ALL POSTS
Interview with Megan Griffiths — Director of SXSW Audience Winner Eden
I was a little late to finding out about Eden but I am glad I did. It’s a really good and interesting film on a difficult topic — sex trafficking. We all think the sex trafficking occurs...
Interview with the Director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Producer Kelcey Edwards of Wonder Woman — The Untold Story of American Superheroines
I am one of those girls who grew up watching Wonder Woman and The Bionic Woman. I loved those shows. The feminist in me was alive way back then when Lynda Carter and Lindsey Wagner were kicking butt...
Viola Davis to Play Congresswoman Barbara Jordan
Maybe this could be the one to put Viola Davis up on the stage on Oscar night with a win in her column. Several reports state that Davis is circling to star in and produce a biopic on the...
A Newbie Filmmaker Hits SXSW
I kicked off my SXSW Film adventure by running into my sidekick for the evening, fellow blogger, Dr. Goddess. Our SXSW Interactive panels were neighbors. I was on a mission to make it to the Alamo...
Interview with Jennifer Westfeldt — Writer and Director of Friends With Kids
Jennifer Wesfeldt was kind enough to answer some questions (by email) about her new film, Friends with Kids which opened yesterday. Women and Hollywood: You were hesitant to step behind the camera...
Sigourney Weaver to Channel Hillary Clinton in USA Series Political Animals
Aside from the big news that Sigourney Weaver is coming to a TV near you, the fact that she will be playing a character quite close to Hillary Clinton makes this announcement so exciting. Point A-...
Julie Taymor Responds to Lawsuit Fighting for Her Reputation and Future Jobs
There is nothing like reading legal papers on a Monday morning to get your blood boiling. Late last week Julie Taymor’s lawyers responded to the part of the Spiderman lawsuit that has not been...
Hedy Lamarr: Way More Than Just a Pretty Face
Hedy Lamarr was a big Hollywood star in the 40s. But what most people don’t know is that she was also an inventor. An inventor who created a gudiance system for torpedos using frequency hoping...
Interview with Carice van Houten — Star of Black Butterflies
Here is a reposting of the interview I did a little less than a year ago with Carice before she took the Tribeca Film Festival by storm. She stars in Black Butterflies which opens Friday and is...
Oscar Thoughts: Boys, Boys and More Boys
Here’s my thing about the Oscars. There were women everywhere. We can’t stop talking about the great dresses. Women were also there as great presenters (like the crew from Bridesmaids and Emma...
Cross Post: Oiling the Oscar Machine
Sasha Stone from Awards Daily attended the Oscars last night and write a very good analysis piece. She has a big section on Viola Davis and Meryl Streep which she has given permission to cross post....
Chicken and Egg Pictures Hits $2 Million in Grants
This is one of the places for women filmmakers to get money to get their films done. The list of films they are funding is incredible. I want to see them all. The descriptions are directly from the...
Sexism Watch: NY Times Book Review Calls NY Times Reporter’s Book “Chick Nonfiction”
We hit another dubious milestone this weekend. A book called The Obamas written by veteran NY Times reporter Jodi Kantor was called “chick nonfiction” in a NY Times book review written by...
Sexism Watch: Gender Disparities in Actor Salaries
I saw a story the other day about how the actor Chris Pine (whose new film This Means War opens today and looks beyond dreadful) was being sued by his former agents over non payment of commissions....
Guest Post: Sex, Lies, and Phone-Hacking: British Tabloid Journalism on Trial
Britain has been riveted by the Leveson Inquiry, a legal body set up to investigate illegal information-gathering techniques used by the tabloid press — such as phone-hacking, data...
Cross Post: Streep Speaks and Illuminates the Need for More Female Critics
Earlier this week, Terry Gross broadcast a provocative interview with Meryl Streep on her NPR program Fresh Air. The interview was tied to Streep’s unprecedented 17th Oscar nomination for her...
