“Believe that you have something to say — that you have a voice and it’s up to you to speak to the world,” says “Beyond the Lights” writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood in a PSA promoting the Bonnie Award. The new, $50,000 award will be given to a female filmmaker at next year’s Indie Spirit Awards. The grant is named in honor of Bonnie Tiburzi Caputo, who made history when she was hired by American Airlines in 1973 as a flight engineer, making her the first female pilot to fly for a major U.S airline.
Directed by “Future Weather” producer Kristin Fairweather, the spot features interviews with five trailblazing female filmmakers: Prince-Bythewood, Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”), Niki Caro, “The Zookeeper’s Wife”), Kimberly Peirce (“Boys Don’t Cry”), and Karyn Kusama (“Girlfight”).
“There’s a sense of simply not taking a leap of faith with the female candidate over the male candidate,” Kusama observes.
Citing numbers about the lack of films directed by women, Caro insists, “It’s time to speak up.” And “awards like the Bonnie Award will give a female filmmaker the opportunity to write that story that they’re passionate about,” Prince-Bythewood explains.
The PSA was shot with a majority female crew — just one man participated.
Check out the spot below to see Jenkins share a career-changing moment she recently experienced and to see Caputo recall her first flying lesson.
