I guess I should thank the Hollywood Reporter for making my job easy this week by providing me with such blatantly sexist material.
They posted their conversation with cinematographers and SURPRISE there is not a single woman included.
I know that they do these around awards season and NOT A SINGLE WOMAN has ever been nominated for the best cinematographer award but you cannot tell me that The Box is in contention for any type of award.
Beyond pathetic.
Awards Watch: Cinematographers Roundtable (Hollywood Reporter)
they’re all white, too
As a woman cinematographer I am confused by this post. It seems that you are implying that women deserve special treatment, and that they should be nominated/included because they are women and not based on merit.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Ellen Kuras, ASC for so many reasons. And based on her career, she deserves to be considered with the best of them. As the most successful woman DP she is often included in many panels, roundtables, etc. But she is very busy working all the time and she can’t do them all!
Also something to be aware of is that Steven Poster, ASC, who shot “The Box” is the president of the International Cinematographers Guild and former president of the ASC. He is quite a public figure and probably who the press goes to to organize these things, so I assume that is why he was included. I know him and he is a big champion of women cinematographers.
With all due respect, Jendra, you seem to be missing the point of the posting. There is a valid complaint in stating that at these panels, women are being left out. You may think it’s an unmerited gripe, but I ask you to consider it from a different perspective.
When I was kid, I was obsessed with movies and at a very early age dreamt of working in Hollywood. I had very few female role models to look up to, and those who were there were usually not included in panels and conversations about the business and their art. Very few, if at all, were covered in the media.
Here we are several decades later–I’ve been in the business for 20 years now–and I am amazed that girls and young women today are in the same boat that I was in during my youth. Granted, there are many more female directors now then back then, but the numbers are still dismal compared to men. Furthermore, the WGA just released a study showing stagnant hiring practices in TV and film for writers in protected classes, such as race, gender, age, and sexual identity.
And when it comes to cinematographers, as of 2007, women accounted for a paltry 2% of cinematographers who worked on the top 250 U.S. films of the year.
Frankly, the only way to begin to reverse these discriminatory hiring practices against women (and the other protected classes), requires that we ALL get real about these statistics and see them with fresh eyes instead of as a source of tired old arguments. Alas, the argument may be old, but it sure isn’t tired….
Jendra, Are you unaware that you are a minority in your dept.?
4 out of every 100 in the union are women.
I would think you’d appreciate someone standing up and taking notice.
But, it seems that you don’t understand how institutional discrimination works or perhaps you’re experiencing internalized sexism and it is clouding your vision?
51% – our voices matter!
You have to consciously choose women in order to change the stats and shift the paradigm.
You as an individual and the general you that is film industry above the line, talent.
In other words, I know 2 female gaffers that work at your level (going by the resume on your site).
I hope you’ll seek out female gaffers, ACs, etc.
when you’re crewing up.
You wont have to lower standards a bit. You can find women at the standard of skill and talent you are able to afford. They are out there looking for work, outside of the boys club.
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Thank you for your responses.
I am well known for hiring women in key positions. My last TV pilot I had a female 1st AC and Key Grip. My web series I had a female 1st AC and Gaffer, and for my last feature, I had a female 1st AC, B camera operator and AC, Key Grip, Gaffer, “Best Boy Electric” and tons of women dayplayers.
Of course I am aware I am a minority. And yes, Diana, I did feel I was missing the point which is exactly why I opened up the question. The fact that you quote that 2% of women DPs shooting the top 250 grossing films, is precisely why it would not occur to the writers of this article to consider a woman when assembling a high level cinematographers roundtable. I can’t think of any Hollywood films (as opposed to indies and docs) released in 2009 shot by a woman DP that would qualify them for inclusion in this article. This is the real problem. The Hollywood Reporter is just reflecting today’s reality.
Ellen Kuras, ASC get her fair share of press and usually gets the “token female” position in these kinds of things. Do I think that they should specifically try to get a woman in there when possible? Actually yes I do, for the role model reason that you stated. That is why I do so many panels myself, and have even started teaching master classes and seminars lately, to inspire others and show that women can do it. But do I think they should stick a woman in there who is not at the same caliber as the others just to make sure they include a woman? No, I do not, as I think that reflects badly on women DPs in general, to think that you would need to “lower your standards” when considering women.
At the turn of the 20th century, the reasons against letting women vote seemed logical and well-founded to many men and women — until these reasons were overthrown. Today, nobody buy that logic. The same will happen to the justifications used right now for not hiring women in male-dominated jobs.