Women, Under Represented

I'll hear about underrepresented communities and I'm going to focus on women because I'm a woman and it seems like the right thing to focus on. Why are they behind? Have they moved ahead? Well, they haven't because if you look through history, just in general, I'll go by the United States because that's the history I know the best, you’ll see women couldn't even own property.

They couldn't have a credit card of their own. For many years. It took a really, really long time. People forget it's not that long ago that women had these restrictions on them. And then there was a very patriarchal society where you could be a teacher or a nurse, but, you know, you should really be a stay home mom.

And there's nothing wrong with being a stay home mom. It's a hard freaking job. And most people have to do that and also work a job. So kudos to that, to the women doing that. But that was the restriction. It's one thing to choose something. It's another thing to feel like these are your options. And it was very hard to break through.

And then on top of that, it's mostly white men running these companies. So who do they hire? Other white men! People tend to attract people that are like them, like attracts like a lot of the time. And they're people they're comfortable with who think the same way, who aren't going to ruffle their feathers or do anything different. That's why Ida Lupino was more of an indie filmmaker.

She had to be. And so you look at people through history and the way things are set up just in general in society. That's true in corporations to talk about women trying to break the glass ceiling. And it's happening more and more, but it's not happening enough. And the same thing is true in Hollywood, but that's where indie film comes in, because Ida Lupino had the right idea.

I think now women can move ahead by continuing to make those indie films, by continuing to show we have things to say and get away from the gatekeepers. That's something that I really want to talk about too. It's not just women like a friend of mine, Arthur Vincie. I'll give him a little shout out.

We're very good friends, but he has a book he's written and he's running into a lot of gatekeepers trying to get his book out there. It's his first novel, and my thought is just self-publish. Yes, it's hard. Yes. You know, you have to do a lot of work. You have to do your own marketing.

There's a lot that goes on with self-publishing. I get it. But if you wait around for those gatekeepers, whether you're a first time novelist or a female filmmaker or just an indie filmmaker, because all indie filmmakers struggle. People say, “Oh, it's easier for men.” Well, it is if you're part of that machine, But if you're an actual indie film maker, I got to tell you, men are struggling just as much as women.

Okay, maybe a little less. Maybe it's like 20% of them get through and only 10% of women get through (making up numbers…just showing the difference). But still, there's a big gap of people not getting through in both groups. Okay, I'm not a statistician, but my point is that the goal is to keep making the films the way you can make them.

However you can do your work. And not to worry about all these gatekeepers, because if you do, you're just going to be banging your head against them. I know so many people who have yet to make a feature film or have made one earlier in their career and haven't done a lot more work because now they're like, but somebody should give me money, which they should but they won’t.

Should is not a real existence in the world. Life's not fair. The world isn't fair. It's a gated community. You don't have a key to the gate, so screw it. You don't need to be in that club. Do your thing. And that's what I think women have to do more and more and people have to support them.

And I don't mean giving us a lot of money. Money is nice. I'll take it, certainly. But it's not about that. It's about watching the films. Most people renting their films for, you know, a dollar or $2. Some people might go for $5, you know, but it's not a lot of money. It's not a lot of money. So I'm not talking about investing money and I'm talking about rent the film, watch the film, talk about the film online.

You know, just talk about the filmmaker, Talk about the artist, whoever it is. Talk about that novelist that I spoke about earlier, like just help promote, because getting the word out is is really what artists need help with in artists that are really out there doing their art. They need help getting the word out, you know, And a grant would be nice too…