Guest Posts
Guest Post: How I Found Balance and Flexibility as a Working Mom in Film and Animation
By Sherene Strausberg My first film, “Cool For You,” has been accepted into 39 film festivals and received multiple awards, including a Silver Anthem Award last month. As an independent filmmaker...
Guest Post: How to Make a Movie on a $100K Budget
By Suzette Brown Making an independent film successful is not easy — the key is arming yourself with proper planning. On the first feature I produced, I was told by the director, “There are...
Guest Post: How the World’s Largest Search Engine Can Help Fix Hollywood’s Representation Problem
By Mimi Anagli and Elena Rossini Imagine this: you are a 14-year-old with a passion for movies and photography. Maybe one day you could make a career out of it, becoming a cinematographer. You are...
Guest Post: Do We Have to Choose Between Directing and Motherhood?
Guest Post by Sasha Joelle Achilli I was 24 when I started working in the TV documentary film world. I never thought that one day I would have the opportunity to make a living from traveling the...
Guest Post: How Women Inspired Me to Pay It Forward and Become a Mentor
By Mimi Chakarova I was 21 when I first met her. I was carrying a large portfolio case, sweating all the way from the train station to her gallery. I can’t tell you what she wore that day. All I...
Guest Post: How Seventh Row Is Revising the Film Canon with Books on Women Directors
By Orla Smith Browsing the film section of most bookstores, books about female directors are a rare find. Nestled between the tomes on Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson, you...
Guest Post: It’s Time For Disability Representation in Hollywood to Increase and Evolve
By Anna Pakman As a young girl growing up in the ’90s, I rarely saw anyone who looked like me on television or in the movies. You see, I was born with Cerebral Palsy, a disability that limits...
Guest Post: What We Learned as Parents and Carers During COVID, from Burnout to Building Back
By Raising Films Even before the pandemic, people with caring and parenting responsibilities working in film and TV had to have the know-how when it came to managing remote and home-based working...
Guest Post: How I Went from Sketch Writing to Feature Films — And Got My First Feature Made
Guest Post by Chelsea Frei I’ve always had a hard time sitting still. I need to be working on the next thing, checking things off my to do list. I think that’s why I gravitated toward sketch...
Guest Post: How “Gilmore Girls” Rescued My Relationship with My Mother
By Alexandra Hidalgo On October 5, “Gilmore Girls” fans celebrated the 20th anniversary of the show’s premiere. For two decades, women around the world have seen themselves reflected in single...
Guest Post: How 2020 Changed Our Distribution Plans for Our Doc About Lesbian Icon Franco Stevens
By Jen Rainin and Rivkah Beth Medow Shivering at 4 a.m. in an empty drive-in theater parking lot was not how we expected to spend the day before our film “Ahead of the Curve’s” world...
Guest Post: We Made a Movie During the Pandemic. Here’s How.
By Alexandra Boylan and Meredith Riley Stewart After two years, we were all systems go. The endless meetings, courting of investors, and flying from Los Angeles to Georgia for scouting trips had...
Guest Post: Reconsidering Film’s Past to See Change in the Future
Guest Post by Diana Martinez For the last decade I’ve been researching, writing, and teaching students of all ages about gender disparities in Hollywood. When I tell them that the silent film...
Guest Post: By Creating a Living History of Women in Electronic Music, I’m Telling a Different Kind of Story
Guest Post by Lisa Rovner People often ask me why the women in my film “Sisters with Transistors” aren’t represented in the history of electronic music, and while there are many factors...
Guest Post: A Recovering Angry Asian Girl Celebrates Trailblazers in PBS’ “Asian Americans”
Guest Post by Renee Tajima-Peña I am a recovering angry Asian girl and showrunner of “Asian Americans,” a docuseries about the epic and unexpected history of the country’s fastest...
Guest Post: Collaborating Taught Me Different Ways of Making Films and Seeing the World
Guest Post by Lynne Sachs Most people imagine the structure for making a film as a pyramid with one person sitting proudly at the top. The industry as we know it endows the director with almost...
Guest Post: Why Do We Reduce “Little Women’s” March Sisters to Types?
Guest Post by Sarah Rebell Which March sister are you? The Internet is full of online quizzes asking that question, and promising to tell you whether you’re more of a reliable Meg or a headstrong...
