Behind the curtain. Women directors and producers in cinema

    Scorsese, Tarantino, Hitchcock... Do you know what these people have in common ? Apart from being successful films directors, they are all men. Whether or not we enjoy cinema, we know those names because they are everywhere : we learn about them in school, their movies are advertised everywhere, we see them on TV... But when we are talking about women, it's a different story. If you have a hard time to grasp the difference, I find there's a good way to put your knowledge into perspective and it is as simple as the question that follows : 

- Do you know any women directors or producers ? 

    If you do, congrats ! If you don't, it's because women directors are not as well known or as well recognised for their talents as men. Hence, this article's goal is to shine a light on two great female directors, Ava DuVernay and Kathryn Bigelow, and one actress and producer, Reese Witherspoon. 

Ava DuVernay 

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    First, we have to talk about Ava DuVernay. Born on the 24th of August in 1972 in Long Beach, she grew up in California near Compton, a rough neighbourhood. Before becoming a director, she did an internship at a journal and covered the O.J Simpson trial. But she quickly moved from journalism to public relations and created her own public relation firm where she provided services for the entertaining industry and helped on certain publicity campaigns for movies like Spy kids, Shrek 2... Before launching her cinematographic career. She started by making documentaries, because she deemed they were easier to make and she could learn on the job ! However, she rapidly started to diversify her projects and soon was seen as a talented black woman filmmaker. 

    For her film Selma, Ava DuVernay was actually the first black woman to be nominated for the Golden Globe Best Director Award. She was also the first black female director to have her film nominated for the Best Picture's Oscar. Her accomplishments made her a very popular director, because she was mentioned by the 2017 annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In 2019, she created the series When They See Us, based on the 1989 Central Park jogger case (5 young black men were wrongfully accused of raping a white girl and imprisoned for it). It was nominated for 16 Emmy Awards. In 2020, Ava DuVernay was elected to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences board of governors as part of the directors branch, which shows us that her work has been recognised ! 

    Throughout her career, Ava DuVernay has always been interested in the question of inequality and racism. She even owns a company that aims at helping black businesses succeed. She is an advocate for minorities and the Bechdel test (a test designed to mesure female representation in fiction) equivalent for minorities in movies is named the DuVernay test. 

Kathryn Bigelow 

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    The second filmmaker we need to talk about is Kathryn Bigelow. Born on the 27th November 1951 in San Carlos, California. Before taking an interest in cinema, she studied and obtained a bachelor in Fine Arts from the SFAI (San Francisco Art Institute). Later, she entered the film program of Columbia University, where she obtained a master' degree in theory and criticism in cinema. While being at Columbia, she shot her first short film called The Set Up. 

    Concerning her style, she questions social issues like race, gender and violence in her movies. Kathryn Bigelow succeeded in both mainstream film-making and being seen as an author. This means that she is recognised as a « brand » with her famous movies such as Point Break, but also as a very famous author with her own vision. She pushed the boundaries of Hollywood to create a place where she chose how to make a unique film, merging traditional filmmaking with her own personal techniques. She is known for her use of violence and almost all of her work is marked with violent scenes containing some graphic content. She was criticised for her vision, especially considering the violence she uses. In an interview called « Kathryn Bigelow discusses the role of "seductive violence" in her films » to the question « How tough is it today for women directors? » she answered : 

« If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies. It's irrelevant who or what directed a movie, the important thing is that you either respond to it or you don't. There should be more women directing; I think there's just not the awareness that it's really possible. It is. »

— Kathryn Bigelow in 1990

About her career, Kathryn Bigelow is an important figure for women in cinema. Why ? Well... In 1995, She became the first woman to win the Saturn Award for Best Director for her movie Strange Days. Still not impressed ? Try this : her movie Hurt Locker was nominated in 35 different film festivals and won 29 awards, and she was the first and only woman to ever win the Academy Awards for Best Director, in 2008. To this day, no other women has ever won this Award. Doesn’t that seem unbelievable ? To give you a little background on the Academy Awards (better known as the Oscars), the first ceremony took place in 1929. So, in 91 years, only one woman was awarded. Appart from this, Kathryn Bigelow was also on the Time 100 list of most influential people in 2010.

Reese Witherspoon 

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    This article would be incomplete if we didn’t mention Reese Witherspoon. She was born on the 22th of March 1976 in New Orleans. She is an actress but most importantly a producer. An outspoken advocate for the question of equality in the movie industry, she created a production called Pacific Standard films production. The reason that motivated her to launch this producing company was clear : women are not given enough meaningful roles. 

    In the speech mentioned here, she refers to the sentence « what do we do know » a line attributed to women in a lot of scenarios which makes them completely dependent on any male present that should take control of the situation to help the lady in distress. This line, for her, is a proof of the lack of women involved in the creation of a scenario. The answer always given to her when she asked why companies didn’t include complex female characters was « female driven material don’t sell ». Thus, she launched a company where she could produce those films and it has been a success so far, with movies such as Gone Girl and Wild. Reese Witherspoon proved to Hollywood that creating complicated females characters and buying female written material could be a « money maker ». 

These three women share a common will to change the pre established gender roles in cinema. Fighting inequality, racism... They all contributed in making cinema a space where girls can not only dream of becoming an actress but can aspire to making movies. They also showed that women could write, direct, and could have decision making job with high pressure and still give the best and create amazing pieces of art. There is still a lot of work to do : one woman to receive the best director Award in 91 years is a record I would love to see crumble and disappear. To end on a good note, here is a speech of Reese Witherspoon, that will give you faith in what the future holds : more equality and more women changing the world through culture !

Enjoy this video of Reese Witherspoon and don't forget : ambition is not a dirty word ! 

  DUBREUIL Lisa