THE 2ND SEX &amp; THE 7TH ART: WOMEN DIRECTORS IN FILM

Bite-sized blog post: Amy Heckerling

AMY HECKERLING studied at NYU and then went on to get her MFA at AFI. Shedirected the now classic film Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and went on to direct the cult classic Clueless (1995).

She most recently directed for the Amazon series Red Oaks.

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NETFLIX

Bite-sized blog post: Jane Campion

The first woman to win the Palme d’Or was JANE CAMPION for her film The Piano (1993) which also made her the second woman nominated for an Oscar for Best Director (Lina Wertmüller was nominated before Campion in 1976 for her film Seven Beauties).

In 2013 Campion took over as Cannes Jury President, the year after a petition was circulated when no women directors were represented at the festival. As Campion said about the sexism in the industry, “Excuse me gentlemen, but the guys seem to eat all the cake. It’s not that I resent the male filmmakers. I love all of them. But there is something that women are thinking of doing that we don’t get to know enough about. It’s always a surprise when a woman filmmaker does come about.”

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NETFLIX

BARNES & NOBLE DVD to PURCHASE

Bite-sized blog post: Lake Bell

LAKE BELL studied drama in England at Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance and came back to the United States to start a successful career as an actress. She directed her first short film Worst Enemy (2010) shown at Sundance. Her feature In a World... (2013) also premiered at Sundance.

In an interview she said about her directing experience: “The first day I thought, ‘My god, I feel so at home. What a great comradery This quenches my thirst for something creative in a way I never knew was possible.’ I sort of loved the bustle of a thousand questions. Women are inherently kind of multitaskers.”

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Where to watch her films:

AMAZON (PRIME STREAMING)

Bite-sized blog post: Sarah Pirozek

SARAH PIROZEK comes from a fine arts background – studying at the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program early in her career, then going on to study at the Actors Studio and screenwriting at the New School.

Her first feature documentary Free Tibet (1998) documents the 1997 two day concert to benefit Tibet. Many prominent rock artists of the time took part – Smashing Pumpkins, De La Soul, Fugees among others. Pirozek has gone on to direct numerous music videos and commercials.

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DVD on Netflix

Bite-sized blog post: Nancy Meyers

NANCY MEYERS’ first job in Hollywood was as a production assistant on The Price is Right. She then started working as a story editor and wrote her first screenplay Private Benjamin (1980), starring Goldie Hawn.

The first film she wrote and directed was The Parent Trap (1998) – a remake of the 1961 film and she has gone on to make several Hollywood box office hits.

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AMAZON (PRIME STREAMING)

Bite-sized blog post: Sofia Coppola

SOFIA COPPOLA began her career as a still photographer and actress in her famous father’s films, playing an infant in a christening scene in The Godfather (1972). She learned all about making movies first hand by growing up in the industry and after directing a few shorts made her first feature film The Virgin Suicides (1999) which premiered at Sundance.

She was the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director with her film Lost in Translation (2003) for which she won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

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NETFLIX

Bite-sized blog post: Jan Eliasberg

After receiving an MFA from Yale’s drama program and directing for prominent theatre companies JAN ELIASBERG was well-equipped to direct character driven television shows with an emphasis on performance and started out directing for shows such as Cagney & Lacey and LA Law after attending the AFI Directing Workshop for Women.

She was then chosen by Michael Mann to be the first woman to direct an episode of the action packed TV series Miami Vice which allowed her to segue into directing action. She ended up directing three episodes for the series and then used those action skills to direct her feature film Past Midnight (1991).

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VIMEO

Bite-sized blog post: Claudia Weill

Stanley Kubrick praised CLAUDIA WEILL’s first feature film Girlfriends (1978) as one of the most interesting American films of its time, comparable in quality to European films (high praise from Kubrick).

Weill most recently directed for the popular television series Girls.

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Bite-sized blog post: Gillian Robespierre

GILLIAN ROBESPIERRE co-wrote and directed the Independent Spirit Award nominated film Obvious Child (2014) based on the short she created of the same name after graduating from the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

The film was funded in part by a crowdfunding via a Kickstarter campaign and premiered at South by Southwest.

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