Three years since my first post about women in film and gender equality in film. What is new and is anything changing? We have seen the rise of questions regarding equality in general in film, the Oscars got a wake up call and much seem to be happening. However, many things are the same as yesterday and it raises the question if things are actually changing and if so, how and how fast is it going?
Susan Sheldman - Desperately Seeking Susan
On a positive note
We all know that blockbusters and big budget films are given to men much more often than to women, when men fail they usually get the chance to redeem themselves, many times with an equally prestigious project. A failure for a female director usually means the end of her career, not even a successful film is a ticket for the next one for women working in film. Hopefully, in a couple of years this has changed and finding a director for the next massive franchise is not about gender, where you are from or how you look but rather who is best for the project. From a financial standpoint, this is always best and as we all knows, money talks.
So, how has the first half of 2017 been? Well, this year we've seen articles like this one Women working in film aren´t much better off then they were in 1998. Deadline gives us a quite negative picture of the industry for women and that bring us down a notch before I even started. I will not go through the numbers in the article but I can say that from the number of women active in film making it doesn't look very good. However, there are many variables to this that we are not taking into account.
No matter how it looks today, things are getting better and will be better even if it takes time. That is not to say that we do not need to work hard and keep working to make people aware. In a way, it is a positive sign even to see articles like the one above from Deadline. People are recognizing that there are inequality in not only the film industry but many other industries and that is positive, I will touch on this later, in another post.
Gal Gadot - Wonder Woman
The news
So far this year there has been many different articles around the subject, women working with film. While some articles are lists of the best female directors like this one from Vanity Fair and this one from Harpers Bazaar others focus on the sexism that is infecting productions and the studio system.
There are many great examples this year of different ways of making people aware of the issues facing women in film. The movie, Wonder Woman with Gal Gadot has been on news several times for different reasons. Fox News talked about Gal Gadot's (Wonder Woman) earnings compared to Henry Cavill (Superman) and other news has been around Wonder Woman and how it's earnings saved the 2017 summer box office.
Here is a list of other articles that are worth mention and reading:
Fortune about Women public boards
Huffington's article in 2016 by Martha T.S. Laham
Wired posted a positive article about female directors
Scott Mendelson wrote a great article in Forbes about women in film
There were of course other articles written on the subject but many more today are positive and talk about the steps that are being made to move forward rather than the ones that pushes us a step back. I believe we need to show success stories more often than failures in order to mentally push aspiring film makers to be a part of the industry. Much more is happening today than ever before and I'm positive we will see a change in a couple of years.
If you are interested in learning more or support the work, please visit Alliance of Women Directors or if you are interested in the work that are being made in Scandinavia, check out Nordic Women in Film or read the blog of Anna Serner. Another great organization is Center for the study of Women in Television and Film they are an important piece of the puzzle and does a good job trying to navigate the issues we face.
As always, thank you for your time. If you find this interesting, please see the update I wrote in 2016 or the articles, interviews and panels I was involved with later on.