Post-Holidays, Post-Golden Globe Blog of CONTROVERSY!
January 12, 2009
I have just inserted myself into the tiniest controversy in Hollywood. Loveleen Tandan got a co-director credit on Slumdog Millionaire and now a critic from Chicago and a few blogs and websites are all up in arms because she hasn’t been nominated for best director and have started a letter-writing campaign to the Golden Globes, which the leader of the campaign plans to take to the Oscars now that the Globes are over. Since a lot of this site is supposed to be talking about industry minutiae, and that’s what this issue boils down to for me, and since i spent the morning writing emails instead of blogs, I’m going to reprint my email on the subject:
To Whom It May Concern,
I stumbled across this website while looking for an answer to a student’s question about Loveleen Tandan, who was given a co-director credit on Slumdog Millionaire. I have to admit I was kind of dismayed that a woman’s organization had chosen this battle when it comes to the problem of how few women directors there are. I study women in film production culture and i have to say i was NOT upset about Tandan’s co-directing credit, even though Danny Boyle is nominated for a Golden Globe and she’s not. Rather, I was pleased by it.
A co-directing credit is something somewhat different from a standard directing credit. Traditionally it has been assigned to people who help direct animation or who second unit work and often work with big crowds. In this case Tandan did the latter and helped with questions of Indian culture in addition to casting the film and Boyle thought she was so wonderful that he gave her a co-direct credit, from what i read because he thought she’d make a great director and wanted to credit her up so that she would have a little more cache with which to possibly direct her own film. Again, co-direct is a different thing than director credit, as is assistant director credit, second unit director credit, etc. If he’d chosen to share his directing credit (which would have been odd since she didn’t direct any first unit stuff and didn’t work on the project in the development stage at quite the same level as Boyle), she’d be listed next to his name with an “and” in between, as is the case with the coen brothers or any others who really do share directing tasks. Instead, she’s got her own title card because she was instrumental in making the film but she wasn’t it’s director.
Because I’m concerned with the difficulties experienced by women directors today, and want so much for there to be more opportunity for women to direct and more recognition given when they do, I’m really bothered by calls by women’s organizations (i think i may have seen one other site doing something similar) for Tandan to be listed on the ballot, and accusations that she’s not because she’s a woman. Here is a case where someone said “this person should be a director. I’m a director. I’m in the boy’s club, and I’m going to help her,” and instead of saying “great. someone created more opportunities and possibly a new female director will emerge in part due to those opportunities,” we’re saying “why isn’t she on the ballot?”
I think we need to pick our battles. Why weren’t several of the excellent films directed by women in recent years nominated for globes or oscars? Why weren’t more films helmed by women this year? Why is there seemingly less funding for stories written and directed by women or about women? All good questions which deserve our attention.
I implore you to stop any further letter-writing campaigns or at least do a little more research before you proceed. I think this is a positive story of an established director wanting to give a woman directing opportunities based on her talent and I’d hate to see that story eclipsed by one of a woman being sidelined in favor of a male-dominated field of directors. Because that happens and should be pointed out when it does, but it’s not happening here.
There you go, dear reader. Real controversy between people who are very far away from the film industry and me, someone who is a marginal at best, at least in terms of real power. Thoughts? Also, Tandan is embarassed by this controversy. Also, she is going to direct the next film she works on. That, to me, is the real story here.
Thoughts? Anyone still out there? Next week I am going to devote my entire blog to Ben Lyons’s qualifications as a film reviewer, but this week I would love to hear what you think of all of this. Maybe I’m an apologist, but I’m mofo fired up so I don’t think so!
Edit: I made some cuts on this blog just now. The overall argument is the same but it was too long. I normally tinker afterward, but I took a few chunks out this time, so if anyone is checking back and notices a discrepancy, that’s why.
I’m with you on that one. I am a feminist (and proud of it), but i rolled my eyes when I heard about this.
