Archive for the 'Women Directors' Category

Agnes Varda

Another list, only a handful of women. This one is from Paste Magazine. Here’s the description of the piece:

Few artistic endeavors are more collaborative than filmmaking. From marquee actors, screenwriters and cinematographers to the underappreciated grips, editors and extras, it can take a cast of hundreds or thousands to bring a story to the big screen. But an individual man or woman (or occasionally a pair of siblings) must coordinate those players, orchestrating the cinematic symphony. This month, we celebrate 50 of our greatest living directors, all of whom have redefined the art of motion pictures.

Here are the women.

22- Agnes Varda
28- Claire Denis
42- Jane Campion
45- Sofia Coppola

4 out of 50. 8 percent. We still have so much work to do.

The Fifty Best Living Directors (Paste Magazine)

Don’t miss what will be a very exciting conversation with Floria Sigismondi, director of The Runaways, opening this Friday in the US. We can take questions from folks on the show or feel free to post some things you want to know in the comments area.

Listen live at 1pm EST or at your convenience.

This past week there have been a lot of stories looking at Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar win from a variety of perspectives.  The fact that we are even having these conversations at all is in itself a huge and gigantic (and every other adjective I can throw in) leap forward as Manohla Dargis wrote in her excellent piece How Oscar Found Ms. Right which ran on the cover of this Sunday’s NY Times Arts & Leisure section.  (Sidenote: I think we all owe Manohla a big wet kiss for her incisive writing and candor in talking about gender during this awards season.  Her visibility on the topic has made a big difference and I know it can’t be easy at the NY Times especially when you are a critic.)  Here’s what she wrote:

Uncharacteristically, the issue of female directors working — though all too often not working — was being discussed in print and online, and without the usual accusations of political correctness, a phrase that’s routinely deployed to silence those with legitimate complaints. I don’t think I’ve read the words women and film and feminism in the same sentence as much in the last few months since Thelma and Louise rocked the culture nearly two decades ago.

But of course, a visible win like an Oscar has unleashed criticism especially because Kathryn Bigelow did not embrace her fellow directing sisters in a big bold, feminist rant.

For example a piece from NOW in Toronto said:

You got the sense she was embarrassed that Barbra Streisand acknowledged the achievement and then Bigelow made no reference to the significance. How she could get up there and not mention the likes of Ida Lupino is baffling.

You know that if she would have gotten up there and talked about women directors and how this was historic for women the next day all anyone would have talked about was how she shouldn’t define herself as a woman director cause that marginalizes women.  Either way she couldn’t please everyone.

The Times of London criticizes her win not as a step forward for women, but confirmation of her selling out and joining the boys club.  Can West News Service reporter Jamie Postman talks about his angry encounter with Bigelow 15 years ago when she was promoting Strange Days and how she has a short fuse and berated and yelled at a female reporter at a press conference because stood up and confronted Bigelow on the fact that her film perpetuated violence against women.

I’m not really down with bringing up stories form 15 years ago to illuminate anything about anyone today, but the comment does bring up one one of the questions that will continue to plague her and this win.  Do women have more of an obligation to women not to perpetuate female stereotypes?  And do women directors have a moral imperative not to make films that put women in situations where they are assaulted, murdered and victimized? Is that part of the responsibility of having a vagina when you are a director?

That is an interesting conversation.  I don’t believe that a woman director should be handcuffed on any topic precisely because a woman could handle those topics differently.  Finally it feels like people have finally awakened to the fact that women directors have been getting the short end of the stick for decades.  Welcome to the party.  I implore you not to just talk and rant but do your part.  Go and see films by women directors.

Another issue that has been illuminated in this conversation — one that I find just as vital and important — is the discussion that movies about women don’t generate the same interest, passion and gravitas that movies about men do especially if they are directed and written by women.  TV writer Sarah Fain wrote on her blog:

My annoyance at Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar win is rooted in the man-off conundrum, which is basically this:  to garner attention and respect, women in Hollywood have to act like/write like/direct like men.

