Where are all the female directors?

I read today that less then 1% of the movies on Netflix are directed by women. Not even a full percent. It was shocking at first but then when I started to think about it, one percent is 1 in a hundred and their are A LOT of movies out there, and there have always been a lot of movies getting made, and there used to be even less female directors. Now, at least, there are some, but, when curious, I started looking up statitstics on female directors I was suprised by HOW LOW they are, still are.

For example, the highest grossing movie directed by a women is SHREK, but it was co-directed by a man. The nine next highest grossing movies by women are LOOK WHOS TALKING, WHAT WOMEN WANT, DR. DOLITTLE, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, DEEP IMPACT, WAYNE'S WORLD, ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS:THE SQUEAKUEL, BIG, and TWILIGHT. First of all, most of these movies are about men. I shudder to realize TWILIGHT has the biggest female role of them all, followed closely by SLEEPLESS, but I would be willing to bet Meg Ryan clocks in at under 50% of screen time in that one. I have not seen WHAT WOMEN WANT and it does have a large female cast, and it also stars every feminists favorite actor, Mel Gibson. I do love BIG, another Tom Hanks one, I owned it growing up and loved it. I didn't know WAYNE'S WORLD was directed by a women, that was interesting to learn. The rest are pretty awful, and not that popular.

Another dismal statistic is that only four women have been nominated for best director ever. Kathryn Bigelow was the first to win in 2010 for THE HURT LOCKER. Before her there had only been three women ever nominated in that category. Sofia Copolla in 2003 for LOST IN TRANSLATION, Jane Campion in 1993 for THE PIANO, and Lina Wertmuller in 1976 for SEVEN BEAUTIES. Their pictures get nominated a little more often, but they are hardly recognized in the director category. This past year two films directed by women were nominated for Best Picture, WINTER'S BONE and THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT, but neither of their female directors were up for Best Director.

I do feel there are an increasing amount of female directed movies being made and coming out, but it is still so far behind and moving so slowly towards an equal distribution of male and female director it is frustrating. So, to cheer myself up I made a list of films I like that are directed by women and that many people might not have seen (or heard of). Also, all the films on this list are mainly about females as well.

MY NEW GUN (1992) 

Somehow I discovered this movie when I was about 13 years old and loved it. It was one that I liked the rent over and over, as we do at that age. I am not really sure what clicked about it for me, but it is the story of an unhappy suburban housewife who gets a gun from her yuppie husband even though she is terrified of them, then begins an affair with her mysterious neighbor who steals it from her.  It is a funny satire of suburban lifestyle similar to DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN at times, but more 90's. The director is Stacy Cochran who hasn't done much else. She directed the Winona Ryder film BOYS several years later (which is pretty uninteresting) and in 2000 she directed a film called DROP BACK TEN that I had never heard of before writing this blog. I will check it out and let you know if it is any good.

AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE (1990)
This beautiful film, by Jane Campion, is slow and disturbing and is the story of  Janet Frame, a New Zealand author. Based on a three part autobiography the film is fascinating and restrained. Despite the rather extreme events that happened to Frame, Campion keeps the film focused on the quite strength of the lead character. The leading role is played by Kerry Fox who is wonderfully unique and odd. This might be my favorite Campion film, although I also love THE PIANO(1993) in so many ways. Also good is her most recent film BRIGHT STAR(2009) about poet John Keat's three year long romance with Fanny Brawne. Jane Campion's films are always beautiful, but ANGEL has a presence that is strong.

FAT GIRL (2001) 
One of the best films I have ever seen, I didn't enjoy watching this very much, but it was powerful and really affected me. The story is of 12 year old Anais, overweight and on summer vacation with her family. Elena is the pretty 15 year old sister of Anais, who gets all the boys, including an older Italian. Anair is a very unhappy girl, and her misery is long and drawn out, and she shares a room with her sister who has an incredibly akward sex scene with her older lover.  FAT GIRL has a shocking and disturbing ending that upset me enough to wonder if I even liked it at all? But upon reflection I feel it is an incredible film about adolescence and sibling rivalry. FAT GIRL also has some of the best acting from teenagers I have seen, it is like an artsy, French, KIDS. French director Catherine Breillat has made many films and they often are explorations of sexuality, often with young girls. Despite finding most of her films hard to connect with, many are interesting, and I appreciate films being made about female sexuality, disturbing or not, since they are told from a female perspective and it is subject matter that is often feared. Other Breillat films worth checking out to see a range of her style are A REAL YOUNG GIRL(1976), SEX IS COMEDY(2002) and THE LAST MISTRESS(2007).

