Although the work of women in cinema doesn’t get the recognition it deserves, we want you to get to know the directors who have made history for their contributions to the film industry
According to the annual report on the role of women in cinema prepared by the Association of Women Filmmakers (CIMA), only 33% of all people working in the film industry are women, suggesting that women continue to play a very small role in this sector, and yes, proportionately speaking, this industry is predominantly occupied by men.
Although the number of female film directors is significantly lower than that of male ones due to an inequality gap deeply rooted in machismo, it is also true that there are great pioneers who you should get to know immediately, whose work is fun, and who you should recommend to others. People also help the industry move forward on the path to equality.
This year, as in all previous years, women have proven that they can create art and entertainment products of equal or higher quality than men, and it is not for nothing that National Public Radio in the United States (NPR) has featured Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Greta Gerwig, three famous personalities responsible for the summer pop resurgence.
Another important fact revealed by the CIMA annual report is that only 24% of film productions are directed by women, and although opportunities are few, there are women who have had an important impact on the art.
We start strong with a pioneer of French cinema. Agnès Varda precedes directors of the caliber of Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, who were inevitably influenced by the director of La Pointe Courte, the first film of the new French wave.
- Almost 60 years after its release, Agnès Varda’s 1965 film Le Bonheur (Happiness) continues to show one of the many faces of women’s oppression, a rebellious and revealing film for its time.
Although the path for women in the film industry is difficult, it is even more difficult for women of African descent. Dee Rees nevertheless managed to position herself as one of the most important film directors of today. He has been working with Netflix since 2017, and the first joint production is Mudbound: The Color of War.
The film received four Academy Award nominations and made Dees Rees the first black woman nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Dees Rees is also the first Afro-woman with a film that is part of the Criterion Collection, the prestigious Hollywood anthology: Piah, an autobiographical film about sexuality.
The topics treated by filmmakers are so commonplace and naturalized that they become highly disruptive discourses due to the clarity with which they are presented. This is the case of Chantal Akerman, the Belgian director who committed suicide in Paris in 2015 after being diagnosed with severe chronic depression.
Other recurring themes in his film productions are religiosity and sexuality. Akerman was the daughter of Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, which may explain her great sensitivity.
One of her most acclaimed films is Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels, about a woman trying to raise her teenage son without losing her mind.
You’ve probably already enjoyed the work of this great Scottish director. If you’ve seen “We Need to Talk About Kevin” or “You’ll Never Be Safe,” you already know who we’re talking about. Lynne Ramsay’s trademark is that, despite dealing with very sensitive topics, she prefers to resort to psychological terror since in her films there are no violent scenes, although they are very suggestive, which stimulate the imagination and make them extremely disturbing.
Lucrecia Martel is of Argentinean origin, and in her work, she portrays the real concerns of the South American population and brings them to a personal level. His first film, La Ciénaga, is considered a masterpiece of Latin American cinema due to its proximity to the social reality of Argentina, as the story revolves around a dysfunctional family that experiences a violent event in the summer due to a gunshot. It is considered the best Argentine film of all time.
