Feminist Media Festival

By: Grace Carballo ‘17

USC WCA (Women of Cinematic Arts) launched the first annual feminist media festival on September 15th and I was thrilled to be there to witness the Opening Ceremonies. 

The goal of the festival is to produce art and connections, in the name of equality. It is, after all, widely known that the film industry has racial and gender biases. In general, there is a significant lack of diversity in terms of content creators as well as a related lack of representation on-screen of women and people of color, particularly in meaningful roles. 

Professor Stacy Smith, director of the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at USC Annenberg, has researched gender imbalance in film extensively, among other imbalances, as well: 

“A gendered marketplace affects male and female filmmakers differently. As market forces increase, the opportunities for female directors decrease.”

Professor Smith and her team of researchers found that while male-directed and female-directed Sundance movies are picked up for distribution in roughly equal percentages, men are significantly more likely than women to get distribution with the bigger budget companies (Disney, Sony, Warner Bros, etc.) whereas their women counterparts are left to independent companies, which have less financial resources. Additionally, males outpace female directors by a ratio of 6 to 1 when it comes to broad distribution.

This study focused on 10 of the world’s more prestigious film festivals over a five-year period (2010-14) and found that women represent 28% of the directors of narrative shorts. But Smith observed that females face a “fiscal cliff” after making a short: “For males opportunities grow, while for females, they vanish.” Women directed just 4.1% of the top-grossing movies from 2002-2014.

The results of this study identified the roots of this imbalance as a number of factors that limit women’s opportunities in the process of content creation, including presumptions among execs that women-directed films are less commercial, concerns that women can’t handle big budgets or large crews and the misconception that women have no interest in making action films.

Why is it such an important step to have more women directors in order to close the gender gap in the industry? Smith and her team found that films directed by women employ TWICE as many female editors, and FIVE TIMES as many female cinematographers than films directed by men. Whereas just 10% of writers are women in films directed by men, 50% of writers are women in films directed by women. 

Martha Lauzen, the executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, found that only 9% of directors for the top 250 grossing American films last year were female.

Notably, female directors proved to impact the portrayal of women in the media. Films with at least one woman writer or director feature more female characters, and those characters tend to speak more and provide young women and girls with potential role models.

The Feminist Media Festival Opening Ceremonies took place at the Ray Stark Family Theater in USC’s iconic School of Cinematic Arts. Haifaa Al Mansour, the first female filmmaker in Saudi Arabia, spoke to attendees about her own experiences making films, which were very relevant to the theme of this year’s FMF: overcoming adversity. After she spoke, following the introductions by leaders of WCA, desserts were served at a networking mixer, in the hopes that attendees could connect, discuss ideas, and form teams to make projects for the festival (due in March).

The ceremonies were the first in a series of events and workshops in the festival. Last week, I participated in a Mock Writer’s Room with Akela Cooper, who most recently wrote for the latest season of American Horror Story and Luke Cage.

Akela was relatable and funny and provided us with valuable advice about the industry from her own personal experience. Together, we wrote a few scenes, pitching ideas and dialogue like in a real writer’s room. Akela reminded us that when you are a staff writer on a TV show, your loyalty is to your show-runner and their vision and voice. She compared it to being a baby-sitter of the episode you’re assigned to. This is not my baby, I’m just taking care of it for an episode or two- so you respect the parents’ wishes. She also encouraged all of us to find the gaps, find what people need, and then do it, in order to get our foot in the door in the television-writing industry. In just a little over an hour, we collaboratively wrote a sharp scene and learned so much from Akela’s wisdom. 

There are more events coming up, including a Budgeting Workshop and a Casting Workshop. I’ll probably go to both if I can get on the sign-up lists fast enough. Given that the costs of participating in the FMF is only $5, I feel I’ve already gotten significantly more than my money’s worth. I definitely encourage everyone to participate in the Feminist Media Festival (teams just have to be at least 50% women), because it thus far has proven to be an informative and empowering experience for me. I know so many talented women with majors and minors in SCA and I believe with opportunities and organizations like WCA and FMF, these women will play key roles in the future of film and help to close the gender gap.

Fight (the patriarchy) On,

Grace Carballo ‘17

To get involved or stay updated on WCA events check out their Facebook Page!

For further reading, check out Fortune’s article, Study Shows How Women Directors Get Blocked in Hollywood, the L.A. Times Op-Ed “Hollywood’s female deficit isn’t going away”, and Vanity’s Study: Female Directors Face Strong Bias in Landing Studio Films. 

As well as the Smith, Pieper, et. al. Study on Gender and Short Films and 

Exploring the Careers of Female Directors: Phase III Study, both from the best and brightest of USC Annenberg.  

Professor Stacy Smith was my Communication and Mass Media professor my very first semester freshman year and I’ll forever revere her and her research which detects gender and racial bias in film and in the content creation process.

Want more from Trojans 360?

Visit Trojans 360 on Facebook & Twitter to stay up to date with more student content! You can also Ask A Trojan an anonymous question, and we’ll try to answer it in a future post. And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram!

Trojans 360 is USC’s official student-run blog. Content created by students, for students.