury
following a horseback accident, I spent five years learning how to walk again. Technology gave me my life back,” she explains. “Movies have a magic, inspiring you to dig deep and find the willpower to get through the worst challenges in life. It gives me energy to think I might shoot a film that speaks to someone, possibly changing their life for the better.”
ELISA L IANNACONE, DOP
CREDITS Women Building Peace (2016)
Iannacone studied film production and specialised in cinematography at York University. Later, she did an international journalism MA at City University, with a focus on conflict reporting. Practical education came from working in over 30 countries, in diverse locations – from covering Cyclone Idai’s impact in Mozambique, to the Rabaa massacre in Cairo. “I spent years creating The Spiral of Containment , a travelling art exhibition and book addressing the impact of sexual violence through photography, film, holographic projections and soundscapes. It will exhibit at the Nirox Sculpture Park in South Africa in March 2022, following an artist residency, to generate work on trauma and visual art,” she says. Every project taken on by Iannacone has been hugely rewarding as a professional, and as a human being. “I’ve learnt more about what connects us, despite geography, culture or religion. But with much of it also
therapist – and just go for it. If you want to shoot, shoot. It's as simple or complicated as we make it. For women specifically, new rules are written every day; it’s up to each of us to make the wheel turn. Backing other women is paramount – and realising that we rise together.”
comes pain; to hold space for stories of trauma or hardship. My best advice for others who wish to cover this line of work is to receive hostile environment and emergency response training, as well as finding solid emotional support from friends, or a
47. NOVEMBER 2021
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