Female cinematographers are banding together to form a new, supportive group called CINEMATOGRAPHERS XX, which will “help the crews behind the camera be more reflective of the stories they create, and provide a resource for producers and directors looking to find qualified cinematographers that identify as women.”
According to the announcement, the ratio of men to women working behind the scenes is 5:1. Female cinematographers make up only 2 percent of the individuals hired as Directors of Photography (DP). In Martha Lauzen’s study “The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women on the Top 100, 250, and 500 Films of 2015,” women accounted for 6 percent of all cinematographers working on the top 250 films of 2015. This represents an increase of 1 percentage point from 2014 and 2 percentage points from 1998. Ninety four percent of the films had no female cinematographers.
“Women have long been creating beautiful imagery and telling wonderful stories through cinematography, and the conversation about that inequality is finally catching up.” says Autumn Eakin, founding member of CINEMATOGRAPHERS XX. “I often hear from production companies that they would like to hire more women, they just don’t know where to find them. CINEMATOGRAPHERS XX is a way to to connect productions with qualified, professional cinematographers that identify as female.”
“Camerawork is so much about who gets seen and how. It is no small irony that the many women holding cameras around the world are yet to be fully recognized for their great capacities,” says Kirsten Johnson, Director of Photography whose works include “Citizenfour” and “Cameraperson.” “Through CINEMATOGRAPHERS XX, we can imagine the multitude of voices and visions that have yet to be seen.”
“Everyone knows that in film, you don’t get hired until the world knows you exist. It’s 2016 and I still find that on most sets I work on, most people tell me they’ve never worked with a female DP before,” said Reed Morano, ASC whose works include HBO’s “VINYL” and “Meadowland.” “This should not be a novelty. There are a ton of talented women out there, with their eyes to the viewfinder, bringing a whole other perspective to filmmaking. It’s about time that this industry catches up with us and CINEMATOGRAPHERS XX is striving to help close that gap.”
Morano also directly told Women and Hollywood,
“Honestly, I could’ve used this organization 16 years ago. For years I was just treading water working as a waitress, a temp secretary, and a grip, struggling to find jobs as a DP on Craigslist crew gigs and Mandy.com. For free. We never had any kind of exposure and as a woman I won’t say it was harder, it just wasn’t any easier. Over and over I had to prove that it’s possible; that as a woman, I had the ability to lead an entire crew as well as having the technical know how and artistic ability and speed . A lot of people in the industry are still stuck in the dark ages and don’t trust that a female can do all of this just as well as their male counterparts and in some cases, better. A movie has to win the grand jury prize at Sundance in order to get you the calls for work. I think if the industry has a resource where they can find these DPs, these women will be working all the time and they’ll get the exposure they deserve as artists, without gender holding them back. And in the future maybe I can stop hearing how there are no female DPs anywhere. Because there are and they’re damn good at what they do.”
CINEMATOGRAPHERS XX members must have a minimum of five years of professional industry experience as Directors of Photography, while NuWave members can be just starting their career in film. For more information, visit CINEMATOGRAPHERSXX.com.
