Women and Hollywood

A Newbie Filmmaker Hits SXSW

Gina McCauley — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:12:12 GMT

I kicked off my SXSW Film adventure by running into my sidekick for the evening, fellow blogger, Dr. Goddess. Our SXSW Interactive panels were neighbors. I was on a mission to make it to the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar for the debut of Matthew A. Cherry’s The Last Fall. Cherry has been incredibly open about the filmmaking process through his production blog and his Kickstarter and IndieGoGo campaigns. It was nice to be able to be there the night the film premiered.

After braving the rain and Austin rush hour traffic, and about a thousand people who wanted to chat with Dr. Goddess, I moved with drill sergeant-like intensity towards the Austin Convention Center parking garage and made it to the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar just as they were letting in badge holders.

Louis Black, SXSW co-founder, noted that The Last Fall was one of the first films to screen the 2012 SXSW Film Festival. Fresh off the unease of an Oscar race featuring two black women nominated (YAY!) for playing maids (Sigh!) it was nice to see a film with black women playing something other than long suffering or shrill.

Vanessa Bell Calloway played Marie Bishop, the mother of the main character, Kyle Bishop, a recently-unemployed NFL journeyman. Marie Bishop is a divorcee who at times teetered with the boundaries of the stereotypical shrill and the emotionally detached, long suffering black mother, but stayed just shy. The film never explained Marie’s strained relationship with her son Kyle and daughter Chris. So there is some cringeworthy yelling. Yes, I have a thing about Black women yelling onscreen. Yelling seems to at times be the go-to filmmaking device to characterize a black mother’s love and sacrifice for their children. Bell Calloway glows on screen, in other hands, this character might have tap danced on my last nerve. But, I ended up liking and routing for her.

Yaani King played Kyle’s sister Chris. Yaani did an amazing job. I was invested in her mysterious character, but there was absolutely no payoff for that investment. There is an inference at the end of the film about why mother and daughter are at odds, but to reach a conclusion about the source of the angst, writer/director Matthew A. Cherry demands I make a leap the size of the Grand Canyon.

Nicole Beharie, who the world last saw opposite Michael Fassbender in Steve McQueen’s Shame, played the role of Faith Davis. If acting is about the eyes, then she nailed it. There was no yelling (YAY!) and her best work was when she said nothing at all.

As for the rest of the film, Lance Gross established himself as a leading man who can carry a movie onscreen - I’d watch him for an hour and a half. Cherry put together a heck of a cast of experienced black actors like Harry Lennix and Keith Davis interspersed with the soon-to-be-a-star Michael Moss. Moss has a string of leading roles in his future. Overall, it was my time to see the movie. If I had one chief complaint, it would be the score. There were points where the film appeared to slow down that might have been helped along by music.

If black actresses lit up the screen, black women filmmakers lit up the hallways at SXSW. I got some great insights about casting and distribution from Ava Duvernay after the movie. She was there to support Matthew Cherry’s feature debut. T.K. Henderson, an Austin screenwriter who helps corral the local black filmmaking community through the Central Texas African Americans in Film group was also in the audience last night. T. K. single-handedly cast my first short film by personally reaching out to local actresses. Later that night I ran into producer/director Rakeda Lashae who offered her unqualified support in helping me navigate the local Austin filmmaking scene. While the interactive side of the conference is often overshadowed by the braggadocio of web celebrity cults, unsupported by any actual achievement, it was liberating to see the community of black women in film on display up on the screen and in the hallways of SXSW Film. I felt as if I’d “found my tribe.”

___________________________________________________________

Gina McCauley blogs about the images of Black women in popular culture at What About Our Daughters and is a second career student filmmaker.

Interview with Jennifer Westfeldt - Writer and Director of Friends With Kids

Melissa Silverstein — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 15:25:18 GMT

Jennifer Wesfeldt was kind enough to answer some questions (by email) about her new film, Friends with Kids which opened yesterday.

Women and Hollywood: You were hesitant to step behind the camera for this film and I am wondering what you thought of the experience and what lessons you learned about yourself from directing.

Jennifer Westfeldt: Even though I wouldn't necessarily have chosen it, I was ultimately grateful for the challenge and the steep learning curve on this. I had been very involved as a producer with the creative decisions on my first two films but was so grateful then to just be an actor during the actual shoot and leave it in the director's capable hands. On this one, it was truly a 24/7 experience -- I would get home from the shooting day, then get on several calls, watch the dailies, check the weather obsessively for the next day (we were shooting in the worst winter in NYC in the last 40 years!), prepare for the next day's shoot and try to get two hours of sleep.

The part that I felt most comfortable with going in was just working with actors and trying to make them feel comfortable and safe so they could find the performance. That part felt organic to me. Everything else I had to learn -- and I was extremely lucky to have a partner and collaborator in my amazing DP Will Rexer, who was endlessly patient and generous with me in pre-production, and helped me translate my ideas to something a crew would understand. I guess the part I didn't fully anticipate was the deep camaraderie I felt with the crew - in some ways that was the most exhilarating part of the experience. As an actor on sets, I've always clocked how hard the crew works, how much longer their days are, how much lesser their glory is -- and the fact that their commitment to the work and project is unwavering, no matter the budget. This was especially true on our film, given the budget constraints, the cruel winter and the x factor of toddlers and babies on set everyday. I was humbled and genuinely moved by the lengths this crew would go to on our modest and often grueling indie shoot.

One particular example that comes to mind - we were shooting a scene with Jon and Kristen in a day of constant freezing rain, and everyone was wet and miserable and all of us on the crew were out there freezing and holding plastic tarps to cover the camera to try to catch a moment of Kristen looking wistfully out this brownstone window. I kept apologizing to everyone on the set for the terrible conditions and our gaffer, this bighearted Irish gem of a guy named Jimmy McCullagh, kept coming over to me with a big grin on his face and red cheeks saying "We're doing great Jen, we're doing great!" I guess what I learned about myself is I'm a bit of a socialist; I want everyone on the set to get equal treatment and credit.

WaH: You've acted in pieces that you have written and pieces others have written - what is the difference for you?

JW: As an actor, I've always been interested in making sure I can perform the role and the lines in the way the writer intended. Both on stage and on film, I've never been past saying "is that how you heard it in your head or am I missing it? You can give me a line reading, I won't be offended!" At the same time, performing lines I wrote, when there has generally been multiple readings and feedback from many trusted people, I didn't have the same question to pose about how it sounded in the writer's head. That said, on my first two films, and on this one as well, when someone would suggest a different idea or version or even line reading, it was always a welcome surprise to realize "Oh I always thought it worked this way, but it actually works better that way." I think film is collaboration, and I always want to hear everyone's input.

