So it is the first day of 2016, which means we’ve bid adieu to 2015. For me, that means I’ve completed A Year With Women. During the entire year of 2015, all the films I watched – from new releases, new-to-me, and re-watches – were directed or co-directed by women, with the exception of the TCM Classic Film Festival (it was impossible!) and Noirvember (all films watched had female writers). Normally, I would write this post and talk about a few films I really loved from the year and maybe a theme I noticed in my viewing habits. This year that theme is pretty obvious: women! I’ve kept pretty good notes, so after the cut I’m going to go through the year, both in terms of what I watched, as well as the big news stories related to female directors in 2015. I’m also going to talk a bit about my favorite new-to-me film of the year, because some traditions must stand!
Here are some nicely curated versions of all the films I watched in 2015:
The Big List
(Minus TCMFF/Noirvember titles. To see those, go here):
- (January) Mississippi Masala
- Me and You and Everyone We Know
- I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing
- Your Sister’s Sister
- Variety (1983)
- In A World. . .
- Efter brylluppet (After The Wedding)
- The Guilt Trip
- The Lifeguard (2013)
- Miss Julie (2014)
- Hanging Up
- Cristo Rey
- I Will Follow
- Bowl of Pork
- Me and My Moulton
- Dreaming Los Angeles
- The Awakening (2011 short)
- The Haircut
- Symphony No. 42
- Dawn
- Big Money!
- The Bigger Picture
- The Apothecary
- Gas Food Lodging
- Little Accidents
- Appropriate Behavior
- Musical Chairs
- Lore
- Song One
- The Notorious Bettie Page
- With This Ring
- Viaggio sola (A Five Star Life)
- Phat Girlz
- Temblor
- (February) Frida
- Respire
- Skinship
- The Dish & the Spoon
- Bande de filles (Girlhood)
- Jupiter Ascending
- In The Morning
- Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
- Vital Signs (1990)
- Fifty Shades of Grey
- Overnight
- Just Another Girl on the I.R.T
- Nuit #1
- La hija natural
- McFarland, USA
- Tanta agua
- The Watermelon Woman
- Monster
- Girlfight
- Ana Maria in Novela Land
- Lords of Dogtown
- (March) Mansfield Park (1999)
- Carolina
- And While We Were Here
- Johnny Dangerously
- October Gale
- Elles
- And Then There Was You
- La Pointe-Courte
- Mikey and Nicky
- Last Night
- Camilla
- Ung flukt
- Entre nos
- Arcadia
- Me Myself I
- Woo
- Amour Fou
- Gloriana
- Pink and Blue
- Unrelated
- Wildflowers
- Happy End?!
- Pumzi
- (April) She’s Lost Control
- Eve’s Bayou
- It Felt Like Love
- L!fe Happens
- Bound
- Life Partners
- The Riot Club
- Lovely & Amazing
- The Jane Austen Book Club
- An Angel at My Table
- The Sisterhood of Night
- Austenland
- Aquamarine
- Me Without You
- Caprice
- (May) Ride
- Afternoon Delight
- Grdzeli nateli dgeebi (In Bloom)
- Lemale et ha’halal (Fill The Void)
- Herbie: Fully Loaded
- The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio
- Things We Lost in the Fire
- Every Secret Thing
- Bessie
- Things Behind The Sun
- Slums of Beverly Hills
- Peeples
- The Secret Life of Bees
- Jeg er din (I Am Yours)
- Wuthering Heights (2011)
- L’opéra-mouffe
- Better Than Chocolate
- Welcome to Me
- Wanda
- Tank Girl
- Archipelago
- Tirez la langue, mademoiselle (Miss and the Doctors)
- Krylya (Wings)
- Lick the Star
- Walking and Falling
- A Girl’s Own Story
- Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight
- Gemma Bovery
- (June) I Believe in Unicorns
- Skylappjenta (Little Miss Eyeflap)
- Go! Go! Go!
- Lights (1966)
- Glimpse of the Garden
- Miss Meadows
- The Queen of Versailles
- XXY
- Ir/Reconcilable
- All Over the Guy
- Pelo malo (Bad Hair)
- Majorité opprimée (Oppressed Majority)
- The Night and the Moment
- Una Hora Por Favora
- Always Cool
- Pay It Forward
- Madame Bovary (2015)
- What Happened, Miss Simone?