WALKING AND TALKING (1996) 
This is a great film about two best friends, played by Catherine Keener and Anne Heche, who struggle to keep their tight friendship as one gets ready to marry a man who treats her great, while the other is at a bad place in her life with men and career. Keener is always great and she works with director Nicol Holofcener in all of her feature films, including the recent PLEASE GIVE(2010) This underrated movie has a great script and great 90's nostalgia. Both actresses are great making their characters seem like real women and very relatable. It is a film that is both funny and sad, showcasing a wonderful female friendship, not overshadowed with malice, like many female buddy movies.

WENDY AND LUCY (2008)
Michelle Williams is one of my favorite current actresses. WENDY AND LUCY  is a character piece that follows Wendy, traveling cross country with her dog, Lucy, to a new job. When the car breaks down, Wendy's poor finaciel state escelates her into very dire situations. Not a happy movie at all, it is a strong performance by both actress and director. Very straight forward and basic, the powerlessness of Wendy because she has no money sticks with you after you have seen it. Kelly Reichardt is the director, and one to watch for. I am eagerly waiting to see the film she made last year MEEKS CUTOFF (2010) also starring Williams. Reichardt makes film about people who become victim to their circumstance. Money, gender, passivity, are a common enemy of the characters in her films.

Great Music Moments in Movies

Music is used in film all the time. The soundtrack or score for a film is a large part of what creates the emotion of the story. There are wonderful composers who write scores for films that are amazing and beautiful, working in the background and driving the images along. But there are moments in movies when a song take center stage, and here are six of those memorable moments used in six amazing films, all unique.

1. MORVERN CALLAR 

One of my favorite movies, MORVERN CALLAR is a stellar character study, showcasing the amazing talent of Samantha Morton and making director Lynne Ramsay a director not to miss (unfortunately she has only made three features in over ten years). The soundtrack for MORVERN is spectacular and a driving force to the story. Morton's character spends the entire film grieving the loss of her lover, and spends a great deal of it listening to the mix tape he made for her before committing suicide. 

This scene below is a great moment in music and film. Perfectly setting the scene for her deep loss, and the simplicity of her small town and unexciting daily life. 

2. BLUE VELVET
David Lynch has a style, vision, and sound like no other. His use of music in film and television is always excellent. This scene is one of the most haunting I have ever seen. I remember the first time I watched BLUE VELVET and was mesmerized by the dark beauty of it. Of all the memorable scenes in it, this one stayed with me the most. It's so completely absurd and creepy and it makes a great song even greater. 

3. ROMY AND MICHELE'S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION 
Such a funny movie! This is the story of two best friends, losers in high school and now trying to make it in the fashion world, who go back to their high school reunion. Both ladies want to prove how much more important they are now, so they make up a lie that they invented post-it-notes. It backfires and they become the jokes of the reunion, causing them to fight and split up, but only temporarily. In the end one of them gets a guy and he dances with both ladies, in this popular scene, to classic Cyndi Lauper. This is also one of the best dance moments in a movie ever!

4. THE VIRGIN SUICIDES
Every Sofia Copolla movie has an awesome soundtrack. Copolla is a director who uses music to hold up her lucid and unconventional story-telling. MARIE ANTOINETTE has many moments where the songs elevate the story so much, and capture the punky vibe she wanted ANTOINETTE to have. But I have to go with this scene from VIRGIN SUICIDES both because I love Heart and because it is such a kick ass song to use to introduce a character. Back when I saw this movie I thought Josh Hartnett was the hottest thing ever, and this made quite an impression on me.

5. THE SEVENTH CONTINENT 
Michael Hanake films are always a little tough. SEVENTH CONTINENT is his first feature film, and it is absolutely fascinating, but also very infuriating. This clip doesn't stand on it's own quite the way the others on this list do, because without the context it is pretty static. But once you have watched this film and understand what point this family is at, what they are in the act of doing, it is far from boring, and quite devastating. SPOILER: the drink the mother gives her daughter has sleeping pills in it, and the parents are soon to follow into endless sleep.

6. GROSSE POINT BLANK 
Another great comedy about a high school reunion set to an 80's soundtrack, this scene uses two great songs to be the back drop of a murder and disposing of the body. One of the reasons the movie is so great is because the performances are good. I especially love the friendship of John Cusack and Jeremy Pivan. This is the scene where Pivan and Minnie Driver discover that Cusack, their old friend from high school, is a hit man, all while their former classmates dance to music in the gymnasium below. As for 80's songs, it doesn't get much better then 99 Red Balloons, so I do have a bit of a soft spot for it being used.

