Suzanne Simoni - Fantastic Female Filmmakers

Fantastic Female Filmmakers

Suzanne Simoni

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Simoni, Suzanne, 1957
Fantastic female filmmakers / by Suzanne Simoni.

(Womens hall of fame series)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-897187-36-4

1. Women motion picture producers and directorsBiography
Juvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series.

PN1998.2.S45 2008 j791.4302330922 C2007-906432-9

Copyright 2008 by Suzanne Simoni

Edited by Carolyn Jongeward
Designed by Melissa Kaita
Cover photo and icons istockphoto.com
Printed and bound in Canada

Second Story Press gratefully acknowledges the support of the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledgethe financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program.

Published by

Second Story Press

20 Maud Street, Suite 40I

Toronto, ON

M5V 2M5

www.secondstorypress.ca

NELL SHIPMAN
PIONEERING IN THE WILD

IDA LUPINO
USING THE MOTHERLY APPROACH

MARGARETHE VON TROTTA
EXPLORING THE BONDS BETWEEN WOMEN

ANNE WHEELER
TELLING STORIES OF EVERYDAY PEOPLE

MARTHA COOLIDGE
PRESENTING THE SURPRISE OF TRUTH

SALLY POTTER
PUSHING BOUNDARIES IN THE MAINSTREAM

DEEPA MEHTA
REMAINING TRUE TO A VISION

EUZHAN PALCY
CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS AND STEREOTYPES

MIRA NAIR
MAKING DIFFERENCES A STRENGTH

PATRICIA ROZEMA
TELLING TRUTH THROUGH FICTION

To Rachel and Benjamin - and to my Guy

Filmmaking has been a rocky business for women. It started out well enough. Back in 1896 the movie camera was just being developed, and a few men filmed things such as trains going into tunnels. Meanwhile a woman in France, Alice GuyBlach, borrowed a camera from the manufacturer She was working for and made the first movie that told a story. As directors, producers, editors, and writers, women followed her lead and started to make movies. One of them, Nell Shipman, placed a camera in the snow and filmed in the wilds of the Great White North. Right up until the middle of the 1920s, filmmaking was good ncws for women.

Then in came the talkies movies with sound. Movie studios were born because filmmakers needed sets built away from noise. Not only did studios such as Warner Brothers have film stages, but they also bought distribution companies, and even the theaters that screened the films. Studios didnt have to worry whether theaters would show their movies, because they owned them. Making films became big business. Unions were formed and they were reluctant to admit women. The playful, pioneering spirit of filmmaking disappeared, and women found it difficult to find work behind the camera. Even now, after more than one hundred years of filmmaking, only about twelve percent of Hollywood directors are women, a figure not much different in the rest of the world.

Despite the odds, women have made a huge impact in the world of film. Dorothy Arzner, for example, was the only woman director working in Hollywood when talkies had just started. Sound was captured by microphones placed along the edges of sets. Actors had to lean toward the microphones to say their lines. One day Dorothy had the idea of using a fishing rod to suspend the microphones over the heads of the actors so that they could say their lines anywhere on the set. She had invented the boom mike.

Over the years there have been many more firsts by women as directors, producers, editors, and writers all of them impressive. In an effort to narrow down the list to ten filmmakers for this book, we chose women who have had different experiences working as feature film directors. The profiles show the variety of ways that women directors work and cope with the challenge of succeeding in a mans world.

Ida Lupino became a mother figure in order to work with her actors and crew. Deepa Mehta needed bodyguards to keep angry mobs at bay while filming in India. Sally Potter draws on her love of music and dance, Euzhan Palcy uses the setting of her island home of Martinique, Margarethe von Trotta and Deepa Mehta explore the bonds between women and their role in society. Some, such as Martha Coolidge who waited twenty years to direct the feature film she wanted to make in Hollywood, need extraordinary perseverance. Others, such as Mira Nair and Patricia Rozema, make movies on a shoestring and still win awards.

Watch their films (although not all those mentioned in this book will be appropriate for all ages), and as the lights go down, imagine the feeling the director must have. The money has been raised, the script has been written, the sets have been built, the actors have learned their lines. And now it begins: Action!

PIONEERING IN THE WILD

On location in the frozen wilds of Lesser Slave Lake in northern Canada, and just about to begin filming, Nell Shipman crossed the snow toward the snarling dog and shouted, Keep the cameras going, boys! Do you hear? No matter what happens dont cut! Even the animals trainer was horrified. He was standing by with a gentler dog they had intended to use for these shots. The camera crew kept cranking which is how cameras were operated in 1919 as Nell entered the scene and moved her lips close to the dogs snarling face, as if she were whispering comforting words to him. The dog looked at her, then lowered his head and allowed her to stroke him. Unknown to everyone else, Nell had been spending time getting to know the vicious dog and had become the only one, besides the trainer, to befriend it.

Even as a child, Nell had shown her fearless nature. She was born in 1892 in Victoria, just after British Columbia joined Canadas Confederation. At the age of seven, she visited London, England, with her family. They stayed in the home of her fierce grandfather. Everyone was afraid of him. One day, back at her grandfathers house, after seeing a play, Nell was so excited about what shed seen at the theater that she broke every rule of those formal times. She approached her gruff grandfather, who was seated at the head of the table, and began speaking to him without permission! Everyone tried to stop her, but she began to act out a part of the play theyd seen. The room fell silent for a moment, but in the end everyone, including her stern grandfather, laughed at her performance. Nell was hooked on acting.

Back in Canada, thirteen-year-old Nell heard that a touring company was auditioning actors at her drama school. She was desperate to act, but her teachers thought she was too young to audition. Nell was tall for her age, though, and she was able to look at a page and remember its contents. The drama school allowed her to audition, and the touring company offered her a part. Reluctantly, her parents agreed to let her go on the road with the touring company.