Why Have There Been No Great Women Directors?

I have done many blogs about art and identity and at the moment I am developing an exhibition about feminism. So with my personal blog I want to do something very different and go down a different root in the arts, film. I always forget that I have a degree in film, as I focus all my attention on art but it's a very big part of my life and would call it my hobby to see as many amazing films as I can. I am a big movie buff! If I was telling an intellectual crowd what my favorite film is I would say the 2004 masterpiece by Fatih Akin called Head On. I love this film it's a powerful story about love, regret and passion. However I have a very dirty secret…. My all time favorite film is actually,  Shakespeare in Love. I know it's a corn fest but I just love the over the top, love fest and I love a good cry in a film. Other films I would call my favourite is Terminator 2, The Royal Tenenbaums and Ed Wood.

In this blog, all about women there is something lacking in every single film that I love - WOMEN DIRECTORS! I could name you reel after reel of woman artist but I actually have no clue about women directors. So to start this series of women in film I want to discuss women directors. I am going to look at directors in Hollywood, Documentary and a little about women's contribution to Video Art.  

The title of this piece is, Why is There No Great Women Directors? This question is based on the iconic essay from Linda Nochlin, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artist? Which I am taking the basics of there is great woman artist but overshadowed by the male counterparts because of the time in history. This essay was written in 1971 and unfortunately for women in film nothing much has changed. This essay is just a starting point of showing different women directors in the business and hopefully to put light on why women are over shadowed by their male counterparts.


I did some research and found out that only 7% of directors in Hollywood are women and only 13% are writers. The reason this is because the industry believe that women can not bring in the big bucks for the Hollywood Studios, even though last year two of the biggest films were directed by women, Pitch Perfect 2 and Fifty Shades of Grey. So why isn't there more in Hollywood? With Hollywood I am going to look at two different filmmakers, one who was in the business and created an impact on romantic comedy. The other is a up and coming who created a stir with Selma.

Elizabeth Banks directed Pitch Perfect 2

Sam Taylor - Johnson directed 50 Shades

Nora Ephron 

Nora Ephron is one of the biggest names for women in Hollywood, you might not know her name but you know her work, she wrote one of the biggest romantic comedies ever made (also one of my mothers favourite films) When Harry Met Sally. She directed great classic films such as Sleepless in Seattle and You Got Mail. I have chosen Ephron because many people believe that the only films women watch are “chick flicks” that we, as women are desperate for a man to sweep us off our feet and take our trouble away. A lot of chick flicks have this message, Pretty Woman and Bridget Jones Diary spring to mind. Don't get me wrong I love a romantic comedy or “chick flick.” HELLO! look at one of my favorite film it oozes that gooey love story. With Ephron’s films she creates something different and she really shaped the way of romantic comedies we see today.

I'll have what she is having

When re watching Sleepless in Seattle, my mind was rather brainwashed because I just love this film and find both characters, empathetic. Also they reference another movie, An Affair to Remember, so the nostalgic tone of this film is over the top. So to mix it up and to try not to get my option in it, I wanted to do the Bechdel Test. Created by Alison Bechdel in one of her comic strips, Dykes to watch out for. This strip is two women discussing their rules in watching a film to determine if it's sexist, the three simple questions are -

• Does your movie have at least two female characters?
• Do they talk to each other?
• Do they talk about something other than a man?

These seems like a very simple premise but you would be surprised what films do not have this, here are a top ten,

• The Social Network (never seen it never want to)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1 (shocked as Hermione Granger is a modern day feminist icon apparently the only one!)
• Avatar (again never seen it, but funny how it lost to hurt locker)
• Star Wars trilogy original (again iconic Princess Leia, who doesn't talk to any other women, least it's changed in the new film)
• The entire Lord of the Rings (hate these films, now I know why)
• Run Lola Run (never seen but it seems like she is the only women in the film)

This is a list I found online just to show you the different movies.Just a FYI all the films I said were my favorite passed the Bechdel test. What's the smug emoji face called? …..

