The absurd gender gap between male and female filmmakers is something almost any cinema-conscious person is aware of, but the extent of this as it relates to personal experience is sometimes — okay, often — overshadowed by easily digestible pie charts and graphs. They tell an entire story, but, although that story is often compelling, hearing things right from the mouths of the discriminated is far less common.
And so I’m inclined to think a good service has been provided by Celluloid Ceilings: Women Directors Speak Out, a 30-minute documentary that provides something necessary: a behind-the-scenes horror show supplied by several female directors, including one of their biggest advocates, Punisher: War Zone director Lexi Alexander, Catherine Hardwicke, and former DGA President Martha Coolidge. The filmmaking at hand is, ironically enough, not very inspiring — i.e. standard slide-show info-dump work on one hand, b-roll footage on another, talking-head work in-between — but the message, intent, and cornucopia of voices have an effect of generally overriding such an issue. If you care about the film industry and how it might be approved, consider giving this a view.
Have a look below: