New Year's Resolution: No More Crowdfunding White Dudes.

So, I've got a film related New Years Resolution: I will not give any kickstarter money to white male filmmakers. It might seem obnoxious or closed minded to some but, I thought about it a lot and it is a rule I am going to try and stick by.

The thing that first got me thinking about this was a pre-holiday onslaught of white dude directors gracing my facebook wall in search of money for their projects, taking advantage of the holiday spirit (& the tax deductible year end donation season)! One of these kickstarters, whose film is basically done, or at least done enough to get into a major film festival, is seeking funds for his large production team to travel to the premier of the film...o, and he also wants money to build a kick ass website for the film. The filmmaker obviously got enough money to make a large scale film. Enough money to get it into a big name fest. People invested in it enough to get the thing made and out there, so why should I step in and help market the film? Help it find a distributor? So many other directors out there- especially women & minority filmmakers, and even a bunch of other, less connected white dudes- struggle to just get a film made and I think there is something a little lame about funneling even more money into an already funded, nearly completed project by a well established white guy who makes films for a living. How can we proliferate distinct, new voices in film without funding them? Does this guy really need help? Especially given the fact that (according to my math) out of 17 of the fiction film premiers at Sundance this year, 2 were directed by women and out of the 11 documentary premiers 2 were directed by women, and one of those women happens to be a Kennedy! Her funding is probably just fine? I haven't parsed out the ethnicities of the directors but I would bet money it's a high white guy percent...and, in case you are suspect, the screenwriters for all of these tend to be the directors too so there isn't too much written lady voice in there either. Yeah...white dudes, you aint getting my money! And I am sure some Sundance employee will argue that there weren't a lot of submissions from female fimmakers which might be true, but true for very good reasons...

I've often heard the argument that there aren't a lot of women in the arts because there aren't a lot of women who are good at the arts. I actually agree with this to some degree. I don't think there are enough female filmmakers, artists, and other culture makers working on a professional level out in the world. And you know why? Because our ability to exist as artists- even our ability to exist as professionals let alone creative professionals- began so much later than our male counterparts: the gender wage gap still at a cool 77¢ to a man's $1. Women have not suddenly become creative but the starting line for women working professionally in creative fields began much more recently than that of the age old marathon of males. But, maybe this thinking is somewhat flawed? Maybe women have been working professionally, we just don't know it.

Some think cultural institutions need to be sure to include women in the history of art: women have always been there through artistic movements, making things equivalent to & just as influential as men. If the narrative of art history chooses to include women then maybe, just maybe, the vital role they have always played in creative fields can be discovered and allow for the long legacy of female creatives to be revealed and, ultimately, more strongly extended into the future. Others argue that quotas in funding an equal amount of male and female filmmakers should be implemented in order to expand the range of storytelling (mostly in countries that provide government issued film funds). This idea ties in with the former for sure: the voices of women have not, and are not, being heard & documented and it's about time there is an institutional change. No matter the solution to upping the visibility of women in the arts, the fact is women HAVE been making things alongside men forever, they have just been written out of the larger story in a way that has led to things like exposure, professional recognition, and, ultimately, funding to remain elusive. Note:...and speaking of silencing, don't get me started on the MPAA & their double standards regarding what parts of a woman's sex life is acceptable to see on the big screen!

There are a lot of ladies out there living the filmmaking dream of course...Amy Seimetz, Miranda July, Sarah Polley, Kelley Reichardt,  Lena Dunham, have all come onto the scene with amazing projects of all kinds. There isn't a lack of talent by any means, there is a lack of including that talent in a larger narrative of cultural history and allowing that talent the chance to be listened to by a wider audience. I'm not giving kickstarter money for anymore boy stories!!! It's time to think about whose voices have yet to be heard and whose voices we should want to hear from.

Resources for Women in Film!