WaH: What was the hardest part of the shoot?

JW: On a shoot like this, there was a new crisis every day. One day it was that we had planned a wide shot that was supposed to take place in early October and there was 24 inches of snow on the ground! One day key members of our crew were snowed in, stuck in New Jersey and Long Island, unable to get to work; one day our camera lenses were frozen solid -- and we had to defrost them with blow dryers for an hour before we could shoot. One day the two sweet young actors who played Joe at 2 1/2 had meltdowns and asked their mothers, sobbing, why they couldn't just go home -- that might have been the darkest day, as I felt like perhaps I was scarring a young innocent child for the rest of his life!!!

The day that I was the most worried about was shooting the big Vermont dinner scene in which Adam and Jon square off. The scene was 12 pages long and we had one day to shoot it. We had three cameras that day and we kept playing the scene as if we were doing an interminable run of a one-act play. We would change the camera angles each take but at least one angle would always be on Jon or Adam, as they were the center of the clash. Ironically, that day we were on time and on budget. It was our last day of shooting. So the hardest thing is never what you think it's going to be.

WaH: I have read that you and your partner Jon Hamm started a production company and this was your first film out of the company. What types of films are you looking to make in the future?

JW: We don't have a particular mission or directive vis a vis the slate of our company, other than to work on material that resonates with us in some way. We formed the company in an effort to lay the groundwork and infrastructure in having more of a say in our creative futures. We would like to make films that are attempting to say something, make people think in some way or at least stir up debate.

WaH: You tell stories about women that always don't fit into the societal box, that challenge conventional norms. Where do you get your inspiration?

JW: In some ways I'm oddly traditional, I've been a serial monogamist since I was 12. I've always tried to work hard and get good grades and be a good person, but I feel like I've also always had a strange defiance of authority or the status quo, I've never understood why things always have to be just one way when I've seen so many people in my life struggle tremendously to fit into those boxes or to live up to those expectations or pressures put upon them by whatever society's concept of 'normal' is. I get frustrated by rules and regulations. I'm frustrated by things that are exclusive to one particular life choice. It's the kind of thing that keeps me up nights. I think that, in all three of my films, I've been trying to explore these different milestones, and the idea that there are a lot of valid ways to live your life and make decisions to find happiness on your own terms. I think it's different for everyone and I hope to make some tiny contribution to stirring up debate on these issues. The fact that a number of people have come up to me over the last decade and said to me that the scene in Kissing Jessica Stein with me and Tovah Feldshuh on the porch helped them come out to their parents remains the highlight of my artistic career -- probably never to be topped. That's as good as it gets for me.

WaH: Only 14% of films are written by women and 5% are directed by women. Why do you think this is such a struggle?

JW: I wasn't aware the statistics were quite that bad, but I do think we are at a bright moment in time where the tide is shifting. I look around and see the tremendous and inspiring successes of Tina Fey with "30 Rock," Kristen and Annie with Bridesmaids, Julie Delpy, Miranda July, Lena Dunham -- and now more and more women following suit. We just had a Sundance where five films featured actresses writing for themselves, and all the projects sold. And this year's Sundance also saw the director Ava Duvernay win -- marking the first time a black female director has ever won. So things are changing - and it's exciting. We have all heard the endless lament about how there aren't enough roles for women or enough stories that appeal to women, but we are the only ones who can change that -- and I'm encouraged that we are doing it, slowly but surely. I think women should support each other's work, encourage each other's work, help develop each other's voices and I think, ultimately, when we can stop having the conversation about 'women filmmakers', and just talk about 'filmmakers', then we'll know we've really gotten somewhere.

WaH: What advice would you have for other writers and directors that you wish someone had told you.

JW: I think the best advice is to go out and make something. Even if it's flawed. Even if you don't quite have the money. Just make it. Don't make just anything, make something you believe in, and have worked hard on -- but make something. Don't just talk about making something. See what it's really like. Don't be so precious or fearful about it that you never get anything out there at all. Don't be too afraid of failure to learn what you need to learn.

That's not to say you should spend other people's money until you've done everything possible on your end to make sure it's ready -- you have to leave no stone unturned. But, whether it's a short film, an indie film on a micro-budget, a webisode, a music video -- just make it. The saddest and strangest part of Hollywood to me is the fact that millions of dollars are spent on developing works that never get made. It doesn't make any sense to me. I don't understand it. I think we all learn by doing rather than thinking about doing.

WaH: What's next on your plate?

JW: I am busy returning to a project that I pitched and sold over a year ago before Friends With Kids was greenlit. It's a pilot that I'm attached to co-star in with Alan Ball Executive Producing that I will team up with another writer on, based on the idea and treatment and outline I sold a year ago. I'm excited to dive into a new world and set of characters that really interest me.

Theatres info.

More thoughts on Friends With Kids

Exclusive: Poster for Eden Directed by Megan Griffiths - Will Premiere at SXSW on Sunday

Melissa Silverstein — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:32:01 GMT

This looks like a really interesting film. It is based on a true story of human trafficking. Here's the description:

In 1994 Korean-American teenager, Hyun Jae, went to a bar in New Mexico where a handsome young man posing as a firefighter offered her a ride home. Then she was abducted and smuggled into Las Vegas where she was imprisoned as a sex slave for two years. During her captivity, Hyun Jae (dubbed Eden by her captors) ensured her own survival by steadily carving out power and influence within the very organization that imprisoned her. Inspired by the complex and harrowing true story of human trafficking survivor Chong Kim, Eden peers into the darkest corners of America and attempts to discover the humanity within.

Info from SXSW

Friends With Kids - Written and Directed by Jennifer Westfeldt

Melissa Silverstein — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:25:29 GMT

What's interesting about Friends with Kids is that Jennifer Westfeldt has the skills to make a film feel subversive and mainstream at the same time. The story she tells (which she also produces and directs) is about best friends who want a kid even though they haven't found the partners they want to parent with. They decide to parent with each other much to the chagrin of their friends who are going down the conventional road. She asks questions through the different couples about whether the norm is normal, whether you need to find a soul mate to raise a child, what is a soul mate, and whether you stay together for the sake of the kids when you are miserable. She also shows how hard it is to find a mate in NYC.

And the great thing is that she makes it funny. It's funny because she infuses the script with everyday normalcies that when said out loud are quite funny. And she's got a dream cast. You close one eye and you think it might be Bridesmaids because there is a lot of cast overlap and it's funnny, but it's not. It's not a full on comedy. To me this movie is reality which at many times becomes quite funny and absurd.

