Woman with a movie camera: The dearth of women filmmakers in contemporary Hollywood

摘要

This study explores the dearth of women filmmakers in contemporary Hollywood. Women account for less than 13% of professional filmmakers---22% of producers, 18% of editors, 11% of writers, 7% of directors, and just 5% of cinematographers---working on the top grossing 250 films of each year; however, approximately half of the students currently enrolled in the top film programs in the U.S. are women. This study explores these discrepant numbers. Nineteen filmmakers were interviewed for this project, all of whom had a link to film school: some are currently teaching at a film school, others had attended film school in the past, and a few were currently attending film school. Eleven of the thirteen informants interviewed ended up in the dissertational film. They were interviewed at length, on camera, and I compiled the interviews into an hour-long film interspersed with supporting b-roll in the form of statistics, media articles, original animation, and movie clips from top grossing films created by women---all of this in order to illustrate/highlight key points made throughout the piece. This film examines some of the vernacular and industry-related discourse that attempts to explain the under-representation of women in Hollywood film. Some of the popular ideas behind why there are so few women behind the camera include the claims that women (i) don't make movies that make money, (ii) have less interest in making movies than men do, and (iii) are comparatively poor leaders. Leadership theory was the predominant research field that supported this study and its examination of folk theories, myths and stereotypes about female underachievement in film.