Why are there so few female film directors?

I love Diane Keaton's Heaven. Totally disorienting cut-up sampledelic documentary on beliefs concerning the afterlife. She even samples a lot of the same materials as Negativland, and used 'Walter Westinghouse' by the Residents as soundtrack the section on Hell.

I kind of assumed there'd be at least one rave blog review of how ahead that film was, but just found some withering NYT review, who at least had the virtue of being completely wrong, but was shocked to see coverage hasn't caught up to that one

i remember seeing her promote that on Letterman.

In the early days of cinema it was primarily women editing film.

― tokyo rosemary, Tuesday, May 26, 2009 8:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I want to say it was for some totally sexist reason like 'they have such little hands and can spend hours and hours cutting up film!'

― tokyo rosemary, Tuesday, May 26, 2009 8:02 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's just a different form of sewing

the edit bay is the kitchen of the entertainment industry

guys, i feel like it's almost evenly matched when it comes to documentaries

this year women swept sundance doc awards

because documentaries are less about the "vision" (i.e. the ego) of the director?

or at least, they should be.

Editing seems to be a a pretty female friendly profession in the film industry

In the early days of cinema it was primarily women editing film.

― tokyo rosemary, Wednesday, May 27, 2009 2:01 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I want to say it was for some totally sexist reason like 'they have such little hands and can spend hours and hours cutting up film!'

― tokyo rosemary, Wednesday, May 27, 2009 2:02 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

iirc also lots of women in other important branches, especially scenario-construction, and script-girling, though not direction* so much.

though it should be said that editors were not credited as such for a looooong time, and it wasn't seen as a creative act for a looooong time. but e.g. alma reville, who married hitchcock, was an editor/scenario-editor senior to him... until he overtook her lol.

*lot of early directors were the producers: it was only in the 1920s that 'director' properly caught on as a thing. could be another long-term historical factor in this.

Maybe a little earlier in Germany? Peeps like Murnau or Wegener were directing in the 1910s when the producer role was owned by the studio I think.

oh yeah i just mean the word "director" rather than the function. the two words co-existed for quite a while.

Susan Streitfeld

― Reggiano Jackson (gabbneb), Tuesday, 26 May 2009 17:21 (Yesterday)

her film female perversions is a favorite of mine. it addresses women's messy relationship to careers and success (and to sex and to sanity and to family), so it's likely to interest most folks invested in this thread. it's arty (based on a monograph about feminism and psychoanalysis, whoa) and smutty (produced by zalman king wtf) and freaky (would fit into that "vaguely lynchian indie shit" thread). it starts in a very icy, clinical cronenberg-like mode but drifts towards an emotionally resonant ending.

unfortunately she never made another feature film... probably had something to do with the patriarchal conspiracy...

it's a favorite of mine too

and ppl should know that it stars Tilda Swinton

in maybe her best role?

yes, she is incredible in it. the marketing of the film was atrocious (e.g. paulina porizkova has a brief role but is featured prominently on the vhs box), can't imagine how many dudes rented this thinking oh here's some quality red shoe diary softcore and getting hit w/ a freakazoid feminist screed that features delights such as a teenage cutter who likes to bury her menses in the desert. I dunno, maybe that was the point?

speaking of lynchian, his daughter jennifer is back in the director's chair

15 years in the wilderness seems like appropriate penance for boxing helena

jennifer lynch's new movie is called hisss and apparently mallika sherawat plays a snake

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y176/edwardiii/hisstrailer2.jpg

o lol i had 2 review her last one, 'surveillance'. it sucks, but probably not as bad as boxing helena. haven't seen it but.

'surveillance' was very early 90s.

This is as good a thread as any to ask if anybody's seen Anna Biller's Viva and if so shd I make efforts to go see it or shd I not bother?

because documentaries are less about the "vision" (i.e. the ego) of the director?

― N1ck (Upt0eleven), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 09:35 (8 hours ago) Permalink

or at least, they should be.

