It’s called the 'celluloid ceiling.'
While women are represented in many facets of the film, TV and broadcasting industry, there are some above and below the line positions where females are noticeably absent.
One of the most disconcerting is the disproportionately low number of female directors in comparison to men, particularly since this is one of the key creative and decision-making positions on set and among the highest paid.
Sure, Canada has its share of internationally recognized directors, such as Deepa Mehta (Water), Sarah Polley (Away from Her), Anne Wheeler (Better than Chocolate) and Kari Skogland (50 Dead Men Walking), to name a few. But statistics paint a very unpretty picture of the overall representation of women as directors.
A national profile in 2004 of employment in Canadian screen-based media found that women represent under 10% of directors belonging to the Directors Guild of Canada.
According to a study by the B.C. Institute of Film Professionals, of the 27 independent features made in B.C. between 2002 and 2006, only 11% were directed by women. In Quebec, a study by Female Directors for Equity found that women direct 14% of Quebec features.
Here’s some more startling stats: Women in Film & Television Vancouver (WIFTV) tallied the number of films directed by men versus women at Canadian film festivals in 2008. They found that female directors represented just 19% of films at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Whistler Film Festival; 23% at the Vancouver International Film Festival; 24% at the Montreal World Film Festival; and 26% of the films at the Atlantic Film Festival.
"The statistics are appalling given the number of women in the business overall," says Sadia Zaman, Executive Director at Women in Film & Television-Toronto (WIFT-T).
Zaman has dealt with this problem first-hand.
WIFT-T and the Directors Guild of Canada - Ontario run a mentorship program for emerging female directors and Zaman says she is running out of established female directors to serve as mentors.
"We have already used just about every female director out there," she says. "The pool isn’t very big, so that is very telling."
The problem isn’t just in Canada.
A U.S. study conducted by a San Diego State University professor found that of the top grossing films of 2007, only 6% were directed by women.
A Directors Guild of America survey indicated that on the top 40 prime time drama and comedy series in the 03/04 season, Caucasian males directed 85% of the episodes, while women directed 7%. Of the series that had the worst record for hiring women were Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends, JAG and CSI.
Why can't women break through the lens?
So what's the problem?
Why is this 'reel' gender gap occurring?
The general consensus is that there are a number of issues at play, which together are creating the perfect storm of roadblocks impeding female directors.
Among the problems:
- Subtle gender bias against women in power positions
- Fewer networking opportunities
- The fact that women tend to gravitate towards more female stories (dramas and romantic comedies) whereas funders and distributors want more marketable genre films;
- Less access to film and TV funding.
Establishing a track record - getting the chance to direct - is a huge obstacle for first-time directors, whether male or female. But women seem to have the toughest time jump-starting their careers.
Numerous studies have found that women film professionals have extensive education - in fact in many cases they are more educated than men. There are also a large number of Canadian women in the industry that say they want to direct. So why aren’t they being given a shot?
Some suggest there may be a subtle bias working against women. It isn’t a concerted plot by men to keep women out of the director’s chair, but a form of discrimination that occurs in unspoken ways as a result of the way both sexes view women.
"One of the biggest barriers is a systemic under-valuing of women and their abilities by decision-makers and sometimes by women themselves," explains Carol Whiteman, President & CEO, Creative Women Workshops Association and Producer of The Women In the Director's Chair Workshop. "Generally speaking statistics show that the higher the level of authority and monetary recompense, the less you see women in these positions."
Many people also feel that directing is a boys’ club and women don’t have the same access to this inner circle. And these relationships are often required to land directing gigs.
"Networking is stronger among men and it is tougher for women to break into these established networks," says Zaman.
Rita Shelton Deverell, a board member with Creative Women Workshops, offers up another explanation: “There are not enough mentors, in this case men, who are committed to advancing the careers of individual talented women,” she says.
Interviews conducted with women in the film and TV industry indicate that although they work outside the home, females also shoulder most of the domestic responsibilities of their household. Establishing a track record as a director involves a lot of long hours and travel, and the demands of balancing work and home, may impede their path to success.
Alison Reid, who has spent the last 27 years in the Toronto film industry as a stunt performer and stunt co-ordinator, recently directed her first feature length comedy The Baby Formula, which has screened at festivals around the world and been released in Toronto.
Reid agrees that establishing a directing career takes a lot of time, effort and money.
"You have to have other jobs to pay the bills, you may have kids and have to deal with daycare, and you only have so much energy as a human being, so I wonder if women have less time to devote to their directing career," she muses. "I think a lot of women want to direct, but fewer women get themselves into a position where they are hirable as directors. It takes a lot of work to develop a track record – it can be all consuming."
