The odds are heavily tilted against the female of the species when it comes to feature directing, that much we all (hopefully) know. Every year, newspapers and the guilds publish the statistics, which are truly dismal, abyssmal, bleak. I'm working to get my third film off the ground, but I am still treated as a first-time filmmaker. There are huge gaps between films--not just for me, but for most female feature directors. Not because I--or my peers--have been lazy or unproductive in those empty years. It is because that longed-for green light is elusive to our female grasp.
That said, there are, I believe, things we female directors can do, to better our chances. And maybe the most important thing we can do is to create a wide range of stories, in a wide variety of formats. I've noticed that women, more than men, tend to create and cling to one project; we will patiently soldier on for years to see this project that we have conceived and are so passionate about, be fully realized. Patience is a virtue, passion is noble, and there is much to be said for sheer endurance and the ability to soldier on. However, in this age, when there are so many opportunities to create and realize stories in a dizzying array of formats, it would be a shame if today's women directors stuck to the old myth of the lone, long-suffering artist fighting to tell her one amazing story.
Work begets work. Push to get your amazing film made--but also write that book, create that web series, finish that short story. This has been my life lesson--hard-won, but so true!
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