Page 8
News
Street Roots • Feb. 26-March 3, 2016
Street Roots • Feb. 26-March 3, 2016
News
Page 9
‘Twilight’ director advocates for women in film
Filmmaker Catherine
Hardwicke is the
director of “Twilight.”
Despite the success of
the franchise,
Hardwicke didn’t
receive the filmmaking
opportunities she had
expected. Hardwicke
will be the guest of
honor at the Portland
Oregon Women’s Film
Festival in March.
Catherine Hardwicke, guest at Portland film festival,
is concerned about gender disparity in Hollywood
BY SARAH HANSELL
that age.” You know, so let’s hire him to do
this $200 million movie arid support him.
But they didn’t look at a young African-
atherine Hardwicke doesn’t call her
first movie, “Thirteen,” a “job.” It was a American girl and say, “That really reminds
me of me at that age; let’s give her $100
labor of love between her and then-14-
million
” - even though she might have made a
year-old Nikki Reed, who wrote the script with
wonderful movie at Sundance too.
Hardwicke and starred in the film.
People are just used to supporting and
It was a labor of love built with “blood,
mentoring and hiring people that look like
sweat and tears,” she said. She pulled
them. But on another level, we’ve all got this
together the money and did everything she
unconscious gender bias built into our
could to get it off the ground. And get it off
systems. Even women too; even conscious
the ground she did.
women.
We have generations and generations
After its 2003 Sundance premiere, it won
of looking at a male as an authority figure, and
six awards and was nominated for almost a
not a woman.
dozen more.
The film business really lags behind
Now, 13 years and a $400 million movie
because
we have less criteria. It’s much more
deal later, Hardwicke still struggles to get the'
subjective. You can say, I want to hire the best
films she envisions off the ground.
person for the job. But the best person for the
Only 4 percent of the top-grossing films in
job
would be somebody who’s already directed
the 12 years leading up to 2014 were directed
three action movies, maybe, or three high-
by women, a University of Southern California
grossing films.
study found. The same study found that less
Well, we know that every single year, 96 or
than a third of speaking roles in more than
400 feature films went to women. What’s more 97 of the 100 top-grossing films in the U.S.
are directed by men. So every year there’s
is that these statistics have not changed
going to be 96 or 97 more men:have directed
significantly in the past 10 years, and some -
a big, high-grossing film.
such as percentages of female screenwriters -
have even regressed.
S.H.; You’ve said that you thought your
These issues have not only been highlighted
STAFF WRITER
B
"It still is easier,
obviously, for a
man to get that
money together
to make a low-
budget film
than it is for a
woman. It is still
easier for a man
to get an actor
to sign on to
that movie than
it is for a female
director. All the
way, the odds
are still stacked
against ns."
success from “Twilight” would carry you into
by media outlets, celebrities and scholarly
other good jobs, but that wasn’t the case. What
articles, but also through the American Civil
happened, and do you think it would’ve been
Liberties Union’s call for federal investigation
different if you were a man?
into gender bias in the film industry, which
was spurred by the testimony of director
C.H.: Oh yeah, I think we know by looking
Maria Giese.
at
statistics that it would’ve been different We
In Portland, the Portland Oregon Women’s
know that guys who direct a big blockbuster
Film Festival, or
or start a big franchise
POWFest, has been
like that direct a $400
elevating the voices and
WHO’S DIRECTING FILMS million movie, have
visions of female
traditionally gotten a
Of the 376 directors of feature films |
directors locally through
three-picture deal. Also
an annual festival of
released in 2013 and 2014:
somewhere, some kind
woman-directed films,
Women: 6.4 percent
of support. That didn’t
monthly viewings, and
happen for me.
Minorities: 12.5 percent
director workshops for
I’m sure if I’d done
teenage girls. This year
Caucasian males: 82.4 percent
things that were in my
the festival returns
kill zone, they call it, like
Caucasian females: 5.1 percent
March 3-6 with
another young adult,
Hardwicke as the guest
Minority males: 11.2 percent
romantic story, I
of honor. She will hold
probably pretty easily
Minority females: 1.3 percent
an interactive discussion
could’ve gotten a job - if
at the festival, as well as
Source: Directors Guild of Americas
I wanted to do that.
screen her films
Feature Film Diversity Report.
