Amy Dawes: I want to congratulate you all on
being here, on stepping up to talk, on your persistence,
your outrage, your humor, whatever we
uncover here tonight. As individuals you’ve all
been successful and are some of the busiest female
directors working in film and television today. Yet
the number of jobs for women directors remains
incredibly low. For example, of the top-grossing
250 features released in 2005, just 7 percent, or
about 18 movies, were directed by women. And of
the top 40 television shows for the 2004-2005 season,
only 12 percent, or 94 out of 800 episodes,
were directed by women. What’s your reaction to
these numbers? Does this situation matter to you?
Mimi Leder: Of course it matters. It matters to
all of us. We’re very lucky and blessed to be working.
But I think I speak for everybody—we want
there to be a day when it’s not, ‘let’s hire that
woman director,’ but ‘let’s hire that director,’ and
not have gender associated with our names. We
are females. We bring that to the party. But there
are many sides to who we are. And if one of us
isn’t working because of gender, that hurts all of
us. Women have so much to contribute. It’s a
crime that we’re still struggling like this.
Lesli Linka Glatter: It blows my mind we’re
still talking about this in 2006. When I started
doing this, not coming from film, coming from
dance, this was something I heard talked about.
I’m sure we’re all sitting here because you put on
blinders and you move forward. What else can
you do?
Amy Heckerling: It’s getting so boring. It’s like
Roe v. Wade. We’re fighting for that again?
Arlene Sanford: I think there are a lot of myths
about women directors that producers need to be
educated about. We still hear that we can’t control
a set. But if we’re too powerful then we’re bitches.
Heckerling: Well, we’re bitches anyway. [everyone
laughs]
Sanford: But in order to change it we should
have a little survey when we direct. Is that a stupid
idea? A questionnaire that they hand to the
executive producer. Did that person make the
day? Did that person get along with everybody?
Let’s have a list for all directors, and see where
women come in on that, to break the myth that
women can’t do it.
Dennie Gordon: Frequently, we get a show and
we’re a novelty. ‘Wow, this is different.’ But I
would love to find out from you guys, ’cause I
keep hearing this—that as women, we’re uniquely
capable of creating an amazing atmosphere on
our sets, getting people to roll that boulder up
the mountain together, to use humor and lightness.
I’ll hear, ‘it’s a fun set, it’s a great set.’ All of
us in this room are working all the time. But let’s
face it, we also have to be twice as good.
Glatter: The unfortunate thing is that we’re still
lumped together, rather than, we’re just directors,
we have our different points of view. We’re
storytellers, that’s why we’re all sitting in this
room. We want to tell stories a certain way. And
that’s what’s exciting to me. I feel like I put up
with all the bullshit of being in the film business
because I love being a storyteller.
Dawes: It’s been said that Hollywood at the
blockbuster level is boys making movies for boys.
But now and then something happens to break
the assumption about what will sell tickets.
Sanford: With
The Devil Wears Prada, they
thought it was a big fluke that it made so much
money. The first weekend it was 75 or 80 percent
women who went to it, and then the men caught
up with it.
Heckerling: When I did
Fast Times at Ridgemont
High, they said nobody cares about
teenagers. Then suddenly there are a billion
teenage movies. When I did
Look Who’s Talking,
it’s like, ‘Nobody cares about babies and families.’
Then a ton of those come out. Then with
Clueless they said, there’s no audience for teen
girls, it should be about teen boys. Then there’s
Legally Blonde and all that. They’re always
saying, ‘This is not what anybody wants.’