- Advantageous
- (July) Twitch
- Pasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties)
- Jackie & Ryan
- How to Make an American Quilt
- The Loneliest Planet
- Sleeping with the Fishes
- Trash Cat
- Meet Me in Montenegro
- Serena
- Infinitely Polar Bear
- We’ve Met Before
- The Mary Alice Brandon File
- Masque
- Sunrise (2015)
- Consumed
- Turncoats
- The Groundskeeper
- Itty Bitty Titty Committee
- After Hours (1984)
- Arrête ou je continue (If You Don’t, I Will)
- Wadjda
- The Powder Room
- Muta
- The Woman Dress
- It’s Getting Late
- The Door
- Le Donne della Vucciria
- Spark and Light
- Somebody
- De Djess
- Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
- Unexpected (2015)
- Washington Square
- Ratcatcher
- The Wild Party (1929)
- Anybody’s Woman
- (August) Thirteen
- Jenny’s Wedding
- Rambling Rose
- Stories We Tell
- Wendy and Lucy
- Alle Anderen (Everyone Else)
- Return to Me
- Una noche
- The Falling
- Girls Night Out (1988)
- Morvern Callar
- Craig’s Wife
- Christopher Strong
- Fort Tilden
- So You’ve Grown Attached
- The Diary of a Teenage Girl
- It’s Complicated
- Sudden Manhattan
- Bachelorette
- Six Years
- Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto (Swept Away… by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August)
- Film d’amore e d’anarchia, ovvero: stamattina alle 10, in via dei Fiori, nella nota casa di tolleranza… (Love and Anarchy)
- Frozen
- This Is My Life
- Endless Love (2014)
- (September) Dear Frankie
- But I’m a Cheerleader
- Chutney Popcorn
- The 24 Hour Woman
- Suffragette
- Honor Among Lovers
- Bella Martha (Mostly Martha)
- Runoff
- When the Day Breaks
- Que Horas Ela Volta? (The Second Mother)
- I Like It Like That
- Dance, Girl, Dance
- Muffin Top: A Love Story
- In the Cut
- The Namesake
- Half Wet
- Mythopolis
- The Intern
- Talk to Me
- Rue cases nègres (Sugar Cane Alley)
- Milh Hadha al-Bahr (Salt of This Sea)
- Drool
- (October) The Ocean Waif
- The Blot
- The Love Light
- Without Lying Down – Frances Marion and the Powerful Women in Hollywood
- La fée aux choux (The Cabbage Fairy)
- The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ
- Canned Harmony
- A House Divided
- Falling Leaves
- The Red Kimono
- Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed)
- Near Dark
- A Night to Dismember
- Honeymoon (2014)
- Outrage
- First Love
- True Love (1989)
- Border Radio
- Big Stone Gap
- Kiss of the Damned
- Crossing Delancey
- A Dry White Season
- Mrs. Soffel
- Araya
- Portrait of Jason
- The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter
- Wrestling Ernest Hemingway
- Home For The Holidays
- Losing Ground
- The Oracle
- Humanoids From the Deep
- Slumber Party Massacre
- Sorority House Massacre
- Stripped To Kill
- Blood Diner
- Spookies
- Salaam Bombay!
- The Purgation
- Trouble Every Day
- (November) Miss You Already
- Love the Coopers
- Dólares de Arena (Sand Dollars)
- By the Sea
- Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict
- (Dec) Somewhere Only We Know
- Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List
- So Far from India
- India Cabaret
- The Laughing Club of India
- The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat
- 11’09’01 September 11: India
- Migration
- How Can It Be?
- The Summer of Sangaile
- A Very Murray Christmas
- Janis: Little Girl Blue
- Milk
- Dog
- Wasp
- Nénette et Boni
- Arthur Christmas
- The Wolfpack (2015)
- Sleeping with Other People
- Le meraviglie (The Wonders)
- The Girl in the Book
- Seven Women, Seven Sins
- Bleeding Heart
- Mustang
- A Case of You
- Exhibition
- A Christmas Melody
- Paris Is Burning
- Mixed Nuts (1994)
- Holy Smoke!
- Heart of a Dog
- Meadowland
- Le Bonheur
- Sans toit ni loi (Vagabond)
- Je Tu Il Elle
- Les rendez-vous d’Anna
- Persepolis
- The Ascent
For the sake of the following breakdown, this data reflects 1) first-time viewings only and 2) excludes TCMFF/Noirvember titles aka this is only films directed or co-directed by women that I watched for the first time in 2015.
