WOMEN MAKE FILM
WOMEN MAKE FILM I Mark Cousins’ doc champions the work of cinematic giants
Mark Cousins shines a light on female filmmakers.
The working title of Mark Cousins’ epic journey into the world of female filmmakers was Eye-Opener, and the resulting 14-hour documentary certainly lives up to that name. Women Make Film took five years to complete and is a comprehensive exploration of the contributions women have made to cinema since the beginning. Contributions that have largely been overlooked in favour of male creative forces.
“Some of the greatest filmmakers were female, and they have been for a very long time,” Cousins says. “I’ve spent the best part of 20 years trying to inform myself; there was a lot I knew but I’m always fascinated by my own ignorance and I think my ignorance is my best friend.”
A prolific documentarian of film culture and history, Cousins has been aware of the underrepresentation of female filmmakers since the ’90s when he was director of the Edinburgh Film Festival and noticed, for one strand, there was only one woman on a list of 20 directors. It was a lightbulb moment.
“I just thought, ‘Okay, this is not on,’ so I started really asking questions,” he
recalls. “Every time I saw a list of films, I asked, ‘Where are the women?’ Every time I went to a country that I hadn’t been to, I’d ask, ‘Who are your great women directors?’”
He answers that question by showcasing the talent of over 200 filmmakers across 40 chapters. From Bulgaria’s Binka Zhelyazkova and China’s Wang Ping to Iran’s Samira Makhmalbaf and Ukraine’s Kira Muratova, Cousins focuses on the skill, creativity and innovation of these women rather than the politics that have marginalised their work.
“The film isn’t really about women, it’s about great cinema that happens to have been made by women,” he says.
“People talk about the female point of view, the female gaze, but I think that imprisons women. The cinema screen is androgynous and it’s beyond gender. I’m asking the practical questions.”
Cousins’ collaborators are mostly female too. Apart from his long-time editing partner Timo Langer, the crew was made up of female creatives, and Cousins forgoes his traditional narrating duties to give female filmmakers a voice instead. Jane Fonda was the first to sign on, followed by Tilda Swinton (who also agreed to executive produce), Sharmila Tagore, Thandie Newton, Kerry Fox, Adjoa Andoh and Debra Winger.
Now he hopes the documentary will inspire educators and audience members to change their preconceived notions about who the great filmmakers were and are. “We shouldn’t keep circling around the very familiar material,” Cousins says. “And the best way to convince people that there were great women filmmakers is to show their work with enthusiasm then it’s undeniable.” HF
ETA | 18 MAY / WOMEN MAKE FILM: A NEW ROAD MOVIE THROUGH CINEMA RELEASES ON BFI PLAYER AND ON BLU-RAY LATER THIS MONTH.