For god’s sake, find something else to get angry about. How about the lack of female directors taking on A-list projects? at least Mira Nair is directing “Amelia” so that’s good. Karyn Kusama is directing Diablo Cody’ screenplay, but that is not eough.
how about the lack of non-white actors getting casted for good, juicy roles? Blacks and non-white actors are always being given roles in “urban” movies, and once in a while, a fancy, Oscar-worthy movie, but not very often.
why did Catherine Hardwicke get dropped from Twilight? What a disgrace!!!
And… why do Hollywood keep making shitty movies that insult and mock women’s intelligence? “Bride Wars” make me wants to punch kate hudson (I hate her… with burning passion). Ahhh yes, it’s about the money…
there’s way many more stuff to get angry over than this “co-director” bollocks nonsense
I dont really see why you would be getting angry at there being less women directors than male ones. Isnt it as simple as there are more males who want to be directors than females? What annoys me about feminists decrying the lack of female directors in charge of A-List projects is that many of them want equality of rewards, but not equality of costs. They want to see females taking charge, but they ignore the fact that if you want true equality, then you have to have just as many females failing as males do.
I would love to see more females directing big budget projects, but the simple fact is that there are more male directors than females. That means more male directors are failing, being broken by the system and making crappy little independent films that no one will see, than female directors. I can guarantee you there are more male screenwriters out there trying to break in than female ones. So if there are more males trying to get in, then why is it surprise when more males are accepted?
Why does Hollywood keep making shitty movies that insult womens intelligence like BRIDE WARS? Oh, you mean the one which has two credited female writers? And Catherine Hardwicke will be fine. She is an accomplished director who has made feature films in the past and will make them in the future.
I couldn’t care less how many women direct. It’s a useless statistic and a non-issue. I’d much rather have more good directors. If, in the pursuit of greater quality, studios and even smaller production companies started reaching out for greater talent and that ended up meaning that there are more women directors then great, but putting a bunch of women in the director’s seat just because of two X chromosomes is sexist and stupid.
Oh come now, guys. I don’t think anyone on this blog is advocating for replacing capable male directors with women off the street. I don’t think anyone is advocating for quotas or forced gender integration of the profession, either. But I do think there are some barriers to entry for women who want to go into directing (film crew positions are all male dominated and it’s much easier for women to find work in casting or development because that’s where they’ve worked traditionally, where they’re often encouraged to work, and where they have the best luck being hired, and those fields don’t lead to directing). The weird letter-writing campaign isn’t addressing anything relating to those real barriers and i think it’s nonsense, but i do think there are barriers there and that the argument that more men want to direct and are trying to direct is a bit of an oversimplification. I also think there’s nothing wrong with those of us who are women and who don’t feel we’re being well served by stuff like Bride Wars to demand better films for and about women. If all you got was the dragonball z movie, you’d complain, too, even if a dude wrote it. Because that’s how, as a consumer, you get products more to your liking.
What I want us to all agree on is that I’m right and the woman i’m writing to is wrong. And that I’m always right about everything else ever. cool?
Are you happy now? Expecting mouthbreathers on the internet to get your subtle points of feminist lore - PS, you don’t actually speak for everyone with two X chromosomes - is awfully optimistic. The smart money says that at least twenty jerks read this post and went happily off into the world to talk about how women shouldn’t be directors, and here’s some convoluted story proving me right, FEMINAZIS, LOL.
I don’t see why you needed to air this in public. Just email the woman I’m pretty sure you’re talking about and have done with it.
I understand what you are saying, Cecilia, and I know you are not asking for female directing quotas. I just think you are seeing the end product without seeing the causes. You say that “film crew positions are all male dominated and it’s much easier for women to find work in casting or development because that’s where they’ve worked traditionally, where they’re often encouraged to work, and where they have the best luck being hired, and those fields don’t lead to directing”. I dont see that as a barrier. Nothing is actively stopping a woman from following the same path as a male if she has the same skills. No one says ‘You cannot do this.’
In reference to Bride Wars, I was more addressing the pretty clear inference from the first commenter that it is the male Hollywood club that is forcing these horrible female stereotypes on the public. It ain’t just the guys to blame; it is everyone, male and female.
@hmmmm. I see where you’re coming from, but my original frustration was that this was already being aired the internet, and that I’d heard or read a number of people saying the sorts of things you’re assuming my readers said after reading this blog in response to that original story.