Is this an absolute rule?  No.  (And by no, I mean pretty much yes, unless you’re Nancy Meyers, and even that’s debatable.)

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that Bigelow didn’t deserve her Oscar— she certainly did.  So did Randa Haines, who wasn’t even nominated for Children of a Lesser God in 1986, despite the movie’s nomination for Best Picture.  And so did Niki Caro, whose 2002 film Whale Rider is still one of the most stunning pieces of artistic achievement I’ve ever seen.

This is where we need to focus energy on in the future and I’m afraid that it might even be just as hard — if not harder — to get respect in this area as it is for women directors.  But again, people can do their parts in this fight.  When there is a film about women that gets dismissed by your friends and partners as just a plain old stupid chick flick and it is one that you know deserves better than that — because lord knows some are really crappy — stand up for them.  Have some ammunition in your conversation.  Talk about why films about women don’t get taken seriously.   This is where we can all make a difference.  This is why awards matter.  Because it causes people to talk and consider and question.

Kathryn Bigelow, the absentee feminist (NOW Toronto)

Kathryn Bigelow’s great leap forward — or was it? (The Times of London)

Kathryn Bigelow And The Man-Off Conundrum (Sarah Fain Has Starfish Envy)

Kathryn Bigelow is no ‘bad boy’ (The Guardian)

How Oscar Found Ms. Right (NY Times)

The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow: Don’t mess with her (Vancouver Sun)

You know things are shifting a bit when Entertainment Weekly has a column that spotlights female directors at the box office the week after Kathryn Bigelow won at her Oscar.

They note in the that Betty Thomas (former actress on Hill Street Blues) who has been a director since the late 80s first on TV and then in films, had her latest film, Alvin and the Chipmunks – The Squeakquel recently cross the $200 million mark at the US box office.  In fact, as of March 11, according to boxofficemojo the film has grossed $217,501 here and pratically the same amount overseas.

Betty Thomas is also a very interesting director to look at because she has never been relegated to the girl director ghetto.  She’s always made commercial mainstream family comedies (Dr. Dolittle and the Brady Bunch movie) with a little raunch thrown in with the Howard Stern film Private Parts.

Her venture into traditional drama — 28 Days with Sandra Bullock — did not fare as well but it is an interesting film.  I’m guessing she got that film made post the success of Dr. Dolittle.  Wondering what film she’s going to do next.

Just another reminder of the diversity of female talent out there.

Folks, the reactions keep coming in. Here are some more female directors and their thoughts on the Bigelow Oscar.

This roundup includes: Martha Coolidge, (Rambling Rose); Gina Prince-Bythewood, The Secret Life of Bees; Maria Maggenti, The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love; Sarah Walker, The Underdog Club; Arlene Bogna, Patriot Johnny; Ela Thier, Foreign Letters

Martha Coolidge

It’s great that she won!  I was at the DGA and the Oscars.  You could feel the swell of enthusiasm in the room at the Oscars.  It felt like a stampede.  She did a terrific film that has a special meaning to the country right now and walked a fine line politically.  On so many levels it worked to push her over the top.  Jim (Cameron) was thrilled!  Now the question is what will it do for women getting jobs?  I certainly hope it improves her choices.

Gina Prince-Bythewood

My thoughts are pretty simple — watching her walk up to the stage to collect her oscar, I just felt good.

Maria Maggenti

I was really happy when Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar. She’s been working a very very long time as a director. And The Hurt Locker was a beautifully directed film, even if it was more of a character study than a conventional narrative. Do I think it will have an impact on the industry and the dreams of other female directors? No. I don’t. If you have as many meetings as I do, every week, with studios and financiers who are responsible for helping you make your next feature, you realise that the blind, matter-of-fact sexism that informs executive decisions is still there. Bigelow has never once done a studio film — no one would hire her. All her films have been negative pick-ups, which means she’s had to take them onto the marketplace after they’ve been financed. I kind of wish that I could say to some of the execs I meet (mostly female by the way) “Hey, look what Kathryn Bigelow did – why not trust that I can do the same thing?” but quite frankly, the answer will be: “You’re no Kathryn Bigelow.”  A singular voice will always be seen as a singular voice. And Bigelow herself didn’t exactly hold up the feminist mantle in her win — in fact, I was more moved by Barbra Streisand who’s “it’s about time” was the most that seemed to be made of Bigelow’s triumph as a woman director. Hey, maybe I’m wrong. If the picture I’m trying to get off the ground goes, and I get financing, a studio behind me, a big P&A commitment and the kind of behind the scenes political push that make awards go one way or the other, I’ll let you know.

