Redressing the balance – why aren’t there more women film directors?

Contrary to what many would have you believe, women have played an integral part in film since its inception, and not just in front of the cameras or in ‘feminine’ jobs. Arts Hub UK’s Marian McCarthy looks at the upcoming ‘Birds Eye View’ Film Festival.

‘If this is what being a bird is, I’m proud to be one.’ Joanna Lumley, OBE – Birds Eye View Patron.

Hollywood was founded on the creative talents of numerous influential women. As Alice Tynan remarks in her article The Silenced Majority – Women in early Hollywood: Alice Guy Blaché created the first ever film, an advertisement, in 1896 La Fee Aux Choux; Lois Weber – director, actress, writer – was a major player, known as the ‘Mayor’ of Carl Laemmle’s Universal studio; and screenwriter Frances Marion a prolific and highly paid writer of Hollywood’s Golden Age – winning two academy awards in 1930 and 1931. And yet they have been all but forgotten. So too has their legacy, it seems. This year Sofia Coppola was the third woman to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Director (Lost in Translation) and the first woman, ever, to win. An extraordinary statistic until you realise that women make up just 7% of film directors. A state of affairs Birds Eye View Festival – an annual UK women’s film festival to be launched in March next year – seeks to redress by creating a platform from which women directors can fly.

With women so tangibly present, if now forgotten, during the development of film, it seems extraordinary that just over a hundred years later there is a need to actively promote women in film. Particularly when the playing fields started out so level. In his biography of Lois Weber, Anthony Slide explains that because film was an entirely new business, there were no preconceptions about whether a job was ‘male’ or ‘female’. Women were hired on their talent and reliability, just the same as their male counterparts. If anything, they had the added advantage of lending a little respectability to a new phenomenon. So how did women become so excluded?

A quick glance at the rise of Hollywood and the British Film industry makes it all too apparent how power was lost, and taken, from women in an increasingly male dominated arena. Alice Tynan says, ‘Ironically it was [film’s] success which ultimately brought about [women’s] decline, as astronomical demand attracted investors. These businessmen transformed the industry, financing the technological marvels of sound and colour and generating a new generation of male talent. The patriarchal structures of finance, politics, religion and government were placed on the industry, as popularity soared and the realm of celebrity reached astronomical heights…Competition replaced collaboration as the driving force of the industry, leaving no doubt that Hollywood was now the men’s Golden Age.’ Likewise women in Britain who had played a significant role during the silent era, and up to and during, the Second World War, lost ground in the post-war years. Women were suddenly unwelcome in jobs men now wanted. They became valued as ‘film consumers’ rather than as the creators. Whilst there have undoubtedly been many remarkable women directors since, it continues to be an uphill battle.

There are numerous reasons given to explain the relative lack of female film directors: financial backers are reluctant to entrust money to women; women are less good at hustling (a prerequisite); women take time off to have children (certain career death); old fashioned sexism, or even that old chestnut – the old boys club. Getting your first gig as a director is a difficult business, it doesn’t matter who you are, or what gender. It is clear though that for women it’s even harder and you have one chance, with no room for failure. It is intriguing that this comparative lack of female directors is particularly evident in both Hollywood and the UK, a fact that remains unchanged even given the rise in powerful female execs. ‘Five studios have top creative decision-makers who are women, bearing the title of chair or head of production. But hiring records at studios run by women are virtually indistinguishable from studios run by men.’ Says Patrick Goldstein in Los Angeles Times, 2003. In fact this same journalist comments that a billboard close to Paramount Pictures, which was home to the movie What Women Want (directed by Nancy Meyers) sported the message: ‘Even the U.S. Senate is more progressive than Hollywood. Female Senators: 14 percent. Female Film Directors: 4 percent.’ A sorry state of affairs indeed, and the story is little different in the UK. On the other hand it’s worth noting that throughout Europe, and in particular Northern Europe, female directors seem to be widespread and thriving. There are also a multitude of established international women’s film festivals, around Europe, and indeed the globe, which again highlights the peculiar lack of something equivalent in our own backyard. Until now.

