Half the Picture is a Full Portrait of Discrimination
Half the Picture
Directed by Amy Adrion
The review:
The talking heads in this movie are all women* and all are talking about how hard it is to get a job as a director in Hollywood. Various areas of discrimination are covered** as many directors get to talk about what they love about directing and what keeps them from their love. One thing I learned: it’s just as hard to break into directing TV episodes as it is to direct feature films.***
The verdict: Good
Cost: free via DVD from the Multnomah County Library
Where watched: at home
Further sentences:
*Nearly all are directors, but there’s a woman from the Sundance Institute who pops in now and then, plus a few academics and a reporter who notes that she’s written the same article about the lack of women directors nine or ten times.
**Directing is “too hard” for women. What about their families? Crews don’t like to listen to women. Women can’t direct action/horror/war/most things. Male critics tend to not “get” movies made by women. Things made by women aren’t as good as things made by men.
***This was interesting to me because I’ve noticed that most women feature film directors intersperse directing films with directing TV episodes. It turns out that if you haven’t directed TV, the powers that be aren’t convinced you can direct it, even if you’ve directed entire movies.
Questions:
- What do you think the solution is to get more women behind the camera?
- Who is your favorite woman director?
Other reviews of Half the Picture:
- April Wolfe, the WRAP
- Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times
