Mind the Gap: Half of all females fall through

AUDIO IMAGE NOTES

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 92% 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.The statistics would suggest you still have to fight for equal opportunities.

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.Jump cut to 2 males, 1 femaleJump cut 2 malesJump cut to 1 male, stops at medium close up, winks at camera, lifts megaphoneGirl running up corridor, grabs megaphone, pushes male, shouts “ACTION”

Need to design timeline in PhotoShop.

Rebecca justifies need for womens’ support group in the industry

Rebecca at desk Need text

Lack of female directors. “Directors are overwhelmingly male”

Lesley Need text

This seems astonishing when there were so many women directing films in the early 1900s. A search through internet movie database

Screen recording of imdb search on women directors

shows the long list of films directed by women at the time. Credit for the first narrative 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 many accounts of cinema history.

Photo of Alice Guy

List of films directed by her moving in the 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

Back to students?

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.

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

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

Image of Clooney as director

In the 1950s, French film critics sought to move the film director to the status of individual artist 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 categorised directors as either Great, Brilliant, Very Talented, Talented, Competent and Ambitious and The Rest. I could find only two women on the list with Shirley Clarke listed under Competent and Ambitious and Muriel Box listed under The Rest. 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 1929 – 1968. In this book he has 11 different categories for 200 film directors and I managed to find two women in this guide. Ida Lupino appeared in category VIII. Oddities, One-Shots, and Newcomers. Mae West appeared in category X.

Picture of Jacques Rivette with caption

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

Make Way for the Clowns.

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 acting was no job for a lady. He also writes that “..relatively few women have put the matter to the test”. He goes on to list female directors, including Dorothy Arzner, and states, “they come to mind as little more than a ladies’ auxiliary.”

Image of page

Well that was in the 60s you might think, 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. So how many female directors can you think of? [Insert Vox Pop]

Imbd of female directors

Vox pop images

Kathryn Bigelow is now the female director many people can refer to because she made global headlines in 2010 for her ‘Best Director’

Picture of Bigelow with Oscar

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. A quick search through imdb will confirm that women mostly direct films in the drama and romantic comedy genres but they have been directing in a range of genres over the years. Few women get the opportunity to direct an action film but this is where Bigelow has managed to achieve her status as a ‘great’ director.

Imdb search

Bigelow as auteur – meeting criteria of Sarris and co. Christina Lane article.

Picture of bigelow (on different film sets if possible)

How did she get there? Comments on masculinity, comments on husband etc. Her comments on this. Her advice.

See BFI auteur resource

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

The “Bigelow effect”?

Statistics for 2011 (from sargent-disc or Lauzen) Back to one male and one female student holding up cards with statistics highlighting gender gap and difference in pay.