Sleepless in Seattle, just passes this test and some blogs will disagree, to me this film, like her other romantic comedy films, have a balance of the male story line and the females. She picks amazing actors who portray her characters in a realistic light and even though the situation isn't realistic with these actors you believe the story.

This test does not mean that the film is bad, or morally wrong but it addresses that just because you have one good female character that you think that the movie has done good, we make up for half of the population. Who do you thinks buys the movie tickets the most, it's not rocket science to have females equal to men in film, that's are in front and behind the camera.

Anyway… Nancy Ephron films are not smashing any glass ceilings, but she created some iconic films and I bet you, you didn't think that a women did these films and you would look at Meg Ryan's characters a lot differently knowing she was written by a woman.

Ava Duvernay

Ava Duvernay could be called an up and comer compared to Nancy Ephron. Her first “Hollywood” full length feature created a controversial buzz last year for not being nominated for an Oscar for best director and best lead actor. Selma, is a woman's vision of one of the most iconic figures of American history.

This film is set in 1964, the segregation of blacks and whites had been abolished but black people did not have the full rights they deserved, especially in the south where the registrar could decide if a black person could or could not vote. So Martin Luther King (played by David Oyelowo) and his followers pressed forward in a town in Alabama called Selma, where they marched from Selma to Montgomery, this changed American history were President Johnson signing the voting rights act of 1965. This film just shows one moment of his life, which I found brave because they could have gone way out and did a huge epic biography. It just focuses on one of his many incredible achievements, but narrowing the story down doesn't mean everything gets shown. There are many different character, male and female which I wanted to see more of but what I saw I was impressed. With this film you realise quickly that Devernay portrays Martin Luther King as a human being with faults.

I was watching this film very differently to a Nancy Ephron movie because I was watching it with the fact that a woman directed this film. So one of my favorite scenes was when Coretta Scott King (played by Carmen Ejogo) was confronting her husband about his cheating. The scene starts when she is notified by the FBI (who are watching them) that her husband is cheating on her. The scene is very powerful because it's at the point of view of the woman and Martin Luther King is a small trapped creature stuck in a chair and does not know what to do. I feel other directors would have filmed him having sex with his mistresses. Devernay purposefully did not show him in the act, not to protect his character but to protect his wife's. The whole film is beautifully shot, perfect? Not at all but it stood perfectly with other Oscar nominated films and will stand the test of time. This film created a stir because it was a woman director, who is black, and black actors who weren't getting the recognition they deserved. Devernay said it perfectly, “Selma shouldn't have been the only hope.” When it comes to the Oscar films or just films in general why do they have a “token black” movie and sometimes none at all! I am digressing because the next film maker I am talking about is one of the greatest documentary filmmakers ever, who made a lasting impression for all the wrong reasons.

Documentary Women Filmmakers

I love documentaries, it's mine and my partner's favorite thing to do together (I know so sexy), we have watched classics like Hoop Dreams, Super Size Me and Bowling for Columbine. But I have watched documentaries about people who dress up as superhero to save the world, people who are obsessed with former pop sensation Tiffany and showing us the people who dress up on Hollywood Boulevard. You name a documentary I have probably seen it, apart from animal ones that's a NO NO. My all time favorite is Paris is Burning, which is another women director, Jennie Livingston who could be in part 2 of,  Why Have There Been no Great Women Directors?

If you haven't seen Paris is Burning, stop reading and go watch it!!

Women in documentaries are more recognised within their peers, many woman have won major awards for their work. I knew I wanted to talk about this woman because she did a lot for documentary film and for women but with her talent she created devastating effects.

Leni Riefenstahl

Leni Riefenstahl is one of the pioneer of documentary filmmakers, unfortunately she created striking and powerful images for the Nazi Party.

