The following is a rant.
Yesterday, a story broke that included comments from Alberto Barbera, the head of the Venice Film Festival, in which he responded to the lack of women directors in the fest’s main competition — only one of the 21 films is directed by a woman. It’s pretty amazing that this fest manages to have a worse record than Cannes in regards to women.
Barbera said, “I don’t think it is our fault.”
That’s partially true; it’s everyone’s fault. This is something that is on every single person in the industry. And it’s thanks to reporters who know that shortsighted answers are going to come from festival directors and other industry leaders who still have no interest in coming up with a long term solution to the problem. And by the way, Barbera has no issue with there being only one female-directed film screening in competition.
Barbera then added that he does not know who the director is when he screens a film. I call bullshit on that. So he watched Alexander Payne’s “Downsizing” without knowing that it was directed by Alexander Payne? Or does that refer to non-high profile films? This statement must be clarified. Because if Barbera is saying that he watched films without knowing who made them (and he said he watched 2,000) and still only picked movies directed by men, there is a a bigger issue. But I don’t believe that to be true. Women-directed films receive prizes at festivals of all levels. To imply that it is acceptable that only one woman-directed film is included at a top-tier festival is brutally offensive to women filmmakers and filmgoers across the world.
This interview is especially insulting because Barbera’s tone suggests that women are just not good enough to be at Venice; if they were good enough, Barbera would have found them. And he tried to shut down any talk of sexism by reminding us that he made Annette Bening the head of the jury. (P.S. That doesn’t fly.)
And speaking of Ms. Bening, she stepped in her own pile of shit at the kick off press conference by saying: “The more we can make films that speak to everybody, the more we will be regarded as filmmakers…”
So, basically she said that women don’t make universal or commercial films that appeal to wide masses. That’s bullshit and she should know it. See the $800 million “Wonder Woman” grossed this summer. Bening is a woman who has been in a variety of movies directed by women (though none in the last five years) including the beloved “The Kids Are All Right” directed by Lisa Cholodenko.
She continued: “As women, we have to be sharp, shrewd, and creative in what we choose to make. Sexism does exist and there is no question about it. But things are changing.”
Bening might like to think that things are changing — all sorts of people think things are changing. But the numbers are steady. Talk is talk. We need action or the numbers and the attitudes will continue to be entrenched.
