On Thursday, the Women of Cinematic Arts will be opening their inaugural Feminist Media Festival. The year-long program hopes to encourage young filmmakers to create female-centric content and will provide opportunities to progress in the film industry, regardless of their gender, or area of study.
WCA Vice President and screenwriting major, Tara Shivkumar, explained that group members had the idea for a film festival after a series of poorly attended meetings in previous years. Shivkumar believes that encouraging young women to create content is more effective than simply meeting to discuss industry issues.
"Instead of having people sit at a meeting, we started this festival to encourage people to go out and make films." Shivkumar said. "It's a festival that encourages young female content creators to have a voice, at a school that otherwise doesn't have this type of program."
The screenwriting major also lamented the lack of a network for women filmmakers, especially after graduating from film school. Even the dean of the school, Elizabeth M. Daley, echoed the sentiment, according to Shivkumar.
"Also in SCA, a lot guys have a professional network when they leave school, whereas women graduate with nothing like that. Dean Daley even agreed that men in film have a strong network that women just don't have."
The Feminist Media Festival is opening with an appearance from first female Saudi Arabian filmmaker, Haifaa Al Mansour, who is renowned for her ability to navigate taboo subjects in the Arab world. Al Mansour has explored women's role in her country through her films, Women Without Shadows and Wadjda, which she received criticism for.
"We were looking at different people and Haifa really represented what our organization is about." Shivkumar said. "The theme for the festival this year was 'overcoming adversity' and as the first female Saudi Arabian filmmaker she had to overcome a lot of adversity."
Shivkumar praised TV shows such as Orange Is The New Black and Donald Glover's new show, Atlanta, for paving the way for more inclusive media — she believes that diversity can only benefit the industry.
But diversity in Hollywood can be hard to come by.
According to a study by Stacy L. Smith, there were 2.2 male characters to every one female character in last year's 100 top-grossing films, according to an Annenberg study. Only 26.3% of all speaking characters were non-white.
"A lot of mainstream media is telling the same stories, and we're bored of it," Shivkumar said. "We want change."
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Annenberg Media