1. Mind the Gap: Half of all females fall through
AUDIO IMAGE NOTES
Are you a young smart and ambitious female? Think you have what it takes to School corridor (history) Need to design timeline
make it to the top in filmmaking? You may have the talent, but after getting Medium close up of female student. in PhotoShop.
your foot in the door, there‟s a 50% chance you will have dropped out of the Zooms out to reveal further 3 students, 2 male, 2 female. All start walking
running by the age of 35.There‟sa 92% chance you‟ll never make it to the towards camera.
director‟s chair on a mainstream film. Not because you‟re not good enough Jump cut to 2 males, 1 female
but because you‟re a girl. Jump cut 2 males
The statistics would suggest you still have to fight for equal opportunities. Jump cut to 1 male, stops at medium close up, winks at camera, lifts
megaphone
Girl running up corridor, grabs megaphone, pushes male, shouts “ACTION”
Rebecca justifies need for womens‟ support group in the industry Rebecca at desk Need text
Lack of female directors. “Directors are overwhelmingly male” Lesley Need text
This seems astonishing when there were so many women directing films in Screen recording of imdb search on women directors
the early 1900s. A search through internet movie database shows the long
list of films directed by women at the time. Credit for the first narrative film Photo of Alice Guy
has been given to the Lumiere brothers but there is evidence to suggest that
a woman was actually the first director of a narrative film. Alice Guy directed List of films directed by her moving in the background/images of films
thousands of films and her first may have been made as early as 1896. But rotating
you‟ll not find her in many accounts of cinema history.

2. Bump her to the side/fade her out
Photo of Dorothy Arzner
Hollywood director Dorothy Arzner is also ignored in most film histories yet
her work was innovative in many areas. She directed Paramount‟s first talkie List of films directed by her moving in the background/ images of films
in 1929 and invented the first boom mike during that shoot. rotating
Guy and Arzner are only two examples of talented and ground breaking
female directors who have been side-lined in the recording of film history
and the development of film theory.
Back to students?
The theory informing the study of film tends to focus on the director as male Key theories in film held up on card by female student. Stops on Auteur
and directing as a male pursuit. Even feminist film theory has traditionally theory.
focused on a male director.
Auteur theory in particular seems to have sidelined the female director by
setting standards for greatness that were only achievable by men.
Image of Clooney as director
In the 1950s, French film critics sought tomove the film director to the status
of individual artist and author of film but they didn‟t consider the work of Picture of Jacques Rivette with caption
female directors in their articles. Jacques Rivette named four male film-
makers when he announced the arrival of “the age of the auteurs” in 1955. Image for Movie Journal with scrolling text: great, brilliant etc
The British film journal Movie published “The Talent Histogram” in 1962 and
categorised directors as either Great, Brilliant, Very Talented, Talented,

3. Competent and Ambitious and The Rest. I could find only two women on the Picture of Shirley Clarke
list with Shirley Clarke listed under Competent and Ambitious and Muriel Box Picture of Muriel Box
listed under The Rest. Also in 1962, American film critic Andrew Sarris first
employed the use of the term Auteur Theory and in 1968 he published
Directors and Directions 1929 – 1968. In this book he has 11 different Picture of Andrew Sarris
categories for 200 film directors and I managed to find two women in this
guide. Ida Lupino appeared in category VIII. Oddities, One-Shots, and Scrolling text
Newcomers. Mae West appeared in category X. Make Way for the Clowns.
Picture of Ida lupino
Picture of Mae West
Sarris top category is titled Pantheon Directors and here it seems he has Image of page
exalted the exclusively male list of directors to god-like status. He refers to
the lack of female directors in his entry for Ida Lupino by writing that the
actress and one time director Lillian Gish said acting was no job for a lady.
He also writes that “..relatively few women have put the matter to the test”.
He goes on to list female directors, including Dorothy Arzner, and states,
“they come to mind as little more than a ladies‟ auxiliary.”
Imbd of female directors
Well that was in the 60s you might think, there‟s bound to have been loads of
female directors in Hollywood since who would deserve credit in an updated Vox pop images
guide to „the greatest‟ directors. So how many female directors can you
think of? [Insert Vox Pop]
Picture of Bigelow with Oscar
Kathryn Bigelow is now the female director many people can refer to
because she made global headlines in 2010 for her „Best Director‟ Oscar. She
is only the fourth female to have ever been nominated in that category even

4. though there is a large selection of quality films directed by women to
choose from. A quick search through imdb will confirm that women mostly Imdb search
direct films in the drama and romantic comedy genres but they have been
directing in a range of genres over the years. Few women get the
opportunity to direct an action film but this is where Bigelow has managed to
achieve her status as a „great‟ director.
Bigelow as auteur – meeting criteria of Sarris and co. Christina Lane article. Picture of bigelow (on different film sets if possible)
How did she get there? Comments on masculinity, comments on husband etc. See BFI auteur resource
Her comments on this. Her advice.
Her advice – youtube when asked if she has any, then round table when she
gives example.
The “Bigelow effect”?
Statistics for 2011 (from sargent-disc or Lauzen) Back to one male and one female student holding up cards with statistics
highlighting gender gap and difference in pay.