{"id":2884,"date":"2019-05-16T15:21:12","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T15:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/?p=2884"},"modified":"2019-05-16T15:36:51","modified_gmt":"2019-05-16T15:36:51","slug":"gender-screen-culture-myth-equality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/endcrawl.com\/blog\/gender-screen-culture-myth-equality\/","title":{"rendered":"Myths of Gender and Screen Culture: Part 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

Other columns in this series:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Part 1:\u00a0The Myth of Gender<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Part 2: The Myth of the F-Word<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Part 3: The Myth of Collaboration I<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Part 4: The Myth of Collaboration II<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

When we talk about culture and equality, there\u2019s always hope that discourse will play a small role in moving things forward; that things will progress, be different, and change for the better. History, however, often doesn\u2019t easily yield to the binary of <\/span>bad<\/span><\/i> at one end of the scale and <\/span>good<\/span><\/i> at the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to the subject I\u2019ve focused on in this series \u2014 the intersection of gender and screen culture \u2014 we needn\u2019t look far to find evidence of a heightened interest in gender inequality in the film and television industries, loosely falling under the #MeToo banner. At the same time, there\u2019s a sense that much of this is mere lip service.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other half<\/h4>\n

The Oscars insist on maintaining its status as the ultimate industry symbol of white patriarchal out-of-touchness with its <\/span>almost signature refusal to acknowledge the achievements of women directors<\/span><\/a> (coinciding with its <\/span>shameless disinterest in questions of race and representation<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

While filmmakers like Cate Shortland and Chlo\u00e9 Zhao have recently made headlines for helming upcoming Marvel features, <\/span>Variety recently noted<\/span><\/a> a 2018 survey showing that only 8% of the top 250 feature films released in the U.S. were directed by a woman, down 3% from the previous year.<\/span><\/p>\n

This same article quotes activist and producer Cathy Schuman stating \u201cthe parity issue is still alive and well.\u201d The question of parity \u2014 not just pertaining to gender, but a more intersectional vision open to the creative and technical professionals whose career progress stalled because they fall outside the category of the middle or upper-class, educated white male \u2014 is therefore an important one to examine.<\/span><\/p>\n

When it comes to gender parity, we should start with this one important statistic: <\/span>in 2018, women made up 51% of the film-going audience<\/span><\/a>. This figure instantly shatters the foundations of the assumption that men between the ages of 18 and 34 are effectively bankrolling the film industry; it\u2019s simply not true. <\/span><\/p>\n

These same statistics, however, paint a shocking picture of how that fairly even split contrasts with what\u2019s going on in the production of these films. 4% of 2018’s top 100 grossing films were directed by women. And while 40 of the top 100 grossing films starred or co-starred women, just 11 of these were women of color (and another 11 over the age of 45). Women might make up half the film audience, but in terms of representation, that reality is bluntly ignored in the movies themselves. <\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s somewhat tricky to attempt an all-encompassing critical sweep of this issue across every facet of the screen industry, made up as it is of so many internal components and specific media, each containing important micro-stories within this bigger picture, be it in the context of genre filmmaking, multiplex blockbusters, or documentaries. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The festival connection<\/h4>\n

Film festivals provide a useful case study, not necessarily because they reflect the broader screen industry, but rather because these questions of inequality (and our response to them) here often rise to the surface of critical discourse, and are thus representative of broader contradictions and tensions in screen culture more generally.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, at the 2018 Venice Film Festival, <\/span>only 1 film out of 21 was directed by a woman<\/span><\/a>. On the plus side, that film \u2014 Jennifer Kent\u2019s<\/span> The Nightingale<\/span><\/i> \u2014 was <\/span>awarded the Special Jury Prize<\/span><\/a>. Its star, Galiwin’ku dancer-turned-actor Baykali Ganambarr, received the Marcello Mastroianni award for best young actor. (<\/span>Kent also made headlines at Venice<\/span><\/a> when her film received an expletive-filled insult from a film critic.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The final days of Venice overlapped with the beginning of last year\u2019s Toronto International Film Festival, which took a notably different approach to the gender issue. 2018 was my first visit to TIFF, funded in part by the festival\u2019s <\/span>Share Her Journey<\/span><\/a> campaign, \u201ca five-year commitment to increasing participation, skills, and opportunities for women behind and in front of the camera.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s my own bias in terms of the films I look for and watch (or the fact that I was there in large part precisely because of the campaign), but I felt the spirit of Share Her Journey everywhere \u2014 in the parade of highly-visible promotional materials as well as the sheer number of fellow women critics and industry figures I met on the street and in cinemas. The women-directed films from countries around the world were simply too numerous for me to see them all.<\/span><\/p>\n