7 Solutions For Women Directors In 2014

By Maria Giese

Just days ago, USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism reported that “This year, a criminally low 4 percent of movies are going to be directed by women.” The word “criminal” is invoked because, according to Title 7, this percentage reveals rampant violations of U.S. equal employment opportunity laws in Hollywood.

IT’S 2014.  WHAT CAN WE DO THIS YEAR TO GET WOMEN DIRECTORS WORKING?

1. Demand Industry Compliance of Equal Employment Laws: We must demand the lawful advancement of women directors through the Director’s Guild of America and studio and network diversity programs. We must unearth industry violations that impede progress for women directors, such as the unlawful maintenance of “Lists of Eligible Women Directors” that encourage tokenism and keep the number of women directors low.
2. Pursue Individual Legal Action: Tell us your story. We want to hear from you if you feel you have been “shut out” of TV directing, have received fewer episodes than you feel is reasonably fair, or have been a victim of tokenism (ie. just got one or two episodes per season on a show). Contact www.womendirectorsinhollywood.com or write to me anonymously: [email protected].
3. Establish a Publicity Campaign for Women Directors as a Group: We must hire a publicist to help create a paradigm shift in public thinking about the abilities and competence of women directors. It is critical that our industry separate women of all ethnicities from male ethnic minorities in efforts to increase employment of women directors.
4. Promote Individual Women Directors: We should create a website for women directors to post reels, professional updates and promo, and to share employment leads and other relevant information.
5. Create Advocacy for Women Directors: Women must help women in our industry. We should help make connections for each other wherever possible within the industry, including employment, mentoring, panels, festivals, summits, seminars, screenings, conferences, and other events that involve issues of female director employment.
6. Increase Public Awareness: We must make the issue of the under-representation of women directors common knowledge in the United States. We should seek out investigative journalists to expose conscious and unconscious complicity within the Hollywood power establishment to keep women out. We must work with statisticians, bloggers, and all forms of media outlets to help increase the visibility of women directors. We must educate the public to the necessity of employment equity among women directors.
7. Encourage More Film Funds for Women Directors:  We should model Gamechanger Films (http://gamechanger-films.com/), the first non-profit fund for feature films directed by women directors ONLY to create many more funds of this kind. Women should pursue individual funding opportunities through Crowdfunding, like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. We should take advantage of opportunities through “Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act,” which President Obama signed into law in April 2012 to help fledgling businesses (including film funds) raise money to boost the economy.

Originally Posted on January 7, 2014