Mind the Gap: Half of all females fall through

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Are you a young smart and ambitious female? Think you have what it takes to make it to the top in filmmaking? You may have the talent, but after getting your foot in the door, there’s a 50% chance you will have dropped out of the running by the age of 35. There’s a 93% chance you’ll never make it to the director’s chair on a mainstream film. Not because you’re not good enough but because you’re a girl.

School corridor (history)Medium close up of female student.Zooms out to reveal further 3 students, 2 male, 2 female. All start walking towards camera.

Need to design timeline in PhotoShop.

So where are all the female directors? Is it a role that females have never been interested in? Or is it the case that women have been sidelined in cinema history? A quick search through the imdb website reveals there were many women directing films in the early 1900s.

Imdb search footage – entering ‘female directors…’

Credit for the first film has been given to the Lumiere brothers but there is evidence to suggest that a woman was actually the first director of a narrative film. Alice Guy directed thousands of films and her first may have been made as early as 1896. But you’ll not find her in

Lumiere brothers first film footage (youtube – invention of cinema.

Photo of Alice Guy

List of films directed by her moving in the

many accounts of cinema history. background/images of films rotating

Bump her to the side/fade her out

Hollywood director Dorothy Arzner is also ignored in most film histories yet her work was innovative in many areas. She directed Paramount’s first talkie in 1929 and invented the first boom mike during that shoot.

Guy and Arzner are only two examples of talented and ground breaking female directors who have been side-lined in the recording of film history and the development of film theory.

Photo of Dorothy Arzner

List of films directed by her moving in the background/ images of films rotating

The theory informing the study of film tends to focus on the director as male and directing as a male pursuit. Even feminist film theory has traditionally focused on a male director.

Auteur theory in particular seems to have sidelined the female director by setting standards for greatness that were only achievable by men.

Key theories in film held up on card by female student. Stops on Auteur theory.

Image of Clooney as director

In the 1950s, French film critics sought to move the film director to the status of individual artist Picture of Jacques Rivette with caption

and author of film but they didn’t consider the work of female directors in their articles. Jacques Rivette named four male film-makers when he announced the arrival of “the age of the auteurs” in 1955. The British film journal Movie published “The Talent Histogram” in 1962 and only two women are on the list Also in 1962, American film critic Andrew Sarris first employed the use of the term Auteur Theory and in 1968 he published Directors and Directions. In this book he has 11 different categories for 200 film directors and there are only 2 women mentioned in this guide. Ida Lupino appeared in category VIII. Oddities, One-Shots, and Newcomers. Mae West appeared in category X. Make Way for the Clowns.

Image for Movie Journal with scrolling text: great, brilliant etc

Picture of Shirley ClarkePicture of Muriel Box

Picture of Andrew Sarris

Scrolling text

Picture of Ida lupino

Picture of Mae West

Sarris top category is titled Pantheon Directors and here it seems he has exalted the exclusively male list of directors to god-like status. He refers to the lack of female directors in his entry for Ida Lupino by writing that the actress and one time director Lillian Gish said directing was no job for a lady.

Image of page

Well that was in the 60s you might think, Imbd of female directors

there’s bound to have been loads of female directors in Hollywood since who would deserve credit in an updated guide to ‘the greatest’ directors.

Oscars list on imdb?

Kathryn Bigelow is now the female director many people can refer to because she made global headlines in 2010 for her ‘Best Director’ Oscar. She is only the fourth female to have ever been nominated in that category even though there is a large selection of quality films directed by women to choose from.

Picture of Bigelow with Oscar

Imdb search

Bigelow is one of the few current female film makers who would be eligible for the application of auteur – she produced a body of work within a single production context, she has worked in the universal ‘action’ genre and she has a visual style.

Picture of bigelow (on different film sets if possible)

Film clips

It could be argued that the only reason Bigelow has not been sidelined is because her films fit with a male dominated industry’s idea of what is significant. It could be argued that Bigelow has sold out because she distances herself from feminine content and feminism. Or we could just celebrate the fact that a woman has held her own in a male dominated industry and in doing so has prompted fresh debate on the

Youtube of Bigelow giving advice

gender gap issue, in the media and in the classroom.Now you know the gap exists, maybe you can do something about it?

Her advice – youtube when asked if she has any, then round table when she gives example.