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September 23 - October 11,
2002
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Directed by Brita McVeigh (New
Zealand, 2002)
Brita McVeigh's documentary "Coffee,
Tea or Me?" soberly,
but also humorously, looks at the changing social
role of female flight attendants working in New Zealand
from the early 1960s to the 1980s. Domestic and international
air travel increased in New Zealand, and so did the
need for airline work. Young women just out of high
school and college were encouraged to work for local
airlines, and ultimately became part of the national
tourist image as perfectly coiffed "air
hostesses."
As the 1960s progressed, music,
fashion and lifestyle changes affected New
Zealand's airline industry both inside and out. The "trolley
dollies," as they became known, were dressed
in stunning and slightly campy Christian Dior
uniforms reflecting the flamboyant mood of the
decade. Emerging social
changes such as the women's movement and pop
music culture shaped and influenced the young
women who jetted across the Pacific to Fiji, Tahiti,
Hawaii and Los Angeles. Shorter skirt hemlines might
have
suggested a playful uniform style in the burgeoning
free-love era, but self-awareness and gender politics
had created shifts in ways that fashion styles had
not. Although women
in the airline industry found new confidence in social
change, it
was often reduced in the company of men. Veteran flight
attendants interviewed in the film mentioned the running
joke
of stuffing luggage in overhead bins for male travelers,
and flight stewards wanting to catch sight
of an airhostess' rear end.
"Coffee, Tea or Me?" also
takes a substantial look beyond the surface trends
in the airline industry. By the Seventies, some women
who outgrew their youth and waistlines, or those who
married were fired. Others found themselves with careers
in the airline industry, not just an interim job in
the sky. And while sexual harassment was common but
not
impeded by policy, many female flight attendants pursued
unionization to address pressing concerns like unequal
pay and benefits, and later brought a class action
suit against the airlines to address these issues.
Their
legal battles, marred at times with corporate blacklisting
and in some cases, the threat of violence,
represents an arduous struggle to improve standards
for women working as flight attendants in New Zealand
-- a struggle that wasn't completely
resolved until the mid-1980s.
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