Bird's Eye View

BEV gathers women filmmakers in Cannes for panel debate

Fish Tank directed by Andrea Arnold

Fresh from a screening of Fish Tank, directed by long-time friend of BEV, Andrea Arnold, we got the chance to bring together some of the best female filmmakers at Cannes 2009 for a panel discussion at the UK Film Council Pavilion. Now an annual BEV tradition, the event featured women from all over the world, and a mix of upcoming and established talent. It was chaired by BEV’s founder Rachel Millward.

Bright Star directed by Jane Campion

Christine Langan, Creative Director of BBC films - and exec producer of two of the hottest films competing for this year’s Palme D’Or, Jane Campion’s Bright Star and Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank - spoke of her bemusement at the statistics, and noted that breakthrough women directors are often characterized by an unique, “bulls-eye” visions - they very rarely get the jobs for more mainstream, generic films in the way that male directors do. Current female-directing stars, she observed, including Isabel Coixet (whose film, Map Of  The Sounds Of Tokyo, is also screening at Cannes) Lynn Ramsay, as well Campion and Arnold, tend to write as well as direct their own films. They’re auteurs - and it’s the uniqueness of their vision that brings them success.

My Neighbor My Killer, directed by Anne Aghion

French-American Anne Aghion, former newspaper journalist turned Emmy Award-winning documentary maker, is screening her film My Neighbor My Killer in Cannes’ Special Screening category - a documentary about the 1994 Rwandan genocide and subsequent reconciliation efforts between Hutus and their Tutsi victims. Anne spoke about the overriding necessity for diverse perspective in filmmaking and the press, not just in terms of gender: the need for different people to have a voice and to tell their stories.
Yaelle Kayam, Diploma and Dara Van Dusen, Malzonkowie (Significant Others), who both have their graduation films in Cannes’ short film programme Cinefondation, aired their frustrations on finding at film school that suddenly there were six men between them and the camera. Yaelle, though, thinks it best not to be intimidated by technical bravado which male crew often display. Her advice: “just learn it yourself - it’s all in the manual!”.

Anne Aghion

Anne chipped in that she thinks because filmmaking is such a difficult process, men can have a tendency to hide behind technical language. Yaelle also noted that she now is quick to get rid of any crew that are not on board with the project or do not take her seriously as a director, especially since there are so many supportive male production workers out there. At this, Christine spoke of an instance when she had to fire a BAFTA-winning cinematographer from a project (who, incredulous, received her call while he was on the golf-course) because he wasn’t taking the director seriously.

After Tomorrow directed by Emma Sullivan

On the question of women and genre filmmaking, NFTS graduate Analise Davis (whose film After Tomorrow is screening in the Cannes shorts competition), has recently completed a thriller with a female producer, and really enjoyed working within a genre. She stressed the importance of seeing women’s perspective more in genre films, and Christine offered Susanna Whiteas a success in this respect, who has gone from directing episodes of HBO series Generation Kill to the upcoming sequel to Nanny McPhee.  
As ever, the baby question arose (!), to which the panel all had very different responses. Anne, who has no children - while by no means discouraging other women filmmakers from motherhood - explained how it would have been impossible to combine the career that she has had (and the accompanying years of 16 hour working days) with a family life; while Christina Gallego (producer of The Wind Journeys, screening in Un Certain Regard at 11:30 and 16:30 on Thursday 21st May , has a young son and made a case for the compatibility between producing a film and bringing up children: both require a huge amount of nurturing to help them grow!

The Wind Journeys, directed by Ciro Guerra

Christine, who recently returned to work from maternity leave, loved her early experiences as a director but observed that directing is, inevitably, an obsessive and all-consuming practice, and therefore one which will always be hugely difficult to combine with becoming a parent.

All in all, the panel provided frank food for thought, inspiration and a chance to hear mixed perspectives and experiences from women currently making waves in what remains a hugely male-dominated sphere.