What this movie made me notice is that somebody needs to give Maya Rudolph a lead in a film because she is just amazing. I can't get enough of her onscreen. I also love Chris O'Dowd who we met as the cop in Bridesmaids. Jon Hamm can play a shit, but damn he is still a hot shit. (I'm getting excited for the return of Mad Men.) But I did find it hard to watch Kristen Wiig in such a small part where she was sad the whole time after seeing her breakout in Bridesmaids. I want to see her fly all the time.

I also admit was bit late to the Adam Scott party but I love him on Parks and Recreation and he was just so great in his movie. He is joe every guy, not a shit although acts like a shit at times and he is quite endearing. You also know that he will be there through thick and thin. I also do like Jennifer Westfeldt but I'm ready for her to let the neurotic idiosyncratic woman go. In some respects I feel her writing and directing is stronger than her acting. I like her screen writing voice. I find it very refreshing, funny, feminine and real. I like that it comes from a female perspective but treats everyone with respect.

The film opens today. Theatre info

Trailer Watch: Where Do We Go Now - Written and Directed by Nadine Labaki

Melissa Silverstein — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 15:16:00 GMT

The film will open the New Directors/New Films series on March 21 in NYC. Here is an interview I did with Labaki in Toronto back in September where it won the audience award.

Happy International Women's Day: Watch Saving Face on HBO Tonight

Melissa Silverstein — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:00:00 GMT

I started today watching the harrowing Academy Award winning documentary Saving Face directed by Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. The film tells the story of women in Pakistan who have been disfigured and mutiliated by their loved ones just because they are women. The women tried to escape abuse or bad marriages and the price they paid was their faces. It is brutal.

But there is hope. Men did this because there were no consequences. They could do it and nothing would happen to them. But now a law has been passed and that is no longer the case. One of the survivors Zakia was the first woman whose case was tried under the law and her husband got two life terms in jail. Also, the film tells the story of a Pakistani born doctor Mohammad Jawad who comes back to his homeland to help give these women their lives back. He helps them and recreates their faces so they can come out from the shadows and reclaim their lives.

If you are not moved by the women in this film you have a heart of stone. It reminded me of how far we have to go to protect women and girls in our world.

It premieres tonight at 8:30pm on HBO.

Happy International Women's Day: Women in Film and TV (UK) Releases 2012 Power List

Melissa Silverstein — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 17:22:03 GMT

Women in Film and Television (UK) partnered with Screen International and Broadcast have released the 2012 Women in Film and Television Power List. Here's a quote from the head of Women in Film Kate Kinninmont about the list (the quote is from the release)

We at WFTV are very aware that women are still too few in important media jobs, worse paid in many roles and too easily pushed out of the industry as they age.

But we also see the fantastic progress that women are making and we are keen to celebrate it. There are fifty extraordinary women on this Power List. Every one of them has earned her place through talent, hard work, perseverance and sheer dogged ability. We salute them all.

Here's the list:

Executives

Elaine Bedell, director of comedy and entertainment ITV

Jana Bennett, president of worldwide networks and global iPlayer, BBC Worldwide

Amanda Berry, chief executive officer, Bafta

Helen Boaden, director, BBC News

Barbara Broccoli, producer, EON Productions

Dinah Caine, chief executive officer, Skillset

Eileen Gallagher, chief executive, Shed Productions

Sara Geater, chief executive officer, Freemantle Media UK

Janice Hadlow, controller, BBC2

Jay Hunt, chief creative officer, C4

Christine Langan, creative director, BBC Films

Lucy Lumsden, head of comedy, Sky

Laura Mackie, director of drama, ITV

Elisabeth Murdoch founder & chief executive, Shine Group

Amanda Nevill, chief executive officer, BFI

Denise O'Donaghue, managing director, ITV Studios

Jane Root, chief executive, Nutopia

Tessa Ross, controller, Film 4 and C4 Drama

Lisbeth Savill, head of Film & TV, Olswang

Caroline Thomson chief operating officer, BBC

Sophie Turner Laing, managing director of Entertainment & News, Sky

Producers/ directors

Andrea Arnold, film director – Wuthering Heights

Vanessa Berlowitz, series producer, Frozen Planet, BBC Natural History Unit

SJ Clarkson, TV director – Dexter Finola Dwyer Film Producer – Quartet (post-production)

Debra Hayward, film producer, founder — Monumental Pictures

Elizabeth Karlsen, film producer – Great Expectations, Byzantium (both in post-production)

Phyllida Lloyd, film director – The Iron Lady

Alison Owen Producer (Ruby Films) – Jane Eyre Nira Park Producer (Big Talk Productions) – Attack the Block

Norma Percy, TV documentary producer – Putin, Russia and the West

Lynne Ramsay, film director – We Need to Talk About Kevin

Moira Ross, TV producer – Head of Entertainment, Wall to Wall

Nicola Shindler, founder (Red Productions), executive producer – Scott and Bailey, Exile, Bedlam

Sue Vertue, producer (Hartswood Films) — Sherlock

Talent

Helena Bonham Carter, actress

Alex Crawford, Sky News correspondent

Naomie Harris, actress

Miranda Hart, actress/performer

Keira Knightley, actress

Carey Mulligan, actress

Sue Perkins, TV presenter

Dame Maggie Smith, actress

Tilda Swinton, actress

Kirsty Wark, journalist/ TV presenter

Kate Winslet, actress

Writers

Moira Buffini, writer – Jane Eyre, Byzantium (post-production)

Jane Goldman, writer – The Woman in Black

Abi Morgan, writer – Shame, The Iron Lady

Heidi Thomas, writer – Upstairs Downstairs

One question? Where's Emma Thompson?

The 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction - The Longlist

Melissa Silverstein — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:45:01 GMT

The Orange Prize celebrates fiction written by women from authors across the world. It is now in it's 17th year. The shortlist will be announced April 17th and the award will be held on May 30. The judges are: Joanna Trollope, (Chair), Writer; Lisa Appignanesi, Writer, Novelist and Broadcaster; Victoria Derbyshire, Journalist and Broadcaster; Natalie Haynes, Writer and Broadcaster; Natasha Kaplinsky, Broadcaster.

