Why are there so few female film directors?

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.

I do not miss gabbnebb I gotta say

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I do not miss gabbnebb I gotta say

x-post

― Magnolia Caboose Babyfinger (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, December 15, 2009 6:42 PM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

that is basically the only thing i was going to contribute to this thread---good riddance

This thread was the only time I got into it with gabbneb.

The relative lack of prominent female Hollywood directors is less distressing to me than the near complete lack of (Hollywood, at least) films not based on existing properties. It's almost all sequel/remake/adaptation, all the time. Credit both Bigelow and Cameron this: at least "Hurt Locker" and "Avatar" are proper original screenplays, albeit drawn from complete opposite ends of the spectrum.

Sorry, thread derail over. I was happy to see at least a few best of the decade lists that included "Beau Travail." Curious about Claire Denis' "White Material" (adapted from Doris Lessing's "The Grass Is Singing").

My brother says Dec. 2012 is not the end of the world, but the end of when Hollywood comes up with original storylines.

I do not miss gabbnebb I gotta say

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― Magnolia Caboose Babyfinger (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, December 15, 2009 7:42 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

What, did he die?

zing?

points awarded

why are there so few blended haircuts?

I really enjoyed Zoe Cassavettes' "Broken English", would like to see it again (preferably not on a date as I did on the first go-round, awkwardsies)

re Denis, White Material is nowhere as good as 35 Shots of Rum. Also, I don't remember reading it was adapted, and the iMsB seems to indicate an original script:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1135952/

ppl should pay heed to Dargis' point about Hurt Locker -- it wasn't US-financed. (Hell, 2 projects after semi-sweeping the Oscars the COENS can't make an entirely US-produced film. They might as well be women!)

The relative lack of prominent female Hollywood directors is less distressing to me than the near complete lack of (Hollywood, at least) films not based on existing properties. It's almost all sequel/remake/adaptation, all the time. Credit both Bigelow and Cameron this: at least "Hurt Locker" and "Avatar" are proper original screenplays, albeit drawn from complete opposite ends of the spectrum.

Sorry, thread derail over. I was happy to see at least a few best of the decade lists that included "Beau Travail." Curious about Claire Denis' "White Material" (adapted from Doris Lessing's "The Grass Is Singing").

― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, December 16, 2009 1:25 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

im not sure why it matters that much if stuff is or is not "based on" existing properties. especially when both 'beau travail' and 'white material' are adaptations.

yaaaaaaawwwwwnnnnnnnnn

don't get up so early then

"Beau Travail" is hardly a straight (ha) adaptation of "Billy Budd," no more than "Adaptation" was a straight adaptation of "The Orchid Thief." Or Winterbottom's "Tristam Shandy" was a straight adaptation of Sterne. And so on.

Regardless, it doesn't matter if something is adapted or not, as long as it's good. But talking with Hollywood and/or screenwriter friends these days, it sounds like if it's not adapted or based on an existing property then it has no shot getting made at all in this climate. I mean, there's always the indie route, but that creative freedom doesn't make it any easier to get a movie made, let alone to land distribution. I'm ignoring the myriad exceptions, of course, but who ever said Hollywood was consistent?

if melville is what h-wood producers would call an 'existing property' then we're in better shape than i thought

Well, I mean, currently as well as historically most of the top grossing movies as well as Best Picture noms are/were existing properties, so it can be both good and bad. A good story is a good story. What I'm talking about is an original story as potential preemptive deal-killer, which is too bad.

lets focus on removing endemic institutional sexism from the industry before we address the much bigger issue of creative bankruptcy

In some loose way they're related, I think. In that female directors might get less work because they're stereotyped as capable of making only certain types of films. Bigelow is an awesome director because not only does she make action movies and thrillers, she pretty much only makes action movies and thrillers. Who is next in line there? Mimi Leder, who went from a couple of big budget action flicks to fucking "Pay It Forward," and has been paying penance in TV ever since? But I'm sure Jane Campion or someone could make an awesome "Harry Potter" movie, at least as easily as Alfonso Cuaron did.

The Hurt Locker is not an 'action movie' in the sense her earlier ones are (tho I missed a couple like the Harrison Ford one)

Of course it's not a shoot 'em up. But there are explosions. I mean, is "Near Dark" an "action" film? "Strange Days?" No, but like Michael Mann's movies, action is inevitably one major component.

Strange Days is an action mess.

http://fadeinonline.com/articles/minority-report/

Laurel Canyon: not bad, although--the limits of my staid imagination--completely implausible in one regard (if you've seen it, you'll know what I'm referring to). Liked seeing a couple of landmarks I knew about from a book on Laurel Canyon I recently read. Haven't seen any of Lisa Cholodenko's other films.