Women accounted for just 11 percent of directors working on the 250 top-grossing films in 2017. “Half the Picture” investigates why women are so often excluded from the director’s chair despite representing over half of the population. U.S. rights to the doc about Hollywood’s discriminatory hiring practices have been acquired by Gravitas Ventures, Variety reports.
Directed by Amy Adrion, “Half the Picture” features interviews with helmers including Ava DuVernay (“A Wrinkle in Time”), Lena Dunham (“Girls”), and Jill Soloway (“Transparent”). Women and Hollywood Founder and Publisher Melissa Silverstein is also featured in the doc.
“I graduated from film school and was having trouble getting my feature off the ground, as were many of my female colleagues,” Adrion told us. “Right around that time I felt bombarded by the statistics, reports, and articles about the lack of working women directors and was feeling overwhelmed by how impossible it seemed for women to have careers as directors. But at the same time,” she explained, “women were speaking up and sharing their stories, University of Southern California and San Diego State University continued to publish extensive research, and the ACLU and EEOC had begun investigating systemic discrimination of women in the field of directing. It seemed that change was possible. I had to document this dynamic time.”
“Half the Picture” made its world premiere at Sundance in January and will screen at SXSW, which kicks off today in Austin. The feature will hit theaters in June and will be released on VOD and Digital HD on July 10.
“Only 3 percent of this year’s film releases by the six major Hollywood studios are directed by women — the lowest percentage in five years,” said Laura Florence, vice president of marketing and sales at Gravitas Ventures. “Worse yet, three of those major studios have only men directing all of their 2018 releases. This issue is such a relevant and timely topic. Gravitas Ventures is excited to release ‘Half the Picture’ to continue the conversation and to hopefully enact change in our industry.”
As for what Adrion hopes audiences will get out of the pic, she told us, “I want people of all ages, races, ethnicities, and sexual orientations to leave with an even greater passion to tell their own stories. I want them to get fired up by watching the incredible work made by the women in the film, who have all encountered discrimination, roadblocks, and rejections, yet found a way to power through and not just persevere, but make great cinema.”
“Half the Picture” is Adrion’s feature debut. She previously helmed shorts including “Shoegazer” and “The Home of Split Pea Soup.”
