The film industry does have a pretty high concentration of women, however for some reason (I have no idea why), most of them work in roles out of the spotlight. But as you rightly observe, bar a couple of people, there are virtually no big name females behind the camera -- evidenced by the fact that Sophia Coppola's Academy nod this year is only the second time a woman has been nominated for Best Director (Jane Campion was the first for The Piano)

Ben C.

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Don't despair... when I first got into the biz (only 1991), there were few women on set. The exception, of course, was the Glam Squad. Only a few years later, women are everywhere, and men (for the most part) don't think anything about it. That said, it is still very male-dominated, so the women who end up succeeding are usually able to deal with that sort of macho bs. Good luck.

(Try this link for an organization (Women In Film) filled with women who actually work in film--as opposed to just talking about it: ?url? http://www.wif.org?/url?)

"On a good gate, that's a wrap."

No offense, but I think Sophia Coppola's the most God-awful director in hollywood. She completely butchered The Virgin Suicides. If it weren't for her father, I don't think she'd be in the industry or even close. Personally, I think they threw her the nomination just to have a female just to be able to say that there was a female nominee for director.

While that may be true, I question your tact. This was a thread about women in film....

"On a good gate, that's a wrap."

Thanks for the replies guys ?:)?
I am pretty interested now so i think i'm gonna do some more research...

take it easy! ?;)?

"...and that's how the cookie crumbles..."

I'm no expert yet i get the impression that world cinema has many more females in dominant,and successful, roles behind the camera than usa.

Certainly on the low-budget shoots I've worked on women have been common in crew positions: in fact for one low-budget feature there were three or four guys in camera, lighting and production design and the rest of the crew were women. I haven't met many people making documentaries for TV, but there most of the producers and directors I have met were women (and Leni Riefenstahl, for example, is often regarded as one of the best documentary directors of all time).

As for why there aren't more female movie directors, I'd guess there are two reasons: firstly I haven't met many women who are interested in movie technology, or who have the determination to fight through all the crap required to get a movie made... though with DV reducing the cost of a half-decent movie to something that anyone can fund, that's less of an issue these days. Secondly, most current female movie directors I can think of seem to either make movies that suck or movies for a limited market, neither of which is likely to encourage studios to hire them except as a token example of their 'feminist' policies.

Jane Campion, for example: I haven't see 'The Piano', but I did see her last movie and I thought it was pretty dire. That didn't stop it getting awards and good reviews, which may make her happy but doesn't help any good female director succeed if awards and good reviews for female directors come to be seen as just 'positive discrimination'.

I wouldn't go around holding up Leni The Nazi as a paragon of sisterhood filmmaking 😉

Back to your point about the movies women make (although really we shouldn't make that distinction?), I was disappointed in Lynne Ramsay's choice of subject after RatCatcher. The title suggests the story of a woman's struggle against life's adversities but the actual story is about a dazed, anti-hero. Either way I wasn't interested in the film - the title itself put me off. I don't need to see another story about a suffering woman. Okay so men have been, are and will be bastards - I get the idea.

Nor am I interested in the story of a nihilistic character either - it always makes for the most boring of stories. It's like any movie about the Mr Ripley character (e.g. The Talented Mr Ripley) - such characters evoke no sympathy and make you miss the traditional character arc. Even Hannibal has some strange twisted sense of honour. However, female and male directors make such boring movies so I'm inclined to ditch the distinction. Just look at Point Break or Strange Days for great action or sci-fi movies.

I suspect the reason why we have a preponderance of male directors is probably down to some form of sexism, conscious or otherwise. The sisters will have to roll up their sleeves and keep bashing at it - no way are the blokes gonna own up and say "yeh, it's a fair cop, we work in an institutionally sexist industry". Let battle commence 😉

Ray

serious about nothin' 'cept film

...one final point.

This female/male thing reminds me of my Creative Writing days in Bristol. Every so often I would find myself rolling my eyes at having to listen to another poem about having a baby.

I get a similar reaction when I hear of another gross out comedy about how disgusting single men are (hygenically speaking 🙂 Both sexes keep repeating the same cliches. If you want to be a better writer, then by all means be aware of gender difference but then dig out the universal values (or evils) you find in life and build your stories around those.

cheers

Ray

serious about nothin' 'cept film

quote:

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Originally posted by Ray

I wouldn't go around holding up Leni The Nazi as a paragon of sisterhood filmmaking

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I don't see why: she's generally accepted to have been one of the best documentary directors, and as far as I'm aware she wasn't a Nazi, just someone Hitler had the hots for.

But then I thought 'Triumph of the Will' showed the Nazis as a bunch of lunatics and losers, in any case... I'm surprised that anyone thought it was a good advert for them.

quote:

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Back to your point about the movies women make (although really we shouldn't make that distinction?),

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Again, why should we ignore the fact that women tend to make very different movies to men? I can't think of a single great action movie from a female director, just as I can't think of a single great '40-something women in New York who can't find a good man' movie by a male director... though given how many New York Angst movies Woodie Allen has made, he's probably covered that topic at least a couple of dozen times.

That's no reason to discourage female directors if there's a market for those kind of movies, but ignoring reality because of political correctness is just silly.

Hilarious!

quote:

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I can't think of a single great action movie from a female director, just as I can't think of a single great '40-something women in New York who can't find a good man' movie by a male director...

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To gain some useful info on the subject try these, for example;

Women Directors :The Emergence of a New Cinema. by Barbara Quest
or,

Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema 1896 to the Present.

Because we do not see female directors so much at the oscars or our local cinemas (english speaking countries) bears no reflection on the fact that around the world many females are and have been making films for a long time.

Just been in australia where the forever excellent SBS tv channell had a doco on women in film,and had interviews with several female directors.....
also a newish trend seems to be imerging, female dop?s....quite a few now in ozzie and nz!.A first i think,was aussie dp,Mandy Walker being asked by an amercian director to go to the states to shoot.
Saw a great film the ohter day, LoveLiza, shot by a Lisa...??sorry have to research that one myself?

it?s happening.....

Kimberley pierce and Christine Vachon