THE LIST

Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg (Quercus) - Swedish; 1st Novel

On the Floor by Aifric Campbell (Serpent's Tail) - Irish; 3rd Novel

The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen (The Clerkenwell Press) - American; 4th Novel

The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue (Picador) - Irish; 7th Novel

Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (Serpent's Tail) - Canadian; 2nd Novel

The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright (Jonathan Cape) - Irish; 5th Novel

The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki (Headline Review) - British; 5th Novel

Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (Quercus) - American; 4th Novel

Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding (Bloomsbury) - British; 3rd Novel

Gillespie and I by Jane Harris (Faber & Faber) - British; 2nd Novel

The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) - British; 2nd Novel

The Blue Book by A.L. Kennedy (Jonathan Cape) - British; 6th Novel

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (Harvill Secker) - American; 1st Novel

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (Bloomsbury) - American; 1st Novel

Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick (Atlantic Books) - American; 7th Novel

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett (Bloomsbury) - American; 6th Novel

There but for the by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton) - British; 5th Novel

The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard (Alma Books) - British; 2nd Novel

Tides of War by Stella Tillyard (Chatto & Windus) - British; 1st Novel

The Submission by Amy Waldman (William Heinemann) - American; 1st Novel

Previous winners:

Helen Dunmore for A Spell of Winter (1996), Anne Michaels for Fugitive Pieces (1997), Carol Shields for Larry’s Party (1998), Suzanne Berne for A Crime in the Neighbourhood (1999), Linda Grant for When I Lived in Modern Times (2000), Kate Grenville for The Idea of Perfection (2001), Ann Patchett for Bel Canto (2002) Valerie Martin for Property (2003), Andrea Levy for Small Island (2004), Lionel Shriver for We Need to Talk about Kevin (2005), Zadie Smith for On Beauty (2006), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for Half of a Yellow Sun (2007), Rose Tremain for The Road Home (2008), Marilyn Robinson for Home (2009), Barbara Kingsolver for The Lacuna (2010) and Téa Obreht for The Tiger’s Wife (2011).

Going to put the ones I can get on my reading list.

Orange prize for fiction longlist shows diversity of historical novels (The Guardian)

Trailer Watch: What to Expect When You Are Expecting - The Dude Version

Melissa Silverstein — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:15:00 GMT

This version is the studio trying to get some dudes to come and see this movie. Best line- it's a dude club - like fight club but with babies.

Honestly, I don't know how anyone will see this. But of course women will be blamed for this because it's technically targeted at women cause you know it's about babies. It's written by Shauna Cross (Whip-It) and Heather Hach.

Poster for VEEP

Melissa Silverstein — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:45:00 GMT

Gotta love this.

Happy International Women's Day: More on Women Not Getting Gigs Voicing Trailers

Melissa Silverstein — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:15:01 GMT

This is building on a piece from last month: Sexism Watch: Film Trailers.

The piece includes a line from an agent that books people in trailers that men's voices are stronger and that science has shown that women and men trust men's voices more. Poppycock.

Men Rule Movie Trailers

h/t Movieline

Guest Post: Elizabeth Olsen Speaks Volumes in Silent House

Heidi Martinuzzi — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:02:00 GMT

Silent House is centered entirely on one woman’s terror as she is systematically stalked by an unknown assailant in a creepy, spooky old house. At first glance, this plotline might seem like it comes straight from another slasher movie, but Silent House is anything but. Starring the incredibly talented newcomer Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene) as the protagonist “Sarah”, and with Laura Lau as producer and co-director (along with Chris Kentiss), Silent House is about sharing a woman’s journey through a terrifying and dangerous home invasion. Lau and Kentiss craft a female character that can carry a genre film without resorting to the shallow dialogue and requisite nudity that epitomize many horror movies for mainstream audiences.

Sarah (Olsen) is a young, shy woman with a close relationship to her father and uncle. Returning to a dilapidated family summer vacation home in order to make repairs and sell the three-story house, they spend an afternoon behind the boarded-up windows making renovations by lamplight. After a few eerie occurrences, like a visit from an unfamiliar childhood playmate and inexplicable noises that only Sarah hears, she finds herself alone in the house with an unknown invader who seems hell-bent on catching, and hurting, her.

Silent House keeps the camera on Sarah the entire duration of the movie; we see everything she sees and only when she sees it, in real time. As a result, her panic, her fear, and her concern for her family members are intense and accessible. Lau and Kentiss didn’t come up with the technique on their own; the film is a faithful remake of the 2011 Uruguayan movie La Casa Muda which used first used that method. Lau and Kentiss wanted to recreate that powerful feeling for US audiences with an American cast while delving deeper into the psychological horror of the storyline; Sarah is a troubled young woman, we come to realize through clues in the movie, and she may have a more complicated, and destructive, family history than was initially assumed. The audience pieces together clues while remaining absorbed in her danger.

It’s Olsen’s incredible talent that truly carries Silent House out of the dredges of the much-maligned low-budget horror genre and into mainstream psychological drama; she crafts a well-defined and terrified young woman with deftness and intensity. By staying on her through the entire hour and a half, the camera allows us to identify with her and become a part of her rather horrendous journey of survival and self-discovery.

Olsen is destined for great things. Her recent festival wins for her riveting performance as another troubled woman in Martha Marcy May Marlene reinforce that she’s interested in complex and interesting roles. Laura Lau, too, seems to have taken more control of her own career as a filmmaker with Silent House; in 2004, Lau and husband/filmmaking partner Kentiss made the thriller Open Water on which she was credited as producer, but openly admitted to having, in actuality, co-directed that movie. Now, 8 years later, she is accurately credited as the co-director of Silent House. In a film industry that often dismisses female producers in favor of male directors as the architects of good films, Lau’s new credits will gain her some much-deserved recognition for her work.

While the ending leaves much to be desired in terms of realism or sensitivity to real-life tragedies, Silent House is successful as an experiment in creating and executing new techniques to challenge audiences to identify with female protagonists as well as to encapsulate themselves in an extremely intense and uncomfortable moment of real time.

Silent House is out in US theaters nationwide on March 9th, 2012.

________________________________________________________________

Heidi Martinuzzi is a Los Angeles film journalist who writes about genre films. She is the programmer of the women’s horror film festival Viscera and the blog about women directors of horror and sci-fi Planet Etheria.

Sigourney Weaver to Channel Hillary Clinton in USA Series Political Animals

Melissa Silverstein — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:23:33 GMT

Aside from the big news that Sigourney Weaver is coming to a TV near you, the fact that she will be playing a character quite close to Hillary Clinton makes this announcement so exciting.

Point A- If we lived in a just society Sigourney would be making $20 million a movie (like Harrison Ford and some of the other dudes in her cohort) and would never be on TV because she would be -- you know -- a movie star. I know that she has made a TV movie but there are only a handful of women who when you hear their name you think movie star, and Sigourney is one of them. And by the way she was one of the leads in the highest grossing movie ever. Avatar.

But we don't live in a just world and a girl's got to find work and interesting work and women get to play interesting characters on TV so here we are. The description sounds amazing.