1880s: 0
1890s: 1
1900s: 1
1910s: 4
1920s: 5
1930s: 4
1940s: 1
1950s: 6
1960s: 3
1970s: 10
1980s: 30
1990s: 38
2000s: 51
2010s: 151
If you’re interested in my extended thoughts on any of the above films, I definitely recommend you go watch my YouTube review of that film. Also you can ask me questions on Twitter or Tumblr!
And now, to a breakdown of the year.
January
The year started really strong, with me watching through several great films I’d added to my Netflix queue (NB: I didn’t even get through all the films I’d added to my Netflix queue, as I kept finding more to add, as well as all the films available on Amazon/YouTube/Hulu/etc.). Early in the year I guested on the Pulling It Together With Amanda Savage Podcast, did a radio show in Australia, was interviewed by the great Sarah Galo for The Guardian, and wrote a guest post for IndieWire’s Women & Hollywood.
The annual Celluloid Ceiling report came out, reporting that women directors only made up 7% of the 250 highest grossing films in 2014. One key thing about this report that I still feel a lot of film-goers miss is that it’s talking about BOX OFFICE. So if you as a viewer seek out more films by women – and especially support the few studio made/wide release films directed by women – YOU can help make that number bigger, by putting your money where you mouth is. This led to me posting on Twitter and Tumblr every Friday with the new films directed by women that were opening for the week. I’m going to keep doing that because it is something ordinary people can do to help move the numbers.
I discovered that the MPAA defines a “frequent movie goer” as someone who goes to at least one movie a month. If you do that math above, 7% of the top 250 films is 17 films. A small number, yes, but only 5 more films than a “frequent film goer” sees a year. What if you made the radical choice to only seek out films by women for the year? In October, Women In Film – Los Angeles launched their #52FilmsByWomen project and I urger every one of you to accept this challenge and make it a reality! Put your money where you mouth is!
Also in January the Oscar nominations came out, with a big snub for Ava DuVernay and not a single Best Picture nomination with a female lead. It was depressing to say the least. In an interview with THR, Jill Soloway said something invaluable, “We’re not trying to be as good as men. We’re trying to create something that is specifically influenced by our femaleness. And that has a feeling that can’t be replicated by anybody except for us.”
In the New York Times, Manohla Dargis talked with Ava DuVernay, Barbra Streisand and other female directors. Meanwhile, I got into several fights with male filmmakers getting defensive about my opinions on why I think we need more female directors, especially female directors making films about women. One (male) director in particular told me it should be about skill and skill alone. While I agree I want my directors to have technical skills, what women (and minorities) bring to the art of cinema is a different life experience and world views. That is something that cannot be taught. That is something we need more of in our cinemas.
February
Wow that was a lot for one month, huh?
February started out with the sweetest note from Susan Seidelman (there’s a follow-up to this story in a later month!), which really made my month. She’s a director I discovered in 2014 and her work is part of why I realized I had a lot of learning to do about female directors, inspired Female Filmmaker Friday, and led to the idea of doing A Year With Women.
I then recorded my most popular video to date – on Fifty Shades of Grey. This video and my subsequent Tumblr posts breaking down how that film romanticizes abuse led to one user actually saying they hoped I got sexually assaulted, so I would know the difference. Charming. Actually, that was just about the only really terrible comment I got during this entire experiment – and it was from a woman!
I was featured on Movie Mezzanine’s Film Critic of the Week Podcast, the first of many podcasts in 2015 wherein I talked about my penchant for screencapping dicks in movies. Hey, somebody’s gotta do it!
Rebecca Keegan wrote the first of many great articles about the scarcity of female directors in Hollywood.
March
On March 1st, I watched Patricia Rozema’s Mansfield Park and then subsequently watched it three more times that very week. This was my favorite film I watched in 2015. I love it so much. Where had it been all my life?! I also read the book (the ending is horrible in both and also illustrates why I prefer Edith Wharton stories to Austen stories). But, I will ship Fanny/Henry to the end of my days.
Later in the month, my mother surprised me with not one, but two Film Director Barbies! I was interviewed by ScreenQueens for International Women’s Day, and Miranda July met Agnes Varda at a Miu Miu show!
