Posts Marked Women

  • ORGASM INC.

    June 2nd, 2010

    On Women’s Wednesday I talk about women in media.

    Maria Diaz over at Women & Hollywood recently posted a great article on a documentary that I had never heard of, and wondered why.

    The film is called Orgasm, Inc. and here’s the synopsis:

    Orgasm Inc.

    In the shocking and hilarious documentary ORGASM INC., filmmaker Liz Canner takes a job editing erotic videos for a drug trial for a pharmaceutical company. Her employer is developing what they hope will be the first Viagra drug for women that wins FDA approval to treat a new disease: Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). Liz gains permission to film the company for her own documentary. Initially, she plans to create a movie about science and pleasure but she soon begins to suspect that her employer, along with a cadre of other medical companies, might be trying to take advantage of women (and potentially endanger their health) in pursuit of billion dollar profits.

    ORGASM INC. is a powerful look inside the medical industry and the marketing campaigns that are literally and figuratively reshaping our everyday lives around health, illness, desire — and that ultimate moment: orgasm.

    According to Diaz, the filmmaker made it clear that “she is not anti-drugs, just anti-drugs that don’t work and are dangerous.” It is so much easier to take a pill or even to undergo vaginal plastic surgery than to honestly look at the roots of health or mental issues. It is refreshing to see a filmmaker take on this topic and I hope to see the film soon.

    If this is a topic that interests you, the trailer is below and the fantastic website is here. There are also a number of Action Groups where you can get involved if you’re interested in challenging the pharmaceutical industry and improving women’s health.

    If you’ve seen the film I would love to hear what you thought of it. And if you’d like to see the film and live in the Chicago area, let’s set up a screening.

    June 2nd,2010 Blogging, Video, Women's Wednesdays | Sections: , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

  • Cannes we agree to disagree?

    May 12th, 2010

    On Women’s Wednesday I talk about women in media.

    Last week I gave you details on how to sign a petition so that women could get a fair shot for the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival, which started today.  Well, the petition is now up to 550 and growing. Please show your support of female filmmakers like me and put your name on that petition.

    Now,  you might be thinking: “Shouldn’t be all be judged equally? Why should a woman get preferential treatment just because of her gender?”  If so, I’d like to point you in the direction of a recent debate over at the filmmaking community Shooting People. It started with a post from filmmaker Dennis Goldberg, regarding the request to sign the petition:

    WOW! I am stunned! Now, the choice of a director’s award is to be made based upon gender equality, not ability. Or, should we, even more appropriately, have it based upon gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, political, racial or other ethnicities as opposed to just plain good old fashioned in front of or behind the camera abilities?

    Has society degenerated to such a level that the best is judged not on merit but on socially acceptable profiling?

    Enough teary eyed whining! Get back to the art and improve so as to win next year on talent not on some false premise of “I’m as good as you because I am different”.

    “L’art pour l’art” PERIOD!

    The very next day he received several replies. These are my two (unedited) favorites:

    > Enough teary eyed whining!

    REALLY????

    Ok, first wrap your head around the fact that it took almost a century for a woman to win an Oscar as a director. suck on that for a while.

    Then, hotshot, strap on some boobs, shave, and live as a woman professional for a while. Try it out. Start sending your work out as Daniella and see what happens. Show up on set in the normal Gap style uniform but learn to politely ignore hooting, comments and requests to get someone a coffee, hun.

    Next, hack off 30% (at least) of your paycheck, and pass it to a guy on the crew with at least half your experience. Then, as you get passed over for key positions, accept a job in “typical” female production roles – production manager/coordinator, producer’s assistant, craft service, etc.

    Oh, don’t forget to make sure not to look too butch, so you don’t start getting called a “dyke” or something if you actually do physical work like moving sets, etc. And of course, when you present your work, expect it to be considered second tier, and not all that bankable, even though women make up 51% of the population and movie goers. Women’s stories just aren’t that interesting. Expect a budget a fraction of the size you’d really want to work with. Expect super low expectations from the studio and limited marketing, centering around “women’s holidays”.

    Please, try all the above, at a minimum, before stating crap like your knee jerk email that you shared with us all. Cause until you walk a block, not even a mile, in my shoes, shut the hell up. You have no idea what its like to be a woman creative struggling against a boys club where until recently you had to put up with bullshit to get along. Those days are over, Dennis, so nut up, and deal.

    We are no long asking, we are DEMANDING inclusion. If that’s “unfair” and “whiny”, to damn bad. Lead, follow or get out of the way, women are not having it any more. This isn’t whining, Dennis, this is HOWLING, so you’d better move aside, lest you get blasted for stupidity and naivety.

    Regards,
    Melissa Ulto

    AND…

    I agree that all films should be judged on their merit as films. However, the struggle that minorities have faced in this industry should not be taken lightly. Minorities have more opportunity now than they ever have, but it has been an extremely difficult road, and the industry still displays a great deal of hegemony in what kinds of films are considered “good”, and who gets the opportunity to make those films in the first place. I’m not only speaking about the traditional studio system, it’s in the independent world as well.

    I have been in the industry for 20 years, and have taught production, writing and theory at the college level for 10. I have seen enormous changes from the times when I was the only female in my film classes at NYU, to seeing women outnumber men in some of the classes I teach. But, it’s easy to recall having conversations with male filmmakers who asked, “How come women don’t make good films?”, and actually having to explain that because they liked “guy films”, that didn’t automatically mean that “guy films” were better than “chick films”. I’m using the quotes quite intentionally, as I feel that women should not be expected to only make “chick films”. I certainly don’t but I also don’t want anyone to make a judgement against me because my films are not testosterone-filled or even in more traditional male-dominated genres.