Weaver plays Elaine Barrish, a divorced former First Lady who immerses herself in her new job as Secretary of State as she rebounds from the dissolution of her marriage and losing the presidential nomination.

She's gonna have twin sons one her chief of staff and one with addiction issues.

The 6 hour show is created by Greg Berlanti (Dirty Sexy Money) and Laurence Mark (Jerry Maguire) and will air on USA this summer.

Sign me up now.

Scoop: Sigourney Weaver to Headline USA Network's Political Animals (TV Line)

Want to Write a Guest Post for Women and Hollywood?

Melissa Silverstein — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:30:00 GMT

I'm looking to diversify the voices and experiences of people on the site. As you can tell there are already a variety of guest posts on the site, but I want to be a bit more proactive. If you have a story, experience or idea and you think it would make a guest post, this is your chance to go for it. I believe it is imperative that we get diverse voices of women working in the field out to the world so they can see the great talent that often goes overlooked.

Here are some keys and rules for guest posting.

Only posts about women and issues related to entertainment and pop culture will be considered. But keep in mind this site is not interested in who is wearing who or who is dating who. Nothing related to any products will be considered.
No press releases masquerading as posts.
Make it real and honest in your own voice and relevant. Please be familiar with the tone of the site.
Don’t make it longer than 700 words.
Submit it in text format.
Send links you would like embedded into the post next to the location you want them embedded (I will embed).
Attach an image with the post.
Make sure to give it a title.
Make sure to send a one line bio and a link to your site or film.
Make sure to include anything about when and where the film opens or when or what channel the TV show will be on.
Please don't use this guest post to fundraise. Posts that focus on fundraising will not be considered.

Keep in mind that submitting a post is not a guarantee that it will be used. All posts will be edited. Also, there will be no compensation for guest posts. Sorry.

Send all guest post to melissa@womenandhollywood.com

Thanks

Tribeca 2012 World Narrative and Documentary Competitions - The Women Directors

Melissa Silverstein — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 14:37:10 GMT

The films for the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival started rolling out yesterday. Here are the women directed films in competition in both the narrative and documentary sections as well as the out of competition viewpoints section. (Descriptions from the press release) The festival runs in NYC from April 18-29.

World Narrative Feature Competition - (2 women directed films out of 12) - 17% - not an impressive number

Una Noche, directed and written by Lucy Mulloy. (UK, Cuba, USA) – North American Premiere. Fed up with catering to the privileged tourist class, Cuban teens Raul and Elio are tantalized by the promise of a new life in Miami. Accused of assaulting a foreigner, Raul has no choice but to flee, but Elio must decide whether his own escape is worth abandoning his beloved sister. Brimming with the nervous energy of Havana’s restless youth and evocative cinematography of the sun-bleached capital, Una Noche follows one sweltering day, full of hope and fraught with tensions, that burns to a shocking climax. In Spanish with subtitles.

While We Were Here, directed and written by Kat Coiro. (USA) – World Premiere. Jane (Kate Bosworth) and her English husband travel to Naples hoping to reinvigorate their silently disintegrating marriage and escape a personal tragedy that hangs heavily between them. When Jane, facing writer’s block, takes a day trip to a beautiful island off the coast, she meets a young American man living a hermetic life on the island. As the two embark on an unlikely emotional affair, Jane faces some drastic changes in her life.

World Documentary Feature Competition (3 women directed films out of 12)

Downeast, directed by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin. (USA) – World Premiere. Gouldsboro, Maine. Hit hard by the closure of the sardine canning factory, its laid-off residents—mostly 70-year-olds—just want to get back to work. So why is Italian immigrant Antonio Bussone having so much trouble getting federal funds to open a new lobster processing plant? Charged with the spirit of a generation that still gives it 110 percent, this poignant and poetic documentary sheds new light on the trying task of putting America back to work.

The List, directed by Beth Murphy. (USA) – World Premiere. After leading rebuilding teams in war-torn cities in Iraq, Kirk Johnson returned to America to establish and advocate for a growing number of Iraqi citizens now targeted by radical militias because they aided the U.S. in the reconstruction effort. TFF alum Beth Murphy (Beyond Belief) creates an affecting portrait of an unlikely but passionate humanitarian who has championed the cause of Iraqi refugees largely ignored by the U.S. government. In English, Arabic with subtitles.

The World Before Her, directed by Nisha Pahuja. (Canada) – World Premiere. Weaving together the seemingly opposing stories of the Miss India beauty pageant and a fundamentalist Hindu camp for girls, director Nisha Pahuja illuminates the situation of women across contemporary India, drawing surprising parallels in the way women are perceived and the opportunities that are afforded them in both modernizing and traditional cultures. The World Before Her is a riveting, thoughtful profile of the fundamental contradictions of a country in transition. In English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati with subtitles.

Viewpoints (5 women directed films out of 14)

Burn, directed by Tom Putnam and Brenna Sanchez. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. Detroit is burning. Meet the men and women charged with saving the once-roaring American city that many have written off as dead. With vast stretches of forsaken buildings left as kindling, they face one of the worst arson rates in the world. From executive producer Denis Leary, Burn drives us straight into the heart-pounding fire and introduces us to the characters and controversies that make up the most overworked and underequipped firehouse in the country.

El Gusto, directed and written by Safinez Bousbia. (Algeria, Ireland, UAE) – North American Premiere, Documentary. A rhythmic cocktail of European and Arabic traditions, chaabi music was the heart and soul of cosmopolitan Algiers in the 1940s, but the war of independence with France tore apart the peaceful Muslim and Jewish communities that came together to play this unique music. A group of over-the-hill but still fiery musicians reunites after five decades apart in this spirited, gorgeously shot documentary about music’s power to transcend cultural boundaries. In French, Arabic with subtitles.

Sexy Baby, directed by Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. In the age of runaway social media and “sexting,” raunchy rap songs on pop radio and hardcore pornography at the click of a mouse—what’s it like to be a woman? A girl? A teenage boy? A parent? Following a middle-aged former porn star, a young woman undergoing a controversial surgery, and a 12-year-old girl who’s growing up faster than her parents can handle, Sexy Baby is a startling look at America’s increasingly sex-saturated culture.

Stones in the Sun (Woch nan Soley), directed and written by P. Benoit. (USA, Haiti) – World Premiere, Narrative. In the 1980s, in the midst of increasing political violence, a young couple, two sisters, and a father and son are driven from Haiti to New York, where they must confront the truths of their interlocked pasts. In her impassioned, penetrating feature film debut, Haitian director P. Benoit steers clear of clichés about immigrants and refugees, authentically tapping into the reality of the unique Haitian-American experience. In English, Haitian Creole with subtitles.

