Guest Post By Rachel Feldman
It’s about time that gender equality for directors in Hollywood has become news. It’s taken decades of pushing this story uphill, but the film and television industries have finally taken note that women are as capable of telling great stories as men.
Only ten years ago I exchanged correspondence with a top editor at Vogue Magazine trying to motivate her to take an interest in the story behind the woeful statics prevalent in the hiring of female directors. She responded by saying the issue wasn’t “sexy.” Now our culture seems to understand that this is a big story, that female voices must be included in the content we disseminate though out the world, and that the “male gaze” is not, and should not be, a singular point of view.
Every day, there is another program or initiative announced that celebrates the careers of filmmakers who are women. But there are still insidious vestigial beliefs blocking many doors and as long as we ignore these obstacles the change we see will only be window dressing.
One of these beliefs is that there is only a small pool of directors from which to hire, and that all the “good” ones are already busy working. On the flip side, others believe that the best way to fix the issue of gender diversity in Hollywood is to push new/young directors into the pipeline. These extreme beliefs, of reaching to the most and least experienced, are actually hindering progress for true gender parity by rendering invisible the thousands of accomplished, experienced, seasoned female directors who could make 50/50 by 2020 a reality, and not just a slogan.
The career squelcher that gets little press attention is the lack of interest, support, and involvement from the high-powered literary and talent agencies. These companies could make an enormous difference.
Many great programs and initiatives that promote women directors are filtered through Hollywood’s top agencies and organizations. Ryan Murphy’s HALF Foundation, for instance, sought applicants through established representatives. Similarly, the newly launched Alice Initiative, an excellent source for directors, is comprised of directors who already have top agents and a considerable mark of established prestige and celebrity. Other initiatives, like the freshly launched AFI/Fox program, which will support graduates of the AFI Directing Workshop for Women in support of producing a short film, serve to give newer directors more experience and exposure.
These top and bottom programs are fantastic but the silent story is that these women represent only the tip of the iceberg and what few realize is that there are already nearly 1400 experienced women directors in the Directors Guild of America. Sadly, only about 50 of these filmmakers work on a regular basis, and the ones who do have have strong agents. The other 1350, and the thousands of other accomplished non-DGA filmmakers who direct commercials, web series, industrials, music videos, and low budget or independent film and TV, are mostly unrepresented, making them virtually invisible. Having an excellent rep is the key factor in women working, yet the vicious cycle of not having a recent credit often slams the door on consideration. In order for real change to happen, these talented women must be appreciated as a valuable, untapped labor resource.
Perhaps the process of discovering directors under the radar was difficult in the past, but now there’s no excuse. Ava DuVernay chose to create a television show helmed exclusively by women and she pulled it off beautifully using relatively unknown directors. She reached out to accomplished director Neema Barnette, who had decades of excellent credits in television, but who had fallen off the radar and couldn’t find a way back in without an agent. Ava hired Neema not only to direct several episodes of “Queen Sugar” herself, but also to champion and supervise the newer directors. Anyone who is serious about progressive change must consider following this effective, innovative model.
Agencies are also complicit in holding back women directors by creating a barrier between their talent rosters and projects attached to non-celebrity directors. The need to satisfy the mechanisms of foreign sales with “marquee” actors places talent agents in positions of tremendous power. Will they read a script attached to an unknown female director? Will they allow their actors to sit down with someone with whom they themselves may not be familiar? Producers fear not. But with female actors begging for better material, it’s high time agencies realize that it’s not just well-known filmmakers who can bring extraordinary projects to their clients. One would hope that the merits of a project would be based on the quality of the script and the talents of the team, not on some stamp of pre-approval, cutting short the opportunity for actors to judge for themselves.
Feminist journalists have done an extraordinary job illuminating gender equity problems but it will take solutions to galvanize an equalized playing field for women directors. If CAA, UTA, WME, ICM, Gersh, Verve, Paradigm and APA each committed to sign or hip-pocket 20 unheralded female directors for one year, with agents vetting and vouching for these 160 talented women, many would soon have thriving careers, be earning great incomes, and be changing the stats. If anyone has trouble finding experienced female directors, please shoot me a tweet. I’ll be delighted to introduce you to Oscar and Emmy winners who are sadly not working. Another simple but effective way to see swift change is for our established actors to inform their agents and managers that they want to collaborate with female directors who have great material. When the top female talent in town insist on collaborating with and supporting their female filmmaker colleagues, there can be a true sisterhood of Hollywood creativity.
The word diversity should mean a lot more than gender or race. To truly be inclusive, all kinds of women directors’ careers warrant investigation. Mid-career artists are valued in other fields, as they should be in ours. I urge the agencies and actors to be bold in their role in changing the status quo for women in Hollywood.
Rachel Feldman is a filmmaker who is steadfastly working to usher “Fair Fight,” a feature film about Fair Pay activist Lilly Ledbetter, to a screen near you. Rachel has directed more than 60 hours of movies and television, chaired the DGA Women’s Steering Committee, and taught directing in the masters program at USC. She uses the Twitter handle @womencallaction.
