#MediaMonday: Women in Film
Good morning Everyone,
I hope that you are all well-rested and recovered from convention.
Surprisingly, despite the convention being virtual, the overwhelming exhaustion that haunts a media teacher still lingered at the end of each long, marathon day. It was summed up best by Ben Barnholdt that remarked how long the days were and he, "didn't even have to do room checks".
So, today is March 1st, meaning two things:
Trout season opens in Missouri (practically a state holiday).
This is National Women's History Month.
This month, my emails (and accompanying lesson activities) will be focusing on amazing women in the media industry.
Today, we will be starting with one of my life's greatest loves: Film.
2020 was a record-breaker for women in the film industry. In 2020, More women directed films in the 100 top-grossing American films than ever before in the history of America Cinema! Here is the sad part: women only accounted for 16 of the 100 films. Source
Sixteen percent.
Now, while this moment should be celebrated and the women who made these films should be applauded, the fact that the highest year ever came in at a staggering 16% shows that we have a long journey ahead.
Of course, I can only speak for myself, but I feel like the young women and men in my program need to see and experience equal representation of the sexes when it comes to directorial authorship. Life is a collection of diverse experiences and I believe that it falls on us to expose our students to the artists that could become their next inspiration.
Therefore, today's lesson in called Finding Your Voice.
The following video features the incredible Patty Jenkins in an interview with the American Film Institute in 2020. Watch this video with your students and then complete the activity below.
Patty Jenkins explains in this video that getting better at telling stories means that a person need to focus on what they love. Have the students get out a piece of paper (or open a document) and title the page "What I Love".
Set a timer for 5-10 minutes and have the students create a list of all of the things that they love. Encourage them to be honest and try to write a large variety of things down.
After the timer is up, have the students "combine their loves".
Ask the students "which of these 'loves' could you combine together into a screenplay to tell one story?
Take a few minutes and either re-write or draw lines between the things that they listed.
After they have identified the combinations, have a discussion with the kids.
How do these loves represent who they are?
As Teenagers?
As Women?
As Men?
As Americans?
As members of a family?
As members of a culture?
What did they learn about the stories that are possible on their pages?
Would they want to make these films? Why?
EXTENSION: have the students plan and shoot one of their film ideas.
Voice is one of the hardest things to teach new filmmakers. They feel like their stories are boring and have no global appeal. Patty learned the strength of sharing her voice with the world and we are better because of it.
During this month, I suggest that all of us share the works of amazing women with our students in our classrooms. 16% leaves a lot of room for growth and I would guess that each of us have young women in our programs who will be the next generation of filmmakers coming up to tip the scales. Let's do what we can to help empower them on their journey.
Talk to you soon,
Josh Cantrell