Women and Hollywood

Good article about Kathryn Bigelow and women directed films.

Women & Hollywood - Women Directors Working Outside the Studio System

(Re-posted from the Association of Women Directors (AWD) Yahoo Groups newsletter)

Kathryn Bigelow

This is a story that I have written numerous times but it just seems that nothing changes. I will keep on keeping on until we get more women directors. NPR did an interesting piece on women directors and their films this summer and how in order for them to get their movies made they need to work outside the studio systems.

YUP. Since only Nancy Meyers, Nora Ephron and now Anne Fletcher can get studio jobs.

It’s great that Kathryn Bigelow and Lynn Shelton are being noticed for their work this summer. I think both their movies are great and I enjoyed them both. I do think it’s interesting that both these films keep getting talked about in the context of the fact that they are women directing movies about men making it seem that this is such a freaky occurrence. It’s shouldn’t b
e that big a deal. I’ll say it again: nobody makes a big deal about guys directing movies about women yet we continue to be shocked that women can make movies about men. Even NPR.

But NPR basically answers its own question with the following quote:

When women direct, they’re in control. And major Hollywood studios cannot exactly bask in their legacies of female empowerment: Historically, female directors tend to work outside the traditional studio system.

Lynn Shelton

Control. What is the fear of women being in control of a film? Women can be producers, but control and, of course, vision seems to make everyone go nuts. The issue regarding women directors is so hard to document as blatant discrimination because the hiring process is not like hiring a receptionist or a manager. A producer or a studio head has to hire someone they trust with their money, someone they trust to get the job done on time, someone they trust to be able to command a crew. Women can be trusted to do many jobs in our society yet getting studio chiefs to trust that a female director is right for the job seems to be too far a leap. Yet everyone knows it is discrimination but they also know it is near impossible to prove.

From the piece:

Bigelow says she has no idea why even now so few women are trusted to direct major films.

“You’d have to sit somebody down here and ask them,” she says, with the slightest
edge to her voice.

By “somebody,” Bigelow means a studio head, a Hollywood mogul. Ask Lynn Shelton the same question — Why aren’t there more go-to female directors? — and she likewise points to the studio bosses.

I wish one of those somebodys would sit down and give someone a real answer. The problem is there is no real answer and they all know it.