Why are there so few female film directors?

1400 films by female directors:

https://mubi.com/lists/films-directed-by-women

this thread is definitely the point where I started hating ILX and decided it was a waste of time to talk here (posting as Abbott)

I'm sorry :(

Didn't mean to dredge up bad memories (I'm re-reading the beginning of the thread now). The link showed up on my Facebook wall; didn't give it any thought, it just looked like a real labour of love, and the layout is great.

nbd; i just don't post much or try to ever change anyone's mind

or, maybe, ilx prepared me for dealing with petulant know-it-alls, and i do that in my day job now

always enjoyed when you would show up in threads about mormons and comics and whatnot

hahaha holy shit the opening run of this thread is obscene

GOod ol gabbneb remember when he was permabanned? Good times

Crabbits I miss u, hope you'll keep postin' if you can deal with paying the petulant know-it-alls no mind

I don't think I've ever gone to anything in the yearly Images festival here, but they'll be showing Barbara Loden's Wanda in 35mm in a couple of weeks--that I'll see.

In a brief Q&A after Wanda yesterday--for which I came that close to forgetting I'd bought a ticket two weeks ago; I do that sometimes--the festival woman pointed out that it's a little slow. "Exhausting" was the word she used, and also "durational." I will never again tag anything as being boring; "It was a little durational at times."

Definitely something that should be sought out. The print was a UCLA restoration; I first saw it on TCM a couple of years ago. Sad that Loden never got to direct another film--I think she basically made an American Jeanne Dielman four years before the fact (also, very consciously Loden once said, an answer film to Bonnie and Clyde).

The usual disclaimer--don't actually make use of this--but it's up on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22eKcUjFHiw

directorial fiasco of latest Wonder Woman film

"To translate all of that into English: Since studio development executives are now asked to be property managers rather than movie developers, not many of them are capable of sitting down and talking about what a story should be. And none of them wants to risk his neck by committing early to the wrong choice. So, like many modern-day blockbusters, Wonder Woman will be developed via the monkeys-at-typewriters approach: Let's have a bunch of different people write different Wonder Woman scripts, pick the parts that we sort of like better than the others, proceed to humiliate the 'winning' writers by asking them to interpolate the stuff from the 'losing' scripts that we also kind of liked, let the WGA work out the credits and mop up the blood and tears, sew everything together, and sell the resulting Frankenmovie to an audience we will have programmed (via an incessant drumbeat of teasers, trailers, and post-credit sequences) to show up for whatever this thing turns out to be. That certainly sounds like every writer and director's dream."

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/wonder-woman-michelle-maclaren-female-hollywood-directors/

maybe it's rampant entrenched sexism in the film industry

just sayin

― Swat Valley High (goole), Tuesday, May 26, 2009 10:29 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"durational" is a horrible word

From a group called The Make It Fair Project:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuHAMpg9FwQ

fair is fair

http://shitpeoplesaytowomendirectors.tumblr.com/

A list from a female film collective:

http://bitchmagazine.org/post/female-film-directors-put-together-a-list-of-must-see-movies-made-by-women

Some obvious omissions, as with any list.

'Europa, Europa' by Agnieszka Holland

The ones that jumped out for me were Ackerman's Jeanne Dielman, Amy Heckerling's Fast Times and Clueless, Barbara Kopple's Harlan County, USA, Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon, and Dorothy Arzner's Dance, Girl, Dance. Anyway, it seems pretty informal, and not meant to be textbook complete.

im doubling-down on cholodenko after the olive kitteridge series fyi

if women are socialized to be looked at, maybe it's unsurprising that they don't choose/aren't chosen to do the looking

― Reggiano Jackson (gabbneb), Tuesday, May 26, 2009 3:26 PM (6 years ago)

sure don't miss this guy

Holofcener is missing too, but the lack of Ackerman is cray-cray

I thought of something that isn't on the list

I thought of another thing.

