Directors Cady McClain and Amy Adrion are turning the cameras towards themselves — in a sense. These two filmmakers are developing documentary projects about their peers: women directors.
McClain (“Suzy F*cking Homemaker”), also an Emmy-winning actress, realized that there weren’t many other women directors working after she finished her first projects, “The World of Albert Fuh” and “Flip Fantasia.” So she decided to travel around the world and interview any woman director who was interested or had something to say.
The result is the documentary series “Seeing is Believing: Women Direct.” This series features the interviews McClain conducted with women filmmakers and “the good guys,” or the “male producers in TV and film who strongly support hiring women.” McClain talked to dozens of people including Marianna Palka (“Good Dick”), Li Lu (“There Is a New World Somewhere”), and Lizzie Borden (“Born in Flames”). You can check out the full list of interviewees here.
This project is “intended to serve as ‘peer to peer mentorship’ for anyone (of any gender) looking for guidance and real world experience as they pursue their dreams of becoming a visual storyteller,” McClain says.
Adrion’s (“Shoegazer”) “Half the Picture” is also comprised of interviews. She and her team talked with “some of the most exciting women directors in Hollywood” and “experts closest to issues of gender inequality in show business.” The documentary includes interviews with more than 35 people, including Gina Prince-Bythewood (“Beyond the Lights”), Karyn Kusama (“The Invitation”), and Sam Taylor-Johnson (“Fifty Shades of Grey”).
According to the project’s synopsis, the doc uses “the current EEOC investigation into discriminatory hiring practices as a framework for conversations with successful women directors about their paths, their struggles, their inspiration, and their hopes for the future.” Adrion plans to use this film to document “a pivotal moment in our industry.”
The doc explores why female directors are so underrepresented even though “50 percent of students at top film schools are women.”
Both “Seeing Is Believing: Women Direct” and “Half the Picture” are running crowdfunding campaigns. You can donate to the former here and the latter here.
