Why are there so few female film directors?

One, the people making them have no fucking taste, two, they're morons, three they're insulting panderers who think they're making movies for the great unwashed and that's what they want.

pretty much otm unfortunately

I'm wondering when the young white male demographic will get a movie of our own

I can only hope to do it as much justice as Manohla does Ephron's movies.

http://www.indiewire.com/article/b.o._of_the_00s_the_top_grossing_female_helmed_films/

Awesome, TS. I was just looking for something like that.

Third place is What Women Want. It should all be so easy.

I would pay to see a movie of Manohla Dargis intelligently cursing up a storm.

letting Nora Ephron have it should always be encouraged.

― Feingold/Kaptur 2012 (Dr Morbius), Monday, December 14, 2009 9:39 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Agreed. Julie and Julia was such a nice, pleasant, charming DOG TURD of a film.

Half a dog turd. The other half was just dog food.

The Julie parts were garbage. The Julia Child parts were enjoyable but kind of empty at the same time: has idea to write cookbook -> writes cookbook -> gets it published! Yay, life is swell! The end.

A male film-critic friend of mine noted when I last saw him that his favorite two films of 2009 are directed by women -- Bigelow's The Hurt Locker and Campion's forthcoming Bright Star.

Would this be Brian, "Jaymc's film-critic friend"????

4. jaymc's "film critic friend"
Defining Characteristics: metaphorically stands in for ILXors pathological habit for using film critic quotes instead of stating their own thoughts
Most Famous Battle(s): being invoked by adamrl on the Capote thread
Humanizing Factor: is friends with jaymc, so is probably sweet like sugar pie
Secret Powers: too good to throw down in the low-down catty 300-plus-post battles
Weak Point/Guilty Pleasure/Kryptonite Analogue: ditto
Known Enemies: adamrl
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 3 March 2006 02:00 (3 years ago)

Would this be Brian, "Jaymc's film-critic friend"????

Indeed!

I missed him.

I never see him anymore. I sort of fell out of touch with the group of friends I met him through. Plus, he had a kid a few months ago. But you know, if you're curious about his take on recent films, go nuts.

He agrees with Tomatometer 79% of the time. Figured it would be higher than that. I feel like I've had to make a conscious effort to get mine down to 75%.

And that's with the help of dozens of Disney movies.

that movie cost $40million?!?

PUPPET MOVIES ARE EXPENSIVE.

Also, FMF has only grossed $16m.

I think this is true for a lot of black filmmakers too – they're held to a higher standard. And an unfair standard. You can be a male filmmaker and if you're perceived as a genius – a boy genius or a fully-formed adult genius

this is such a fascinating area - generally the lack of artistry seen in black art at large. if you're brian wilson and you spend your days pushing buttons you're a troubled genius, if you're sly stone and you re-record all your album tracks yourself you're a power crazed whacked out saboteur.

sly is generally viewed as a troubled genius iirc

yeah I don't buy that at all, critics love female 'troubled geniuses' too - sylvia plath, cat power etc.

It's the 1p3 What Do You WISH You Looked Like Thread ; )

generally the lack of artistry seen in black art at large.

this is a fairly inexplicable charge to make

America LOVES black music FYI and not for any perceived "lack of artistry"

female trouble genius

generally the lack of artistry seen in black art at large.

this is a fairly inexplicable charge to make

i don't know if i can articulate what i'm getting at, but i think that the standard 'artistic' model, of some piece of art being the product of a refined expressive mind, is less visible. to stick to my previous example, because it's easier to be narrow, i think the comparative coverage of there's a riot goin' on and pet sounds or smile is so jarring - there are obviously too many variables and differences in style to call them analogues, but it feels like similar stories reach different conclusions and laud one guy and not the other. i'm obviously not disputing that america loves black music; or that american music is black music etc etc etc; and not suggesting that it fetishises its lack of artistry? i am trying to put words to the vague idea that genius or artist is bestowed on white authors or whatever sooner than it is elsewhere; maybe that's an inevitable high/low culture judgement.

I don't know what universe you're living in where Sly is not lauded. Greil Marcus wrote a whole chapter about Riot, he didn't write shit about Brian Wilson for ex.

and that's not some retrospective thing either, Sly was lauded as a genius from the get-go, and rightly so. Brian had to grow into it publicly. Both squandered it, obviously.

yeahhh I think your argument might feel stronger if you weren't using a super acclaimed album / ilx's top album of the 70s as an example of some ignored piece of black culture

http://yallbcn.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/gza1.jpg

Not even just Sly -- Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder were hailed as artistic geniuses around the same time.

curtis mayfield

yeahhh I think your argument might feel stronger if you weren't using a super acclaimed album / ilx's top album of the 70s as an example of some ignored piece of black culture

ha, yeah maybe so. it isn't the ignored piece of black culture thing that i'm suggesting though; more that it can still occupy a prominent position but without the same kudos for the author. man i don't even know.

charlie parker

yeahhh this list of geniuses is pretty damning - i'm not proposing some kind of segregation or conspiracy, was just thinking that maybe people weren't as quickfire with the g word overall, or that there's a higher standard for it in black music. maybe i'm wrong.

miles davis
john coltrane

duke ellington
james brown
michael jackson

(altho megalolz at a thread about sexism turning into - AGAIN - a thread about racism)

I don't think sly stone's story is as easy to romanticize as brian wilson's mostly just cause brian wilson was genuinely crazy in a weirdo childish way before and after doing drugs...whereas sly stone just seems like a genius who became a drug burnout case. there are plenty of comparable white drug burnout case geniuses that aren't given a brian wilson treatment...cause, well, they're not brian wilson.

So ... is our solution to female directors: Become black male musicians?

Yeah, actually, if anything, the innate talent of black artists has become a sort of pernicious stereotype. That is, we're told black artists have "natural rhythm," that the blues comes from deep within their souls, that Charlie Parker's dazzling improvisation is an outpouring of his tortured inner life, etc., all of which downplays the role of conventional training and hard work in their artistic success.

If only women naturally remembered which end of the camera to look into.

find the right end of the camera? mine can't even find the *kitchen*

^^^not really doing ILX any favors here guys

I can think of a few favors I'd like to ask of certain female directors. Meow!

i am trying to put words to the vague idea that genius or artist is bestowed on white authors or whatever sooner than it is elsewhere

The closest guess I can make is schlump is making a roughly parallel diagnosis to the way the sports media lauds black athletes as "natural." (and whites as gritty hustlers)

Anyway, I didn't know Timespeople could curse in real life like Dargis, cuz I had drinks w/ at least two last week and they didn't!

Way to network, Morbs!

one, there was a lot of discussion of "the hurt locker" on the kathryn bigelow thread.

two, my one and only post on this thread is :) to me right now

this thread has a classic 'first post' imo.

q: why are there so few black film directors?
a: spike lee!

I am sincerely hoping Bigelow continues to make as thorough a bitch of Cameron at the major awards as she has in the various critics' circles.