Changing the story
‘I think the more women telling stories and more different kinds of people telling stories (will lead to) definitely seeing more employment, I hope, for older women,’ says Andrea Dorfman, director of Spinster (scene from movie pictured).
When director Andrea Dorfman and screenwriter Jennifer Deyell put the word out for a late thirtysomething female actor to star in their new film Spinster, it was clear they as filmmakers were in a good position — but sadly the film business itself still had a long way to go.
“We connected with a casting agent in L.A. and sure enough, there were a lot of people available,” Dorfman said over the phone recently from Halifax.
That deep pool of available female talent comes as no surprise, as it is well-documented that over-30 means over the Hollywood hill.
“I wasn’t surprised at all,” the Halifax-based director said before referencing a hilarious skit from the TV show Inside Amy Schumer.
In the skit titled Last F---able Day, Tina Fey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Patricia Arquette are seated at a fully-stocked dining table in a clearing in the woods. While out walking, Schumer comes across them and joins them at the table. The raise their glasses in a toast and Schumer asks if it is someone’s birthday? Nope, it’s not.
“It’s kind of the opposite. We’re celebrating Julia’s last f---able day,” says Arquette.
Schumer asks what that means.
“In every actress’s life the media decides when you finally reach the point when you are not believably f---able anymore,” says Dreyfus.
The skit was a big hit and a big knowing wink to the stark reality of female ageism in the entertainment business.
“It’s in the air. We know that women fall off of a cliff after a certain age. You have 50-yearold male actors getting together on camera with 25-year-olds. It’s crazy. It’s so in your face,” said Dorfman before adding a sliver of hope to the discussion. “I also think things are changing. More and more women are becoming directors and sticking as directors.
“I think the more women telling stories and more different kinds of people telling stories (will lead to) definitely seeing more employment, I hope, for older women,” said Dorfman, who is also an animator, illustrator, documentary filmmaker and screenwriter.
While there is still a way to go to reach parity the discussion around the increase in female directors is very much a thing.
Here in North America names such as Lulu Wang, Olivia Wilde, Annie Silverstein, Semi Chellas and Melina Matsoukas are just a handful of many up-in-coming female directors who have garnered attention recently and are poised to join the ranks of today’s well-established working Hollywood directors such as Ava DeVernay, Greta Gerwig, Elizabeth Banks, Kathryn Bigelow, Patty Jenkins, Sarah Polley and others.
However, the likes of Jenkins
and Anna Boden aside, it seems the big tent-pole pictures are still for the most part the purview of male directors.
Where women directors are the norm is the indie film world. Those films get their first lives on festival screens such as the ones operated by the Whistler Film Festival (WFF).
Now in its 19th year — the festival wraps on Dec. 8 after five days of top-notch cinema, events and programs — the WFF is pretty good in the nonmale director department.
This year 40 per cent of the festival’s 86 films (features and shorts) are directed or co-directed by women, or non-binary individuals. Dorfman is one of 13 women at the helm of a feature at this year’s festival.
Spinster was co-conceived with Dorfman’s longtime creative partner, Deyell.
About 15 years ago Dorfman and Deyell noticed that there was a discussion swirling around them and other women of a certain age.
“In my mid-30s it was a time when all my friends were getting married and having kids and I was single,” Dorfman said.
“She (Jennifer) also had a good friend who was single at that time and for both of us it was a really hard place to be.
There was this mad race (that led) to a lot of friends to settle just to make it happen. I was like ‘I am not settling,’ and her friend was very much the same way. We would commiserate about this and talk about it endlessly and that I think was what the initial script was born out of. Just this idea that you are at the top of your game in many ways and still women can feel bad about being single, which is absurd.”
This film is product of lots of chat between Deyell and Dorfman, not just as filmmakers looking for a good story, but as women looking and hoping to change the story.
“I always say I want to see films I wish had been around when I was at a certain moment in my life,” added Dorfman, who has a boyfriend and two stepkids. “Maybe this will be that film.”
Made for $1 million, Spinster — which had its world première at the Whistler festival on Dec. 6 and will play again on Dec. 8 — is all about that pressure.
Out of the deep talent pool of thirtysomething actors who were available for work, Dorfman and Deyell cast American comedian/actor Chelsea Peretti as Gaby, the 39-yearold catering company owner who dreams of her own restaurant while navigating the sad-sack looks and pity pouts she gets from those contemplating her singleness.
“I enjoy women in power so I wanted to be directed by Andrea,” Peretti said via email.
“When I got the offer, I watched her films and thought they looked beautiful.
“She has a specific vibe and style and she made me fall in love with Nova Scotia.”
What Dorfman liked about Peretti was her willingness and eagerness to get right into the mix of the film.
“She was a participant and collaborator,” said Dorfman about Peretti (Brooklyn NineNine and Parks and Recreation) adding that the well-received standup comedian asked if she could make some of the jokes her own.
Just this idea that you are at the top of your game ... and still women can feel bad about being single.”
Andrea Dorfman
“I know I’m mouthy. I’m irritable and I need to work on my core,” says Gaby to the guy who is leaving her after she has desperately and wrongly amped up a three-month relationship.
Shot over three weeks in Halifax in the summer of 2018, Spinster is a funny and sometimes melancholy look at one woman’s evolution through and out of the archaic social structures that tell women they need a partner and kids to be truly happy.
Thankfully, Gaby finally gets it.
“It’s weird marriage started as a contract of ownership and now it has kind of evolved into, at best gross consumerism, at worst a tax cut,” says Gaby.
Peretti married filmmaker/ comedian/actor Jordan Peele in 2016 when she was 38.
They had a son in 2017 but Peretti said her biological clock wasn’t ringing and she wasn’t facing down the pressure to get the partner and kid. She was lucky.
“I wasn’t sure what the future was going to hold for me — I really enjoyed my work and the community of comedians and actors I got to be around who are some of the funniest, most entertaining people in the world,” said Peretti.
“I wasn’t sure which way my life was going to go but felt like it was going to be exciting in whichever direction it went. I was right.”
Peretti said she was thrilled to play the type of woman she wants to see on the big screen.
“I am honoured I was given the opportunity to embody this character,” said Peretti.
“I hope women and anyone watching will leave emboldened to explore more new experiences.
“Romantic comedies never really resonated with me so I hope Spinster offers people an alternative model or vision.
“There is no one way to do life.”
Put that last thought on a T-shirt.