Sarah Walker

Kathryn Bigelow I believe in you. Your magic is real.

Arlene Bogna

I can still hear Barbra Streisand’s words “Well, the time has come,” and I agree with Kathryn Bigelow’s statement about being a filmmaker without a gender modifier.

History has been made, and from this day on it is possible for a woman to win an Oscar for Best Director.  A door has been unequivocally opened, and perhaps it is a chance for more and more talented lady directors to contribute to cinema and be recognized for their work. Future audiences may even take for granted how long it took for all this to happen. And that would be great.

Ela Thier

I admire Bigelow’s talent and thrilled that she be recognized! I look forward to a culture in which half of the films in the theater are directed by women.

It’s been a while — November 2008– since the release of her last film, you know that little film Twilight, the one that made her the highest grossing female director EVER.   It’s taken way too long for her to get back in the saddle.  I personally don’t understand why it has taken this long.  She had a couple of things in the works but they all fell through.   Guy directors always are able to get the next project going.  Lee Daniels, director of Precious has booked Selma, and Guy Ritchie, the director with 22,000 lives is taking advantage of his current good fortune with Sherlock Holmes and booked King Arthur.

But now it looks like Hardwicke has gotten the green light from Warner Brothers for The Girl with the Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seyfried (who will be feted next week as Showest’s breakthrough star.)

The premise for the red riding hood redo came from Leonardo DiCaprio and his production company will produce along with Warner Brothers.

Here’s a description from EW:

[The film] is about a girl who tries to uncover the true identity of the wolf that’s been terrorizing her village for the  two decades. She must also resolve her feelings for her wealthy fiance and the town’s bad boy.

I guess that Warner Brothers has seen the writing on the wall and has moved on from the days not too long ago when they supposedly did not want to see any scripts with female leads.  I’m sure it helped to have Leonardo DiCaprio’s name attached to this one.  According to Screen Daily, the budget is a little over the budget of Twilight which was $37 million so Warners commitment is contained.

Hardwicke will receive the Honorary Director Award from the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto later this month.  Here’s what she said about the award:

“Thank you, Female Eye Film Festival, for honoring me with this award.  It’s such a privilege to be a part of a festival that recognizes what all the women filmmakers around the world have to offer. Looking forward to chilling with my northern sisters!”

Details on the Female Eye festival.

Hardwicke set to shoot Riding Hood in Vancouver (Screen Daily)

Here are the women directed flicks that have been announced so far for the Tribeca Film Festival.  (Summaries are by the festival)

World Narrative Feature Competition (Women directors account for 3 out of 12)

Paju, directed and written by Chan-ok Park. (South Korea) – North American Premiere. Joongshik and Eunmo live in Paju: a gray town where the urban landscape is as bleak as the fate of its residents. In writer/director Chan-ok Park’s emotionally intense follow-up to award-winning Jealousy Is My Middle Name (TFF ’03), the personal travails of two antiheros are delicately unveiled through an anachronistic period of eight years, demonstrating how easily the lines of development and destruction are sometimes blurred. In Korean with English subtitles.

Snap, directed and written by Carmel Winters. (Ireland) – World Premiere. With a fresh and intense style, playwright-turned-director Carmel Winters composes a gripping psychological drama about three generations of a family poised to repeat the mistakes of the past. Aisling O’Sullivan (The War Zone) commands the screen as a calloused mother who will do anything to protect her son—even deny her own past. From the producers of TFF award winner Eden and the Academy Award® winner Once.

