Denmark, home of such lauded female directors as Susanne Bier and Lone Scherfig, is sadly headed for another disappointing year for Danish female directors. Though the country is known for being strong on gender equality, the progressive nature of the Nordic land doesn’t seem to extend into the film industry.
As the CPH Post reports, of the 26 feature films set to debut in the country this coming year, only three are directed by women and only two have female leads. This is a huge problem.
“This year is really bad, but I have to say that it has been very bad for a long time,” Nana Frank Rasmussen, a film critic for Jyllands-Posten and head of the women’s rights advocacy organization Women in Film and Television (WIFT) told Women and Hollywood. She specified that, in general, only one-fifth of all Danish films are directed by women in a year. In 2015 there were seven out of 24, and in 2016 it was three out of 23.
At the end of 2016, The Danish Film Institute (DFI) announced that it would take steps to promote diversity, including gender equality, in Danish film. But DFI head Henrik Bo Nielsen stresses that the results aren’t going to be immediate.
“The incubation period is long. If this issue had come up at the end of 2015 it would still have taken a few years before something hit the big screens,” Nielsen told the Berlingske newspaper. “You have to be patient, even if the curve is as flat as the heart-rate of a dying patient.”
Rasmussen agrees, telling Women and Hollywood, “Of course it will take some time before we see the results. But it is nevertheless very depressing, what is being screened in cinema theaters, from a gender point of view.”
“Film helps generate a mutual understanding of our society,” she told Berlingske. “And women pay taxes and thus contribute to culture funds, so you could call it a democratic problem that more women aren’t represented in Danish film. It’s not about the talent not being there — it’s not being allowed in.”
Let’s hope that 2018 sees the changes in Danish film that have been promised.
