The Bliss of Traveling on Business

I just got back from 5 days at the Woods Hole Film Festival, where my feature film "In Montauk" won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.   It was a great trip.  And now I'm going to tell you a secret.  I love to travel on business.  On film business, anyway.  Not that I have to do it that often.  Sure, I miss my kids, but there's something indulgent about waking up in the morning because I want to, not because I have to.  There's something freeing about getting back to my room at 3 am and not having to worry about whether or not I'll be awake enough in the morning to get the kids breakfast and get them off to camp.  It's quite a relief to be able to sit and talk to someone for hours without feeling like I'm neglecting the kids, or worse, having them say every two minutes "Come on, Mom! Are we going, yet?"  Or to do something completely spontaneously, like going sailing because I don't have anywhere else I have to be.  But then, when I finally come home, I'm greeted with hugs and kisses and questions.  "How was it?"  "Did you have fun?"  And then I remember that I actually like my kids.  I like to be around them.  Being there for them is a small price to pay for having them in my life.  Okay, it doesn't always feel like a small price, but one that's worth it.  Until my next trip.

Sign the Petition for more Diversity

Melissa Silverstein (my personal hero), blogger of Women & Hollywood has started a petition asking the jurors of Cannes to consider the lack of women in competition this year and to find ways to include more women directors. Over 1000 people have signed. Many more are needed.

Please take a moment to sign the petition.  It matters.

https://www.change.org/petitions/cannes-film-festival-where-are-the-women-directors

Some stats on Female Directors

I read a lot about women in Hollywood, at film festivals and in the independent film world and in the last few years as I've worked to make my first feature, I've become much more aware of some of the depressing statistics about women in the field. There is a yearly report put out by The Center for the study of Women in Televison & Film at San Diego State University called The Celluloid Ceiling. Here are some of the facts:

 - In 2011, women comprised 18% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films. This represents an increase of 2 percentage points from 2010 and an increase of 1 percentage point from 1998. - Women accounted for 5% of directors, a decrease of 2 percentage points from 2010 and approximately half the percentage of women directors working in 1998.


- 38% of films employed 0 or 1 woman in the roles considered, 23% employed 2 women, 30% employed 3 to 5 women, and 7% employed 6 to 9 women.

One of the common arguments executives make against hiring women filmmakers is that their films won't make money. To that I add this statistic:

 - Examining the top 100 worldwide grossing films of 2007, the study found that when women and men filmmakers have similar budgets for their films, the resulting box office grosses are also similar. In other words, the sex of filmmakers does not determine box office grosses.



As a female director I find these statistics depressing.  As the mother of a girl, I find them distressing.  You may say it doesn't matter whether a man or a woman directs a film, what matters is the quality.  But all films are not created equal.  When women work behind-the-scenes, the number of on-screen women increases.  And more on-screen women means more diversity in the women depicted.  I want my daughter to see herself reflected onscreen, to see roles to aspire to, even to see imperfect women and girls who make mistakes and make fools of themselves.  And I want my son to see women as more than eye-candy. The Geena Davis Institute has done numerous studies on gender disparity in media and what it's teaching our children.


You may ask yourself how you can make a difference.  I'm voting for female filmmakers with my box-office dollars.  The last few films I saw at the theater were female-directed or female-centric.  How to find these films?

Here are some great blogs to help:


Women & Hollywood by Melissa Silverstein (my old standby)
Bitch Flicks - feminist film reviews
Thelma Adams on Reel Women - recently discovered

Go out and find your feminine side!  And let me know if you have any great blogs or sites to add to this list.

Just Do It at Women & Hollywood

I've been thinking a lot lately about how long I waited for someone to give me permission to make a film. It took me a long time to realize that it was something that I just needed to do with whatever resources I had. You can read about it at Women & Hollywood where I provided a guest post to Melissa Silverstein's blog at IndieWire.