Turn Off the Lights, directed by Ivana Mladenovic, written by Ivana Mladenovic and Bianca Oana. (Romania) – World Premiere, Documentary. After years behind bars, three young men begin to rediscover lives of aggression and excess in their raucous Roma community. Among them is Alex, a captivating figure with a disturbingly blasé attitude toward violence, women, and guilt. In this absorbing documentary, offering a rare peek into contemporary Roma culture, Alex and his fellow ex-cons reconcile the outside world with the gray-shaded areas of morality with which they all struggle. In Romanian with subtitles.

The Depressing Reality of Women Directed Films in 2012

Melissa Silverstein — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:08:01 GMT

I really wish I wasn't writing this but over the last couple of days it has become clear to me that 2012 could be another depressing year for women directed films. I started feeling sad last week when I was leafing through page after page of the Rentrak list of films with release dates in 2012 and had a hard time finding any women directed films on the list. I know that list is always a work in progress, but still it was depressing.

Then I became almost despondent with these Indiewire and Playlist pieces on films being tipped for Cannes. There is only a SINGLE woman directed film on both lists -- the same one -- All You Need is Love, directed by Danish Oscar winner Susanne Bier.

I imagine my colleagues make up these lists from talking with producers, distributors and film watchers who are paying attention to the product coming down the pike that could be ready in time for Cannes. And the list includes many films that won't be ready but are trying to generate early buzz. For example Low Life directed by James Gray is listed as a longshot. That to me is optimistic since I saw it shooting in Prospect Park near my home just last month. Ready for Cannes? No way. But this does illustrate my bigger point. People are thinking about and anticipating the next James Gray movie.

Male directors names are on people's minds. Women...not so much. We need to change that. We need to figure out a way to get people to anticipate women's movies. One way that we can do that is to actually know what women directed films are being made. I have no real idea until I read about a film somewhere. I believe if we start talking about women directors with anticipation in the same way that male directors get talked about, that will at least be a beginning.

Last year Cannes had a record four women directed films that made it to the competition so there is still hope that a bunch of women directed films are on the radar screen of the programmers and haven't yet made it to the folks on the internet.

One can only hope.

Women in the World Newsweek Package

Melissa Silverstein — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:52:42 GMT

Newsweek/The Daily Beast has released its annual Women in the World package with a great overview from Leslie Bennetts on where we are with the leadership gap. I've got a quote in the piece talking about women and Hollywood. Here it is:

The erosion of previous gains extends far beyond politics. “Last year 95 percent of the top-grossing films were directed by men; the number directed by women has decreased since 1998,” says Melissa Silverstein, founder of the blog Women and Hollywood, which tracks women’s participation in the industry. “Only four women have been nominated for best director in 84 years of Academy Awards, and only one has won. Film is such an important piece of the culture, but Hollywood is very boy-centric, and this means that our world is seen through a white man’s perspective. Most of the movies being green-lit are action-adventure, sci-fi or superhero movies—and the men want to hire their friends. There’s a perception that things are great for women—Angelina Jolie directs a film!—but the reality is that we haven’t improved at all; the numbers are stagnating or decreasing.”

Read the full piece here.

They also include 150 fearless women with several women in entertainment on the list including:

Roseanne Barr - TV star

Glenn Close - actress

Adele - singer

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Nigerian writer

Panmela Castro- Brazilian Graffiti Artist

Tanaz Eshaghian- Iranian Director

Angelina Jolie - actress/writer/director

Lady Gaga - singer

Melissa McCarthy - actress

Jessica Green Morris - Project Girl Performance Collective (US)

Cindy Sherman - artist

Jennifer Siebel Newsom - Director, Miss Representation

Theresa Rebeck - playwright, creator of Smash

Meryl Streep - actress

Holland Taylor - actress

Kristin Wiig - writer/actress

Oprah Winfrey - queen of all media

Make sure to read about all the women making change around the world. They are amazing.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Gross

Melissa Silverstein — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:58:35 GMT

Something is a brewing in this country and we can thank Rush Limbaugh for it. I haven't seen people this worked up in a long time. And the great thing is that young women are leading the charge.

Check out John Stewart's take down of Rush Limbaugh.

BTW here is a list of the companies still advertising on Limbaugh's show. It includes Netflix. If they don't pull their ads, they lose my money. Who is with me?

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Trailer Watch: Now is Good

Melissa Silverstein — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:40:00 GMT

Dakota Fanning all grown up and falling in love

Opens in the UK on May 25. US who knows?

h/t Playlist

Julie Taymor Responds to Lawsuit Fighting for Her Reputation and Future Jobs

Melissa Silverstein — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 17:30:00 GMT

There is nothing like reading legal papers on a Monday morning to get your blood boiling. Late last week Julie Taymor's lawyers responded to the part of the Spiderman lawsuit that has not been settled and in those papers there is a lot of information about how her collaborators conspired against her to make changes in the show without telling her and then decided to fire her because by doing that they could have a fall guy and then raise more money to make the show successful.

If you are looking for an unbiased opinion on this case here you should stop reading now. I am and have been on team Julie. For so many reasons but even more so after reading this latest document. I am seething. Lots of people -- women and men -- have blamed Julie Taymor for everything that went wrong with Spiderman which is still grossing a ton of money each week. Lots of people -- women and men -- like to call her a "bitch" because she is supposedly difficult. I am done with that. And I am done with the term.

[Momentary digression - I don't think the term bitch is redeemable. It's not like "girl." I know that lots of young women really like the term because it reflects a strong woman and many women wear that proudly. And I love Bitch magazine epsecially for the no shit attitude it takes, but I don't think that some women using the term in an empowering way will ever take away the horrible way it is used against women. It is used against women -- by both men and women -- to shut them down, to say they are too strong and the goal is to isolate. I have thought about this a lot and I'm not buying that it has double meaning. It's too dangerous.]

Back to Taymor - if you are interesting in this case at all you need to read this latest court filing. You need to see how Julie Taymor was set up and how really there was no way for her to create a show that worked when two of the creative team, the people who wrote the music -- The Edge and Bono -- were not present for rehearsals and for early previews. Now if you are not a theatre person you might not think that is odd. It is beyond odd. Rehearsals and previews are where you see what works and what doesn't and if two of the most important cogs in the wheel can't see that, you can't make the necessary changes.

And I blame the producers. The producers must have known that U2 was going on a tour and that the guys would be gone and said it was ok. All these guys (and it looks like every single person of authority on this production was a guy except for Taymor) are complicit in getting her fired and making her the fall guy for all the issues in the show. Her co-book writer Glenn Berger (who was her friend) worked for over a month of both sides of the fence. He worked with her on book changes at the same time conspired with the set designer and others on Plan X which was done without telling Julie.