April
Variety published a study that proves that films featuring women are a better return on investment/make more money. People still don’t believe it! AV Club does a top 100 films of the last decade list, only 8 films on the list are directed by women. Does this mean that women didn’t make great films in the 2000s? No. Does it mean the people who make these kinds of lists probably don’t see enough films made by women? That’s my guess. Maria Giese published A Surprisingly Simple Solution for Female Directors, calling for radical changes at the DGA. Criterion offered 8 films directed by women for free on Hulu for a week, the Cinematek in Sweden programmed an entire month of films directed by women, and the Cannes Film Festival announced its opening film would be directed by a woman.
I guested on the Film School Rejects Broken Projector podcast, talking about this project, my love of Nicolas Cage, and 80s cinema. Everyone lost their shit over the Ava DuVernay Barbie, which at the time was a one of a kind doll auctioned for charity. But as we all know, in December it got released for real (and your’s truly managed to get one before it sold out – twice) LA Weekly ran a piece by Jessica P. Ogilvie called How Hollywood Keeps Women Out. In reading the comments (don’t ever do that!), both on the site and on the LA Weekly Facebook post, it’s clear that a lot of people (read: straight white cis men) refuse to see that there is a real, systematic problem. A lot of “well women don’t try hard enough” or “women just don’t want to direct” type comments. My favorite are the people who won’t believe the data even when you show them the exact numbers that are crunched. It gets really frustrating, but the more people refuse to see the problem, the more urgent it becomes to be on the side of those determined to fix it.
Lastly, my beloved cat Mr. Rochester finally lost his battle with kidney disease. It was a really dark time for me and I stopped watching films for a while because I just couldn’t find the energy. Mr. Rochester was a big part of my life, and my most dependable movie-watching partner!
May
But, I got back on the wagon at the beginning of May and started watching films again. THR reported about the bias in film distribution again women directed films. When I posted about it on Facebook, that same male director I mentioned earlier commented with “It’s official: I’m female!” I guess he was trying to be funny because his films don’t get picked up? I’m not really sure. But he’s a straight white dude who has worked continuously in the industry for 20+ years. I guess the chip on his should is that he’s not a household name or something. Real Talk: Just because you personally don’t feel like you have benefited from your privileged status does not mean that that privilege does not exist, nor does it mean that you are more like those who are systematically shut out. Just because you have bad luck, does not mean systematic discrimination is not real.
On May 12th, the A.C.L.U., called for an investigation into Hollywood’s sexist hiring practices. It’s front page news on the LA Times. The dam is opened, people other than cinephiles start discussing gender inequality in Hollywood, a million think pieces are born. Yet, I didn’t see many more people actually seeking out films by women. Think pieces are great. The investigation is great. But those of us on the ground have to take action as well!
Marvel courts Ava DuVernay, but she declines. It’s a big step for women directors when they are being looked at to helm big budget superhero films, but I’m really glad Ava stuck to her guns and with her integrity as an artist first and foremost.
June
Variety published a study about how women directors have it better in the indie film world. A lot of the 2015 films I watched last year were small, indie films. The thing about these types of films is that they usually have smaller theatrical release – sometimes just NYC/LA – but they often also are released day-and-date on VOD. This is good news! You can live anywhere in the country and watched indie gems directed by women! Often for the fraction of the cost of going to the theaters – and you can pause if you need to pee.
Ava DuVernay tweeted about my project and I fangirled real hard. I was approached by Dazed to write a feature for them on cult female filmmakers. It goes viral and is shared by the BFI and TIFF. I fangirled some more. I was interviewed by Authoright magazine and spoke with the Battleship Pretension Podcast about this project at its halfway mark.
July
On July 3rd, I watched my 5,000th new-to-me film ever. For such a big milestone, I chose Lina Wertmüller’s Seven Beauties. I was not disappointed. However, this (and a few other “canonical” films I watched this year), really hit home the idea that films made by women that feature men are written about and praised far more than films by women about women. I have several thoughts on why this is, which I’ll probably expand on more on a little date.
I also watched a whole lot of short films. Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke participated in a great competition for aspiring female directors called Twilight Storytellers. These are great for fans of the Twilight universe, but it’s also wonderful to see successful female creators helping the next generation. I also watched all of Miu Miu’s Women’s Tales series (which explained by Miranda July and Agnès Varda were hanging out at a Miu Miu fashion show earlier in the year).
Little White Lies magazine had an entire issue dedicated to female directors. Starting on the last day in July and running through August, UCLA showcased the films of pioneering Hollywood director Dorothy Arzner with an amazing retrospective. I got to see most of the films they showed and it was just breathtaking.