Sundance 2012 Success Story: Ava Duvernay
One of the biggest success stories out of Sundance is Ava Duvernay. Here is a woman who started a new distribution movement — African American Film Festival Releasing Movement; put out two...
Cross-Post: Where Are the Women Directors
Here’s a thought exercise: In a nation where 33 percent of the Supreme Court justices are women, 17 percent of the seats in the Senate and House are held by women and 12 percent of the statehouses...
Sundance Press Obsession with the “It” Girl
I never realized how annoying the whole “it” girl thing was until I saw three straight “it” girls articles in my RSS feed yesterday about three different women. I know that people have to...
Cross-Post: Women Kicking It on Kickstarter!
Kickstarter, called “the people’s NEA” by The New York Times, recently sent out their 2011 round-up of success stories on their crowdsourced fundraising site, with women filmmakers taking...
Is Haywire a Game Changer?
I know I am dating myself when I can say that I knew nothing about MMA — mixed martial arts — before I saw the film Haywire. I’m not the kind of person who tunes in to see women beat...
A View from the Trenches: Is Estrogen My Last Hurdle to Success?
I blame my Midwestern roots for my optimistic views and somewhat naivé outlook on my career in Hollywood. Hard work reaps rewards so any hurdle I saw was positive because it made me a better...
How Will the New Documentary Rules Affect Women Filmmakers?
When I read the NY Times story earlier this week about the proposed changes for films to qualify for a documentary Academy Award nomination, I wondered how these new rules would affect films by and...
The Failed Experiment — The Departure of Disney Marketing Chief MT Carney
Disney tried to shake up it’s marketing a year and a half ago when they brought in NY marketer MT (Marie Therese) Carney, a woman with absolutely no experience marketing films. They wanted to...
Guest Post: Critics Are from Mars, Actresses from Venus
Critics! Can’t live with them, can act without them. Why won’t critics accept raw emotion that’s honestly and accurately depicted? Why do they applaud nudity and fake sexual intercourse, but...
Sexist Advertisement of the Day: Dr. Pepper 10
Seriously- this is one of the most sexist ads I have seen. It’s not new but I just got wind of it. I will never buy Dr. Pepper again. h/t Rebecca Feferman
Lame Idea of the Day — Making a Bridesmaids Sequel Without the Lead Bridesmaid
The Hollywood Reporter released a story yesterday saying that Universal was planning on moving ahead with a Bridemaids sequel but that star/co-writer Kristen Wiig as well as co-writer Annie Mumolo...
The Iron Lady
As a person who cares about women’s leadership, The Iron Lady should be a no-brainer. A film with an AMAZING tour-de-force performance by Meryl Streep playing a woman who was the longest serving...
Interview with Phyllida Lloyd — director of The Iron Lady
Women and Hollywood: This is a very different biopic of a leader because it is of a female leader. What about this films makes it different in terms of leadership? Phyllida Lloyd: First of all...
Interview with Abi Morgan — writer of The Iron Lady
I was lucky enough to meet the multi-talented Abi Morgan who has had an amazingly successful year with The Hour, Shame and The Iron Lady on the day after the premiere of The Iron Lady in NYC. Women...
Interview with Dee Rees — Writer and Director of Pariah
Pariah opens in limited release tomorrow. I was able to catch it and the Toronto Film Festival. Here is my conversation with writer/director Dee Rees. Women and Hollywood: Why did you start the...
Interview with Adepero Oduye star of Pariah
This is the week when Pariah starts to roll out and I can’t say emphatically enough that when this film comes to your town, you must see it. I was able to speak with the star of the film Adepero...
Guest Post: I Graduated from the Corman School of Filmmaking
At 19, I decided that I wanted to make movies but unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to attend film school. I relied on DVD extras and books in order to educate myself about cinema and how...