When We Leave (Die Fremde), directed and written by Feo Aladag. (Germany) – North American Premiere. When young Turkish-German woman Umay can no longer stand her husband’s ill-treatment, she flees from Istanbul with her five-year-old son into the arms of her family in Berlin. But love, affection, and loyalty soon become irrelevant as they struggle to reconcile Umay’s willful self-determination with the social system that governs their lives. This passion piece on female flight from oppression builds its considerable dramatic intensity to a glowing payoff. In German, Turkish with English subtitles.

World Documentary Feature Competition (Women directors account for 6 out of 12)

American Mystic, directed by Alex Mar. (USA) – World Premiere. Set against a vivid backdrop of American rural landscapes, Alex Mar’s meditative documentary artfully weaves together the stories of three young Americans exploring alternative religion: a Wiccan in California mining country, a New Ager in upstate New York, and a Native American father and sundancer in South Dakota, all yearning for fulfilling spirituality in disparate but often strikingly similar ways.

The Arbor, directed by Clio Barnard. (UK) – World Premiere. Brilliantly blending the borders of narrative and documentary filmmaking, artist-cum-director Clio Barnard beautifully reconstructs the fascinating true story of troubled British playwright Andrea Dunbar and her tumultuous relationship with her daughter. Working from two years of audio interviews, Bernard uses classic documentary techniques, actors, theatrical performance, and Dunbar’s own neighborhood to generate a unique cinematic feast while unraveling the truths of a dark family past.

Budrus, directed by Julia Bacha. (USA, Palestine, Israel) – North American Premiere. In one of the most conflicted parts of the world, a Palestinian family man unites rival parties Fatah and Hamas, Western activists, and even groups of progressive Israelis in a nonviolent crusade to save his village from being destroyed. Award-winning documentarian Julia Bacha (Encounter Point, TFF ’06) captures with rawness and galvanizing intensity the power of ordinary people to peaceably fight for extraordinary changes. In Arabic, English, Hebrew with English subtitles.

Earth Made of Glass, directed by Deborah Scranton. (USA) – World Premiere. This powerful investigative documentary by the Oscar®-nominated director of The War Tapes (best doc, TFF ’06) skillfully weaves interviews with President Kagame of Rwanda and Jean-Pierre Sagahutu, a survivor of the horrific 1994 genocide. When a president and a citizen—bound together by a profound love of country and an unquenchable desire to see the truth revealed—fight to expose the truth behind a murder and France’s hidden role in the Rwandan genocide, their stories will inspire and uplift. In English, French, Kinyarwandan with English subtitles.

Monica & David, directed by Alexandra Codina. (USA) – North American Premiere. Monica and David are in love. Truly, blissfully in love. They also happen to have Down syndrome. Alexandra Codina’s affectionate and heartwarming documentary is an intimate, year-in-the-life portrait of two child-like spirits with adult desires. Supported (and, for more than 30 years, sheltered) by endlessly devoted mothers, Monica and David prepare for their fairy tale wedding and face the realities of married life afterward.

Sons of Perdition, directed by Jennilyn Merten, Tyler Measom. (USA) – World Premiere. In the polygamist community cultivated by the notorious (and now incarcerated) “prophet” Warren Jeffs, women are a commodity, children are reared to be ignorant, and free thought is surrendered. For a group of teenage boys, the desire for autonomy means banishment from their homes and families. This fascinating documentary explores the heartbreaking losses and hopeful determination of these exiles as they struggle to make new lives in mainstream America.

Showcase (Women directors account for one out of seven)

A Brand New Life (Yeo-haeng-ja), directed and written by Ounie Lecomte. (South Korea, France) – New York Premiere. When her father offers to take her on a trip, nine-year-old Jin-hee happily sings him a love song, the bittersweet notes inaudible to her own ear, until she realizes he has abandoned her at a Catholic orphanage. Celebrated from the Cannes to Berlin film festivals, Ounie Lecomte’s directorial debut, a semi-autobiographical portrait of 1970s South Korea, masterfully captures the emotional journey of loss, friendship, and starting anew. In Korean with English subtitles.

