Women behind camera by Elijah Idowu

“It says that Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights for women. But for the movie industry now, feminism isn’t taken into consideration”

INTRODUCTION

Before the film industry became a big business, women were involved in nearly every aspect of production. There was no sexism in the early days, anybody on set contributed to whatever task which needs to be done both males and females. Writer Lizzie Francke who is an executive producer and recently credited for various movies such as Shame (2011), Kill list (2012), Hush (2009), Donkey Punch (2009) and the list goes on, she stated that she spent a good deal of time in the cutting room and the movie industry was both controlled by males and females.

Film is such a male-dominated industry. The whole way the business is constructed means there is just men at every level, which makes it really hard for female directors to get into the movie industries. Before I express my own thought and knowledge about women behind camera. I did some research about occupational title by biological sex on directors, writers and producers and I found out the percentage of female directors is 7% which is really low this proves that camerawomen in the film industries are faceless and nameless to people which I find very bad.

With all the new movies being released, I haven’t noticed any female directors being credited. I’m not a feminist; hence I think women should have equal rights as men. From my research about famous movie directors, it has come to my awareness that female directors are well known for their romance and sexual movies while the male movie directors tend to write and film different genre of movies. 

The movie number 9 was produced and co-directed by Elizabeth karlsen who began her career in independent film production in New York, Elizabeth also work with male directors such as Bill, Sherwood, Zbigniew Rybcyznski, Jim jarmusch. Elizabeth was nominated for the Producer’s Guild of America and was awarded a Woman’s Image Network award for her work on the project.

An interesting story from Elizabeth karlsen was she had to present the best feature award at the best eye view festival, and she stated that she panicked because the statistics of film directed by women is 6 percent which shows in the occupational title by biological sex graph. Elizabeth karlsen was the only woman who has won the Oscar for best director due to this situation, female directors would be  scared to come out of there closet and approach the film directing industry.

There was a touching statement which I found on the internet about Susanne Bier’s who is a Danish film director who recently won the Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for her 2010 drama In a Better World.


“Collecting the best feature award on Susanne Bier's behalf was her son, Gabriel. He charmed by delivering Suzanne's appreciation for both the award and the festival itself. Susanne has just won the Oscar for best foreign language feature for in a Better World, but she wanted it made clear how important it is that we celebrate and support women filmmakers. Her son also explained that he was the living proof that she had been able both to raise a family and forge a career as a film director.”


For Susanne Biers son stating that he was proud of his mum because she had to raise a family and also carry on with her film directing is really difficult, with this statement I can say it is an obvious reason which most females directors have and also in the world we leave in now, males are more likely to be the boss in all industries and wouldn’t want to take orders from females which I am not in support of because behind every male there is a great woman who gave birth to them and raised them up therefore female directors should be taken into consideration.

Female Hollywood actress Gemma Arterton who featured in big movies (Quantum of Solace and Prince of Persia) and small movies (Tamara Drewe) and she's just 25. Gemma Arterton spoke about the film industry being such a male-dominated industry.  Gemma Arterton stated which I quoted for my essay that “You can be a feminist; it's just difficult because it sometimes comes back at you” and the reason for Gemma Arterton speaking out loud was because at the beginning of her career she felt like everyone took her serious because of the big movie she featured in and she had the feeling that the world had done her a favour and she was in support of feminism which put her in a dilemma on whether to speak out loud which there would be consequence , people could say she’s grown wings due to the fact that she has become famous. Gemma Arterton said she’s a feminist now that she has spoken out and the industry is prejudiced generally.

“Expectations of women, girls, what they should look like, how they should be, what they should say, what they should wear, how their hair should be, what colour their skin should be. It's always going to be like that. It's not so much like that in theatre or independent film, and that's why I'm sort of gravitating towards those now, because otherwise you're fighting a losing battle and never going to win it. You're just going to be known as the mouthy one who gets in trouble for saying what she thinks. I thought to myself, do I say stuff or do I silently be a feminist.” 

In relation to this quote by Gemma Arterton, it could be a deadly statement because her career might be ended because most movie directors are male and might not work with her because male directors might look at it from a different perspective in terms of female being the boss and giving the males orders.

In reference to a book title (who run the show) by Mollie Gregory

By reading this book, I was able to find out that in the 70s, one could count the women who produced film or television on one hand and moving on to the 90s, there were hundreds of female directors but all of it whipped out after that. This book talked about women who ran the show and it was based on more than 125 interviews with women in virtually every segment of the entertainment business – from feature films to television. During the 70,s Hollywood workplace didn’t want any female film directors till the year 2000

In this book seven female directors where interview about them. The following names are listed

this book seven female directors where interview about them. The following names are listed

§  Gale Anne Hurd: After graduating, she joined "New World Pictures" as executive assistant to Roger Corman, the company president. She worked her way up through various administrative positions and eventually became involved in production.

§  Mimi Leder, who is the director of ER and The Peacemaker:  MIMI Leder is the Daughter of the late independent filmmaker Paul Leder, Mimi Leder was the first woman accepted to study cinematography at the American Film Institute.

§  Kathleen Nolan, the first female president of the Screen Actors Guild.

§  Jane Alexander, actress, producer, and head of the National Endowment for the Arts.

§  Polly Platt, producer of Broadcast News.

§  Martha Coolidge, director of Introducing Dorothy Dandridge and first female president of the Directors Guild.

§  Sherry Lansing, chairman of the Motion Picture Group, Paramount Pictures.

Conclusion

By researching about women behind the cameras, I was really shocked about the kind of information I found about in the filming industry. As a second year student going to my third year, I would want to be a film director because I am interested in moving images, in future when I become a famous director I would like to work with female directors because I’m not sexist .I believe from the successful female directors such as Gale Anne Hurd who could produce a brilliant and powerful movie like the terminator and aliens , more female directors should be given the chance to show what they made of and more movies like the terminator would be produced. 

Reference :

Why are women directors such a rare sight? | Film | The Guardian . 2012. Why are women directors such a rare sight? | Film | The Guardian . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2005/mar/07/gender.world. [Accessed 24 March 2012]

Number 9 Films | About | Profiles | Elizabeth Karlsen. 2012. Number 9 Films | About | Profiles | Elizabeth Karlsen. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.number9films.co.uk/about/profiles/elizabeth_karlsen. [Accessed 19 April 2012].

Where are the women film directors? | Kerry Fox | Comment is free | The Observer . 2012. Where are the women film directors? | Kerry Fox | Comment is free | The Observer . [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/20/kerry-fox-women-film-directors. [Accessed 19 April 2012].

Filmmaker Susanne Bier, Seeking 'A Better World' : NPR. 2012. Filmmaker Susanne Bier, Seeking 'A Better World' : NPR. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.npr.org/2011/03/10/134391928/filmmaker-susanne-bier-seeking-a-better-world. [Accessed 21 April 2012].

The Silent Era: Women Behind the Camera: Moving Image Section--Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. 2012. The Silent Era: Women Behind the Camera: Moving Image Section--Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. [ONLINE] Available at:http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/awhhtml/awmi10/silent_camera.html. [Accessed 22 April 2012].

Gale Anne Hurd - Biography. 2012. Gale Anne Hurd - Biography. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005036/bio. [Accessed 22 April 2012]

Mimi Leder | Movies and Biography - Yahoo! Movies. 2012. Mimi Leder | Movies and Biography - Yahoo! Movies. [ONLINE] Available at:http://movies.yahoo.com/person/mimi-leder/. [Accessed 22 April 2012].