Also, at least one of those posters has come back to discuss the issue and clarify his position. I don’t fully agree with his position, you don’t fully agree with my position, i don’t agree with your position, but we’re all talking about it in a way that I think is fairly respectful.
I hear so many women saying that we shouldn’t talk about this stuff, except around people who share a lot of our ideas and will therefore “get it,” but what’s the point of that? To make ourselves feel better? this isn’t a feminist blog, it’s an industry blog written by a feminist, and I get to make my own rules, and I wanna talk about this stuff because people who are going off to work saying “feminazis LOL” to themselves were doing that before i laid out an argument here, and there are some people out there who would, i think, get interested enough in this topic to learn about the different viewpoints on it and maybe apply those viewpoints to future discussions in a similar vein. I don’t think we should stop trying to talk to each other just because we might disagree. And I don’t think we should live our lives based on what trolls and mouthbreathers say to us on the internet. If i did that i would have stopped writing this blog when one of the tucker max fans posted the same comment 20 times about me having a lazy eye and shoving a screenplay up my vagina and masturbating with it while moaning “Tucker Max.” Hey, by the way, did I mention that my parents read this blog?
I don’t get paid for this and it often isn’t fun, but of all the things that get said on here, it bothers me most when people tell me i shouldn’t write about someone or something that is public and that is inviting comment and discussion and was actually created to provoke discussion and cause people to ask questions, which is the whole point of this letter writing ad.
Finally, the entire point of this post was that I don’t speak for everyone. I don’t write posts about how funny I think Tina Fey is because we’re all in agreement on that one as far as i know. This issue, clearly, not so much. Hence, the blog.
I cannot agree more that I wished there were was more of a feminine perspective in film. We’d have a lot less car chases, far less explosions, and probably less cringeworthy dialogue in testosterone overflows like Oceans 11 to 58 or wherever in the fucking series they are now.
However, I don’t understand how women are prevented from working in the industry, either below or above the line. A number of the most important and powerful lit and acting agents are women. I do get that demand and the climate of hollywood would make it difficult for women to direct in some genres, particularly the more commercial ones. I really do wonder though what kind of perceptions there would be and what kind of prejudices people would have against a film that was announced as having a female director besides Penny Marshall? Do you think that after everything is said and done, that the average consumer, and thus, the most important voter in the process, would even care?
This strikes me as pretty simple - the co-director credit isn’t the same as a director credit so credit should not be given where it isn’t due, end of story. But did you really have to break out the “you sound so shrill” and “hang back and wait until it’s our time” arguments? There is nothing wrong with a) justified anger and b) taking your/our due when it is due.
@chaia. Ok. i know the rules and I know that I’m not ever supposed to say shrill about other women. that was in the part of the letter i edited out for length but yes, you got me. I said something like “it sounds shrill” and i guess i shouldn’t have. Thanks for disciplining me and telling me which words not to use. I forgot how to be a good feminist for a second.
However, I would like to know where i said we should hang back and wait until it’s our time. I would like to know why that is in quotes in your comment. That is not what I said, ever. I said, let’s fight now for something that is an issue, not devote time and energy to things that in my opinion are non-issues and harness a lot of possibly justified anger to something that doesn’t seem to warrant it. Me saying that i thought it was positive that Danny Boyle thought she would make a good director and gave her that credit is not me saying “let’s wait for men to give us credits.” It’s me thinking that it’s possible for change to happen in a number of ways, from demanding stuff that’s not on the screen, to championing what’s up there, to mentoring and fostering new voices who might put stuff up there by BOTH men and women who are already on the inside. That is why i followed the statement up by talking about films directed by women this year that did deserve more recognition. There is tons that we need to do now. This is not it. It’s an energy sapper when I think there are lots of ways to make a difference that aren’t. That’s why I wrote about it.
[b]Definately will not go to Vilamoura anymore, 6 Hour rounds of Golf and 4.5 Euros for a beer , we will stay clear of the Vilamoura golf courses this year, and the so called free shuttle bus turns up if you are lucky.[/b]