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Wednesday, September 08, 2021
Academy Museum curators bring women's stories to the surface
Los Angeles Times: During the silent era, there were plenty of female editors. They were called “cutters,” and because the work was meticulous and time-consuming, it was considered akin to sewing, and paid accordingly.
8 comments:
Celia Kasberg
said...
While I know that women are generally underrepresented and not given credit for their work behind the scenes in the entertainment industry, this article was very eye opening. The fact that studies show today about 3% of animation directors are women and less than 1% of those are women of color? Come on y'all, it's 2021. I'm glad to hear this curatorial team is striving to present and highlight women's contributions to the industry and bring awareness. Until a more diverse group and voice is represented in our industry, we will never progress artistically as a society, and everything will be told from a patriarchal perspective. As Berger, one of the museum curators said: "That's why it is so important that we are aware of multiple perspectives, and representation in a larger sense, not just gender, but also sexuality and race and abilities, all of that played a part in our discussions."
The secret histories of women in the arts is shocking, and long lasting as demonstrated by this article. Women can often offer a unique, valuable, perspective to arts simply because of the nature of historic societal gender constructs. It has also been required that they find different ways to be socially mobile instead of the ease of male workers who can interview or social network at that time. This is probably why I was surprised to hear about the prevalence of powerful female artists in early film, and it's shocking to hear that it changed with the introduction of sound. This just demonstrates the fragility of female success and power dynamics in all male dominated industries. It is inspiring that these female curators are making the active decision to promote women in a new history, and how dedicated they are to unearthing the stories of influential females and exhibiting them in a thoughtful way. I think the closing quote is so perfect in the summary of the meaning of the entire piece as a whole.
This article surprised me in more ways than one. One of the most shocking things from this article for me was the fact that women direct less than 3% of feature animated films. This is especially surprising when juxtaposed with the knowledge that the very first feature animated film was made by a woman. The same thing can be said about the notorious sexism in the film industry today, even with the knowledge that early film editing was a female dominated industry. Luckily, museum curation is also a female dominated industry, and this article proves how and why that is so important to the future of film. Honoring the contributions that women, and especially women of color, have made to film is the essential first step to stripping away the sex and gender barriers in Hollywood. My hope is that this exhibit, and others like it, begin bringing attention to how indispensable female voices are in film.
It is an unfortunate truth that the film industry (as well as basically every industry) is male dominated. It is refreshing to see that the curators of the Academy Museum are putting in the work and time to find and give recognition to the countless women who were pioneers and true artist behind some of the earliest major films, whose stories have otherwise been lost to time. Even just in reading this article, I learned about several filmmakers whom I have never heard of before, while easily recognizing the films which they worked on. It was also shocking to learn about the statistics of women in animation – the fact that women make up the majority of students in animation programs at universities across the country, and yet make up less than 3% of the overall workforce of animators in the industry. Progress is definitely being made in equity and equality for all in the industry, but statistics like these just go to show how ever present the inequity is to this day. Work has been done, but there is much left to do.
These stories are always moving (and heartbreaking) to me. These women’s careers are a testament to how much harder women have to work in order to achieve the same recognition as their male peers. It is lovely that this team of female curators are making an explicit effort to finally put credit where it is due after all these years. It is even more exciting to see Black female producers, designers, directors, and the like being recognized, especially when historically if a woman was recognized, she was probably white. Unearthing the talents of these incredible artists is a true blessing for young women today, and is a necessary honor that these women deserved ages ago. Hopefully as more of these kinds of changes to culture are made, we will see the gender gap decrease in the entertainment industry, an overall positive change in “boy’s club” workplace culture, and a proper/well-deserved change in recognition for female work in the industry.
Curators have a very powerful position, as the people who decide what art people see in museums and how that art is presented, so it’s good to see women in that role that are more invested in highlighting female artists. I didn’t know about “cutters” before reading the article, but it didn’t surprise me that once there was more money involved in filmmaking, the women that did difficult, tedious work were abandoned. In most industries, once significant money starts being made, you see less women; while women stitch clothing in sweatshops and ateliers, female fashion designers are in the minority at NYFW. I appreciated the detailed look at Eiko Ishioka’s work as a costume designer, the article prompted me to look up her poster design for “Apocalypse Now” as well as some of her costume renderings for “Dracula,” and I see why Coppola hired her, as she has an amazing visual imagination that is translated beautifully in her designs.
I am heartened to see curators working to highlight the work of these women cutters. Like many of my fellow commentators, I was quite shocked to learn that women direct only three percent of animated feature films. And now that I think of it, I do not think I could name even one. Granted, I do not have a particularly precise cache of who directs what, but I just looked up some of my favorite animated movies, and only one of them had a woman in the director's role, and even then she shared the title with a man. It is good to see these curators giving credit where credit is long overdue. I hope there will be more exhibits like this one. The first step to breaking down stigma and overcoming oppression is learning. Hopefully, exhibits like this one will inform more people about to good work of underrepresented communities and the importance of that work.