My favorite part of the filing is that there was supposed to be a meeting where Julie was told about Plan X and the changes that were being made and Bono arrived at the meeting with several supermodels and he already had been drinking. Really professional.

This is a recounting of the meeting from Glenn Berger email:

[T]he meeting was postponed til 11 p.m., when Bono was going to show up – except he showed up in our room with Christy Turlington and a couple other supermodels, and he had already hada few beers, rendering him useless – so the producers postponed the meeting til the next afternoon – but that meeting never happened – but the producers assured me the new plan was to implement JT’s vision for the next three weeks and, if after polling and focus groups and checking their own guts, if they feel like they don’t have a hit, they’re going to shut down and implement “Plan X” – but JT doesn’t know about that plan.

And about all the accidents. It is so easy to blame Taymor. It is so easy to say that a "crazy woman" created a show that caused her actors to get hurt. According to the filing there was a piece of equipment an "encoder" that had to be installed and once that was the problem was solved.

Despite their knowledge that Taymor had no fault in these accidents, that Taymor had no knowledge of the “encoder” issue that apparently contributed to the first two accidents, and that Taymor had no control over the stage-hand’s neglect in failing to attach the safety tether which contributed to the third accident, the producers did not publicly defend Taymor against uninformed speculation in the press that she was somehow responsible. Following these events, the press surrounding the show began to turn negative.

The lessons of this lawsuit are bigger than Julie Taymor. They are about creativity and how when you are creating you have to trust because when it works it's great, and when people are conspiring against you, it sucks. It's about artistic integrity. It's about rights. Every creative person should be thanking Julie Taymor for standing up for her rights which in turn are everyone's rights.

And by the way Taymor is now responsible for two of the top grossing shows on Broadway.

Court Papers in ‘Spider-Man’ Suit Could Tarnish Reputations (NY Times)

Answers of Plaintiffs

Hedy Lamarr: Way More Than Just a Pretty Face

Melissa Silverstein — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:30:01 GMT

Hedy Lamarr was a big Hollywood star in the 40s. But what most people don't know is that she was also an inventor. An inventor who created a gudiance system for torpedos using frequency hoping which today is used in GPS and wireless phones. She received a patent for her work, but it was still dismissed by the navy and she never made any money from it. So she basically signed it away to the navy. You can read all about Hedy Lamarr in the new book Hedy's Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World by Richard Rhodes.

A movie about Lamarr, Face Value has been in the works for some time with Rachel Weisz attached. I haven't heard much about it recently. Amy Redford was developing it but I believe she has left the project. Maybe this new interest in Lamarr will help spur getting that film off the ground.

Check out this piece on Lamarr from CBS Sunday Morning

Book Excerpt: In Our Prime: The Invention of Middle Age

Patricia Cohen — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:53:00 GMT

The forthright presentation of lustful middle-aged women is probably the starkest example of a change in media portrayals. This development has both boosted and distorted our view of female midlife. Through the centuries, sexual middle-aged women have tended to be treated with either fear or ridicule.

Predatory older women were often viewed as deviant, even diabolical. In the fifties and early sixties, they lured men into ruinous Faustian bargains like Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson) in Sunset Blvd (1950), Gene Kelly’s wealthy patron Milo Roberts (Nina Foch) in An American in Paris (1951), and “2-E” or Mrs. Failenson (Patricia Neal) in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961). Science fiction B-movies in the late fifties fed on these sexual anxieties, serving up the Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) who cared only about getting revenge on her husband for his affair with a younger woman (a different sort of fatal attraction) and Wasp Woman (1959), whose quest for eternal beauty turned her into murderous insect. The sinister side of midlife sexuality has also been a familiar theme on day and nighttime television soap operas.

Alternatively, the lustful middle-aged woman was treated as comical. On television sitcoms, she was a regularly mocked – the libidinous cooking show host Sue Ann Nevins in The Mary Tyler Moore Show or the love-starved landlady Mrs. Roper in Three’s Company – a lampoon that goes back to Chaucer’s Wife of Bath. Women on screen have long been subjected to what is known as the “male gaze,” where the assumed normal point of view is that of a heterosexual man. These depictions are evidence of how they also suffer from the “youthful gaze,” which makes youth the standard perspective.

Today, middle-aged female characters are much more physically desirable. For a long time, the repressed and joyless middle-aged woman was a stock character as the title of a 1997 study on aging women in popular films illustrates: “Underrepresented, Unattractive, Unfriendly, and Unintelligent.” She has pretty much vanished from the scene, at least on television. The Samantha Jones character in Sex and the City is the model, but she can be found in some form on nearly every network during prime time.

Though here, too, sexuality is often linked to fertility just as it was in the 19th century and much of the 20th century, a nexus that Betty Friedan defined as part of “the feminine mystique.” In ABC’s Desperate Housewives, which features suburbanites who could easily dominate a catwalk, Susan (Terri Hatcher, then 49), worried she was going through menopause, only to discover she was pregnant. In television-land that meant her breasts were big enough for her to be mistaken for a stripper at a raucous teen party.

Few directors and producers are willing to integrate the realities of middle age sexuality into their movies. Nancy Meyers recalled that when she was writing Something’s Gotta Give, “I showed an early draft to a guy I know who is around 60…There’s a joke in the movie where a middle-aged man is making out with a middle-aged woman, and he says, ‘What about birth control?’ And she replies, ‘Menopause.’ And this guy said to me: ‘Don’t mention menopause. Not sexy. Why bring it up?’ I said: ‘Hey, what do you mean? This woman is 55 years old—I’m not going to write a movie about people this age and have them act like they’re 32. It’s part of the story’.

Of course Hollywood is in the business of fantasy and myth. Movie stars are supposed to inhabit Mount Olympus. But when Sarah Jessica Parker and Jennifer Aniston’s Playboy-bunny figures are marketed as the new look of middle age, it emphasizes only the physiological dimension of aging. Aniston’s nude appearance on the cover of Esquire in 2008 was accompanied by an article that noted: “That body—well, as you can see, it defies both time and nature.” That’s okay for Aniston, but now that image of a 40-year-old body is filed in our mental database of what 40-year-olds look like.

Unless a script calls for a woman to be dumped by her husband, filmgoers have come to expect the kind of nature-defying casting decisions that had a then 28-year-old Angelina Jolie playing the middle-aged mother of Colin Farrell, 27, in the 2004 film Alexander. (Val Kilmer, at 45, was the father.)