Hitler saw Riefenstahl as an actress first, in 1932 Riefenstahl produced her own work called, The Blue Light. The film won the silver medal at the Venice Film Festival. In the film, Riefenstahl played a peasant girl who protected a glowing mountain grotto. Hitler was taken with her as the epitomises of the ultimate German women. In 1933 when Hitler was appointed chancellor he appointed Riefenstahl to be film expert to the national socialist party. In a time where women played second role to men, Riefenstahl was given a free hand by Hitler to produce propaganda films for the Nazi regime.

Her first full length film was, Triumph of the Will which I watched recently and it's totally unwatchable as any sort of entertainment purposes. However you can see why these films were so powerful at the time to show how great the Nazi party could be to the people. Riefenstahl used dramatic camera angles rarely seen before and frequently used shadowy images as opposed to images that were visually clear. The cameraman also did some of their work on roller skates. So she was very passionate in making these films striking and appealing to the eyes, not just a point and shooting a documentary. Her next feature was Olympia which was a documentary all about the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. This film also won many awards for its technically dazzling shots but the film was of course a propaganda piece and was only showing you what the Nazi party wanted to show you. After the war she was accused of being the visual mouthpiece of the Nazi party. She disagreed with this as she made these films by her own independent film company and they were not mere Nazi Stooges. She also stated the fact that she never became a member of the Nazi Party.

She was not imprisoned for her action and I am in two minds if I believe she knew she was doing wrong. She was forbidden from making films and her films remained banned in post war Germany for years. This concerned some as Veit Harlan, the maker of Jew Suss which is a horrendously anti Semitic film made during Hitler's regime was allowed to return to film making after the war ended. Some believe that Riefenstahl was forbidden to return to film making simply because she was female in an industry dominated by men.

As much as Riefenstahl did much damage with her striking images, she was one of the first women directors who paved the way for other directors to take more risks with the camera. The next director I am going to talk about is rather different to Riefenstahl as her striking approach is the subject matter.  

Amy J. Berg

Amy J. Berg is one of my new favorite directors, I have watched and heard of many of her films and never knew that she had directed them all. Janis: Little Girl Blue, West of Memphis and Deliver us From Evil are to name a few. Berg is a hard hitting journalist filmmaker talking about subjects we are too scared to talk about. Her most famous documentary which created quite the scandal was Deliver us From Evil.

Deliver us From Evil documents the case of convicted pedophile Oliver Grady who as a priest in northern California, molested the children of his parish, apparently with the knowledge of his superiors in the diocese. This film is extremely hard to watch, watching the survivors talk about what Grady did to them and their families. To Grady himself who just didn't give a shit of what he did and he's talking about these horrendous acts like he's talking about the weather. This film is important and Berg was very brave to come out with this film because the catholic church have been sweeping this under the carpet for years and people like Berg are showing the world that this happens and still is happening. This year, Spotlight won best picture at the Oscars, the film is about The Boston Globe investigating an allegations against John Geoghan, an unfrocked priest accused of molesting more the 80 boys. This film is alright but doesn't pack the punch like Deliver us From Evil. She has also shed light on the sexual, financial and spiritual abuses heaped upon members of the fundamentalist church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints by their former leader, Warren Jeffs. Prophet’s Prey is a great documentary and Berg never belittles anyone who believed this man, or says anything bad about the Mormon church, she just lets the people talk about their experiences in the church and the people around trying to help.

Amy J Berg is one of many women in documentary film making that is making an impact in cinema and I am looking forward to seeing more of these women's work.

Women are fighting to be taken seriously in film and I could go on and on about the issues women have to face. So why are women not taken seriously in film? Women in the art world have struggled to dominated the art world as women artist have always been overshadowed by men. So when film recording came accessible to all, women artist thrived with using video art and have taken it as their own. They experimented with there performance art with uncharted territory for experimentation. Pioneering women like Valie Export, Joan Jonas, Dara Birnbaum and Martha Rosler quickly adopted the new tech, and today they are celebrated for their trailblazing legacy that paved the way for tenacious artists. My next blog will be all about women in video art and how they dominated the movement.

Thanks for reading,

MAW