    It was nice that a woman finally won Best Director (although I had always planned on doing that first!), but it did not go unnoticed that it was for The Hurt Locker, and it was a woman known for directing more traditional “guy films” – Point Break, K19: The Widowmaker, etc. This is also fine – fun films, and power to her for playing the game wisely, particularly if she really enjoys these kinds of films. Lord knows, I’m a typical Star Wars baby who thinks she knows more about the original trilogy than anyone, has greatly enjoyed besting others (usually guys) in trivia, and would rather watch them than The Devil Wears Prada, any day.

    My overall point is that one has to be cautious about assuming that a woman having concern about not seeing women represented at the largest festival in the world, is “teary eyed whining”. I’d bet most male filmmakers can’t fathom going on a job interview to be a Director’s Assistant and being asked if they were single, how well they could cook (even though that was not in the job description), how close they live and if they live alone, and if they plan on losing a few pounds. Or how about a job interview at Yankee Stadium to do the Diamond Vision, a job requiring video skills that have nothing to do with genitals, and watching the interviewer’s face deflate immediately at seeing the next candidate was a woman, before any questions were asked, or even before “hello” was said? These two experiences (among others) were in my past, although not all that long ago, and I hope that my female students will never have to experience things like this. We’ve come a long way, and I doubt they will, but I’ll never forget what I experienced in this biz, in my younger years.

    All minority filmmakers have had to be pioneers, and while I certainly agree that films should be judged on the merits of the film, the quality of the storytelling and the art, please understand if those of us who have been shunned, passed over, endured sexism, racism, etc., get a little concerned when we see continued homogeneity in the industry. If you truly are “stunned”, as you say, to see this kind of concern, than it means that our sacrifices were not in vain, and the crap that we endured while trying to make the industry fairer to all minorities, was worth it. Because, then, you exist in a world of filmmaking where there is no sexism or marginalization of any kind. I hope we’re there – I’d really like it to be so, but I won’t fault my fellow female filmmaker for wanting some guarantees, or at the very least, checking a little more closely.

    I’d be very interested to find out what films were submitted that didn’t make it in, compared to the ones that did.

    Heidi C. Bordogna
    Producer/Director/Writer
    Asst. Professor of Communication
    University of Louisiana, Lafayette

    And to answer Heidi’s qustion, this post from Macine Pugh gave a few examples of probable contenders for Cannes:

    I copied this from the film festival website a couple of minutes ago:

    “And it’s a good year for British women directors, with documentaries by Sophie
    Fiennes and Lucy Walker, and a fiction debut, All Good Children, by hotly tipped
    newcomer Alicia Duffy. “

    I hope to have news of the Cannes protest for next week.  Until then, what are your thoughts? Do you think Cannes is a boy’s club? Or are there simply far less female filmmakers that submitted? What do you think the protesters at the Cannes Film Festival should do?

    May 12th,2010 Blogging, Women's Wednesdays | Sections: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

  • Sign the You Cannes Not Be Serious Petition, demand women get a fair shot!

    May 5th, 2010

    On Women’s Wednesday I talk about women in media.

    Last week I wrote about the distressing information that not one single female filmmaker has been accepted into the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival.  There were rumors of a petition and those rumors are true.

    FilmDirecting4Women (FD4W) “was created to make a real and positive contribution to the worldwide movement which demands that 50% of all films are directed by women.”  So, they are the perfect organization to start the You Cannes Not Be Serious Petition to protest the 0% of female directors in the main competition.

    The Petition reads:

    To the organizers of the Cannes Film Festival
    As people who care about and are interested in films we must protest the lack of female directors in competition for the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.  Women make up over half of cinema audiences and we demand a fairer representation of female directors in the main competition.
    We are raising our voices in protest in hopes that in the future this will never happen again.
    We are watching.  We will not be silent.

    The organizer of FD4W, Ruth Torjussen, thinks it is a preposterous idea that not one woman made a great film last year and will be launching a production fund which will only back short films directed by women to show support of female filmmakers. They are also launching a film festival in London this September so if you’re a female filmmaker check it out.

    In the meantime, you can join their Facebook Group to keep up to date with the petition and protest that will take place in Cannes.  If you want to partake in the protest you can email her directly at ruth@filmdirecting4women.com.

    Please take a moment to support this important cause.  Female filmmakers like me aren’t getting a fair shot because of the exclusive boy’s club that is the Cannes Film Festival.  And tell them I sent ya.

    You can sign the petition here.

    May 5th,2010 Blogging, Women's Wednesdays | Sections: , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

  • ALMT-WW: Wordplay, Watercooler, Women, World, or What?

    March 10th, 2010

    On ALMT-Wordplay Wednesday I like to monkey around.

    We’re undergoing some major online renovations over here at ALMT and I’d love to get your feedback with a possible new direction for the blog. As you know, I love games and puzzles. That’s the idea behind Wordplay Wednesdays. But recently I got a couple of ideas that perhaps could be more interesting to you guys. And if you have other suggestions, I’m all ears.

    Options are below:

    March 10th,2010 Blogging, Poll, Wordplay Wednesdays | Sections: , , , | 2 Comments