I ♥ Female Directors

Dear Reader,

Every year there are studies and lists and think pieces about the lack of female directors working in television and film. And hey, we love studies and lists and think pieces as much as the next gal, but the numbers are soooo depressing and the problem is soooo entrenched and unchanging that reading about it starts to feel a lot like eating your vegetables if vegetables tasted like futility which they do.

We started iheartfemaledirectors.com because we think the biggest thing missing from the conversation about female directors is some good old-fashioned gushy fandom. We will not have achieved true equality until every film school student who ever jizzed himself talking about the exploration of violence and masculinity in Fight Club has also needed a change of pants after discussing the exploration of violence and masculinity in Beau Travail.

Yes, there are historically fewer female directors than male, but there have still been hundreds (thousands?) of great ones. And new female directors are being born and dismissed every minute! So while the major studios’ scientists toil away in their under-the-lot labs, manufacturing the single perfect, hireable female director*, we’ll be swooning over the ones who have already put amazing, love letter-worthy things into the world.  

So here’s our plan: every week we’ll put up a new love letter to a female director we’re obsessed with. And look, maybe that won't solve all of sexism in Hollywood. But it might get you to watch an Agnes Varda movie, and isn't that a close second?

Love,
Annabel, Laura & Charley

 

*Criteria:
• Experienced (but also fresh!)
• Works Constantly (but is always available)
• Commanding (but not emasculating)
• Will represent the wokeness and feminism of the studio (but won’t complain about institutionalized sexism)
• Has a unique voice (but wants to direct mediocre tentpoles)
• A visionary (but takes all notes)

Dear Nancy Meyers,

As you read this, please imagine us in one of your kitchens, each holding a warm mug of something, ready to bare the souls that lay beneath our cozy September sweaters. Because that’s how you make me feel. At home. No matter where I am.

I adored your words before I knew they were yours, before I knew that words would put food on my own table one day. Your words always ushered in a sigh of relief, much like the words that would come to define you in my mind: cozy, comfy, home

So of course I’m obsessed with THE HOLIDAY, your film about two women who swap homes – ultimately just trying to feel at home within themselves. That’s all I’ve ever tried to do. When I moved to LA, everything felt foreign. I was so far from every home I’d ever known. Would this town ever feel familiar?

Cue The Santa Anas.

Who knew gale force winds could make me so happy? Turns out, your love letter to Hollywood – old and new – was the meet cute that LA and I needed.

Today, I’m proud to say that my Jasper is long gone. And that my favorite lipstick is MAC’s version of “Berry Kiss.” I chose my apartment because it felt like Iris’ cottage – the space and the fact that I could see myself sleeping with Jude Law there. But mostly the space.

The pieces of myself that I see in Iris are no longer the sad ones. There’s a comfort that comes from that, a new cozy layer to add to the pile of handmade blankets you’ve already covered me with over the years.

Thank you for showing me how to be at home. How to nurture my own space. And to only share it with those who are worthy. Both my cozy Jude Law love nest… and the home within.

With Love and Gumption,
Toby

Source: www.iheartfemaledirectors.com/nancy-meyers