Women & Directors

Why are women so rare as directors?

• Film is such a male dominated industry. There's a lot of "who you know" in terms of how you get promoted.
  
• Men at every level, which makes it really hard for women to get their feet in the door.


• it is hard to feel able to express yourself and to feel that you will be heard in a male dominated environment.


• Female directors just don't seem to send their projects in.


• Females are more likely to have children, making it hard to get back into the directing industry after having a child.


• There are gender issues about control and authority, just like in the armed forces.

3 ways we can improve this:

1. By having workshops and events where women directors can talk about there experiences and more within the directing industry, this is so they can share this with other women, inspiring them to also break into the directing industry.
   
2. By celebrating the women directors more, this will allow for acknowledgement of female directors to be far greater than it is now.
   
3. women directors can do visits to schools that study media and do a workshop in which the students can direct films with the help of the female directors, increasing the confidence in females wanting to come into the directing industry.

5 female producers:

1. Gurinder Chadha - born in Kenya, and grew up in Southall, London, England. She began her career as a news reporter with BBC Radio, directed several award winning documentaries for the BBC, and began an alliance with the British Film Institute (BFI) and Channel Four. In 1990, Chadha set up her own production company: Umbi Films. her works include: Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging (2008)
   Paris, je t'aime (2006) segment "Quais de Seine"
   The Mistress of Spices (2005)
   Bride and Prejudice (2004)
   Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
   What's Cooking? (2000)
   Rich Deceiver (1995), BBC two-part drama
   A Nice Arrangement (1994)
   What Do You Call an Indian Woman Who's Funny? (1994)
   Bhaji on the Beach (1993)
   Acting Our Age (1992)
   Pain, Passion and Profit (1992) (V)
   I'm British But... (1990) (TV)





2. Lynne Ramsey - 5 December 1969, Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK, Graduated from the UK's National Film and Television School in 1995. Trained as a camera operator. Her works include the following: The Lovely Bones (2004); We Need To Talk About Kevin (2004); Black And White Town (2005)




3. Amma Asante - was an actress in the 1980's and 1990's, starred in many things, even the programme grange hill. She attended full time stage school in London, where she trained as a student in dance and drama. She directed films such as A Way Of Life (2004) and the pre production of Where the Hands Touch (2010)



4. Jane Arden - Jane Arden (née Norah Patricia Morris) was born in Twnpath Road, Pontypool, Wales on 29th October 1927. She studied acting at RADA and began her career in the late 1940s on television and in the cinema. Arden appeared in a TV production of Romeo and Juliet in the late 1940s, and then went onto star in two British crime movies, Her works include: 1940s Romeo and Juliet (BBC TV) (actor)
   1947 Black Memory (1947 film) (actor)
   1948 A Gunman Has Escaped (1948 film) (actor)
   1954 Conscience and Desire, and Dear Liz (theatre) (playwright)
   1955 Curtains For Harry (ITV) (co-writer)
   1958 The Party (theatre) (playwright)
   1959 The Thug (ITV) (writer)
   1963 Exit 19 (commentator)
   1964 Huis Clos (BBC TV) (actor)
   1965 The Logic Game (BBC TV) (writer, actor)
   1965 The Interior Decorator (actor)
   1966 Dali in New York (BBC TV) (interviewer)
   1968 Separation (film) (writer, actor)
   1968 The Illusionist (writer)
   1969 Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven (theatre) (writer)
   1970 The Holocaust (theatre) (writer)
   1971 A New Communion for Freaks, Prophets and Witches (theatre) (playwright)
   1972 The Other Side of the Underneath (1972 film) (writer, uncredited actor, director)
   1974 Vibration (film) (writer, co-director)
   1978 You Don't Know What You Want, Do You? (poetry) (writer)
   1979 Anti-Clock (film) (writer, composer, co-director)



5. Sharon Maguire - (born 1960) made her name as a film director when she landed the job of directing Bridget Jones's Diary. Sharon Maguire studied English and Drama at the University of Wales Aberystwyth from 1979-1983 and graduated with a 2:2 degree before going on to do the PGCE teaching qualification. After leaving Aberystwyth, she did a year's postgraduate course in journalism at City University in London and worked as a researcher then a director on The Media Show. In 1991, she got a job with the BBC as producer/director of The Late Show. The Thing is... Babies (1991)
   The Thing is... Hotels (1991)
   The Godfather (1993)
   In at Number Ten (1994)
   Yo Picasso (1994)
   Rumer Godden: An Indian Affair (1995)
   H.G. Wells: Bromley Boy (1996)
   H.G. Wells: The Panther and the Jaguar (1996)
   Dame Henrietta's Dream (1997)
   Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
   Incendiary (2008)