Movie enthusiasts find that metro areas support film festivals specifically for certain types of filmmakers - by nationality, by genre, sometimes by geographical region. New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Miami all provide venues for women to display their cinematic skills, as do Toronto, London, and Madrid, and smaller cities all across the USA and the world.
But why separate out women from male filmmakers?
The title of Indiewire's January 2012 blog by Melissa Silverstein says it all: "What Bigelow Effect? Number of Women Directors in Hollywood Falls to 5 Percent."
Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win an Academy Award for directing (three other women were nominated for Best Director before Bigelow, but didn't win). She won the award in 2010 for THE HURT LOCKER, competing in a pool that included her ex-husband, James Cameron, who was nominated for AVATAR.
Since her win, however, fewer women have been directing, writing, and producing Hollywood films. The following statistics come from Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, San Diego State University's executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film.
- Women comprised 5 percent of all directors working on the top 250 films of 2011. Ninety four percent of the films had no female directors.
- Women accounted for 14 percent of writers working on the top 250 films of 2011. Seventy seven percent of the films had no female writers.
- Women comprised 18 percent of all executive producers working on the top 250 films of 2011. Fifty nine percent of the films had no female executive producers.
- Women accounted for 25 percent of all producers working on the top 250 films of 2011. Thirty six percent of the films had no female producers.
Rather than propelling women into the director's chair, it seems that Bigelow's Best Director award - of course, among other factors - has pushed aside more women.
The year after Bigelow's win, Noelle Buffam wrote in The ScriptLab:
"According to a study done by San Diego State University, despite the fact that women make up roughly half of film school graduates, just 4 percent of Hollywood directors are female. The cause of the huge disparity between genders in Hollywood is somewhat shrouded in mystery."
Stephens College in Columbia, Mo., is a private, historically women's college with a strong film program. Kerri Yost, chair of the Department of Film & Media, co-produces their Citizen Jane Film Festival.
"Since 2004, Stephens College has invited female filmmakers from all over the country to present their films to the students and community as part of the Citizen Jane Film Series," Yost stated via their website. In fact, filmmakers from Canada and Europe have attended to screen their work in recent years. In 2011, some of the cast and filmmakers from Academy Award-nominated WINTER'S BONE, that was filmed in Missouri, attended and engaged in a question-and-answer session following the screening.
Seeing in person other people who have accomplished one's own dream is encouraging.
Bigelow herself told The Tech online reporter Michelle P. Perry in 1990:
"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."
To add emphasis, sponsors of women film festivals encourage women to submit films for public screening, in hopes of gaining recognition of their abilities.
Although the film community has lost the acclaimed writer-producer-director Nora Ephron (WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, YOU'VE GOT MAIL, JULIE & JULIA), festival audiences get the opportunity to catch emerging artists on their way up the Hollywood ladder, such as filmmakers Vanessa Roman and Sandra Olmsted of St. Louis, Mo., who won Best Experimental Film at the 2012 Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto for their short THE INHERITANCE.
Film festivals also celebrate incremental successes, such as writer-producer-director and two-time Academy Award nominee Julia Reichert's inclusion in 2011 in the National Film Registry for her and Jim Klein's 1971 documentary GROWING UP FEMALE. Reichert travels to central Missouri from Ohio to be a regular panelist and presenter at the Citizen Jane festival.
Getting together because of a common love for film leads to networking opportunities, said Lissa Weinmann, a member of the steering committee for the Women's Film Festival in Brattleboro, Vt.
"We schedule special events associated with the films when filmmakers are present, Q&A, and have organized special screenings for specific audiences," Weinmann said. "Every year the number of producers, directors and actors at our festival increases. Our festival does not function as a market, but more of an art and educational event. We would like to do more with getting actors or documentary subjects present."
Many women's film festivals offer panels on financing, distribution, auditioning actors, film locations, insurance, and other topics of interest to filmmakers and the general audience. Getting people in touch with each other and allowing time to discuss common concerns becomes as important as watching movies.
"They can network with other women filmmakers as well as other entertainment professionals, especially the ones who lead workshops," said Diana Means, CEO of the Alliance of Women Filmmakers in Burbank, Calif.
The most rewarding part of the festival for the organizers? "For me, it is when an audience member is really moved by a film or when an alumni filmmaker tells me they collaborated with another filmmaker from the festival to make other movies, or when a filmmaker tells me they got distribution," Means said.
"If you feed them, they will come" is a time-honored principle, employed by Citizen Jane festival organizers when they throw "some pretty awesome parties," said Paula Elias, one of the organizers of the Citizen Jane festival. "One of our most treasured traditions is the Citizen Brunch on Sunday morning, a casual time to connect and hang out together. It provides a great opportunity to strengthen some of the bonds we have begun to build over the weekend."
Above all, women's film festivals are about the determination of the women who take a project from concept to completion - not an easy task for men, either.
The films bring together diverse groups to enjoy and appreciate moving images, "shining a light on women's lives around the world, making the world a smaller place," said Arlene Distler of the Brattleboro fest. "This is often the same as bringing a light to some aspect of our own lives."
Anyone who's attended any kind of film festival remembers the excitement, the emotions, the encouragement, the crowds, and even some confusion.
"The appreciation of the filmmakers who come and the appreciation of the audience who attends" make all the effort worthwhile, said Yvonne McCormack-Lyons, founder of the annual South Florida Women's International Film Festival in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "By the time the festival is over, I've been hugged, kissed, and dried tears. And I receive so many warm words of gratitude. I have been told that the festival has changed their lives, and that's a beautiful and powerful thing."
Mary J. Schirmer is an award-winning screenwriter, producer, writing instructor, and professional screenplay and book manuscript consultant in St. Louis, Mo. She may be contacted at awarenessprod@yahoo.com and www.screenplayers.net.
