The Women of Tribeca

While we already know from a prior post that the hair on the back of my neck goes up when women filmmakers are called out for being women, Tribeca Film Festival at least tries to do it in a more serious way, without the silly fashion angle of the NY Times piece that got my feathers all ruffled. Tribeca Films Senior Programmer, Genna Terranova, interviewed some of the female filmmakers featured in this year's festival, asking them about their inspirations, troubles during filming, the challenges/advantages of being a woman filmmaker, what films inspired them and what they look forward to about the festival.

Terranova provides an interesting statistic within the interview:

A recent study (of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University in 2008) said that women comprised only 16 percent of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the 250 top-grossing domestic films.

I would imagine that number might be higher if it was not limited to domestic films, but it is a pretty telling figure nonetheless. It is worth checking out the interview, especially to hear about some of the films playing at this year's festival. I have found in previous years that Tribeca's offerings are so vast that it is next to impossible to see many of the featured films, and since they accept so much, some of the films can be a little hit-or-miss. Still, I enjoy the spirit of the festival, which is why I return again and again.