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Friday, September 10, 2021
I won a Bafta with my iPhone after struggling to re-enter in the industry as a mother
theconversation.com: I’m just back from The Venice Film Festival. When I was last there, pre-pandemic in 2019, I had a virtual reality project, The Waiting Room in competition. When I posed on the red carpet with my fellow VR directors, the lineup was refreshingly inclusive with lots of women directors. It felt good.
There is a lot to unpack here in this article about the sexism of the film industry. But what really stuck out to me about this article was Victoria Mapplebeck’s story of having her son and then not being able to work for 10 years because the industry is not accommodating for mothers, especially her as a single mother. This is something we see all too much in the film and the theatre industry alike. I know that a lot of people’s reactions to me, a young woman working in the arts, is how will ever have a family with the schedule we run on. For far too long it has been the norm that if you have a kid, you leave the industry either forever or for a bit, and women have been trying to push against that, but yet here we still are. I am hoping with the current push within IATSE and the film industry for better working conditions and better hours, we might start to see a push in the industry as whole that will help everyone including mothers raising kids.
It just makes no sense that women make up half the population yet their contributions in all types of media are still largely underrepresented and underappreciated. Like Mapplebeck says, their stories are considered too small or not interesting enough. What stuck out a lot to me was “I have more hope for women directors and writers in TV where there’s a growing appetite for unfiltered, unromanticized portraits of family life – especially the joy and pain of being a middle-aged mum.” I think that television contributes so much to our unhealthy romanticization of so many things, like being a mother. It's so strange that simply to have her own life Mapplebeck had to give up her entire career. The problem is that when men have children it leads to no consequences for them, they so rarely have to give up anything to be fathers. Especially in Mapplebeck’s s position of being a single mother, she has no choice. In addition, after they have children, we often see women as “washed up” and no longer up to the task of being a great artist. So not only is the article highlighting how important representation is but it also makes a great commentary on the way that we deal with motherhood in the workplace.
It's astounding to me that even back in 2019 less than 20% of top grossing screenwriters and only a little more than 10% of directors were women. In my head more progress has been made to even out the gender biases for these jobs. I always assumed that the main reason there aren't more women in these roles was simply because high ranking male executives wouldn't give women the jobs. It didn't occur to me that the work hours and living conditions were also big factors given that mothers more often than not spend more time raising kids than fathers do. It's harder to have unstable employment or long work hours when you can't come home late or make ends meet because of your dependants. Hopefully, the IATSE film strike which we touched on in class last Friday will help bring more women, especially mothers, into a work environment that is more manageable and less demanding.
To my understanding, there are two important points made in this article. That is, 1) stories about women are “small” and 2) the number of stories directed by women is small. The society we live in today has still not caught up to how powerful stories about women can be because of the world we live in today. We cannot empower women if we are not given the platform to do so. This starts a never-ending cycle that can only be fixed by those in places of power women have not yet made it to themselves. I find it surprising that with all the progress we were supposed to make towards making women’s voices heard, we are still at a loss of voices in 2021. Now, this isn’t because there aren’t any voices, but because again we have this theme that no one wants to hear them. This is an issue not only in the film industry, but in the entertainment industry as a whole and beyond. The fact that the author of this article needed to pull away from her career to raise her child is just another reason of many something needs to change.
Mappleback’s emphasis on valuing small stories which are just as valuable as big loud action-packed stories is critical. As a society we want to see more intimate art to feel less isolated and to feel that we're not the only ones experiencing these things. I agree that we should be careful to not romanticize motherhood and life to the degree that it is no longer reflective of reality because it's isolating and hurtful to the average person’s well being.I hope this focus helps break the belief that mother’s can’t balance a career and motherhood. Employers need to stop treating mother's as incapable. Women shouldn't have to choose between their career and their children. It is possible, but not easy, to have both. It requires some sacrifices and supports. Women need to support other women. Campion’s call to women to not play the “lady card” and “let someone else handle the politics” is a ridiculous ask - women shouldn’t take a step back from the politics that directly impact their success.
The fact that Victoria Mapplebeck was able to create an entire film using only a smartphone, and then was able to win a Bafta is incredible. Ive created numerous short films using only my Iphone, but I never thought in my wildest dreams that it would be possible to create a legitimate film using such a camera. It was also interesting to hear how Mapplebeck was able to overcome the sexism she faced by using only a smartphone to film. As she put it suddenly she didn't need to wait for the gatekeepers in the film industry to flic the green light. Mapplebeck is so inspiring in numerous ways, but is amazes me that she was able to raise a child on her own while struggling with cancer and on top of all of this was able to create a stellar and moving film.I was so surprised to learn that the top 100 grossing films of 2019, 19.4% of the writers and only 10.7% of the directors were women. That to me is so saddening to hear, and I hope that greater strides are made to allow woman into the film industry as directors. Its also awful that once a woman has a child they are essentially expected to leave or quit being in the film industry as if that would have any impact on the work they produce.
