Women are not represented equally in the film industry. The film industry is in control by rich old white men that careless about how women are represented in film. Kathryn Bigelow is the first women to win Academy Award for best director. Even though it's a good first step for women, it still doesn't represent the full population of women. Kathryn is still white and I know there are women out there that are full with color and creativity. Upon doing some research I found that there are many alternative media sources, the one that interested me the most was the Women's Film Festival that was hosted during March of this year. Even though it's only in it's 6th year, it does show potential for women to become media creatures.
While searching the internet I found these interesting facts about women in the film and entertainment industry. "Twenty one percent of the top 250 domestic grossing films released in 2007 employed no women directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, or editors a 2% increase since 2006." Another striking statistic is that "Men write 70% and women 30% of all film reviews published in the nation's top newspaper."
Someone like Debra Zimmerman, with her Women Makes Movies program, does show some momentum in thee world of film. Still even if women are encouraged to make films, doesn't me that they are going to be any more argumentative and challenge there audience. People are always going to be in disagreement about what is suitable and makes profit. The film industry will always be a place where money comes first and things that challenge the system comes next. Personally being an upcoming hispanic male film-maker, I want to challenge this system and push the envelope in film.
It's quite funny that movies that seem to empower women, are still directed by men. For example the very popular Alice Walker's novel "The Color Purple," was directed by a men. Even-though Steven Spielberg is an amazing director, it still doesn't serve any justice to women in media. Bell Hooks states "Changing how we see images is clearly one way to change the world." (Hooks pg 6) It's true that people form evaluations and paradigm shifts from watching movies. The most recent movie, even though it a couple years old that changed the world was "Super Size Me," It was the first time in which out culture was exploring deeper in the problem of child and adult obesity in the world. What happened if the person was a female director that wanted to pose the same question that matt murdock did in super size me. would it have been perceived the same way?
"A beautiful movie, and a beautiful actress...
Laure is moving into a new neighborhood with her little sister Jeanne. Because she is in need of new friends and does not know anybody, Laure decides to dress and act as a boy. She becomes close to Lisa, who does not know her new best friend is not a boy."http://www.wmm.com/resources/film_facts.shtml
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