August
In late July I launched a poll asking people to submit films directed by women they felt were essential. I received submissions from over 500 people, including female directors themselves like Gina Prince-Bythewood, Elisabeth Subrin, and Kasi Lemmons. After tabulating the results, and adjusting for ties, I posted a list of 103 Essential Films Directed By Women. There was some controversy over the winning film. I hit a Hollywood milestone: getting quasi-shit talked by Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere.
Also, Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema finally programed films by directed by women (Lina Wertmüller’s Swept Away and Love & Anarchy)
September
Barbara Ann O’Leary’s #DirectedByWomen worldwide viewing party launched. It was a wonderful few weeks on film Twitter where so many people were solely watching films by women! The BFI announced their latest issue of Sight and Sound would be dedicated to women directors. They asked people to post pictures of their favorite women directors using the hashtag #WomanWithAMovieCamera. It was beautiful. Julie Delpy spoke out against male aggression on set and why women directors aren’t allowed that luxury.
I guested (many times!) on the Flixwise Podcast. Listen to me talk about: Jeanne Dielman, Point Break, and my favorite film of all time Little Women!
October
Women in Hollywood – Los Angeles officially launched their #52FilmsByWomen project. Seriously guys, click the link and join the challenge! There’s a lot of great resources to help you find films. Every Tuesday and Thursday during primetime, TCM showcased Trailblazing Women in Film. Originally, I was just going to watch films I hadn’t already seen, but I got sucked in and watched almost every single film they showed. It was so much fun, especially because TCM fans used #TrailblazingWomenInFilm as they watched the films. Twice a week, for the whole month I felt like I got to share #AYearWithWomen with the greater film community. It was great to watch films I’d never seen before, but the real joy came from watching films I loved – some of which I had discovered for the first time earlier in the year – with other people and seeing their reactions (almost all positive). I also got to take over the TCM Twitter handle and live tweet Valley Girl. It was tripendicular.
Phil of Heavy Midnites programmed a three-day 8-film mini festival of horror films directed by women at the Cinefamily entitled Ladies of the 80s: A Decade of Horror. I went to all three nights. It was an amazing, immersive experience. Lastly, I guested on the Flixwise Podcast, this time talking about the most essential film directed by a woman: Amy Heckerling’s Clueless.
November
Vulture posted a very US-centric (and pretty white) list of female directors Hollywood should be hiring. It’s great when bigger sites and media outlets write about an issue, but it would be more helpful if they were inclusive with their lists. Ah, but then, nobody’s perfect. Early in the month I got to interview filmmaker Jessie Nelson (Corrina, Corrina, I Am Sam, Love The Coopers) for the Rotten Tomatoes podcast. Watching Corrina, Corrina is one of my earliest, fondest theater-going experiences, so this was a real treat for me. I also met director Susan Seidelman at a 35mm 30th Anniversary screening of Desperately Seeking Susan! That same week, there were three high profile films released in theaters – two of which were released wide: The 33, Love The Coopers, and By The Sea. It was estimated that there were films in more theaters directed by women that weekend than any other time in history. Although I didn’t see Mustang until December, I read this amazing interview director Deniz Gamze Ergüven did with the Laemmle Blog.
While my viewing was mostly dominated by men during Noirvember, I did guest on the Flixwise Podcast one more time to talk about Ida Lupino’s noir classics The Hitch-hiker and The Bigamist.
LA Weekly ran another great piece about the systematic discrimination of women in various aspects of Hollywood. Again, the comment sections were filled with man-babies whining and refusing to look at facts. One person kept stating over and over again about how films by women don’t make money, even after I kept sending him the stats that refute that claim. It’s really quite frustrating. Another thing I learned this year was that women directors are more likely to cast women in their films – from leads to secondary and background characters. Logically, that would mean if Hollywood hired more women as directors, more women would star in the films, and the films would be more profitable. If the bottom line is money, hiring women is the best investment!
Lastly, in the wake of Jennifer Lawrence’s open letter about the Hollywood pay gap, the NY Times ran an epic piece called The Women of Hollywood Speak Out. A stand-out quote for me came from one of my favorite directors, Dee Rees, “I look at Woody Allen’s prolific career of 30 or 40 films, and I’m watching the clock,” she says. “I’d love to work at a clip of a film a year. We don’t get the benefit of the doubt, particularly black women. We’re presumed incompetent, whereas a white male is assumed competent until proven otherwise. They just think the guy in the ball hat and the T-shirt over the thermal has got it, whether he’s got it or not. For buzzy first films by a white male, the trajectory is a 90-degree angle. For us, it’s a 30-degree angle.” The author notes that despite graduating from NYU and counting Spike Lee as a mentor, in twelve years Rees has only released two feature films. That’s just nuts!
