Sundance champions ‘great’ female voices
More diversity
LONDON, June 3, (RTRS): Women must get off the casting couch and into the director’s chair if Hollywood is to move on from the #MeToo sexual harassment scandal, filmmakers have said at the British opening of the Sundance Film Festival.
Most films showcased at the British offshoot of the US festival are directed by women, in a selection that champions female voices at a time of deep industry disquiet.
But the big message at the opening event was all about jobs — more directors, more critics, more financiers must be female — if Hollywood is to emerge truly reformed.
“There is talent all around us and you can’t just look at a small sliver of the population to tell everyone’s story,” director Amy
Adrion told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Adrion, who directed a timely documentary about the dearth of female directors in Hollywood, said the #MeToo scandal had stoked discussion about equality but the number of women behind the camera was yet to increase.
Women directed only 8 percent of the top 100 grossing films in the United States in 2017, according to the California-based Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film.
Employing more women at the top would have a knock-on effect on the rest of the industry, said Adrion, whose “Half the Picture” documentary has its European premiere at the festival.
“When women are hired as directors, they tend to hire more women in key crew positions,” she said.
Crystal Moselle, director of “Skate Kitchen” — which tells the story of a female teenage skateboarding crew in New York — said more women should work as film critics, too.
Different
“We need more diversity … at a different level to make the decisions of who is going to see these films,” she said.
Stories like hers featuring teenage girls talking about tampons might not interest older men so reviewers need to come from a wider pool, she said.
Hollywood was rocked last year by allegations of sexual misconduct against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, in a scandal that has implicated other leading industry figures.
On Wednesday, Weinstein was indicted on charges of rape and a criminal sexual act in New York in the first case to emerge from a slew of sexual misconduct allegations against him. His legal team said he would plead not guilty. The Weinstein scandal has prompted women from all walks of life to share their experiences of sexual harassment and abuse in a global campaign under the hashtag #MeToo.
Jennifer Fox director of “The Tale”, a semi-autobiographical movie about child sexual abuse, had thought her story was “private and personal” then realized: “Here I am, admitting in my 40s, that I belong to a larger world in which bad things happen to women, a lot of women.”
Festival organizers said the #MeToo campaign had only amplified Sundance’s long-running support of women in film.
“We’ve been doing this for a long time, we have a legacy for showing many films by women and diverse voices,” said John Cooper, director of the Sundance Film Festival.
Kate Kinninmont, who heads Women in Film & Television UK, which groups women working in the creative media, said the sector was changing, even if female directors remained an “endangered species”.
“Ultimately, fundamental change will only happen when there are more women making the decisions at the top of the industry. But I’m hopeful... Finally, when we speak people are listening.”
Also:
LOS ANGELES: Entertainment One has taken UK rights to Mike Leigh’s “Peterloo” and has scheduled a Nov 2 release, Variety has confirmed.
Amazon Studios is handling US distribution on the period film. At Cinemacon in Las Vegas last month, Amazon’s head of marketing and distribution, Bob Berney, revealed that “Peterloo” would be making a play at the fall film festivals, with an eye on a domestic theatrical release in November. The UK scheduling would fit into that plan.
“Peterloo” tells the story of the infamous 1819 massacre at a peaceful pro-democracy rally at St Peter’s Field in Manchester, England, when many working-class people were injured and killed. Leigh has described the massacre as having a universal significance that is becoming “ever more relevant in our own turbulent times.”
The cast includes Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake, Leo Bill, Teresa Mahoney and Tim McInnerny. Leigh has been nominated for seven Oscars, including five for original screenplay and twice for best director, for 1996’s “Secrets & Lies” and 2004’s “Vera Drake.”
His most recent writing nomination came for 2010’s “Another Year.”
“Peterloo” marks his first film since 2014’s “Mr Turner,” a biopic of painter J.M.W. Turner that was also released in the UK by eOne. “Mr Turner” scored the veteran British filmmaker his biggest UK box office result, grossing £7 million ($11.2 million). His biggest US release was “Secrets & Lies,” which took $13.4 million through October Films.
The new film is produced by Georgina Love and executive produced by Gail Egan. It is co-financed by Amazon Studios, Film4, the BFI and Lipsync. Film4 developed the film, which was shot on location in England last summer.
It reunites Leigh with some of his regular collaborators, including cinematographer Dick Pope, editor Jon Gregory, production designer Suzie Davies, costume designer Jacqueline Durran, composer Gary Yershon and makeup and hair designer Christine Blundell.