Show me the money
Ultimately, making a film or TV project comes down to cash. And studies are showing that women are not accessing funding at the same level as men do.
"Women are getting only 20% to 25% of the money from funding organizations in Canada," says Roslyn Muir, who heads up WIFTV. "If there are 10 women and 10 men with a project, women have two thirds of the money men have for their film."
She notes that in every genre from features to docs, women directors work on projects with the lowest budgets and secure the smallest amount of financing. For example, in the April 2008 Telefilm Feature Film Fund announcement women directors represented just 27% of the movies financed. Projects led by women directors proportionally secured $4.4 million as compared to $11.84 million for male directors.
Carole Ducharme, a Vancouver-based director and graduate of the NSI Features First program and Women in the Director’s Chair, has experienced this directly. She is working on a feature The Women of My Life, which was a finalist at the Moondance International Script Competition and invited to the French Production Forum in Namur, Belgium. She is co-producing with Forum Films in Montreal.
Ducharme pointed out in an email that they have applied twice for production financing from SODEC and Telefilm in Montreal and have been turned down both times, for reasons she has a hard time understanding.
She also noted that when she applied for funding, out of 39 projects submitted to Sodec, only three had a woman director attached. Out of 43 projects submitted to Telefilm Montreal, only one project had a woman director: her film.
Muir says that in her discussions with funding bodies, she often hears the same thing: that they receive fewer projects from women directors and that female producers tend to work more often with male directors.
Funders, for their part, indicate that their process is gender-blind and that the decision-makers choosing projects are often women.
So why aren’t more projects with women attached as directors applying for funding?
It’s a vicious circle – you need a directing track record to have a good shot at receiving funding, and women have more difficulty getting experience. Muir also questions whether producers tend to feel that women as directors are a funding risk?
Another problem could be related to the types of stories women directors are more likely to tell.
Female filmmakers in many cases gravitate towards dramas and romantic comedies, Muir says, and less towards action, adventure, horror and science fiction.
"Distributors tend to want these genre films because they skew to a male 16 to 24 audience which is what theatres are looking for," she explains. "Women make less of these kind of films. You can’t trigger funding without a distributor so if they won’t take a risk on a female story directed by a woman, there's another roadblock."
How do we get more women in the director's chair?
Currently there are several training programs attempting to bridge the directing gender gap.
For example, the WIFT-T/DGC Ontario Emerging Television Director Award gives an emerging Canadian female director a two-month mentorship with an established TV director and intensive industry coaching with a leading business representative.
The Women in the Director’s Chair Workshop, presented in partnership with The Banff Centre and ACTRA, gives mid-career women directors hands-on experience testing original material with professional mentors and peers and ongoing support and networking opportunities.
Whiteman says that since 1997 over 100 Canadian women screen directors have gone through the WIDC Program and about 50% have been able to advance their career since then.
Female-focused film festivals, such as WIFTV’s Women in Film Festival and Toronto’s Female Eye Festival, offer critical showcasing opportunities, giving women directors access to audiences, buyers and media.
But many say that while education, networking and celebrating women filmmakers is important, this alone isn’t enough -- a more concerted lobby effort is required.
Both Muir and Whiteman want Telefilm, the Canadian Television Fund, and other government-supported financing agencies to monitor and report on gender in their funding decisions so an accurate picture of female representation can be put on the government record.
Quotas are often a bad word but both women suggest that this may be the only way to balance out the gender discrepancy.
One idea is that the federal and provincial tax credits offer bonuses to reward companies for hiring women in above and below the line positions - just like there is an extra incentive for shooting outside the city or for training up a crew member.
"Government needs to recognize women’s minority status in specific areas of the industry," says Whiteman. "At the same time, industry needs to support initiatives that advance and promote the skills, careers and projects of women directors, and decision-makers need to recognize the fresh perspective that the women’s eye view from the director’s chair brings to the telling of fiction stories. They need to recognize that women directors can deliver the highest quality results when given the same resources and opportunities as their male counterparts."
Muir also suggests a special fund be set up to help finance projects by first-time female directors.
"But before any of this can happen we need the industry to collectively recognize that there is a problem," she says.
The lack of female directors is a whispered conversation on set and at cocktail parties, but no one is shouting out the message.
"Organizations across the country have to unite and be more vocal," says Muir. "This needs to be a national effort. We have to let our voices be heard."
Let us know if you have any further food for thought as to why women are under-represented as directors.
What are some of the potential ways to fix the problem?
Do you think tax incentives or a quota system is the answer? Or is there a better solution?
And thanks to NSI alumna Carole Ducharme from Vancouver who suggested this column topic.
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