It’s still sinking in — the big Bigelow win — and I wanted to hear what other folks thought, so I reached out to women directors around the world at all levels of their careers and asked them what they thought and what it means for them.  Thanks to everyone who responded.  If other still want to respond, I’d be happy to add.  I would love to get the reactions of the women who have been nominated previously and I am working on that — if you know Lina Wertmuller, or Sofia Copolla and can contact them (I already have a feeler out to Jane Campion), please email me —   I’ll let you know if I hear from them.

Here are the women who participated in alphabetical order (check out their sites to learn about their work):

Allison Anders, director Gas, Food Lodging; Anne Bass, director- Dancing Across Borders;  Tracy Lynch Britton, director, Melrose Place; Gabrielle Burton, Five Sisters Productions; Kathi Carey, director – Worth; Wendy Jo Carlton, director - Hannah Free; Jules Dameron; Katherine Dieckmann, director – Motherhood; Emily Dell, director- B-Girl;  Rachel Feldman, director – Beyond the Break and Sisters; Carey Graeber, director- Rediscovering Dorothy; Rhianon Elan Gutierrez, director- When I’m Not Alone;  Deborah Kampmeier, director-Hounddog; Aviva Kempner, director- Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg; Alex Kondracke, director- GirlTrash; Barbara Kopple, director – Shut Up and Sing, Harlan County USA (Oscar winner); Sue Kramer, director – Gray Matters; Alexis Krasilovsky, Director – Women Behind the Camera; Kasi Lemmons, director- Eve’s Bayou; Suzanne O’Keefe, director- Full Serve; Shamim Sarif, director – The World Unseen; Nancy Schwartzman, director- Where is Your Line?; Dawn Scibilia, director- Home; Nell Scovell, director- It Was One of Us; Therese Shechter, director- I Was A Teenage Feminist; Amy Sewell, director- What’s Your Point, Honey?; Karen Skloss, director- Sunshine; Juanita Wilson, director – The Door (nominated for an Oscar) Continue reading ‘Women Directors React to the Bigelow Win’

Those were the words that Barbra Streisand uttered when she announced Kathryn Bigelow’s name as the winner of the best director Oscar.  The moment came at the end of a long and boring show that featured many male winners in most categories, but DAMN, staying up was worth it.

I never really thought this was possible even six months ago since the gender problem in Hollywood is so pervasive, but DAMN, it happened – a woman won for BEST DIRECTOR.  Director is the ultimate leader in Hollywood, the big kahuna, and now, finally a woman is in the club and that my friends, is a big deal.

After she won last night I was thinking about other female firsts that I have experienced in my lifetime.  I remember when Sandra Day O’Connor became the first female Supreme Court justice; I remember when Madeleine Albright became the first Secretary of State; I remember when Shannon Faulkner became the first female to go to the Citadel; I remember when Eileen Collins became the first woman to command a space shuttle mission; I remember when Nancy Pelosi became the first female Speaker of the House.

And I will remember last night.

I will remember it because it came on the dawn of International Women’s Day, when many of us pause and think about the struggles that many women and girls in the world go through each and every day just to survive.

We all know that last night was symbolic, that one woman winning an award won’t help all the other women working each and every day to get their films made.  But I am betting that this morning women directors around the world will walk a little taller, smile a little brighter, and feel a bit stronger and more confident as they sweep up the glass that Bigelow shattered last night.

I hope that moms and dads around the world take the picture of Kathryn Bigelow and talk to their daughters and sons about the fact that this is a big deal for our world because it had never happened and maybe those young girls will believe that they too can win an Oscar, and maybe those boys will grow up believing that women are their equals in each and every profession.

Here’s Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar speech and backstage comments:

This really is… There’s no other way to describe it, it’s the moment of a lifetime. First of all, this is so extraordinary to be in the company of such powerful, my fellow nominees, such powerful filmmakers who have inspired me and I have admired for, some of whom, for decades. And thank you to every member of the Academy. This is, again, the moment of a lifetime.