Guest Post: Tired of Playing the Replaceable Wife, I Decided to Pursue Directing
Guest Post by Ashley Williams I’d been counting the calls. The phone in my back pocket buzzed for the 10th time. Or was it the 11th? I still didn’t reach for it. Her face flashed in my head....
Guest Post: What TV Commissioning Data Can Tell Us About the Longevity of the “#MeToo Moment”
Guest Post by Alice Thorpe By now, we are used to hearing the gains made by women in the U.S. film and TV industries in recent years described as a “moment.” We are still regularly assured that...
Guest Post: Want to Increase the Number of Women Feature Directors? Look to TV
Guest Post by Rachel Feldman 2019 is a banner year for international women directors, with 30 percent of the International Oscar contenders being female — and brava! Plenty of excellent...
Guest Post: How I Made the Switch from Working in Finance to Producing an Oscar Contender
Guest Post by Alexa Khan After graduating from college, I embarked on a very successful and lucrative career in finance — yet I felt stuck in life. Although I loved the sense of accomplishment,...
Guest Post: We Should Prioritize Gender Equality on All Films — Not Just Ones About Women
Guest Post by Holly Levow Several years ago, I was on set of my first female-driven film as executive producer and witnessed a sense of camaraderie, respect, and gratification from having so many...
Guest Post: Why I Work in Film Exhibition, and How the Industry Is Changing
Guest Post by Alison Kozberg As Managing Director of Art House Convergence, an association dedicated to advancing excellence in art house cinemas, I have the great privilege to collaborate with...
Guest Post: How I’m Honoring Women in Space — and Music — at the Hollywood Bowl
Guest Post by Penka Kouneva On August 15, Los Angeles Philharmonic will present a concert titled “America in Space” at the Hollywood Bowl. This one-night-only event will celebrate the...
Guest Post: Why I Cut All of the Sex Scenes from My Film
Guest Post by Zoe Eisenberg Most filmmakers know the pain of finding their favorite scenes on the cutting room floor, but how about the satisfaction of snipping your least favorite scenes? During...
Guest Post: What I Learned From Revisiting My 1984 Documentary “Before Stonewall”
Guest Post by Greta Schiller “Before Stonewall” traces the making of America’s lesbian and gay community from the turn of the century to the Stonewall Riots. I never imagined the...
Guest Post: How Censorship Made Me a Filmmaker
Guest Post by Shakti Bhagchandani When I was in the seventh grade, my English Literature class was assigned Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo.” On our first day of studying...
Guest Post: What “Roma” Gets Right About Motherhood
Guest Post by Cristina Escobar “Roma” became the first film from Mexico to win the “foreign” language category at the Oscars on Sunday, and also nabbed best director and cinematography...
Guest Post: The Enduring Legacy of Joan Micklin Silver’s “Between the Lines”
Guest Post by Maya Montañez Smukler Joan Micklin Silver’s 1977 film “Between the Lines” captures a precious moment when 1960s social idealism struggled against 1970s careerist...
Guest Post: Why My Sisters and I Shared Our Story of Childhood Sex Abuse in a Documentary
Guest Post by Desirae Brown In the fall of 2007 we were at the peak of our careers. All five of us, including our brothers Gregory and Ryan, had attended Juilliard, capturing the attention of The New...
Guest Post: Hollywood, Resolve to Make 2019 the Year of Inclusive Hiring Targets
Guest Post by Gillian Thomas and Melissa Goodman It’s a new year, and that means it’s awards season — or more specifically, the season for a slew of award nomination announcements devoid...
Guest Post: How Making a Doc Series Helped Me Preserve My Identity
Guest Post by Oluwaseun Babalola Creative content, like film or television, is integral to identity and cultural preservation. Have you ever heard of “Cool Japan”? It’s a reference to...
Guest Post: Mira Nair’s Groundbreaking Career, from Bollywood to Hollywood
Guest Post by Amardeep Singh I’ve been fascinated by director Mira Nair since I first saw her 1991 film “Mississippi Masala,” a drama about the romance between an Indian immigrant (Sarita...
Guest Post: Why the History of Women’s Filmmaking Is Important Now
Guest Post by Shelley Stamp “Why haven’t I heard about this history?!” That’s what people ask when I tell them about the “Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers” collection I curated for...