BIBLIOTHEQUE PASCAL: sex trade as fairy tale

This film is a visual fantasy, creating a world that doesn't exist but in art. It reminded me of  a Terry Gilliam film because of its quirky characters and setting. Interesting, the movie has bright colors and exciting sets but is about a world that is dark and dangerous, where men are predators and poor women are sold as sex slaves. Yet, it keeps from being too disturbing because of its fairy tale like style. 

Now, when I say fairy tale style I do not mean it makes the sex trade look fun or not-so-bad, the underground sex trade world of this film is nasty and often leads to death for the women (and boys) who get trapped in it. The consequences are real and harsh, but the scenery is over the top, bright colors and breath taking props, the workers are dressed in costumes that are not so sexy and more like visual candy.

Let me back up. The film follows Mona a poor but tough women who lives in Hungary. She becomes impregnated by a convict on the run from police who takes her hostage and then seduces her with his dream, because his dreams come to life when he has them. Soon she is a single mother who works in a circus doing puppet shows. Her father, a nasty man, arrives one night and tricks her into going to Germany with him, where she is sold to some men. Soon she is sent off to work in a club called Bibliotheque Pascal, where she is locked in a room and dressed up like Joan of Arc. She has to memorize a script as Joan and then men come and rape her. Luckily the rape scenes are few and not graphic, but the consequences are very real. People do die. The colors are bright, the imagery fun but the topic is dark. 

The film does suggest that perhaps the fantasy like elements are simply that, fantasy. Perhaps Mona chooses to remember things like this as a way to cope, or because she is insane, hard to say. It opens and closes in a child services office with Mona trying to convince a man that she is a fit mother and the movie is far more realistic in these scenes. The colors are muted, the camera more static. But as soon as Mona tells her story it jumps into hyper color and at times feels like it is about to become a musical. (It never does) 

Portraying sex slavery in this hyper real way is risky, recently SUCKER PUNCH tried and failed miserably, making the girls victims that have no escape and yet glossing over any real sense of what the girls (who are forced to work in a brothel) would be going through. BIBLIOTHEQUE PASCAL does not gloss over this, the horror of what Mona is going through is clear. She is terrified, trapped and yet never gives in. She is determined to escape her prison and get back to her daughter. The fantasy elements are simply Mona's way of dealing with the pain of a brutal life. 

THE OFF HOURS: sad people in a diner

Local director Megan Griffiths has been developing THE OFF HOURS film for over five years. She wrote in in 2007 and has been trying to raise a budget ever since, a year ago she decided to scrap the budget and just make it with way less. In the end she may not have needed a bigger budget because THE OFF HOURS,  is a great small film about small people.
It is the story of Francine, a young waitress who works at a diner next to a truck stop in a small, going nowhere type of town. She lives with her foster brother and spends her time working, drinking and having sex with almost every guy who shows interest. Of course, Francine wants out, and when she meets a handsome truck driver who has an intelligence not found much in her world, she begins to see the world outside of the town.
The strength of THE OFF HOURS is largely the great performances. Amy Seimetz as Francine carries the film well. She gives a wonderful natural performance with lots of repressed emotions playing just beneath the surface. The rest of the cast does their part to keep the characters real and I give huge props to the costume department who do a great job of making everyone look like they live in a poor, small town. Tony Doupe (a local and very talented actor) is also good as the heartbreaking alcoholic owner of the bar, who has almost lost his daughter to his drinking but keeps messing up when he has a chance to prove himself to both her and his ex wife.
The movie is subtle, and in it we see the growth of Francine without any overly dramatic scenes. The cinematography is great, the score is decent, the sound is a little weak, but I am not positive it was the movie, perhaps just a poor theater, but I found some of the dialog hard to understand. Luckily it is a quit movie, so it wasn't a very noticeable problem.
Overall, THE OFF OURS is a strong character piece, and well directed. It left me slightly underwhelmed because it is somewhat flat, most of the characters are already so set in their ways nothing really changes for them, but it captures that very well, so maybe that is intended?

LYS: nature vs. power plants

LYS is a German film school project that was made in 2008. Yet, it is very topical and well structured. The story is of a power plant that has been created that can take energy from the earth. It begins with the power plant having a near melt down and the discovery of a 13 year old girl passed out in its core.
The movie follows the head scientist in the apocolyptic future telling the story of how everything fell apart, it also follows the girl, Lys, in present day as she discovers as she begins to discover she has powers, and as she tries to hide from the scientist men who are after her.
The story is a enviromental cautionary tale, about the dangers of using up so much of the earth energy. Despit some rather cheesy affects I was impressed by how entertaining and suspensful the movie was. However, I did feel it could have been more developed. I understood enough to make sense of what was going on, and find it refreshing to a film to be longer, but it certainly could have added ten or fifteen minutes of more back story to flesh out the plot.
The character of Lys is what drew me in. I always have a soft spot for red heads, but the actress who plays her also has a naturalness that helped carry the film through scenes of her dealing with pretty far out things and also being a 13 year old girl, who likes boys and has a troubled relationship with her mom.
The film is short, hardly an hour, and does have a somewhat film school feel to it, but I still enjoyed it and found in more entertaining and compelling then most Blockbuster multi-million dollar movies.