1. GRANTS:  Chicken & Egg Pictures (money & mentorships for women made docs), The Adrienne Shelley Women Filmmakers Grant (through Sundance, part of the Adrienne Shelley Foundation, a great director taken too soon!), a list of other grants can be found at Women Arts.

2. SITES & ORGS & FESTS: Women Make Movies, Agnes Films, Citizen Jane, AXW Film Festival, Indiewire's Women and Hollywood blog, and Camera Obscura.

my critical eyes are blood shot

Ok. I've watched 53 movies for screening committees so far...and I have about 30+ left to go! I can do this! Stay with me folks! Don't get me wrong, I love doing this but some days...some days I feel like the movies are watching me? (Has that been a horror movie yet? Movie Watches Man? Man, any horror movie fests out there need a screener? No, Donna, NO! Stay focused!) Understandably, I am finding it hard to write about film lately since it is consuming a lot of my waking hours so, in the meantime, I will leave you with some pretty interesting film-centric links to tie you over until my brain is ready to wrap around some blog-style thoughts on film...Note: WebMD suggests the following for my movie worn eyes, "Apply a washcloth soaked in warm water to tired, dry eyes (with eyes closed)." 

1. Mono No Aware is an organization dedicated to film (actual film!), expanded cinema (yay!), and different forms of manipulation of the filmic medium (think film reel looper light boxes or prisms casting off projections). An annual exhibition of performances, installations, and sculptures will be happening this Friday & Saturday (December 6th & 7th) in Brooklyn at Lightspace Studios. I think this is required viewing for anyone who has ever looked at that beam of light coming from a whirring projection booth and thought about what could happen in, around, in front of, or with it! 


 
2.  Little known fact about me: I wrote my college undergrad thesis on the editing, cinematography, and film genre bending in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive and how they created their own character/audience/director. Yeah. It probably didn't make sense then either... Either way, I did feel a little sense of satisfaction when I recently read that Roger Ebert (along with 1,000 other people) in Colorado in 2002 close read this film, out loud, nearly frame by frame trying to define the lexicon of symbols that hovered around the film like a floating camera over a characters shoulder in a diner, a diner whose dumpster is home to a terrifying ghoul of death (it is still scary! AAAAAHH!)! 


 
3. Youtube had some kind of awards ceremony. Which would seem unimportant if it wasn't for the fact that youtube, and others like it, really has revolutionized the way we access media and even, to some extent, the way, the type and the quality with which new media is produced, a new award for a new platform. Yes.  I didn't watch the event but I have watched some clips and there is this awesome staged w/sets, in camera effects broadcast, and a real music video online quality specifically for youtube watchers, mixed with live music performance for a live audience- the two modes feeling very separate in a new way, unlike any other award show event production I have really ever seen. This weird hybrid reminded me of the best of cable access & it's simple DIY spirit, of the risky, and the slightly scripted messes that make live performance, all a nice wake up from overly executed contemporary Hollywood & the overly edited-in-post-mostly-acted non reality of reality tv.  

4. And, lastly, some random shorts/promos I found and like just now:

• A Norwegian Award Show Promo that was supposedly made in two days. A Wes Anderson feel with a surreal, spooky, pastel vibe. 

• When I was 6 or 7 at the local county fair there was a balloon festival. In attempts to make proper race weight a balloon operator needed a scrawny kid and pointed at me. I declined because I didn't want to leave my friend behind at the fair with my parents. This beautiful, time lapse hot air balloon video makes me regret my decision even more. I know mom, I know, I should have gone...sigh...
• Ryan Trecartin (the maker of grotesque, John Waters-ish, spazzy, high pitched, experimental, layered, brightly colored art films) is like the internet: he always seems to mesmerize AND bore me? His new one is no different! 
• O, and Laure Provoust, a conceptual French artist working in London, won the coveted Turner Prize- like a lot of money & prestige for weird art that you'd think wouldn't make money on it's own but does- they give out in England annually.  I know nothing about her work but this video , this video I like!