Tag: women in film

Ocean’s 8: Will it be at least kind of ok?

As we hear more about Ocean’s 8, this fascinating post on heists might be of interest to  a few of you: http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2017/10/12/one-last-big-job-how-heist-movies-tell-their-stories/ What is a heist film? Bordwell quotes Westlake: Donald Westlake proposed a concise characterization: “We follow the crooks before, during, and after a crime, usually a robbery.” This indicates two things. First, the … Continue reading “Ocean’s 8: Will it be at least kind of ok?”

As we hear more about Ocean’s 8, this fascinating post on heists might be of interest to  a few of you: http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2017/10/12/one-last-big-job-how-heist-movies-tell-their-stories/

What is a heist film? Bordwell quotes Westlake:

Donald Westlake proposed a concise characterization: “We follow the crooks before, during, and after a crime, usually a robbery.” This indicates two things. First, the plot is structured around the big caper, though there might be lesser crimes enabling it, such as stealing weapons. Second, the viewpoint is organized around the criminals, not the detectives who might pursue them, as in a police procedural. By these criteria, High Sierra (1941), although allied to the bandit tradition, fits because most of the film concerns a single robbery, its preparations and aftermath.

He mentions quite a few movies we own in our collection…too many to list! But, to get you started, we do have the original Ocean’s Eleven: HU DVD 10483.

Even reviews of media for women are more hostile

Gender-targeted abuse and harassment have long made comment sections on the internet borderline unreadable, but those same nasty attitudes have been poisoning the digital well for years in subtler ways. As a recent exposé from FiveThirtyEight shows, online reviews for television shows geared towards women have been artificially lowered by axe-grinding men. By analyzing a … Continue reading “Even reviews of media for women are more hostile”

Gender-targeted abuse and harassment have long made comment sections on the internet borderline unreadable, but those same nasty attitudes have been poisoning the digital well for years in subtler ways. As a recent exposé from FiveThirtyEight shows, online reviews for television shows geared towards women have been artificially lowered by axe-grinding men.

By analyzing a trove of IMDb data, Walt Hickey discovered that among shows more often rated and watched by women, large shares of reviews by men have been extremely low. This has disproportionately tanked their scores: the average 1-to-10 rating for the top 100 shows aimed towards women trails the average for shows aimed towards men by almost a full point. For shows like America’s Next Top Model – which we can attest has a health fanbase across gender – men rated the show almost three points lower than women did. But this is an issue with the aggregate, not the quality of individual shows.

It would be easy to blame this on loud sexists, but we should be blaming the way gender and media are talked about. Those men giving Tyra Banks a 1 have probably been subtly, tacitly conditioned their whole lives to look down on things made for women as inherently inferior or less engaging. So, you know, just factor in decades of systemic sexism when looking at IMDb scores.

Fandor spotlights twenty acclaimed films by women

Fandor has established itself as the premier digital film service for cinema buffs: in addition to their streaming library, they run Keyframe, a daily film essay and video blog. If you haven’t followed them already and like film, you probably should. For one of their videos (embedded above), Keyframe polled fifty film critics about their … Continue reading “Fandor spotlights twenty acclaimed films by women”

Fandor has established itself as the premier digital film service for cinema buffs: in addition to their streaming library, they run Keyframe, a daily film essay and video blog. If you haven’t followed them already and like film, you probably should. For one of their videos (embedded above), Keyframe polled fifty film critics about their favorite works directed by women and created a montage of the top twenty results.

As with the cinematographer interviews, the question is whether it’s productive to view films primarily through the lens of the filmmaker’s gender. In short, it is. As the video’s creator Scout Tafoya says, women still face an uphill battle in terms of criticism, funding, and most troublingly acknowledgment for their work. “Unless we make noise,” Tafoya adds, “we’ll allow it to continue.”

Keyframe did their part, so we’re sharing it. Take at look at the striking imagery from twenty films by women. (Meshes of the Afternoon is unlike anything we’ve seen in a while.)

What’s it like to be a woman in cinematography?

via Variety Much has been made about the unfortunately small pool of women directing in Hollywood and lack of the opportunities they are given. Things are even more dire for women in cinematography. According to Vulture, only 2% of cinematographers for major films are women, and none have ever been nominated for an Oscar in … Continue reading “What’s it like to be a woman in cinematography?”

via Variety

Much has been made about the unfortunately small pool of women directing in Hollywood and lack of the opportunities they are given. Things are even more dire for women in cinematography. According to Vulture, only 2% of cinematographers for major films are women, and none have ever been nominated for an Oscar in the entire 88 years of the Academy Awards.

To get a better sense of the state of the field, Vulture‘s Kevin Lincoln sat down with Natasha Braier, Maryse Alberti, and Rachel Morrison, three cinematographers of critically acclaimed films, and asked them about their experience in a male-dominated field. They dive into the difference in how they’re treated on-set by colleagues and especially how societal expectations about mothers and families restricts their work opportunities (DPs commitments for big films can last for months).

Morrison suggests that she’d rather be known for her work than for who she is – but also that the spotlight on women in cinematography is necessary as the field shifts. We hope we’ll get there too.

Who run the world? Ghostbusters. It’s Women in Film Week on the blog

Haters be warned: the new Ghostbusters movie comes out this Friday, and we are extremely excited. It looks like a whole load of fun, and we’re glad to see a big-budgeted action comedy in theaters. But it’s impossible to talk about Ghostbusters in a vacuum, because the discussion around the movie has been dominated by … Continue reading “Who run the world? Ghostbusters. It’s Women in Film Week on the blog”

Haters be warned: the new Ghostbusters movie comes out this Friday, and we are extremely excited. It looks like a whole load of fun, and we’re glad to see a big-budgeted action comedy in theaters.

But it’s impossible to talk about Ghostbusters in a vacuum, because the discussion around the movie has been dominated by anger over the casting of women in the movie’s central roles. Whether in coded language about the sanctity of childhood memories or just outright sexism, the uproar over funny women being Ghostbusters is a sad reminder that film and pop culture are still often hostile towards women.

So this week, we’re featuring articles and stories about the experiences of women in film. Bustin’ preconceptions about the state of gender equity in the film business makes us feel good.