December
Remember the Ava Barbie? Mattel decided to release a limited number to the public (with half the proceeds going to charity). Ava announced this a day before they were available. They sold out on the Barbie website in 17 minutes (I was literally checking out when the status changed). Once made available on Amazon they sold out in about five minutes (I snagged one! Woo 1-click purchasing!). Viola Davis tweeted a picture of the doll she bought for her daughter. The internet melted.
Jessica Chastain wrote an open letter from the set of Niki Caro’s The Zookeeper’s Wife, noting how peaceful it was to be on a set that was mostly female. The more women speak up on all aspects of the sexism rampant in the film industry, the better it’s going to be for everyone involved (that means you, too, men!). Conversely, the DGA released its inaugural diversity report. The data was grim. Forbes posted about the ten most profitable stars working today; four of them were women. Conversely, the most overpaid stars were all men. Hmmmm.
The Sundance Film Festival posted a handy track that will help you find all the films by and about women at this year’s festival. All of you headed to Sundance this year: I urge you to try to make your viewing schedule this year more inclusive. If you have a voice (aka you are a film critic or a blogger), use it to highlight films by women from the very beginning of the year. You can make a difference.
As I wrote earlier, one of my all-time favorite movies is Gillian Armstrong’s Little Women. Vogue posted a great essay about why it’s the best Christmas movie. I love this for many reasons, but mostly because the more young women who have grown up in the 90s+ begin writing about films online, the more of likely those influential films by women about women from the 90s will start to make their way into the canon (which they already should be!)
Lastly, here is a relatively comprehensive list of all the films released in the US in 2015 that were directed by women. How many of these films did you see? How many did you mean to see? How many did you not even know existed? Don’t feel bad if you didn’t see that many. Just be mindful and spend next year seeking out more films by women, because they’re there!
What Lies Ahead?
Obviously, after such an intensive year of watching only films by women, I am a little apprehensive to dip my feet back into the world of male-directed cinema. Aside from a deep longing to know more about female directors and to expose people to the fact that even though the numbers are small, there are so many options and so many ways to support female directors, a big reason I wanted to do this year was I was sick of men! Oh, the misandry!
But, seriously, I found myself acutely aware of a lot of unconscious bias in films made by men and I just couldn’t ignore it anymore. So, now that 2015 is gone and A Year With Women is over, I’m still probably going to gravitate towards films by women more often that I will films by men. Will I catch up with all the films directed by men that I “missed” in 2015? Probably not. There are a few films I want to see (Mad Max: Fury Road! Paddington!), but mostly I’m kind of glad I had a good excuse to skip a lot of the prestige films and box office sensations this year. I am, however, looking forward to jumping back into my love affair with classic cinema and TCM. I have missed the channel so.
Be The Change You Want To See In The World
Yes, that phrase is kind of cheesy. But it’s also the truth. Like I’ve said over and over: PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS. If you want to see more female directors working and getting hired, GO SEE THE FILMS BY WOMEN THAT ARE GETTING MADE. I’ll still be tweeting about the films released every week by women, so look out for those tweets on Fridays. Also, here are some great resources to help you find films directed by women to watch:
- Women In Film – Los Angeles: #52FilmsByWomen
- Fuck Yeah Female Filmmakers
- DirectedByWomen.com
- TheDirectorList.com
- BuyWomen.com
This has been such a great year. I’ve discovered so many great filmmakers. I’ve seen so many great films (and some that I really hated!). I’ve met great women who love films and great women who make films. I think we’ve reached an important place in history. A lot of think pieces have talked about how “we’ve been here before” and nothing changes. It’s tough to look at history, because change really does take a long time.
But we live in the age of information. We live in a time where practically any film we want is at our fingertips. We live in a time where we can share our love of films with thousands of strangers who might then watch those films and spread that love like a wave that you can never really trace. We live in a time where you can make a film on your phone. You can share your films online. You can fund your films online. You can support filmmakers by renting or buying their films, writing about their films. Helping them fund their films. YOU CAN BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE. And you should be a part of that change. And then we won’t just wait on Hollywood to change their tune. We’ll already be marching to another beat.
