Did this film direct itself?

May 1, 2015 9:52 AM

How Hollywood Keeps out women In 2013, 1.9 percent of the directors of Hollywood's 100 top-grossing films were female, according to a study conducted by USC researcher Stacy L. Smith. In 2011, women held 7.1 percent of U.S. military general and admiral posts, 20 percent of U.S. Senate seats and more than 20 percent of leadership roles at Twitter and Facebook — and both companies now face gender-discrimination lawsuits.
posted by octothorpe (20 comments total)

Anne Helen Petersen tweeted earlier today that she had some issues with Hollywood history are cited in this article -- while still calling it "incredibly important" -- and I really wish she'd expand on that. Anyone else have a lead on what she was getting at?
posted by griphus at 9:58 AM on May 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

Lexi Alexander has been spitting hot truth on this lately on Twitter. Also see Shit People Say To Women Directors (& Other Women In Film) if you want to be more depressed/angry.
posted by kmz at 10:10 AM on May 1, 2015 [7 favorites]

"I want to burn this place down."
posted by Orange Dinosaur Slide at 10:10 AM on May 1, 2015 [6 favorites]

Sadly, only 70% of speaking roles in films are given to men. Make it fair (gifset).
posted by jeather at 10:21 AM on May 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

Wow, that Shit People Say to Women Directors is staggeringly horrible.
posted by Measured Out my Life in Coffeespoons at 10:32 AM on May 1, 2015 [3 favorites]

This strikes me as odd..

In 2013, 1.9 percent of the directors of Hollywood's 100 top-grossing films were female

so, one of the directors is 9/10ths woman?

edit to add... I wish the "shit people say" thing was at all surprising.
posted by DigDoug at 10:43 AM on May 1, 2015

that Shit People Say to Women Directors blog has been all over my feeds lately and it's zero surprising to me. some of them aren't even that bad, compared to what I've heard. many people in the film industry are terrible people and say awful things about everyone, so pulling quotes of terrible stuff said about any certain group of people is going to be terrifically easy.
posted by dogwalker at 10:43 AM on May 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

I would imagine there are movies which are directed by more than one person.
posted by ChuraChura at 10:44 AM on May 1, 2015 [2 favorites]

Also DGA bylaws stipulate that if a movie is directed by any sort of ghost, specter or restless spirit it only counts as half a person (long story.)
posted by griphus at 11:04 AM on May 1, 2015 [6 favorites]

The study concentrates too much on features and not episodic, which has far more opportunities for women. Diablo Cody directed a feature, which was not good and she admitted it was not her métier.
posted by Ideefixe at 11:19 AM on May 1, 2015

The 1.9% is two out of 108 directors. (Animated films tend to have two directors.)

The two women were Jennifer Lee who co-directed Frozen, and Kimberly Peirce for Carrie.
posted by smackfu at 11:23 AM on May 1, 2015 [8 favorites]

Hollywood Reporter on Elizabeth Banks and her road to directing. I think the LA Weekly writer didn't work very hard in her interviews.
posted by Ideefixe at 11:23 AM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Caitlin Moran: "When we'd finally written [Raised By Wolves], we took it round to the BBC, and the BBC said, 'We love it, but we've already got a woman sitcom this year so we can't make it, and we've got a woman sitcom next year, so if you want to come back in two years that'd be great.' [...] Literally, we're in a world where you're told there's only one funny woman a year."

(Raised By Wolves is excellent, btw. It's on Channel 4.)
posted by Sys Rq at 11:47 AM on May 1, 2015 [5 favorites]

Academy Award–nominated Lexi Alexander, director of Punisher: War Zone (2008) and the acclaimed Green Street Hooligans (2005), says

P:WZ got an Oscar nom?
posted by Renoroc at 12:48 PM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

It should have.
posted by brundlefly at 2:05 PM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

P:WZ got an Oscar nom?

English can often be confusing, but that sentence is easy as fuck to parse correctly.
posted by kmz at 2:15 PM on May 1, 2015 [4 favorites]

The study concentrates too much on features and not episodic, which has far more opportunities for women.

Episodic treats women like crap, too. Execs are remarkably quick to decide a female director (very accomplished, in some cases) is no longer acceptable to their network. Meanwhile, they'll push mediocre male directors -- often with non-existent or poor track records -- onto lucrative pilots where they collect fees as executive producers for the life of the series.
posted by grounded at 2:21 PM on May 1, 2015 [1 favorite]

Hollywood Reporter on Elizabeth Banks and her road to directing. I think the LA Weekly writer didn't work very hard in her interviews.

I'm not sure what you're getting at here. Elizabeth Banks is about to make her feature directorial debut. She comes off as immenselely qualified for it (THR's irrelevant photo shoot video notwithstanding)... but how is that related to the (lack of?) hard work represented in Jessica Ogilvie's article, or her argurments?
posted by argonauta at 3:37 PM on May 1, 2015

It should have.

You're damn right it should have.
posted by lumpenprole at 3:58 PM on May 1, 2015

ACLU, Citing Bias Against Women, Wants Inquiry Into Hollywood's Hiring Practices
posted by the man of twists and turns at 7:21 AM on May 12, 2015 [1 favorite]