What I am talking about is a complete change in professional orientation. Changing careers. Making new goals. Finding out how to achieve them. And I don’t mean going from a buyer to a seller, (although that one was a real eye-opener) or from catching to pitching, or from actively producing to teaching producing, or from making films to assessing films or enabling films. I’m talking out of one entire field into a new one.

In 2004, when a television producer told me, “Sexual harassment is still going on,” I believed her even though by then the chorus of public opinion, not known for its track record, had pronounced harassment all but gone. Bald eagles were ‘all but gone’ but they’re still here. I’m glad about the eagles.

Is harassment gone or not? I began researching. On a call to the Screen Actors Guild, imagine my surprise when I heard on the telephone menu, "If this is an emergency regarding personal on-the-set safety or sexual harassment, press one."

Bingo. I began to interview people working in film and television. Is sexual harassment still here? Is it different? What can women and men do about it? I learned a lot.

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Viral videos fly around the internet at top speed, generally finding a home on YouTube, SuperDeluxe (superdeluxe.com), Viral Video Chart (viralvideochart.com), MySpace the list goes on and on. Brandon Burkhart and his partner Randall Mills are out there sorting through the videos and lending them a dash of dignity, pre-YouTube, and giving an audience a great evening in the process.
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This article started as a conversation, one of those that could explode into an argument at any moment, a tight-rope talk. We were grappling with a single question: what does an organization dedicated to women in film imply about our society? Before we could delve into other articles that hit on the absence of female directors, the portrayal of women in cinema, the brilliant actresses gracing the stage, or any other topic that struck our fancy, we needed to get at, even if it was a little Meta, why an article like this needed to exist in the first place. Why a special place devoted to women in film?
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What follows is a sort of compare and contrast between two fundamentally “vagina-centered” enterprises currently appearing in popular media.
In the first instance a guy has made a film he suggests makes a statement which empowers women.
In the second instance a guy has ACTUALLY made a television pilot/series which empowers women.
I think putting these two works side by side and staring them in the glory hole is kind of instructive. But I’m funny that way.
I like seeing beyond the hype.
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It’s that time of year again, ‘tis the season to pay tribute to the 100 most powerful women in Hollywood. Every year the Hollywood Reporter issues a list of the Power 100: Women in Entertainment. The list is a who’s who of executives and a few executive-actresses, who’ve made a mark in Tinsletown. Influential women are hard to come by in this male populated system and, reflecting a hierarchy not unexpected, there are still very few women of color who’ve made it onto the list. This left me to wonder, as a black woman, who’s telling our stories?More >

When one thinks of Congressmen and beautiful women most of us think of some of the most salacious scandals that have rocked the U.S. capital. But recently Representative Bobby Rush, a black Democrat from Illinois, took Hollywood to task for essentially exploiting African American women in the media. The Congressman convened hearings titled "From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degrading Images." A bold move, though some could question if it’s necessary for Congress to step in. Others wonder if it’s just a black problem. Well, let’s see what we’re dealing with...

Without a doubt, this documentary proves that there is a "bizarre wall of secrecy", and a shameful one, surrounding the MPAA ratings system...with due emphasis on the word bizarre. Also without a doubt, this documentary is intriguing from a woman's pov. For either reason, and just because it's a very good documentary, you'll want to see it and ponder on it.

In this interview, which Kirby Dick shot and then excerpted for his stunning, as in shocking, ruthlessly funny documentary, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, Kimberly Peirce does much more than talk to his theme of the ratings board and her film, Boys Don't Cry. The whole interview is a study of her rigor, determination and focus as a director.

Hollywood in the early 1900's was a magnet for creative and entrepreneurial misfits. Few took filmmaking seriously as a business and so the doors were wide open to women. Movies were an idea one week, before the cameras the next and in the theaters within a month. There were no paths to follow and no rules to break. By the time women were "given" the right to vote in 1920, they had been thriving at every level of movie making...