“I would not be standing here if it wasn’t for Mark Boal, who risked his life for the words on the page and wrote such a courageous screenplay that I was fortunate enough to have an extraordinary cast bring that screenplay to life. And Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty. And, I think the secret to directing is collaborating and I had truly an extraordinary group of collaborators in my crew. Barry Ackroyd and Kalle Júlíusson and Bob Murawski, Chris Innis, Ray Beckett, Richard Stutsman and if I could just also thank my producing partners, Greg Shapiro, Nick Chartier and my wonderful agent, Brian Siberell, and the people of Jordan, who were, such a… so hospitable to us when we were shooting. And I’d just like to dedicate this to the women and men in the military who risk their lives on a daily basis in Iraq and Afghanistan and around the world. And may they come home safe. Thank you. (via Alt Film Guide)

Backstage comments (via The Wrap)

First of all, I hope I’m the first of many. And of course I’d love to just think of myself as a filmmaker, and I wait for the day when the modifier can be a moot point.

“But I’m very grateful if I can inspire some young, intrepid, tenacious male or female filmmakers and make them feel that the impossible is possible,” she added.

“I’ve been making films for a while. Only about 30 years. So when I say don’t give up, I mean it. …. Work on stories you really, truly believe in, because then no obstacle is too great.

Rachel Abramowitz of the LA Times and Lisa Schwarzbaum of EW weigh in on what a Bigelow win means for women (and the business.)

Abramowitz’ piece In Hollywood, female film directors are still the exception lays out the stats on where women are and how far we still have to go:

Bigelow’s likely ascension to the podium at the Academy Awards has provided a jolt of adrenaline.

For instance, neither Warner Bros., the world’s largest studio, nor Paramount Pictures hired a single female director last year, while Walt Disney Studios and Universal Studios hired just one apiece. No woman has ever been hired to direct an event picture with a budget of more than $100 million, the kind of film most valued by the Hollywood machine.

One apparent growth arena for women is in working for other women. Streep, for instance, told The Times that she attributes her box office renaissance to the fact that she opted to do three films, “Mamma Mia,” “Julie & Julia,” and “It’s Complicated,” that were written and directed by women, as well as backed by studios with women as presidents of production or even higher in rank.

And Schwartzbaum’s piece Kathryn Bigelow: If she wins the Oscar for directing, does that mean it’s been a great year for women?

As a movie-lover, I hope Bigelow wins, because of, well, her great directing of The Hurt Locker. As a woman (and thus, apparently, an oracle for the purposes of his little pre-Oscar feature) I’m aware of and excited about the significance of such a win, since she’d be, oh, the first woman ever to take the trophy in that category (and only the fourth ever nominated). But as a movie-lover, I’d like to think that if a man had directed The Hurt Locker as well as Bigelow did, then he would win the Oscar. I’d like to think that if Bigelow wins, the biggest benefit for women who want to make movies in Hollywood — a Hollywood run, as most of the world is run, by men — would be greater industry-wide recognition that talent comes in all sexes, colors, and sizes. A woman can make an action flick or a war movie; a man can make a feminine romance. All we want is to see stories that move us, excite us, entertain us, challenge us. Sometimes those movies are about alien blue people. More often, those movies are about people with whom we can identify, characters who look as young or old as we are. And as male or female, too.

AMEN.

I know I beat the drum consistently for Kathryn Bigelow but I want everyone to remember that if, and when she wins, the best director award at the Oscars on Sunday it will be only the beginning.   Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking things are equal just because a single woman wins the award.

There is still so much work to do to improve the situation for other female directors.

Martha Lauzen, the guru of stats from San Diego State U.  for one, won’t let that happen:

Just because you can name four or five women directors doesn’t mean no problem exists. If you don’t think there’s any problem then you’re not going to be looking for a solution. And that perpetuates the status quo.

If Kathryn Bigelow wins, media stories could talk about how everything has changed now and that women are equal. And that would be unfortunate.

We must all be vigilant.