Age appropriate casting has occurred more recently in the upscale worlds created by the director Nancy Meyers. A tiny clutch of privileged actresses like Julia Roberts in Larry Crowne (2011), Meryl Streep in It’s Complicated (2009) and Diane Keaton in Something’s Gotta Give (2003) get to play desirable, funny and smart women in their middle years. Still there is a difference between the more consciously feminist films like Terms of Endearment (1983) and these later versions. Keaton’s successful 55-year-old playwright lived in a Hamptons mansion, is whisked to Paris by a handsome young cardiologist (Keanu Reeves) and followed there by a multi-millionaire entrepreneur (Jack Nicholson). The sex scenes showed only a quick and appealing flash of flesh. There is nothing like the bracing honesty of Terms, which had Jack Nicholson (also as an irrepressible playboy) and Shirley MacLaine display bulging bellies as they faced each other across a bed for their first sexual encounter.

Streep may have won this year’s Oscar, but researchers studying the “double jeopardy” of age and gender bias found that “youth was the most powerful criterion for women who won the Best Actress award, while middle age was the best predictor for male Best Actor winners.”

As the silent screen star Lillian Gish said: “When I first went into the movies Lionel Barrymore played my grandfather. Later he played my father and finally he played my husband. If he had lived I’m sure I would have played his mother. That’s the way it is in Hollywood. The men get younger and the women get older.”

________________________________________________________

Patricia Cohen has been a culture reporter and editor at the New York Times for more than thirteen years. She previously worked at The Washington Post, New York Newsday and Rolling Stone magazine. Purchase the book here.

New Hunger Games Trailer - Katniss Shows Her Skills

Melissa Silverstein — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:30:00 GMT

Over a million views since March 1st.

How Big Will The Hunger Games Open?

Melissa Silverstein — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:03:04 GMT

The news is that this week when The Hunger Games came onto the pre release tracking (which is what the studios use to gauge awareness and desire to see a film) it was huge - so huge that experts are saying it could open between $70 and $100 million.

Looking at one year ago in the same date slot (3rd weekend in March), Limitless grossed almost $19 million. The Hunger Games will clearly outperform that number but what is so interesting is the wide range of the prediction. This film is another unprecdented film for the business and this is what excites me. It excites me because unlike Twilight, this is a movie that stars a young woman who is clearly a STRONG female character and that boys, girls, men and women want to see this film. This will be a huge cross over and while it won't make Harry Potter money, that series is a good model for this.

This is a cross-over film and while the numbers of young women and girls who go and see will be huge, the numbers across other quadrants will also be big.

So while Twilight set the stage for the young female market with a $69 million opening (on Thnaksgiving weekend), The Hunger Games is going to take it to a whole new place.

This is going to be a really interesting month to watch as this all rolls out. I also want people to keep in mind that this film has a female producer - Nina Jacobson.

And PS Suzanne Collins posted on her Facebook site that she has seen the film and likes it.

Massive Tracking for 'Hunger Games' Could Mean a $100 Mil Opening (Hollywood Reporter)

'Hunger Games' could open at $100 million, surveys suggest (LA Times)

Branding The Oscar Body

Emily Fox-Kales — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:43:17 GMT

If this year’s Oscars known as the "women's superbowl" only attracted half (39.3 million to be exact) the viewing audience of that great male gladiator event, that’s still way more than enough people to make an enormous impact on the body ideals and aspirations of girls and women who buy the fashion lines and accessories and makeover surgeries (AKA “aesthetic medicine”) such as the silicone implants and butt lifts that inspire fans to become clones of their favorite hot movie star.

This process of body commodification and celebrity body branding was back in force on Oscar night beginning with the red carpet pre-award ritual. The camera zoomed in on Gwyneth Paltrow and Rooney Mara’s legs, hips, breasts, and arms, literally dis-embodying them as they dutifully modeled their designer gowns. In their pro forma greeting interview they announce “who” they are wearing-- as if their entire identity at that moment is bound up in the clothing and accessories they display in the most televised annual enactment of “lookism”- our cultural dedication to perfecting the body’s appearance which drives our super-narrow ideals of femininity.

Tween and teen girls - the most lucrative market (over $150 million a year) for Hollywood movies and spin-off movie star branded products like make-up, clothes, jewelry, dolls, and phones - are especially vulnerable to believing that their identity comes from the outer surface of their body. Teen pics teach girls “I am my brand, my size (preferably a “zero”) my shape, my number on the scale” and the resulting obsession with dieting and over-exercising.

So there was J. Lo. on the red carpet modeling her gown as she reminded the interviewer not only of her humble Bronx beginnings but of her spin-off fashion and perfume lines that have allowed her entry to a consumer paradise where she can wear “the best.” And it was telling that once the awards got underway, not only were women directors and writers conspicuously absent in the nominated films even in the prepared clips there were precious few actresses interviewed except, ironically, Gabourey Sidibe who noted as a woman of color how few images appeared on Hollywood’s screens she could identify with.

The women who work as professional actors were once again reduced to a display of their branded bodies. As blogs and sites excoriated and glorified Emma Stone’s red bow or Viola Davis’ green gown, the twittersphere lit up with the big reveal moments of J Lo’s “nip slip” (@JLosNipple) and Angelina Jolie’s right leg (@AngelinasRight Leg.) She may be a supermom and director but she is reduced to a scarily bone-thin leg and thigh suddenly emerging from her enveloping black gown, not to mention the “thinspiration” such an image provides to girls all over the world who in their quest for the super slender body follow her diet regimens like a gospel for our times.

So why gripe? After all it’s just a guilty pleasure where at worst where we can suspend our critical judgement once a year and enjoy the snacks and the ads--just like the Superbowl. But beyond the sheer visual pleasure of the glamour and the glitz and the months-long Oscar buzz about winners and losers- for the millions of women and girls across the world watching the impact of the event can be downright damaging. The display of movie star bodies at the Oscars is not just an apotheosis to the objectification of women’s bodies but it helps perpetuate a consumer beauty culture that promotes an image of body perfection and the ever-growing market for the products and procedures to achieve that perfection. It has given rise to an “eating disordered culture” marked by chronic body anxiety and dissatisfaction that now reaches far beyond Hollywood to high school girls in Tanzania and burkha-wearing housewives in Saudi Arabia. And let's remember it's not just women who are affected—it’s the men and boys who watch and are being taught that on Oscar night- just like all other nights- guys get the Awards and women get to be the body brands.

___________________________________________________________

Emily Fox-Kales Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist at Harvard Medical School specializing in eating disorders and also teaches film and gender studies at Northeastern University. Her new book is BODY SHOTS: HOLLYWOOD AND THE CULTURE OF EATING DISORDERS.