You CANNES Not Be Serious! (2010)
(2017: More link loss from this post. I did love that You Cannes Not Be Serious campaign and its approach to there being no women directors in competition.)
Well, that was quick — — FilmDirecting4Women have set up a petition. You can sign it now, alongside women like Kay Armatage and venerable filmmaker Su Friedrich, and enjoy the comments (my favorite so far is Agata Nowakowska’s “Pfff, this is ridiculous!”) AND you can join the Facebook site and follow the tweets (2017: this is the last online link to Film Directing 4 Women, led by Ruth Torjussen). You can also follow Melissa Silverstein’s tweets and her blog posts at Women & Hollywood.
And you [could] buy a protest Tshirt. All profits from t-shirts sales [were to] go to Film Directing 4 Women’s soon-to-be-launched production fund which will back short films directed by women directors.
And here [was] another blog post about the issue. And another tweet, referring to a Telegraph article (with a closeup of radiant Kathryn Bigelow with her Oscar): “@CampbellX Should women really bother making films anymore? Unless of course they are testosterone soaked? #feminism #cannes”. (I’ve noticed that #cannes10 Twitter conversations are a little different than #cannes conversations and am thinking of trying my first French language tweet — -)
And, if you’re on Facebook, there’s also Beyond Borders: Diversity in Cannes. Beyond Borders seeks to strengthen the cross cultural network of the various ethnic groups represented at Cannes.
And — — And — — And — —
I read the other day [in a New Zealand Film Commission newsletter, no longer available, sigh] that ‘our’ Gaylene Preston will be in Cannes, with her stunning Home by Christmas, which I like best of all her films. I hope she gets a warm welcome, buyers from around the world, and has lots of fun. I see Home by Christmas as New Zealand’s powerful, subtle, intimate, companion to The Hurt Locker, and with huge potential for cellphone viewing as well as on the big screen. I’ve seen it twice — once for structure and the second time for the emotion — and expect to watch it again, with pleasure.
Originally published at wellywoodwoman.blogspot.com.