Great news to hear that one of the top awards at Cannes this year has gone to female Bosnian Director Aida Begic, for her first feature film SNOW. Begic has beat competition to win the esteemed Critics Week prize. We were lucky enough to be joined by Begic and her producer/writer Elma Tataragic, on a panel of women filmmakers organised by Birds Eye View in Cannes (in partnership with the UK Film Council).
Initially I was concerned that I hadn’t managed to pin down enough women with films in the official competition to share their success stories (having ‘made it’ to such heady heights!), no surprise that there are very few of them. However, what resulted was something truly special… some of the most incredible and intelligent women directors with work from the widely regarded more ‘auteurish’ strands of Cannes – Critics Week, Un Certain Regard and emerging talent from the Cinefondation. Women who faced real economic and political challenges to complete their films.
Aida Begic and Elma Tataragic, spoke about how they had to push for respect from their male counterparts at home in Bosnia (Aida dryly noting that her headscarf does not normally signify authority). US/Palestinian filmmaker Anne Marie Jacir spoke solemnly of the extreme difficulties she faced trying to shoot her film SALT OF THIS SEA in Palestine. Young Israeli filmmaker Hadar Morag reflected on the true determination she had to express her vision…
.. A really insightful event that had some audience members moved to tears! It seems that Cannes has improved somewhat on last year’s representation of women in it’s selections… but women were still outnumbered plenty, especially in the main strands.
Accordingly, I spotted an article in the LA Times just a few days later bemoaning the still rubbishy incline of women directors and just what it’s going to take to get a rounder representation of women working in the top creative roles in film.
“Of the 250 top-grossing American movies in 2007, only 6% were directed by women, down from 7% in 2005 and 9% in 1998. How bad is that number?”
And it’s not just film, the subject has also come up in regards to the art world. It was recently reported that within the collection at the Tate Modern,
“..of 2,914 artists in it’s collection, only 348 – less than 12% – are women. What’s more, only two of 39 major works brought over the past two years were by female artists” (Joanna Moorhead, The Guardian).
I wonder what Sam Taylor-Wood, celebrated British Artist and filmmaker (with her short film LOVE YOU MORE in the competition at Cannes) would make of this unsettling case.
Also speaking out last week at Cannes actress Gwyneth Paltrow about the pressure she felt from Hollywood once she had children, she comments on the predictability of her situation…
“If you’re a woman and especially if you’re not 25, Hollywood is pretty cut-throat. I was very realistic about the fact that there might not be any more room for me. I definitely knew I had lost my place when I left” (quoted by Agnes Poirier, The Guardian)
But at BEV we like to remain celebratory and salute successful women filmmakers. Here’s my humble opinion of ones to watch from Cannes 2008…
One of my favourite filmmakers by far right now…
Kelly Reichardt, whose third film WENDY AND LUCY (starring Michelle Williams) featured in Un Certain Regard
Marina Zenovich’s uncomprimising portrayal of the king of controversy filmmaker Roman Polanski, in Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
Claire Burger, young French filmmaker who’s short FORBACH won second prize in the Cinefondation.
Brazilian co-writer/director Daniela Thomas, LINDH DE PASSE.
And for info on Sam Taylor Wood’s Film LOVE YOU MORE, please see: whitecube.com/artists/taylorwood/misc/
And of course all the films by our panelists…
Anne-Marie Jacir, SALT OF THIS SEA
Hadar Morag, SILENCE
Teressa Tunney, THIS IS A STORY ABOUT TED AND ALICE
Aida Begic, SNOW
And finally some Riviera Whispers…
Previous Cannes winner and all round Brit super star Andrea Arnold (Red Road) is rumoured to be in pre-production with a new film…
…As is oscar winner Jane Campion (The Piano)
And a new film on it’s way from the brilliant Miranda July (You, Me and Everyone We Know).
Plus buzz around a UK based thriller from Martha Fiennes (Onegin, Chromophobia)
Watch this space!