Women Directors Face Celluloid Ceiling (AFP via Yahoo)

Note: I get lots of email from people who have scripts and films they want me to look at.  While I can’t watch or read all requests, I believe it is vital that we get as many women’s voices heard so they can get the exposure needed to continue of their filmmaking journey.  Women & Hollywood will try and feature these new voices on a regular basis.

All of the buzz around Kathryn Bigelow as best director is amazing—sure, she’s a woman, but more importantly, she made an incredible film, and had the guts to stick it out in a business that eats people alive and shatters dreams…

Yes, it’s been quite the long and arduous journey getting my first feature made.

It all began over six years ago, with a script called Raspberry Magic, a coming-of-age story about a young girl who believes that she can mend her broken family by proving to her dad that she can win the science fair.

Her project explores whether it’s nature or nurture that can make raspberries grow, something she measures through touch therapy.  I was inspired to write this story to explore a young girls’ relationship to nature and how it helps her realize that she can’t solve every problem through quantifiable means.

I went through many, many drafts of this script and even work-shopped it at a couple of writer’s conferences.  While I had written several screenplays before, Raspberry Magic was one I just kept working and working on over a period of many years.  I got a lot of positive feedback on it, and tried for years to meet that perfect person who would want to help me bring it to the screen…

But ultimately, no one wanted to make a movie about a young Indian girl, science, raspberries or the likes…Until 2006, when I met Megha Kadakia, an aspiring producer who had raised some financing for a couple of other indie films and was looking to do an low budget indie film.

Continue reading ‘Guest Post: The Hustle to Make the First Film by Leena Pendharkar’

Here’s the beginning:

In less than one week, March 7 to be exact, the Hollywood awards season will be over, and chances are very good that for the first time a woman—Kathryn Bigelow—will have won the best director Oscar for The Hurt Locker.  Three other women (Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion and Sophia Coppola) have been nominated in the 82 years that the Academy has held its awards, but with due respect to them and their films, none of them had a shot.

This year is different.  Based on earlier awards by critics and more recently by the Directors Guild (a first for a woman director) and the British academy (BAFTA)—as well as conversations with several Oscar watchers—the consensus is that Bigelow is at the front of the pack to win the award.  Last week, Time magazine got into the act titling its story “The Front Runner.” Forgive me for not sounding the trumpets in advance but we all have seen female front runners fade. While there are many reasons to believe that Bigelow will win, there is something in the back of my head that screams caution remembering the Gloria Steinem piece from the 2008 election season “Women are Never Front-Runners.”

Read full piece here

She totally rocked

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Last year I wrote a post about Toe to Toe a film written and directed by Emily Abt that premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. At that time Emily didn’t have a distributor and wanted one.  The good news is that she got a distributor and the film is released today in NYC and next week in LA.

Toe to Toe tells the story of two high school seniors, one African American, one white.  One poor, one rich.  One who has it together, one who is out of control.  They might seem like cliches but the performances are so truthful that all doubts are quickly erased.

Tosha (Sonequa Martin) is a poor African American girl in a private prep school who is pushed by her grandmother (Leslie Uggams) to believe in herself and her ability to get into Princeton.  She also encourages her to play lacrosse because no African American girls do.  It is on that field that she meets Jesse (Louisa Krause) a troubled, sexually provocative white girl who has been kicked out of many schools.  Jesse and Tosha are drawn to each other and become friends even while the outside world is conspiring against them.  But like most teenage girls they also compete.  Their friendship is messy, and at times disappointing and destructive.  But they try, which is more than can be said for Jesse’s busy single working mom (Ally Walker) who is so oblivious to her daughter’s needs and desperation that you want to throttle her.

What I liked best about the film is that Abt is unafraid to be challenging and deal with issues that most films skirt like promiscuity, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases and most especially race and class. I would love for this movie to be seen by teenagers everywhere with a group discussion afterwards.

