Female filmmakers are more independent
The war being waged against the Hollywood mainstream by independent filmmakers may be an arduous battle, but thanks to the growing number of female warriors, indie film’s army is getting a little bigger.
Take Megan Holley for example. The female director has gone around the country screening her cloning drama, The Snowflake Crusade, at festivals and was at Penn State Erie last October to participate in the Screen Visions Independent Film Series. Since then, Holley has been actively preparing for the production of her second feature film.
In her travels, Holley hasn’t run into many other female filmmakers, but she thinks the traditionally male-dominated profession is just “something women don’t think of going into.”
Holley, who currently lives in Richmond, Va., didn’t originally think of going into it either. A long-time love affair with the cinema lead to her joining an alternative film club while working toward her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Mass Communication, but she ended up going to graduate school for sociology. Holley said it wasn’t until many years after college that a film series inspired her to make her own shorts.
“I started going to a local film series called Flicker,” said Holley.
Flicker is a Richmond based, bi-monthly film series that presents the Super 8 and 16mm shorts of Central Virginia filmmakers for the local audiences. Holley said it only took a few screening to make her think she to could make a film.
“It’s an amazing feeling, creating something and then having people there watching,” said Holley. “That’s kind of what propelled me further.”
It propelled her far enough to make The Snowflake Crusade, a sci-fi drama about a clone whose struggle for individuality leads to his inevitable self-destruction. It’s that type of unusual story that makes the indie female filmmaker stand out.
In the world of studio film, only seven of the nearly 300 films to gross over $100 million have been directed by women. The stereotypical “chick flicks” makes up five of the seven films.
Luckily Oscar knows where the real gold is, and in a historic year for female filmmakers, the Academy Award nominations are ruled by the independent woman.
Sofia Coppola, daughter of famed director Francis Ford Coppola and director of Lost in Translation, became the first American female to be nominated for the Best Director Oscar, while three lead actresses were all directed to Oscars by women.
With the exception of Diane Keaton, who was nominated for her role in Nancy Meyers’s Something’s Gotta Give, the lead actresses were primarily from independently produced features that were distributed in the art house theatres.
With the accolades starting to pile-up for female directors, independent production companies are beginning to see a rise in the number of female directors that are prepared to go behind the camera.
One of the production companies Holley has been in talks with told her that the last three films that they decided to produce were all written and directed by women.
Holley also said that the female filmmaker is providing an alternative to the independent films of the mid- to late-nineties that were mostly directed by 20 something men.
Films like Clerks are what people have come to know as the model for independent film.
“Female filmmakers bring a sensibility to their material that’s maybe a little different,” said Holley.
While Holley isn’t nominated for an Oscar yet, she does think the future for her and other female filmmakers looks bright.
“I think the independent production companies are looking for the new voices,” said Holley. “They want a new angle on material and a fresh voice.”
As long as there continue to be female filmmakers like Sofia Coppola and Megan Holley, there will be always fresh voices to sound the war-cry of independent film that is shaping the future of the industry.
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