It’s tempting to play the blame game, but there are other reasons why women are not getting the high profile gigs, and not all of them are discriminatory. Women don’t necessarily choose to make the movies that the commercial film and studio world wants them to. This then results in lower visibility and profile, as they are working less, and on smaller budget projects. As Patrick Goldstein says, in recent years film (particularly those produced by the big studios) has swung away from adult drama towards ‘action thrillers, teen comedies and comic-book-driven franchise films.’ Columbia Pictures chairwoman Amy Pascal elaborates, ‘I’ve tried over and over to hire great young female directors like Sofia Coppola and Kimberly Peirce. But I’m making Men in Black II and Adam Sandler movies, so I don’t have the material they want to do.’ Another contributing factor is that we all know that film executives hate risk and tend to prefer a proven box-office success. What many may not realise is that if you’ve directed a reelful of funky commercials showing a flare for visual effects, it’s almost as good.

However, there are virtually no women directing music videos or commercials. Audrey Wells, director of Under the Tuscan Sun is blunt, ‘Women can’t get jobs on attitude alone. I could never be some hip guy who made cool commercials and get a job directing Charlie’s Angels. I had to prove I could direct by doing a Sundance movie, and put my own money into it to get it made.’ Either way the executives want tangible evidence of a director’s skills. So if women are not directing ‘hip’ commercials where are they getting their experience? The answer seems to be, art house studio films, independents, shorts, documentaries and then by showing at film festivals. The advantage of this is that by being self-funded, or on a miniscule budget, women are more likely to remain creatively autonomous. In a time when conformity and mass production rules supreme, this is to be celebrated. It is also important to recognise the vital role that film festivals play in providing an arena in which directors get exposure and experience, particularly those who are struggling to be heard.

It is always easy to underestimate the power of stories – to see them simply as entertainment, and in many cases it’s not difficult to see why. However the social, moral and political mores portrayed in any story are powerful barometers of our society, and are often vastly manipulative. Film has an incredible ability to mould perceptions, with the potential to cross cultural, educational and even language barriers. They say that history is always written by the victor, and in many ways this holds true for film – and not only with regard to the virtual male monopoly over filmmaking. Now, more than ever, people need to challenge this. It doesn’t matter whether the divide is along racial, gender or political grounds, to have no ‘voice’ is to be invisible.

ARTS HUB HAD A QUICK WORD WITH RACHEL MILLWARD, BIRDS EYE VIEW CURATOR AND INITIATOR:

Tell us a little of your background and how Birds Eye View came to be:
I started out by producing short films with Pinny Grylls. We were both struck by the lack of female role models in film. Birds Eye View began as an evening of screenings to promote women filmmakers and as a way of showcasing our film in the context of our peers.

Do you see yourself as more curator than director/producer now?
Yes definitely, I’ve been working flat out for the past 18 months on Birds Eye View and getting the next years festival up and running. I’m also very interested in developing the educational side of Birds Eye View.

At present you have a very open submission, the only prerequisite is that it is directed by a woman. What effect has this had?
Actually good. In fact the quality of work being submitted to us seems to be going up, or there is less bad stuff being sent in alongside the good. Maybe the word is spreading about Birds Eye View with the coverage and profile we’ve been getting. There are a steady amount of submissions. [They are accepting submissions until 3rd November].

How have you found the reaction of the press?
We had a good coverage even for our screenings before, with pieces in Elle, Harper & Queen, I.D Magazine, Dazed & Confused. Maybe it’s because we’re approaching things in a unique and different way, we are looking at women’s creativity but not as a gender issue. Every woman has a different creative vision. Some audiences are wowed by a film because it seems so feminine, while others are ‘wow, what a great film.’ Many women are alienated by what is known as ‘women’s issues’.

Birds Eye View Festival 8th –13th March 2005. The First Annual UK Women’s Film Festival. Celebrating and promoting women’s vision in film. Accepting submissions, features, shorts, documentaries, anything, as long as a woman directs it – until November 3rd 2004.

For further information and sources please see:
www.birds-eye-view.co.uk
www.telegraph.co.uk
www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/entertainment
www.moviesbywomen.com
www.wftv.org.uk
www.screenonline.org.uk
www.findarticles.com.