How many movies have you seen in the past year? Of those, how many were directed by a woman? And how many of those were directed by a woman of color?
The fact is, films directed by women just don’t get the distribution deals that lead to high visibility and box office numbers, and consequently obscure the talented filmmaker behind them. In the past decade, only 4% of the top 100 studio films have been directed by women. Four films. In 91 years of the Academy Awards, only five women have ever been nominated for Best Director, and Kathryn Bigelow has been the only one to win it.
Hollywood’s systematic shutout of female talent behind the camera has become a hot topic of intention and change over the past year, since the blossoming of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements. Activist-artist group Guerilla Girls, first started in 1985 to fight gender inequality in Hollywood, has returned with a campaign on social media that illustrates the industry's stagnation in diversity compared to the United States Senate. It’s never been a secret that women are woefully represented in the film industry, and a USC Annenberg study found that out of 1,000 of the top-grossing films in the last decade, 44 were directed by women. Three were black, three were Asian, and one was Latina.
Not only does Hollywood tend to be sexist and racist, but also, ageist. The study showed that male directors work around 30 years longer than female directors.
Much of the progress that has been made to combat the system continues to be largely bolstered by the Time’s Up movement, started during the 2018 Hollywood awards season. Although the 2018 Oscars ceremony was uplifting and hopeful, thanks to a smattering of female nominees (read: Greta Gerwig for Best Director, Dee Rees for Best Adapted Screenplay, Rachel Morrison for Best Cinematography), leading ladies clad in black gowns in solidarity, and talks of inclusion riders, the nominees for this year’s awards look like a step back to the (not so) olden days. As per the status quo, this year’s nominees for directing, cinematography, editing and original score are all male.
Yes, the aforementioned statistics about women in film are nothing short of outrageous and dismal – but I’m here to share with you that hope is not lost. That it’s only a matter of time before the revolution manifests itself in awards nominees. Hear me out for a second.
I am a third-year film student at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, ground zero for prolific behind-the-camera talent including M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), Reed Morano (The Handmaid’s Tale), Donald Glover (Atlanta), and legends such as Spike Lee (Do The Right Thing), Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas), Joel Coen (Fargo), and (dare I mention) – even Woody Allen. The Tisch building is nestled into a busy Broadway corner directly opposite (of all establishments) a McDonald’s, and each time I enter I am struck by the sense that I am walking though storied halls. Every wall is covered with movie posters boasting the talent that the institution has nurtured, and I’m always caught between feeling immense pride and sinking doubt about the opportunity I’ve been given to be there. Could I ever live up to the name of the school on my future diploma? I wonder how many of my male counterparts feel the same way.
I began my time at Tisch in the autumn of 2016, exactly two years before the bombshell New Yorker report on Harvey Weinstein dropped. I accepted my offer to Tisch bursting with stories to tell, well aware that women don’t exactly run the movie business. I was apprehensive yet determined to start my first semester, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the school itself was an agent of change, and at no point have I ever felt out of place or undervalued. My classes have been filled with an equal or greater number of girls to boys, and my professors, majority female, are wildly experienced and encouraging. I was so encouraged, in fact, that I believed my very own freshman class at Tisch was going to make history and change the industry because there were so many of us badass gals ready to make a storm (and a couple movies while we’re at it).
As a freshman, you’re only allowed to work on student thesis film sets as a production assistant (PA, for short). Eager to gain as much experience as I could, I jumped at the chance to work on as many sets as possible. I walked on to my very first set as a PA, expecting a testosterone fest, and instead was struck with awe when I met the director and producer - both Latinx. I felt honored to be on that set – to be in the presence of a female director working her magic. I thought I might never get the chance to witness something so powerful again. I have never been so happy to be wrong.
What you don’t know about film school until you’re in its depths is that the days you spend in your first year, doing thankless tasks on thesis sets, don’t just serve to teach you the nitty-gritty of show business. They instill in you a code of conduct and ethics with which you go forward as a budding filmmaker. As I’ve continued my education at Tisch, I’ve come into my own as a producer - the person who brings together a crew of artists to physically execute the production of a film.
Producers, in fact, hold one of the greatest positions of power in terms of attaining gender parity in Hollywood. The typical Hollywood producer is responsible for finding the inspiration for a film, having a screenplay written (or writing it themselves), bringing on a director and creative team, casting lead actors, and selecting crew members, among many other logistical and budgetary considerations. This one person makes the decision whether to hire a woman or a man, a white person or a person of color, and whether to bring to life yet another story for white males aged 18-24 or one for the Latina teen who hasn’t seen herself represented on screen. These simple choices have made the industry what it is, and producers who pick the road less traveled will pave the way forward.
As a producer, I have made it my mission to build student crews with as many women as possible. To me, this is about paying it forward from the sets I was on in freshman year, and continuing the momentum of spotlighting female crew members from gaffers, to directors of photography, to assistant camerawomen, to production designers. In doing so, these filmmakers get the opportunity to create quality content for their professional reels, which heightens their chances of being hired post-graduation. But it’s not just my powerful female crews that are going to be the agent of change. In film school, when someone is good at what they do, word goes around. And the more that women work in the positions that they excel at, the more other producers will hear about them. And so the cycle continues.
I feel emboldened to claim that Time’s Up has taken effect at ground zero, in the home turf of future Hollywood executives, because I have consistently witnessed the spirit of embracing inclusivity. The moment I knew that Tisch was part of something special was when I took a step away to stand at the back of a set, looking at a crew that I myself had not assembled, and seeing an equal or greater number of women to men working to make movie magic. When I see that my mission to put women behind the camera is shared by many other aspiring filmmakers, I have no reason to fear for my future in the industry. Because the wave of change makers is rising, and Hollywood – we’re ready to wash over you.
I have to admit, however, that my experience in film school is not the universal standard. There are students I’ve come across who aren’t making a conscious effort to improve the landscape. A moment that will stick with me forever occurred during a colloquium for the entire film and television class of 2020. The discussion turned toward the efforts studios are making to close the gender gap. A male student raised his hand, addressed the professor, and asked in all sincerity, “should men be scared that their positions could be taken by women?”
Let’s just say that no woman in the room that day will be caught on a set of his. Ever.
But this mentality of male privilege exists. It’s likely true that the wonderfully positive experiences I have had are in the minority. And of course, there are those who aren’t even given a shot to pursue their passion for film. It is a privilege to even think about studying at Tisch - one of the most exorbitant colleges in the country. The resources, ideas, and people I have had access to are unique. The women who are trying to make their breakout film on a shoestring budget, with an untrained cast and crew, in a marginalized community that doesn’t support the arts, have even slimmer chances of having their work seen, let alone breaking into the industry. Becoming a filmmaker is, first and foremost, exclusionary on the basis of money. I stand with these filmmakers, and yearn that one day their stories will be considered as important as the stories of those with privilege.
During 2019’s Sundance Film Festival and in anticipation of this year’s Oscars ceremony, the Time’s Up movement announced the #4PercentChallenge, encouraging actors, actresses, and producers to commit to working with a female director in the next 18 months in an effort “to increase the number of women directing major studio films.” This is the sort of actionable influence that has the potential to bring real gender diversity to Hollywood. Among the growing list of those who have accepted the challenge are Kerry Washington, Armie Hammer, J.J. Abrams, and Reese Witherspoon.
The 91st Oscars is the perfect place for woke winners to bring visibility and credibility to this challenge, and that is reason enough for me to watch this year’s ceremony with pride for the industry I refuse to give up on.
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