In a Los Angeles Film Festival session titled “Women Who Call The Shots,” panelists including showrunner Marta Kauffman (co-creator/executive producer of Friends), writers/directors Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone), Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball) and Nicole Holofcener (Enough Said, Lovely & Amazing), reflected on various topics, perhaps most notably the lack of women filmmakers who are indeed calling the shots. In fact, prominent industry studies have actually found a decreasing number of female directors and execs in positions of power.
Kauffman—who is currently working on the new Netflix series Grace & Frankie starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin— thinks on one hand that the situation isn’t necessarily as grim as research suggests, noting that her writers’ room primarily consists of women and “my company is all women.” But Kauffman clearly sees a double standard, recalling a female costume designer who took time off to raise her children. When she decided to return to the workforce, she was asked, “What have you done lately?” Kauffman affirmed, “We have to stop that shit.”
Indeed an attitudinal adjustment is needed in some cases, continued Kauffman who recollected a male director who whenever he wanted a rewrite on a scene in Friends and even when standing right next to Kauffman would call out for her partner/series co-creator David Crane.
Granik meanwhile noted that she is seeing more women getting opportunities in the documentary discipline. Granik, an Oscar nominee in 2011 for Winter’s Bone (Best Adapted Screenplay), has wrapped her first documentary as director/writer, Stray Dog, which screened at the L.A. Film Fest.
Prince-Bythewood related that the lack of opportunities for women filmmakers and execs “makes no sense.” She affirmed, “Talent has no gender.”
And Holofcener said when she reads the entertainment trade press, she sees “a white male” industry, which she finds “sad and upsetting.” Describing herself and her fellow panelists as being among “the lucky ones,” Holofcener said she was honored to be part of the festival session. At the same time, her participation is a double-edged sword. While the panel celebrates women directors, “we’re being segregated” with this type of event. Part of her, she noted, bemoans that she’s on another “f-ing women’s panel.”