So it’s probably unfair
“Thirteen,” “Twilight”
December 2015
to
say that I didn’t get
and the 2015 “Miss You
any opportunities from
Already.”
it, but I definitely didn’t
get the opportunities
Sarah Hansell: Why do you think the gender
that I’d thought, all those stories that you
disparity is so severe in the film industry, even
hear. You know, so-and-so got a car, they got a
now in the 21st century?
cool office and they got a deal. They were
asked,
“What do you want to direct next?”
Catherine Hardwicke: I guess it is so
That
did
not happen.
ingrained. People want to hire their mini-me
C.H.: I do think we are limiting what kind of
stories are told. And when somebody does
break through these barriers and tells another
story and gets it seen at Sundance, we’ve seen
studies that show that those “women’s films”
don’t get as much distribution. They don’t
have as many marketing dollars behind them,
so they don’t do as well, either. It’s harder for
female directors to get to direct their next
films.
They’ve figured out very well how to market
to white teenage boys, but they haven’t
figured out how to market to a huge segment
of the population, which is women. There are
so many reasons for those problems. I mean,
Meryl Streep pointed out how Rotten
Tomatoes is skewed - 760 male critics on it
and 170 women. So if anybody says, what
movie are we going to see this weekend?
You’re going to go on Rotten Tomatoes and
see, oh, that didn’t get such a great review.
Because the male gaze maybe didn’t like it,
or the male gaze immediately slammed it as a
chick flick, or immediately didn’t like the
storyline, didn’t even give it a chance
sometimes. We have to work on every level.
or whatever. A lot has been said about the
new “Jurassic Park” and Steven Spielberg and
the kid that they hired to direct it — and “he
looked just like me at that age, he wore his
baseball cap and everything. He’s like me at
S.H.: Also, kind of a similar question, but
how do you think that these stories created by
and for overwhelmingly white men affect the
development of both young girls and young boys
S.H.: What do you think the impact of this
overwhelmingly male, particularly white male,
point of view has on both male and female
audiences?
CATHfellNE
HARDWICKE
Estela, a film dim ted by Joact nith Vargas, will be prest nted at POWfi st in Mart h. Esh la
finds a moment of peace, and balance in her life, between dementia and loneliness, while
sexuality and illness join two elderly people.
TOWiest to feature women's films
. After a five-year hiatus, the Portland Oregon Women’s Film Festival, or POWFest,
relaunched in 2008. Eight years later it is still going strong. This year, the festival is
March 3-6 at Hollywood Theatre. It will showcase films directed by women, education
panels and discussions with the mission to strengthen “the community of women in film,”
according to the festival’s website.
-'X-.- I Id
HMB
■ The festival lineup includes numerous shorts from directors across the world, a
showcase of films by the young women who have participated in POWFest’s workshops
for high-school-age girls, and screenings of three films by guest of honor, Catherine
Hardwicke, including “ Miss You Already ”
■ In addition to the annual festival, POWFest also runs seasonal POWGirls workshop
senes that teach high-school-age girls about film and media production, as well as
monthly screenings of woman-directed films at the Clinton Street Theater.
The festival begins at 7 p.m. March 3 with Abigail E. Disney's film “Armor of Light.”
The films follows an evangelical minister grappling with the question, “Can you be both
pro-life and pro-gun?” and his unlikely partnership with a woman who is pro-choice and
grieving the death of a son who was shot and killed while unarmed.
As part of the POWFcsL photographs by Ruth Harriet Louise, the first female
photographer active in Hollywood and in charge of the Metro-GoldywmMayer portrait
studio in the late 1920s, will be displayed March 1-7 at the Hollywood Theatre, Hotel
deLuxe and Alma Chocolate.
- Sarah Hansell
who are surrounded by this media?
C.H.: If you have cool images out there of
multidimensional women who have interesting
jobs and interesting lives, and actually have
lines of dialogue with other women, you show
these wonderful possibilities for people — it
just gives hope. It gives kids all over the world
a more realistic view, more exciting
opportunities.
Last night I was at an event called Stop
Cancer. They were honoring the movie I just
did, “Miss You Already,” because Toni
Colette’s character gets breast cancer in the
film. And all the scientists that were honored
at this event, they’re doing impressive,
amazing cancer research.
