One of my favorite kinds of posts to write–although we haven’t posted very many of them yet, and very few people ever comment on them–is the Director Spotlight. (If you haven’t already, check out spotlights on Allison Anders, Kathryn Bigelow, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, Tanya Hamilton, Nicole Holofcener, Deepa Mehta and Agnes Varda.) While the posts themselves are fairly cut-and-dry, I always enjoy focusing on a woman who makes (or who made) movies and learning about her filmography.
Though most of the women we’ve profiled are already fairly successful, I also believe these posts do a service: more female filmmakers should be household names (think for a moment about all the male filmmakers who are), and by calling attention to them, maybe a few more people will know them as such.
We can all agree that if more women make films, and if these women get more attention, depictions of women in all forms of media has a chance of improving over time. So, in the spirit of celebrating women who make movies comes today’s question:
Who are your favorite female filmmakers?
Kelly Reichardt
Lynne Ramsay. Andrea Arnold.
I love the women mentioned in the piece, as well as Reichart, Ramsay, and Arnold.
Argentinian director Lucretia Martel is one of the most interesting and unexpected directors around — unbelievably creative. I was just blown away by The Headless Woman.
Yep. Andrea Arnold! Just read this great interview with her on the Birds Eye View Film Fest site: http://www.birds-eye-view.co.uk/news/2011/11/08/bev-talks-to-andrea-arnold-about-her-latest-triumph-wuthering-heights/#more-4464