TABLOID: analyzing a spectacle

TABLOID is a documentary made of interviews about the crazy spectacle that is Joyce Kinney. First made famous in tabloid news in 1978 when she allegedly kidnapped and raped a morman missionary whom she had formally been engaged. The truth of the situation is not what is explored, but instead the many versions that different people call truths.
Director Errol Morris is a good director and the quality of all the interviews and archival footage is high, but by the end of the movie I wasn't fully sold on the true intention of the film. The story is salacious, and so over-the-top that it is easy to get sucked into the film, but at parts I felt the subjects were being mocked more then studied.
Joyce Kinney is the star of the movie, her interview is very up close, and I would say personal but the entire film is pointing out that someone is lying, and she probably is at times, or else she has fallen victim to more planted stories and evidence then one would have thought possible. According to her, her ex fiance left with her willingly and then later lied about the kidnapping/rape because of pressure from the Mormon Church. While it does seem unlikely he was an complete victim, there are several people who claim to have been involved that claim things about Joyce she rejects. That she was naked in front of them a lot, that she was delusional, and that she instructed men to take her ex by force if he declined going with them. While Joyce does admit she thought he was brainwashed and wanted to try to save him, she denies all the other claims against her and continues to say she was set-up later when many images of porn, featuring her, surfaced.
Just as the viewer is starting to feel like this woman denies everything, it also is pointed out that almost all evidence of this porn past has been "destroyed" and the men claiming it as truth, cannot produce any hard evidence.
So the real story of Tabloid is the spectacle, it is sort of a long metaphor of the saying "you can't prove a rumor, that's why it's a rumor". Joyce's identity in the tabloids is over the top, and has somewhat identified her as a person. She feels that everyone takes advantage of her, while she claims to simply be a good girl who was in love with a man.
To make the experience even stranger, after the movie ended and we were all leaving the theater, we were greeted by a furious Joyce Kinney outside, ranting on about how the movie was a lie, that she had been tricked into making it and now was not allowed to even watch it with the rest of us (she claimed SIFF would not let her enter the theater, which hearing her yelling and screaming on the street I was grateful for). The audience of the film grouped around her, eyes wide, mouths open. Unfortunately for Joyce, I feel anyone who left the film thinking perhapes she was just misunderstood, after seeing her go on like that was sure she was crazy.
For me, it just made the whole thing sadder. It was a front row seat for a rather disturbing element of our society; the glee in which we watch famous people self destruct. Unfortunately for Joyce, she is only famous for being involved in crazy tabloid stories.

BELLE EPINE: painful, just the way I like my films

BELLE EPINE is the story of 15 year old Prudence, whose family has abandoned her weeks after her mother's death. It is a film about the deep loss Prudence is going through and her desperate search for the love that she lost, while being utterly alone. 

This is the first film from french director Rebecca Zlotowski, who has co-written several shorts and features before making her directorial debut with BELLE EPIN, and it is a very strong, impressive film.

One of the strongest elements of this movie is the leading performance by Lea Seydoux, who carries the entire film and is playing a girl suffering sever grief. Her performance is captivating and she is able to juxtapose Prudence's hardness and her vulnerability brilliantly. 

The film opens with Prudence at the police station having been caught shoplifting. There she meets a fellow young female offender named Maryline, who hangs out with a group of guys who ride motorbikes and like to have illegal races at night. Prudence wants into this world, and throws parties at the apartment she has been left alone in since her mothers death. Prudence enters a world of drugs, sex and riding on the back of boys motorbikes. 

Her behavior bothers her cousin, the only seeming person who is paying attention to her, who tells Prudence she is morning inappropriately and will no longer be her friend. This leaves Prudence's closest connection being to a group of young men who take her places on their bikes and have sex with her. 

Obviously this does not lead to any form of healing for Prudence and as one relationship with a particular boy falls apart and leads to a tragic accident, Prudence is faced with the reality that life and death are constant and that she cannot escape the pain she feels over the loss and grief of losing her mother. 

BELLE EPINE  is not a happy movie in anyway shape or form, but it is captivating, and also has a badass score that is very reminiscent of Italian director Dario Argenta's scores. The music was awesome and great for expressing the freedom Prudence feels while riding on motorbikes.