Natalie Portman Takes Her Oscar Win Out for a Test Run
While Natalie Portman might have been off our radar screen since last February when she won the best actress Oscar and disappeared to have her baby, yesterday we learned through the Hollywood...
Cross-Post: No Women Allowed
I was recently introduced to a very rare and beautiful creature — a woman who works within the top echelons of an almost exclusively male below-the-line craft in both film and television....
Hollywood Reporter Acknowledges That The Industry is Sexist
The Hollywood Reporter in the wake of their complete dismissal of women in both its writer and director roundtables has done a 360 and put together a whole cover on the lack of women directors and...
Interview with Diablo Cody
Diablo Cody was kindly able to take a few minutes to talk Young Adult and feminism in the film business on the eve of the opening of her new film. It’s good to know that we have a strong feminist...
I Admit it: I Love Sons of Anarchy
On the occasion of the fourth season finale tonight I am coming out and admitting to my deep affection for the TV show Sons of Anarchy. This might seem a bit off based on what I usually write about,...
Must Watch: Borgen — Men Who Love Women
One of my obsessions has been the Danish TV show Borgen which has been running for the last six weeks on Link TV. It is about Denmark’s first female Prime Minister and all the ups and downs of...
The Lady
The Lady is opening today for one week in LA for an Oscar qualifying run. It will open early next year here in the US. The review below was written based on the version that was at the Toronto Film...
Interview With Julia Leigh — Writer/Director of Sleeping Beauty
I was able to chat with novelist and now filmmaker Julia Leigh about her film Sleeping Beauty in September at the Toronto Film Festival. Here is our conversation. Women and Hollywood: Talk a little...
Interview With Julia Leigh – Writer/Director of Sleeping Beauty
I was able to chat with novelist and now filmmaker Julia Leigh about her film Sleeping Beauty in September at the Toronto Film Festival. Here is our conversation. Women and Hollywood: Talk a...
Cross-Post: Name It, Change It, Flip It, Quip It
In honor of the Women’s Media Center Awards this evening (and I want to thank everyone who voted for me in the social media award category- I did not win), Nell Scovell and Gloria Steinem have put...
Cross-Post: Oscars 2011: Single Fathers and the Vanishing Mothers
One of the threads running through this year’s Oscar race is the single father who must pull things together for the sake of his kids. This is especially poignant in three films — Moneyball,...
Guest Post: Making Marathon Boy
Six years ago, in an impoverished corner of India, an orphanage director and a slum boy capture the imagination of their country. Plucked from obscurity and thrust into the national spotlight,...
Guest Post: Breaking Dawn: Part 1 High Heels, White Weddings, Broken Headboards, and Bella as Pregnant Martyr by Natalie Wilson
While the first Twilight film was directed by a woman, all subsequent adaptations have had males at the helm. The first adaptation, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, featured a Bella that was...
Guest Post: Bloody Good By Katie O’Grady
What’s the worst thing a woman can do to another woman in a grocery store? Nope. You can’t guess, but our film opens with it. RID OF ME is the simple story of a mousy newlywed, Meris (played...
Sexism Watch: The Hollywood Reporter Directors Roundtable
This is the picture that has inspired a post I am working on on the movies directed by women in 2011. Again, I don’t know how they could have put this together without including one female...
Interview with Celine Sciamma: Writer/Director of Tomboy
Women and Hollywood: How did you come up with this story? Celine Sciamma: I had the storyline in mind for a while, as a pitch: “a little girl pretending to be a little boy”. When I decided I...
Cross-Post: Seven things Glee gets wrong about The First Time by Therese Shechter
Warning: Brimming with spoilers. Last year, during Glee’s Madonna episode, Rachel, Finn and Emma (the guidance counselor with OCD) attempted to lose their respective virginities during a sexy...
The Academy Has a Brett Ratner Problem
Oh boy does the Academy have a public relations problem and that problem is the guy they hired to produce the show Brett Ratner. One of the problems they have with him is that he has become the story...