Here’s an interview I did with director, Emily Abt. Continue reading ‘Toe to Toe Written and Directed by Emily Abt Opens Today in NYC’

Kimberly Reed’s documentary, Prodigal Sons, has been a long time in the making. Growing up life seemed so perfect.  She was born as Paul McKerrow, the high school quarterback, one of the most popular guys in school. But inside, Paul felt conflicted about his gender identity. So after high school, he moved to San Francisco and experimented with living as a woman, before making the full transition to life as a woman. This change served as a major aggravation to her brother Marc, who struggled for years as the adopted son. Marc’s resulting mental instability from a brain injury at 21 only exasperated his idealization of the past and Paul’s life from twenty-five years ago.

Living as a successful editor and filmmaker in S.F. and New York, she returned to her hometown of Helena, MT for her high school reunion, and a re-connection with Marc. The film is intense, raw, and gives the audience an open intimacy into the lives of Marc and Kimberly, and finding that they have more in common than they originally thought. Prodigal Sons opens Friday, February 26 in NYC.

How did you come to recording your journey and making a narrative comparing yours and your brother’s lives?

I had recently transitioned, this is probably about sixteen or seventeen years ago, I’m walking down the street in San Francisco, and I see somebody who I used to work with. And I went up and had that sort of shocking thing of like, “Hey, it’s me,” not wanting to be nosy. And it was a dear friend, his name was Bob Hawk, we worked at Film Arts Foundation in San Francisco, supporting independent film and artists. And we’ve been in touch ever since then; he’s an executive producer on the film. But a couple of weeks after that, he kept saying, “you have to make a film about this.” And at the time, I was like “No, no, I’m not going to talk about this, this is not going to happen.”  But both of us knew there was going to be a time when it was going to happen. So fast-forward to 2005, when I finally get up the nerve to go to my high school reunion, he was the first person I called. So in a lot of ways, the journey to make this film goes back there. In other ways, the journey to make this film starts with that decision to go to the high school reunion, which I think triggered a lot of other things.

How did people in your family adapt to being filmed? Did they request that somethings not be filmed?

Well, first of all, my dad was always shooting, so I think everyone was already used to the camera. I took on that mantle, and I was always shooting family gatherings, which I think was my way of assessing a lot of that stuff.  I was more comfortable behind the camera.  But also I think it was just how I processed the world, when I would get upset or melancholy, I would go out and shoot films, that’s what I would always do.  The family was always used to me running around with a camera so at the reunion when we were going to shoot it, it was like, “OK.”  I never had to convince anyone. I’m really lucky that I have a family that’s very trusting. The D.P., John Keitel was good at sinking into the scene and disappearing, he’s a vérité shooter, and that really helped a lot.

Continue reading ‘Guest Post: Interview with Kimberly Reed, Director of Prodigal Sons by Melissa Silvestri’

With all the hoopla over Kathryn Bigelow (as well the nomination for An Education as best picture) I missed another women directed film — The Milk of Sorrow directed by Claudia Llosa — which is up for the foreign film Oscar.

Not only is this film directed by a woman, it is about sexual violence against women in Peru.  Here is the description from IMDB:

Fausta is suffering from a rare disease called the Milk of Sorrow, which is transmitted through the breast milk of pregnant women who were abused or raped during or soon after pregnancy. While living in constant fear and confusion due to this disease, she must face the sudden death of her mother. She chooses to take drastic measures to not follow in her mother’s footsteps.

So here’s an example of a movie raising important issues — about women’s lives — that clearly works and is resonating.

It can be done.  I’ve got it saved in my netflix queue.

Peru film on sexual violence nominated for Oscar (AP via Yahoo)

I started to get real nervous as I paged through the top 25 since I didn’t run into a woman’s name until SHOCKER, at number 4 is Kathryn Bigelow.  What a difference a year (a great movie, and some awards) make.  Think she would have been on the list last year?

Here’s the list of the top 50

50- Nancy Meyers

45- Mira Nair

30- Sophia Coppola

4- Kathryn Bigelow

Who do you think is missing from this list?

25 Greatest Working Directors (EW)

Here’s Kathryn Bigelow talking about the film and what it might mean to other women if she wins the Oscar. The anticipation for the Oscars is killing me. I am so excited.

When asked what she thinks of being a role model she said it is “thrilling” especially because “you can factor into someone’s aspirations.”

Seeing is believing: