I'm angry. As a woman film blogger, I need twice as much effort and talent to get a quarter of the recognition that my male counterparts receive. I notice it on a daily basis and I've grown to really hate it.
I'm surrounded by men, and some older women, at press and industry screenings of films here at the Venice Film Festival. Ninety percent of reviews and features about the festival are written by male critics and journos. It's a vicious cycle because when a film by a woman filmmaker, with an unconventional yet exceptional female protagonist like Yaëlle Kayam's Mountain is screened, it is most likely not to even get mentioned, or reviewed. And so the next touching film is just a step away from never being made again... Think about it. If you were a producer, would you give money to a project that will surely get the testosterone approval, or gamble on a woman who will most certainly make a beautiful film but may not be understood by the great powers that be who play gods and decide the destiny of a film? Even I may chose the former, if I'd putting in my hard-earned money.
So, I'm vexed. But thankfully I'm in good company. I loved waking up to this tweet by Melinda Gates earlier this morning.
Gender inequality is often invisible. These clever comics bring it to light: http://t.co/mF80GcdM8m via @UN_Womenpic.twitter.com/VAKNjg92eo
— Melinda Gates (@melindagates) September 4, 2015Perhaps as women we should also help each other, and lets face it, we don't! If only a handful of the hundreds of women I know, and in a lot of cases have written about to encourage their efforts and projects, put a "like" on Facebook or tweeted one of my pieces, it would help reverse the cycle. But they don't. Because that's how we've been programmed.
So I've decided that here and now, I'm only talking about the incredible female talents I've observed at this festival. From Kayam's Mountain to Sue Brooks' Looking for Grace, from Julie Delpy's Lolo to Leyla Bouzid's As I Open My Eyes, I have never felt more proud to be a woman.
Sue Brooks' Looking for Grace is a film that stayed with me, and has continued to find new nooks inside my heart. I feel strongly about the idea of responsibility but also fate, how one second in our lives can change it all, and sometimes that second, that instant in time has nothing to do with us. One such moment changed my life dramatically, and so Brooks' film gave me goosebumps. Looking for Grace is about what we do with those life-changing instances, but also what brought us there. It stars an ensemble cast headed by the stunning Radha Mitchell -- as I sat across from her in a suite in the Excelsior, I could not believe how radiant she is in person -- along with super talented newcomer Odessa Young and the perfect Richard Roxburgh. It was an interesting experiment for me to read how two critics, one a woman and one a man, have seen the film in a completely different light. I tell you, more women filmmakers, more women critics. I'll say it as long as I have breath.
Julie Delpy's Lolo is a comedy with serious undertones. In Italy we have the concept of the "mammone", a man who lives at hom