6 comments:
There is a lot to unpack here in this article about the sexism of the film industry. But what really stuck out to me about this article was Victoria Mapplebeck’s story of having her son and then not being able to work for 10 years because the industry is not accommodating for mothers, especially her as a single mother. This is something we see all too much in the film and the theatre industry alike. I know that a lot of people’s reactions to me, a young woman working in the arts, is how will ever have a family with the schedule we run on. For far too long it has been the norm that if you have a kid, you leave the industry either forever or for a bit, and women have been trying to push against that, but yet here we still are. I am hoping with the current push within IATSE and the film industry for better working conditions and better hours, we might start to see a push in the industry as whole that will help everyone including mothers raising kids.
It just makes no sense that women make up half the population yet their contributions in all types of media are still largely underrepresented and underappreciated. Like Mapplebeck says, their stories are considered too small or not interesting enough. What stuck out a lot to me was “I have more hope for women directors and writers in TV where there’s a growing appetite for unfiltered, unromanticized portraits of family life – especially the joy and pain of being a middle-aged mum.” I think that television contributes so much to our unhealthy romanticization of so many things, like being a mother. It's so strange that simply to have her own life Mapplebeck had to give up her entire career. The problem is that when men have children it leads to no consequences for them, they so rarely have to give up anything to be fathers. Especially in Mapplebeck’s s position of being a single mother, she has no choice. In addition, after they have children, we often see women as “washed up” and no longer up to the task of being a great artist. So not only is the article highlighting how important representation is but it also makes a great commentary on the way that we deal with motherhood in the workplace.
It's astounding to me that even back in 2019 less than 20% of top grossing screenwriters and only a little more than 10% of directors were women. In my head more progress has been made to even out the gender biases for these jobs. I always assumed that the main reason there aren't more women in these roles was simply because high ranking male executives wouldn't give women the jobs. It didn't occur to me that the work hours and living conditions were also big factors given that mothers more often than not spend more time raising kids than fathers do. It's harder to have unstable employment or long work hours when you can't come home late or make ends meet because of your dependants. Hopefully, the IATSE film strike which we touched on in class last Friday will help bring more women, especially mothers, into a work environment that is more manageable and less demanding.
To my understanding, there are two important points made in this article. That is, 1) stories about women are “small” and 2) the number of stories directed by women is small. The society we live in today has still not caught up to how powerful stories about women can be because of the world we live in today. We cannot empower women if we are not given the platform to do so. This starts a never-ending cycle that can only be fixed by those in places of power women have not yet made it to themselves. I find it surprising that with all the progress we were supposed to make towards making women’s voices heard, we are still at a loss of voices in 2021. Now, this isn’t because there aren’t any voices, but because again we have this theme that no one wants to hear them. This is an issue not only in the film industry, but in the entertainment industry as a whole and beyond. The fact that the author of this article needed to pull away from her career to raise her child is just another reason of many something needs to change.
Mappleback’s emphasis on valuing small stories which are just as valuable as big loud action-packed stories is critical. As a society we want to see more intimate art to feel less isolated and to feel that we're not the only ones experiencing these things. I agree that we should be careful to not romanticize motherhood and life to the degree that it is no longer reflective of reality because it's isolating and hurtful to the average person’s well being.I hope this focus helps break the belief that mother’s can’t balance a career and motherhood. Employers need to stop treating mother's as incapable. Women shouldn't have to choose between their career and their children. It is possible, but not easy, to have both. It requires some sacrifices and supports. Women need to support other women. Campion’s call to women to not play the “lady card” and “let someone else handle the politics” is a ridiculous ask - women shouldn’t take a step back from the politics that directly impact their success.
The fact that Victoria Mapplebeck was able to create an entire film using only a smartphone, and then was able to win a Bafta is incredible. Ive created numerous short films using only my Iphone, but I never thought in my wildest dreams that it would be possible to create a legitimate film using such a camera. It was also interesting to hear how Mapplebeck was able to overcome the sexism she faced by using only a smartphone to film. As she put it suddenly she didn't need to wait for the gatekeepers in the film industry to flic the green light. Mapplebeck is so inspiring in numerous ways, but is amazes me that she was able to raise a child on her own while struggling with cancer and on top of all of this was able to create a stellar and moving film.I was so surprised to learn that the top 100 grossing films of 2019, 19.4% of the writers and only 10.7% of the directors were women. That to me is so saddening to hear, and I hope that greater strides are made to allow woman into the film industry as directors. Its also awful that once a woman has a child they are essentially expected to leave or quit being in the film industry as if that would have any impact on the work they produce.
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