Kick ass female directors

Name all the female movie directors you can in one minute, right now. No Google. I’ll wait.

Are you done? Now, let me make some predictions here, tell me if I’m wrong. You probably mentioned Sophia Coppola. You probably got Kathryn Bigelow, or more likely, you said “The Hurt Locker lady.” Depending on how film-savvy you are, you may have said Norah Ephron, Amy Heckerling, or if you’re a history buff, Leni Riefenstahl. More than likely, you struggled after three or four names. If you got more than ten, we’ll send you a T-shirt. (Note: No, we won’t.)

The truth is, there’s no actual shortage of female film directors. What is in short supply, however, is opportunity for these women to gain exposure to a massive mainstream audience. We all know there’s a gender disparity in Hollywood. It’s 2012, time to start talking about it.

Somewhere along the line, a myth started that Hollywood is liberal and progressive. No one quite knows why, maybe it’s because film studios don’t hate gay people enough. In any case, this is a falsehood, because all major film production companies are held captive by the same determining factor: The ticket-buying audience. The first factor in the Hollywood gender battle is the fear of losing the demographic that makes a major tentpole release the most money- males ages 18-35. There’s a fear in the entire entertainment industry that men won’t consume works coming to them by female authors. This is nothing new. It’s the reason the Harry Potter books were written by J.K. Rowling and not Joanna Rowling. It’s worth noting that for some reason, male directors are afforded the privilege of appeasing multiple audiences, but women are not. Rob Reiner and Garry Marshall have made their entire careers out of making movies for women, but it’s highly unlikely to see a woman directing a Batman movie, for example.

[T]he problem lies in getting those precious “breakthrough” jobs which take a director from independent films into the mainstream. Bigelow and Coppola got them, and all they had to do was respectively marry and be fathered by an already-established director. But by far the most egregious and ridiculous example of the “cootie fear” that producers seem to have comes from Catherine Hardwicke and her work on the first Twilight movie. Hardwicke is the most commercially successful female director of all time, and she should be a perfect example of what should be happening. She made a well-recognized independent film (Thirteen), had a few notable misses, then was offered what should have been a no-brainer. Twilight is aimed at young girls, and Hardwicke had already established she knew that audience. However, here’s the key point. When Hardwicke was hired, no one had any idea how huge Twilight was going to be. The rights were picked up by Summit on the cheap when Paramount lost them because they didn’t do anything with them. It was a starter movie for a new company, and when they bought it, they were purchasing a script where Edward fought FBI agents. So when Summit studios began to realize what a cash cow they had, they began to pull away, and ultimately fired Hardwicke from the sequels. (For the record, Hardwicke still claims it was her choice, for the record.) However speculative it may be, it seems suspicious at the very least that the one time a female director was given a high-level project, albeit accidentally, she was rejected in favor of safer, more dependable men when it came down to making actual money.

The post that has you offended was made 4 years ago by a babbler who - to the best of my knowledge - hasn't participated in this message board in almost a year.

The thread title is "Kick ass female directors"; not people whose politics are unimpeachable. I think it's entirely possible - perhaps even probable - that most people who watched and appreciated that film have never heard or read an interview with its director. I know I certainly wouldn't want anyone to interpret my saying I like a particular piece of art as endorsing and condoning everything that artist has ever said or done. I have more free time than a lot of folks I know, but even I'd say there's simply not enough hours in a day to do a thorough political background check on anyone I might mention favourably on a message board.

"Boys Don't Cry - Kimberly Pierce"

Director degenders her subject, a man, in interview after interview.

Despite constant attempts to reach you people, nobody wants to listen.

You are the smug, unthinking, unmovable, inert faux-'allies' whose supposed support for trans rights comes right after every other pet cause, including worshipping misogynists masquerading as feminists, that I didn't want to think you were.

Have fun pretending that trans women don't exist or aren't relevant to feminism, etc. If Ms. Magazine won't stop you, I sure as hell can't.

I am now officially done.

Director degenders her subject, a man, in interview after interview.