8 comments:
While I know that women are generally underrepresented and not given credit for their work behind the scenes in the entertainment industry, this article was very eye opening. The fact that studies show today about 3% of animation directors are women and less than 1% of those are women of color? Come on y'all, it's 2021. I'm glad to hear this curatorial team is striving to present and highlight women's contributions to the industry and bring awareness. Until a more diverse group and voice is represented in our industry, we will never progress artistically as a society, and everything will be told from a patriarchal perspective. As Berger, one of the museum curators said: "That's why it is so important that we are aware of multiple perspectives, and representation in a larger sense, not just gender, but also sexuality and race and abilities, all of that played a part in our discussions."
The secret histories of women in the arts is shocking, and long lasting as demonstrated by this article. Women can often offer a unique, valuable, perspective to arts simply because of the nature of historic societal gender constructs. It has also been required that they find different ways to be socially mobile instead of the ease of male workers who can interview or social network at that time. This is probably why I was surprised to hear about the prevalence of powerful female artists in early film, and it's shocking to hear that it changed with the introduction of sound. This just demonstrates the fragility of female success and power dynamics in all male dominated industries. It is inspiring that these female curators are making the active decision to promote women in a new history, and how dedicated they are to unearthing the stories of influential females and exhibiting them in a thoughtful way. I think the closing quote is so perfect in the summary of the meaning of the entire piece as a whole.
^^^^this is posted by Viscaya Wilson and I accidently submitted it anonymously.
This article surprised me in more ways than one. One of the most shocking things from this article for me was the fact that women direct less than 3% of feature animated films. This is especially surprising when juxtaposed with the knowledge that the very first feature animated film was made by a woman. The same thing can be said about the notorious sexism in the film industry today, even with the knowledge that early film editing was a female dominated industry. Luckily, museum curation is also a female dominated industry, and this article proves how and why that is so important to the future of film. Honoring the contributions that women, and especially women of color, have made to film is the essential first step to stripping away the sex and gender barriers in Hollywood. My hope is that this exhibit, and others like it, begin bringing attention to how indispensable female voices are in film.
It is an unfortunate truth that the film industry (as well as basically every industry) is male dominated. It is refreshing to see that the curators of the Academy Museum are putting in the work and time to find and give recognition to the countless women who were pioneers and true artist behind some of the earliest major films, whose stories have otherwise been lost to time. Even just in reading this article, I learned about several filmmakers whom I have never heard of before, while easily recognizing the films which they worked on. It was also shocking to learn about the statistics of women in animation – the fact that women make up the majority of students in animation programs at universities across the country, and yet make up less than 3% of the overall workforce of animators in the industry. Progress is definitely being made in equity and equality for all in the industry, but statistics like these just go to show how ever present the inequity is to this day. Work has been done, but there is much left to do.
These stories are always moving (and heartbreaking) to me. These women’s careers are a testament to how much harder women have to work in order to achieve the same recognition as their male peers. It is lovely that this team of female curators are making an explicit effort to finally put credit where it is due after all these years. It is even more exciting to see Black female producers, designers, directors, and the like being recognized, especially when historically if a woman was recognized, she was probably white. Unearthing the talents of these incredible artists is a true blessing for young women today, and is a necessary honor that these women deserved ages ago. Hopefully as more of these kinds of changes to culture are made, we will see the gender gap decrease in the entertainment industry, an overall positive change in “boy’s club” workplace culture, and a proper/well-deserved change in recognition for female work in the industry.
Curators have a very powerful position, as the people who decide what art people see in museums and how that art is presented, so it’s good to see women in that role that are more invested in highlighting female artists. I didn’t know about “cutters” before reading the article, but it didn’t surprise me that once there was more money involved in filmmaking, the women that did difficult, tedious work were abandoned. In most industries, once significant money starts being made, you see less women; while women stitch clothing in sweatshops and ateliers, female fashion designers are in the minority at NYFW. I appreciated the detailed look at Eiko Ishioka’s work as a costume designer, the article prompted me to look up her poster design for “Apocalypse Now” as well as some of her costume renderings for “Dracula,” and I see why Coppola hired her, as she has an amazing visual imagination that is translated beautifully in her designs.
I am heartened to see curators working to highlight the work of these women cutters. Like many of my fellow commentators, I was quite shocked to learn that women direct only three percent of animated feature films. And now that I think of it, I do not think I could name even one. Granted, I do not have a particularly precise cache of who directs what, but I just looked up some of my favorite animated movies, and only one of them had a woman in the director's role, and even then she shared the title with a man. It is good to see these curators giving credit where credit is long overdue. I hope there will be more exhibits like this one. The first step to breaking down stigma and overcoming oppression is learning. Hopefully, exhibits like this one will inform more people about to good work of underrepresented communities and the importance of that work.
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