― N1ck (Upt0eleven), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 09:36 (8 hours ago) Permalink

plz stay off rolling documentary, kthx

in the case of this particular industry I wonder what it is about film/directing that makes sexist "old boys' club" networks more enduring than in, say (as already mentioned), music or photography or literature or whatever

I basically agree with everything that's been said above about film being so much more of an organized and hierarchical activity, and I'd add that it's that way in terms of its dissemination as well -- a lot of other art forms have an easier time dealing with niche audiences, whereas with film there are huge, complicated, and very monetarily vexed and marketing-intensive systems of what goes where.

I'm not sure how much I believe this matters, but I'd also add that mass-market films are really, really calcified in terms of genre expectations, so if you happened to believe that there are types of stories or films that women might be more inclined to want to tell or view (which is maybe true in certain ways and untrue in others), the rigid, pre-existing, marketing-based ideas of what films are supposed to be like would be working furiously against that.

And I don't know a ton about the industry, but my sense has always been that women are way underrepresented as screenwriters as well -- I tend to think that films would be way way more interesting (and maybe slightly broader in their rigid/generic ways of functioning) if this weren't the case, with writers and directors both.

Noodle, check here re: the amazing Viva:

Anna Biller's Viva = amaaaaaaaaazing film

http://www.artsjournal.com/dramaqueen/sleepless.jpg

my general perception is that there are more women screenwriters than directors but this isn't based on any research

how about female record producers? I'm sure I'm being thick but I can't think of any off hand

Linda Perry.

But there aren't many, its true

the same reason why there are few females in politics:
majority of men=ego+competition+power : the struggle gets tougher.

why there are few females in politics

um, what country are we talking about here. cuz globally speaking there are a lot of women in politics.

Why are their so few men who are in charge of casting?? HMMMM??

its kinda weird

in real life, women tend to be not as good at technical things as men. all those nasty cameras, working out angles, changing the film, all that fiddly stuff.

Why are there so few female technical thingists?

oh bless she tried to say something technical, and she's a girl!

thinging gives you wrinkles

Why can not women be technical thingers in this post-Botox enlightenment era?

in real life, women tend to be not as good at technical things as men. all those nasty cameras, working out angles, changing the film, all that fiddly stuff.

how do you account for the preponderance of female film editors?

plus unless you're kubrick or working with no budget you have people operating the cameras for you

joeks

my general perception is that there are more women screenwriters than directors but this isn't based on any research

There was a big deal made at last year's Oscars, when three of the nominees in the best original screenplay category were women (Tamara Jenkins, Nancy Oliver, and the winner, Diablo Cody).

There have been 27 women nominated for a screenplay Oscar since 1990, though 11 of them collaborated with men. (Two collaborated with each other.) Winners include, besides Cody, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (Howard's End), Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility), Fran Walsh (co-writer of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King), Diana Ossana (co-writer of Brokeback Mountain), Callie Khouri (Thelma and Louise), Jane Campion (The Piano), and Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation).

oscars.xls

Damn straight.

how many women nominated for best director since 1990? jane campion and sofia coppola maybe? can't think of any others.

that's it. and only one before jane campion.

Linda Richman: Okay. Now, this show is dedicated, as ever, to Barbra Joan Streisand. Yes. We love her. And, of course, the big news - "Prince of Tides". 7 Oscar nominations total, including Best Picture. But Barbra did not get a nomination for Best Director.

Liz: Long story short - I love "Prince of Tides". It was to die for! And to think a poor little mescite from Brooklyn made this masterpiece, and she's not getting any recognition for it.. [ near tears ] I'm sorry, but I get a little choked up!

I just remembered Mary Harron (sp?)

I mentioned her upthread. 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.

Manohla Dargis gets something off her (undoubtedly magnificent) chest:

http://jezebel.com/5426065/fuck-them-times-critic-on-hollywood-women--why-romantic-comedies-suck

Do you think that a woman would have been able to get forty million dollars to make a puppet movie the way that Wes Anderson has been able to make, bringing to bear all the publicity and advertising budget of Fox? After two movies that didn't make a lot of money? 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 – that you are allowed to fail in a way that a woman is not allowed to fail.

letting Nora Ephron have it should always be encouraged.

that movie cost $40million?!?

there's no thread on the hurt locker!

<3 Manohla