Call for Writers: Women Directors Week

13 thoughts on “Call for Writers: Women Directors Week”

1. Ew! I hate that The Kids Are All Right was added to this. That disgrace of a movie for the most obvious reason and an insult to gay women. Ugh

   1. We don’t disagree:

      https://www.btchflcks.com/2012/06/lgbtqi-week-the-kids-are-all-right.html#.WNwr0G8rLIU

      https://www.btchflcks.com/2012/06/lgbtqi-week-the-kids-are-terrible-the-sex-is-worse.html#.WNwr1G8rLIU

      https://www.btchflcks.com/2016/09/bi-erasure-in-film-and-tv-the-difficulty-of-representing-bisexual-people-on-screen.html#.WNwr3G8rLIU

2. I was searching for one of my favorites, Julia Loktev, but I guess neither of her features were notable enough to make the list. Having only seen one (less confident) film from Rebecca Miller, I can’t speak to her artistic notability, but she’s gotten some notable actors in her recent films. What’s more surprising is that Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann isn’t on either, even though that got a lot of critical attention recently (and is getting an American adaptation with Jack Nicholson & Kristen Wiig), the only movie of its year to make that recent BBC list of the greatest films of all time. And as long as I’m bringing up European directors whose films I haven’t actually seen, Athina Rachel Tsangari hasn’t quite gotten the recognition of her frequent collaborator Yorgos Lanthimos, but her recent “Chevalier” was very well received.

   The podcast Battleship Pretension had an episode a week ago on what they called “Indie-Lite” movies, wherein David Bax speculated that the reason a lot of young (white) male directors make one or two indie movies and then get hired for franchises is because they don’t make the mistake (more common among women) of actually making a good movie. I can’t say I found that more plausible than Tyler Smith’s view, but it came to mind while reading this.

   1. Thank you for your comment! We have posted articles on Julia Loktev’s ‘The Loneliest Planet,’ Rebecca Miller’s ‘Maggie’s Plan,’ and Maren Ade’s ‘Toni Erdmann.’ And Rachel Tsangari’s ‘Chevalier’ is a good film too.

      Considering that this list is already at 59 women filmmakers, we had to stop at some point. We could have easily listed many, many more. We wanted a list that was diverse in representation that was inclusive of women of color, trans women, and queer women filmmakers. We also wanted to include films from a range of genres and from various decades.

      As far as why women filmmakers don’t get hired for franchises, it has nothing to do with whether or not they made a “good” film. The crux of the problem is sexism and discrimination. Regardless of critical acclaim or box office success, women filmmakers are hired less frequently than men for both indie films and major studio films. Studios often use excuses like certain women filmmakers don’t have enough experience (yet studios have no problem hiring men with little experience) or they don’t want to make action films (an assumption not made for male filmmakers). In the rare case when women are hired for franchises, even if the first film does well at the box office, the studio will often hire a male filmmaker for the subsequent films, as was the case with both Catherine Hardwicke (‘Twilight’) and Sam Taylor-Johnson (‘Fifty Shades of Grey’).

      1. Fair enough, any time anyone on the internet comes up with a list, someone else will note omissions. Although if you wanted more chronological diversity, you might have highlighted an earlier Bigelow film. Also, a search on Maren Ade didn’t turn up any post dedicated to her specifically, just one on the 2016 New York Film Festival.

         You talk about women not getting to helm franchises due to sexism, yet one of your examples is The Matrix, a franchise greenlit by a studio to a pair known then as the Wachowski brothers. I think we can say they were not restricted by sexism at the time. Given their very different experience in Hollywood, would it really make sense to lump that in with these other films? The great thing about the internet is that anyone can put whatever content they want on their own sites, but if I was aiming for thematic unity in that regard I wouldn’t.

         1. Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski are trans women. Trans women are women. Period. Full stop. Since this is a theme week on women directors, we are inclusive of trans women filmmakers. Referring to them by their former moniker misgenders them which is disrespectful. In regards to Lana and Lilly Wachowski having a different experience in Hollywood, I would suggest reading Laverne Cox’s statements refuting that she had male privilege as a trans woman: http://fusion.net/laverne-cox-talks-about-male-privilege-and-a-true-gende-1793859130

            And yes, the article on the 2016 New York Film Festival discusses ‘Toni Erdmann.’

            1. Cox describes it as “complicated”, being a relatively feminine child who was encouraged in school (as were cis girls) but called a “girl”. I don’t know if the Wachowskis experienced that, although the fact that they were both married to women at the time they made the Matrix (and still are, although Lana had a divorce in between) is suggestive that they might more resemble the type Laverne was saying get more media attention. Media coverage at the time didn’t seem to depict them as anything other than white straight cis males. And I would argue that perception is a big part of privilege, and it is unlikely to be random chance that resulted in them directing all three entries of their franchise whereas the examples you provided only got to make the first (I can’t name off the top of my head a big budget franchise continually directed by a cis woman or pair of them either).

               I referred to the fact that the Wachowskis were known as brothers at the time, which is not the same as referring to them as such in the present.

            2. Like I said before, this is our theme week on women directors. Lana Wachowski and Lilly Wachowski ARE women directors, hence their inclusion on our list of women directors and their films.

3. Is it okay if we cover a film that’s been covered on the site before? For example, Eve’s Bayou has been covered a few times. The Fits has been covered once. Wadjda’s been covered twice, etc.

   1. Thank you for asking! Yes! It’s definitely okay to write about films that we have previously published articles on, especially if your article focuses on a different aspect or perspective of the film.

4. If I would like to submit an article, should I first send you a pitch or directly submit the full article? Thank you in advance!

   1. We always appreciate pitches first but we accept articles submitted without them as well. Thank you for asking!

      1. Ok, thanks! I really love this blog and its content, and have always wanted to answer one of your writers calls. I doubt I’ll be able to reach the deadline for this one (considering as this week is turning out to be very work-heavy), but I’ll keep an eye out for the next one 😀

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