Why are there so few female film directors?

asia argento

maybe we're not proving anything ;)

ida lupino

I knew all of these names already and have seen all of their films, mostly in small cinemas in foreign countries.

glad 2 see weve solved this issue good work everyone

Yes. Job done. What's next?

that hardly anyone wld be familiar with

Uh mostly yes gabbnebb, I'm not film-illiterate but Sofia and Amy Heckerling (who I love!) are the only ones I know just by hearing their names. Heckerling, who in spite of being a big name and director of well-liked movies had her last film buried straight to DVD for really no reason.

I mean you shouldn't have to do film festival circuits to be able to prove whatever point it is you are making.

How do you strike a balance between wanting to entertain a mass audience, and also wanting to write something that's true, and maybe even a little painful?

Heckerling: Well, there's another element involved, and that's knowing that there really are young people out there who care a great deal about what you say to them. There are these images and characters you want to give them to look up to, vs. what you're going to be allowed to do or say. It can be something as simple as a girl dressing a certain way. Do you dress her up so that she's comfortable, or so she'll look pretty, or because you like the way it looks? Is it too sexual? Do you want your daughter to have to dress that way and worry about it? It's tough.

Gillian Armstrong
Nora Ephron
Phyllida Lloyd

harmony korine should be a woman's name

And Sofia, believe it or not, MIGHT have a nepotism factor benefiting her. I know, I know, it's some grande challops.

antonia bird

miranda july is actually a dude

uh no

mirando

ugh why did I look up Heckerling's filmography ;_;

i don't think there is a single (American) director named on this thread who you need to go to a film festival to see, at least if you live in a major American city like most Ilxors.

wtf is naming female film directors proving, exactly?

― Lamp, Tuesday, 26 May 2009 17:33 (8 minutes ago) Permalink

that eventually we will have enough names to poll them on their physical attractiveness

cat power

well this thread didn't work out very well. Although I'm glad this random list of names has proven once and for all that there's no glass ceiling of sexism in the film industry. Tuomas the lone voice of reason (oddly)

Wim Wenders
Akira Kurosawa
McG

ugh gabbnebb I guess the thing is even most people in major American cities are probably not watching those movies AND (everyone forgets) not everyone lives in major American cities...before Netflix most of these wld be hard to RENT in less than 250k population cities. I mean, if you asked a non-ILXor person, say a coworker at the office or another person on the bus, to name even 25 directors it's really unlikely a woman wld come up, tho you are doing an A+ job at deluding yrself hey good job.

Why are there so few female anythings at the top of any industry or art?

it was hollywood's blatant sexism that prevented leslie nielsen from moving into the director's chair

btw Edward III I <3 you

abbott i agree w/ you generally but i think the a decent % of ppl could name popular female directors michel gondry or ridley scott

No woman has ever won best director, and only three have ever been nominated: Lina Wertmüller for 1976's Seven Beauties, Jane Campion for 1993's The Piano and Sofia Coppola for 2003's Lost in Translation.

One nearly every decade since the 1970s hey female directors are all over the place.

It's weird that I'm having to argue the thread title is an accurate & valid question!

That's how ignorance works, let's just pretend sexism isn't an issue and make some jokes.

i agree w/ u abbott

but i still support making some jokes

It's pretty impressive that film has been around less that 125 years and is full of institutionalized sexism.

I am all about the female name joeks too btw.

you are doing an A+ job at deluding yrself hey good job.

i'm not making the point you think i'm making, but good job deluding yrself

what point are you making then?

Why are there so few female anythings at the top of any industry or art?

fair (and fairly easily) answered question - but 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 mean, there are probably more female heads of state than there are well-known, mainstream female film directors... for an industry widely perceived as deeply liberal (and one that congratulates itself regularly for being so - heyo Oscars!) this seems like a rather glaring incongruity.

x-posts

i would have agreed with abbott except i read the fantastic list of popular successful female directors provided in this thread so now im wondering why there are so few male directors working nowadays

<3 <3 <3

guess:

considering how alpha-male assholish most film sets are, film studios probably prefer to have another alpha-male type on set to "handle" the stars (especially the male ones) and it's believed that women couldn't do it. it's tough for even the best female directors to get work; if you're a female director and you have a couple of hits in a row, you'll be okay, but if you have a single flop you're in trouble. a male director can have five flops in a row and still get work. there's pretty much no excuse for someone like kathyrn bigelow to find it difficult to land projects considering the fact that she's one of the best directors in her genre (unless she's just someone who takes her time working on projects.)

what point are you making then?

― cant go with u too many alfbrees (Abbott), Tuesday, May 26, 2009 6:00 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Could be asked for 99% of gabbnebb's posts.

and yeah as Abbott points out this is the YOUNGEST medium on the planet - its weird that older, more heavily institutionalized mediums with traditions of excluding women are somehow actually more open than the film industry

x-posts

what point are you making then?

gabbneb's one and only point is that he (purportedly) knows shit about stuff

No, no, I want his answer.

Video games are a younger medium and shit's got less pussy than Melmac.

it was hollywood's blatant sexism that prevented leslie nielsen from moving into the director's chair

― velko, Tuesday, May 26, 2009 12:52 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

surely you can't be serious

did you just make an alf joke

I rofld

actually I was just wondering the other day, are there any female orchestra conductors?

yes ALF eats cats get it?

fair (and fairly easily) answered question - but 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 really do think getting to a position to secure enough money and resources to make a feature film is one of the biggest obsctacles here, though how gender works in all that is kinda complicated. With the other three fields you mention, a person can work with much less money and/or by herself to create something.

btw I <3 you too abbott iirc

Great film! I saw Chytilová's follow-up The Fruit of Paradise but don't remember anything other than bewilderment.

My favourite film! Got to see it on the big screen a few times, the best was last year with a p raucous audience of mainly students who were v nonplussed but loved it

There's already an excellent blu-ray of this from Second Run, a label that's shown far greater commitment to East European cinema than Criterion. They also offer other Chytilová films:

https://www.secondrundvd.com/release_daisiesBD.html