Thiruvananthapuram: The percentage of women filmmakers in Canada and the USA hovers around seven. But when a commissioning programme in Canada which offers funds for filmmakers had a woman at its helm, their percentage rose to 20 and more. Commissioning editor Judy Gladstone, who is visiting the 22nd IFFK, told DC: “Producers, advertisement agencies and broadcasting studios do not let women make films. To deal with such discrimination, institutes like Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media were started in the country,” she said.
Many filmmakers rely on ads as a way to make money as well as practise their craft. However, most brands cater to a male demography, whether they are selling pizza or cars, according to Judy. Ad agencies would prefer a male filmmaker as they think men would understand that target audience better. “The person, who drinks that beverage, drives that car and eats that pizza is a hip man. So most of the time male filmmakers would be under pressure to look that part,” she said. Men would end up having more work in their portfolio, and in turn would get more work. “It is like a loop,” she said.
It was after she started taking note of the statistics concerning gender disparity in cinema that she decided to focus on making funds more accessible to women filmmakers. When Women in Film and Television (WIFT) presented her an award, she said in her acceptance speech that there was a lot more to be done and the percentage of women filmmakers should be 50. “The percentage of women producers in the programme became 50. This meant that women were doing all the work to help realise a man’s vision. It wasn’t her story. She was doing all the work for his story. That was not enough,” she said.
She felt that the #metoo campaign was a generational reaction. “I don’t think anyone should be harassed. But I take it for granted that everyone was harassed. As painful as it was, it was the norm. Women today are not willing to accept that, but women of my generation thought we had no other choice but to leave the job. Complaints about harassment would fall on deaf ears,” she said. Judy Gladstone will be one of the panellists at a workshop for women filmmakers at IFFK.