I thought of Your Mom.

Aren't surprising omissions/inclusions the beginning and end of whatever interest lists like these have? If you're not interested in the lists to begin with, then of course the particulars of what's on there holds no interest. That would seem self-evident.

From the article
After the show came out, a couple listeners had the same question: So, what are some recent female-directed films we should be seeking out? To put together a list of current women-directed films, I turned to Film Fatales, a collective of women film directors who support each other and collaborate on projects. The Film Fatales asked their members in New York and LA for their recent favorite films helmed by a female director and for older films that have inspired their work.

It sounds like the target of the list was not fans of lists, but people looking for recent movies directed by women

Of course--there's always the intent, primary or secondary, explicit or implicit, that, "If you're interested in this, start here." Just responding to the surprise/derision above that people looking at such lists might then discuss what they see as omissions. And, as I posted, discussing them does not mean you view those omissions as a big deal; historical completeness was clearly not the goal here.

Curious omission
Posted by JonTheDad (not verified) on July 9, 2015 - 11:00am
I'm surprised Hurt Locker didn't make this list. Any reason why?

REPLY

Saw Dorothy Arzner's Dance, Girl, Dance sometime in the '80s--first read about it in one of those Danny Peary cult books--and it always stayed in my mind. Looking at it tonight, the first half-hour's a little clunky, but it really picks up once Lucille Ball gets her Tiger Lily engagement. Maureen O'Hara's big speech is pretty great, as is the ending, and a throwaway name-joke that came back to me immediately.

http://moviemezzanine.com/women-directed-films-home-media/

The Lightbox has an Ida Lupino series this summer, including four of the films she directed.

http://www.tiff.net/#series=ida-lupino-independent-woman

A local video store (long-standing, and one of about three left in the city) evidently started a "films for free" series recently, and they've got a long list of female-directed films as a subset of that.

http://www.baystreetvideo.com/films_for_free_list.php

Forgot to acknowledge the centenary of Ida Lupino, born 100 years ago last Sunday. I saw her film Outrage last week; despite the strictures of the Code ("rape" is not uttered, though that's what it's about), it's a solid, haunting psychological drama.

http://sensesofcinema.com/2009/great-directors/ida-lupino/

http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/why-ida-lupino-was-such-a-groundbreaker-for-women-in-sci-fi

good articles

Series of silent films made by women playing this summer in Brooklyn and LA, Kino Lorber box coming in fall.

https://www.bam.org/film/2018/pioneers-first-women-filmmakers

http://americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/pioneers-first-women-filmmakers

https://www.kinolorber.com/film/pioneers-first-women-filmmakers

btw someone on Letterboxd made a list of 3806 female-directed films. I've seen 204 of them.

Barbara Loden’s son Marco Joachim shared this picture from the tour his mother did to screen her 1970 independent film WANDA. She is not only the star, but she also wrote and directed the film. Marco will share stories 8/10 at the WANDA show at Egyptian. Screens August 10-12. pic.twitter.com/QHA9guqvYr

— AmericanCinematheque (@SidGrauman) August 9, 2018

I hear there's talk of a Criterion edition of Wanda coming some time soonish.

huh - never heard of this! sounds interesting

you can bet on it, Ward, per the Janus Films copy re the NY revival.

http://metrograph.com/film/film/790/wanda

Shakey, there's a serviceable print of Wanda on YouTube, last time I looked. It's not a film where visual pleasure is paramount, but it would still be good to have a dece physical copy out there.

I'll rent the criterion when it comes out

The guy who put out a "Directed by Elaine May" T-shirt a couple of years ago has moved on to "Directed by Barbara Loden" T-shirts.

http://phildellio.tripod.com/loden.jpg

been hearing a lot about Wanda in the last month, trailer looked good. "an American Jeanne Dielman" sounds great

it's a lot shorter...

Watched Wanda around the time of the road movie poll, it's fucking great.