Almost all of them were young women. And
they were just vibrant; they were doing radical
research. And I was thinking, wow. This is so
cool. I wish girls out there, and boys, were
seeing these examples, of these brilliant
people working in a scientific field and doing
something amazing — very creative stuff.
Now do we see those characters very often?
Not really. We see a much more limited view
of what certain men think other men want to
see. So I think telling these great stories is
just going to expand people’s outlook on life,
and ideas, and possibilities for the future.
S.H.: The ACLU has also looked into this
huge disparity, taking testimony from people in
the business, and even called for a federal
investigation into the gender disparity in the film
industry. Do you support that?
C.H.: Yes, I did seven hours of testimony
myself.
I’ve been there two different session,
actually, with them. They are very diligent
about trying to understand our industry and
get to the bottom of it, because it’s not an
easy thing to sort out, as you can imagine.
They were saying to me, if you go to
McDonald’s, you could say this person had
three years’ restaurant experience, yet they
hired this other guy instead of her. Why did
they not hire her? She’s got more
experience? And that is a much more clear
cut system. Whereas our business is a lot
more complicated. So it was fascinating to
actually walk them through each job that I
got hired for, and how did I get that job.
Some jobs, of course my first movie
“Thirteen,” that wasn’t a job. Nobody hired
me for that. Nobody wanted to make that
movie about a 13-year-old girl. It was my
blood, sweat and tears. I wrote it with Nikki
and then just went out, did everything I could
to get the money, pull it together and make it
And that’s how a lot of films are made. It’s
riot like you’re hired for it So that’s a little bit
Unique. But still, even in those cases, in an
Indie film like that, it still is easier, obviously,
for a man to get that money together to
make a low-budget film than it is for a
woman. It is still easier for a man to get
an actor to sign on to that movie than it
is for a female director. All the way, the
odds are still stacked against us.
S.H.: Are there any strategies or ideas you
think could be successful in combating this?
C.H.: Well, we’re trying to talk about it from
many different angles. I don’t know if you saw
the Funny Or Die video I did, and some other
female directors did. I think it’s good to take it
from a humorous point of view and get guys,
male executives, to laugh at themselves too.
But it’s a way of shining a light on the
problem through humor. I think that’s great
I think what the ACLU is doing is great.
We have laws against discrimination. So get a
big stick out and get people to do the right
thing.
But the ideal thing is to do it by inspiring
people and getting people excited. And I think
that’s what’s kind of cool. There have been a
lot of studies that show millennials actually
care about the values of the institutions they
support and the businesses they support
They want to buy food that is fair trade and
organic.
I think if we can inspire people, we’re
talking about a gender parity seal that says,
this company actually does support gender
parity - not just talk about it; they did it. For
every movie they make with a man, they make
one with a female.
I think the more people get inspired and
say, hey, this is a new world, there’s diversity
in the world, there’s other stories, it’s going
to open up more markets; So it’s not just only
whatever comic book movies, or only movies
where somebody kidnaps your daughter and
you have to go looking for her and kill all the
bad guys. I mean, we’ve seen those movies;
that’s fine. “Taken 6,” or whatever. But let’s
see other stories, you know.
S.H.: Having experienced a lot of success with
“Thirteen” and “Twilight” and then also having
a lot of your ideas and attempts to make movies
denied, what would your advice be to women
who are trying to get started in this business?
C.H.: Well, I think the same old advice that
we always have to say. Obviously, get your skill
set to as high a level as you can. Just be as
good as you can at your job. Work as hard as
you can so that you’re bulletproof on one level,
that you understand story, you understand
cinematography, you understand costumes,
you know.
Take all the classes. Go volunteer on other
people’s films. Get as much experience as you
can. Put the effort in; do your homework; try
to understand the business. Everything so
that you’re as good as you can be. So that if
you get that shot to walk in the door and
impress somebody at a company, that you
impress the hell out of them.
When I came here, there wasn’t so much
talk about mentors, but what I did was
volunteered all the time. I would be interning
at this and doing that for free. That way I
wasn’t just sitting around hoping someone
would hire me. I would be working all the time
on shows or videos, whatever, trying to work
with the best people I could.
I think it’s the same advice, of course, if
you’re a writer-director. Of course you want to
look for the most interesting material, and
work hard on it and develop it and come up
with a great idea and a great script Network
with other people; film festivals, meet actors,
meet directors. I think it’s the same stuff.
You’ve just got to work super hard.