“The Women’s Media Center is at Sundance, where they put together a stark and riveting video to underscore the gender inequities that persist in filmmaking and in the media.”
“At the end of the movie, Olive spells out the message, that it’s nobody’s business what people do with their private lives. That’s admirable, and true. But the message means very little when the journey getting there is so icky and filled with double standards–the same double standards that the movie is supposedly criticizing, but tacitly embracing.”
“This year, there were more features, documentaries and shorts by blacks and about blacks than at any other time in the prestigious festival’s history, which began in 1978 as the Utah/U.S. Film Festival.”
“This is a cultural crisis. Women are being systematically shut out of this business. Most all the movies we see–big and small–are made by men.”
“Media is made primarily by men and for men. It is unfortunate that women consume a near equal amount of it (2009 moviegoer statistics revealed that 55% of all ticket sales are by women, who make up 52% of all moviegoers). If we don’t demand media for women, made by women and change how we’re represented in movies, we can continue to expect Hollywood and history to create male-dominated entertainment.”
“Of all the nominees they looked at, 60 percent experienced at least one divorce after being nominated for an Oscar. But the academy’s most successful women were especially likely to see their connubial bliss obliterated: a Best Actress winner’s risk of divorce was 1.68 times the risk of a nonwinning Best Actress nominee.”
“In 1999 model/waitress Jessica Lall refused to serve drinks to a rowdy man in a crowded bar, who then shot her point blank in a fit of rage. That man turned out to be the son of an influential politician, but with 300 witnesses it seemed like a straightforward case.”
Please leave links to your favorite posts this week!