Women and Hollywood: Clothes make the director. That's the lesson filmmaker Ava DuVernay imparted in her keynote speech at the LA Film Independent Forum last week. In her 45-minute speech, the 2012 winner of the Sundance Film Festival's Best Director prize described her "director's uniform," a kind of work armor that's more about self-protection than self-expression.
4 comments:
This article is a lot different than I expected it to be. I was expecting to read something about professionalism, and ended up reading something that stems from a need to hide behind what you are wearing. OK, I understand that people in most departments of theatre have some sort of "standard." Not a uniform, really, but something that is typical for people who do their job to wear. There's TD plaid, manager blazer, etc. And these things do reflect on you. They effect the impressions that people get of you. However, I do not agree that all women need to pay special attention to how they dress in order to be treated equally. I don't wake up in the morning and pick out clothes in hopes that I can be seen as measuring up to others. I wear what I like and what works for the job I am doing.
I was expecting something else with this article as well. I was expecting to see something about professionalism, but I guess that clothing is a version of defense against the outside world. This made me think about whether I use clothing as a means of defense and I'm not sure. I've always thought about it more as professionalism and ease of identification, but I guess I do feel more comfortable around people when I'm dressed this way. But I do like her idea behind calling it a uniform. I've been referring to what I wear as a uniform for quite awhile because this is how I dress when I'm working, which is how I define uniforms. A director friend of mine told me once that he has Press glasses that we wears whenever he does press so that he is always aware that he is doing press and doesn't say anything inappropriate. This seems like a similar type of situation.
I love these tips- she's not saying "as a director, you have to look professional, you have to look nice, you have to work on your appearance so that people will like you." She's saying "this is how I dress so I can do the things I need to"- this is how to be practical, how to give the right impression and how to get the work done. For her, glasses are pretty much the same as work boots- she can't do her job without them. I've noticed this with people in drama especially- from looking at the clothes people wear you can often tell what department they're in. I feel like it's usually most recognizable with costume designers and TD's, but there is definitely a "uniform" that goes with each area of interest. I know most people don't do it intentionally- no one wakes up and says "I am a TD so I'm going to wear plaid today", but it happens anyway.
I don't know that I've met too many directors that aren't going to dress with this same mindset. It seems like comfort and self-expression are always the top priorities. It is annoying, however, to think that women like her have to veer towards dressing less feminine to avoid sexism, but I diegress.
I think the most important lesson in this article is to focus less on getting what you want from other people, and to spend that time perfecting your projects. This industry teaches you to use your contacts for everything you need, but if you have the talent, perhaps what you need can come to you.
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