Guest Post: How I Branched Out from “Ethnic Friend” to Leading Lady in “Unlovable”
Guest Post by Charlene deGuzman Growing up Filipino-American in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I never saw any movie stars that looked like me. I rarely saw anyone Filipino on-screen, and if I did, they...
Guest Post: How I Sought to Improve Black Representation with My First Feature “Solace”
Guest Post by Tchaiko Omawale Being a Black female filmmaker, I carry the privilege and responsibility of creating the things I wish I had seen when I was growing up. My two favorite movie genres...
Guest Post: How I Founded an Art House Cinema and Made Supporting Women a Priority
Guest Post by Lawren Desai My son was still in diapers when I founded an art house cinema. I wrote my business plan during nap time and showed up to construction with a stroller. This was in 2010:...
Guest Post: “Crazy Rich Asians” and Sandra Oh’s Emmy Nod Are Major Milestones for Asian-Americans
Guest Post by Kathy Huynh-Phan It’s been a month since Emmy nominations were announced, and I’m still reeling. Sandra Oh received a nod for her role as Eve Polastri in “Killing...
Guest Post: Why I Made a Documentary About Domestic “Helpers” in Hong Kong
Guest Post by Joanna Bowers I moved to Hong Kong from Los Angeles in 2011 and quickly realized that I couldn’t have chosen two cities more different than one another. Leaving the sprawling,...
Guest Post: Why Making a Sci-Fi Film Inspired Me to Fight Destiny and Sexism
Guest Post by Morgan Lariah “Anatomy is destiny, and you, Morgan, are going to have a very hard time.” I was freshly 18 and a new student at Hollywood’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts when...
Guest Post: When I Stopped Asking for Permission and Started Giving It
Guest Post by Katy-May Hudson It’s mid-2016. I’m an experimental artist writing, performing, and creating new work, mostly with the NY Neo Futurists. We have a normal president in the White House...
Guest Post: Why I Decided to Cut All the Men Out of “Star Wars” and What It Showed Me
Guest Post by Rebecca Harrison Last week, I published some preliminary findings from my research about gender and race in “Star Wars.” I’ve been a life-long fan of the films and...
Guest Post: Why I Made a Movie About A Woman Struggling with Mental Health
Guest Post by Sophie Max At the time of writing, my film “Callie” is nearing the end of post-production and preparing to enter the festival circuit. “Callie” is a tale of friendship,...
Guest Post: Is Blockchain a Fad or Will It Turn the Entertainment Industry on Its Head?
Guest Post by Heidi Philipsen Picture it: The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Fall semester in 1991. I was an omnipotent-feeling Gen X undergraduate student more interested in my independent...
Guest Post: How I Learned to Listen to My Film as a Director and Editor
Guest Post by Rachel Shuman I make a living as a professional editor, working mostly on documentary films. I find the process of editing so engaging and creative that even when I don’t love the...
Guest Post: Why I Founded the American Pavilion at Cannes
Guest Post by Julie Sisk I first attended Cannes in 1989. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing there. As a young woman in the film business I was in between opportunities — so to speak...
Guest Post: Why I Launched a Streaming Platform
Guest Post by Melinda Prisco I’m incredibly lucky. Not only do I produce movies, but I get to distribute stunning world cinema on my streaming platform, Filmatique. I conceptualized Filmatique...
Guest Post: Why I Was Determined to Make a Film About the First Female Psychoanalyst
Guest Post by Cordula Kablitz-Post Eight years ago, one year before her 150th birthday, I had the idea of doing a film about legendary German-Russian writer, philosopher, and first female...
Guest Post: How a Short I Wrote Ended Up Being Directed by Robin Wright and Premiering at Cannes
Guest Post by Denise Meyers I am the antithesis of what a successful screenwriter looks like: I am 57, female, and live in the fly-over zone. I am also a great one for beating the odds, because on...
Guest Post: How I Made a Movie Based on My Experience as an Egg Donor
Guest Post by Sonja O’Hara “Submit for the Role of a Lifetime. Become an Egg Donor!” I remember how those words stood out next to listings for non-union commercials and Off-Off-Broadway...
Guest Post: Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Step Out of Your Lane
Guest Post by Rebecca Serle Since I was a child, the only thing I ever wanted to do was to be a writer. When I sold my first book in 2010, a re-telling of “Romeo and Juliet” from Rosaline’s...