Women still a minority in film industry

Penn State junior Monica Mazel works behind the camera during one of her classes in the film-video major. (Photo courtesy Mazel)

Female students who want to make their mark in the film industry still face an uphill battle. So says a new study from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, which looked at the top 250 domestic grossing movies of 2014 and found that women occupied only 17% of leadership roles in the industry — the same percentage as they did in 1998.

The positions looked at included directors, cinematographers, executive producers, producers, editors and writers.

The study, The Celluloid Ceiling, reflects a persistent gender gap  in the competitive, male-dominated industry.

It notes that women were best represented as producers (23%), followed by executive producers (19%), editors (18%), writers (11%), directors (7%) and cinematographers (5%).

The report also compared 2014 to 1998, which was the first year the study was conducted. It showed that the percentages of executive producers and cinematographers have increased, but the percentages of female directors, writers,
producers and editors have decreased.

Here at Penn State University, the news is more heartening: Women account for about half of all students enrolled in the Department of Film-Video and Media Studies, a number that has dramatically increased since Maura Shea, associate head of the department, started working at the university nearly two decades ago.

“We are admittance by portfolio, so one could say we choose to have it that way,” Shea said. “But women aren’t being scared off as much as they maybe used to be from going into film fields.”

Still, the gender gap is felt in the classroom by some.

Megan Ruffe, a 2013 Penn State alumnus who double majored in film production and geography, noticed during her cinematography and editing classes in college that there were few women in these particular areas. Instead, she said, the women often congregated in the production classes.

Ruffe, in fact, was only one of three women in her cinematography class.

However, she said the mentoring she received at Penn State was exemplary. Her professors, she said, taught her the importance of having confidence, staying strong, and being firm when taking on leadership roles.

“I think in society we want to teach girls to be polite,” Ruffe said. “In the field, you don’t want to be rude to people, but you have to be confident in your decisions. At first that scared me because I didn’t want anyone to not like me.”

She went on to pursue her dreams and currently works as an apprentice editor for Florentine Films, a company that she said is cognizant of the industry’s gender gap and makes an effort to hire women who can then go on to mentor and guide others.

Monica Mazel, a junior studying film-video production at Penn State said she, too, had an experience mirroring the industry’s gender gap, but that she used it to focus and move forward.

In her cinematography class sophomore year, she explained, 15 men and three women were assigned to a group project. The men, she said, talked over each other and fought to be in charge while the women took a more collaborative stance in order to bring the work to life.

“Filmmaking is not a fight for power, it’s a collaboration,” Mazel said. “That just showed me how some of the men in the class felt this need for dominance and power, and that definitely plays into the industry today.”

Though she admits to having doubts about pursuing a career in the movie industry due to its inherent difficulties,  Mazel said she believes in following her heart. With a strong support system of mentors behind her and a passion for film, she sees herself going all the way regardless of obstacles, gender related or not.

One of the mentors who pushes her to challenge herself is Pearl Gluck, a filmmaker and assistant professor of film and video at Penn State, who understands the importance forging a personal path in a male-dominated field.

Gluck began her career on a documentary with a man who she said wanted to direct and produce it entirely while she stuck to the writing. But then filmmaker Judith Helfand stepped in and gave a key piece of advice, Gluck said.

“Judith told me, ‘Struggle like the rest of us to make your own damn movie,’” Gluck said. “That was it — that put me on the path and I decided to do the film on my own.”

Since then, Gluck has produced many documentaries and continues to create films while teaching at Penn State, where she strives to represent all voices regardless of gender or culture.

Though she feels much more can be done to create diversity in film, efforts, she said, are being made.

For example, she said an organization called Gamechanger Films focuses on funding films that have key positions held by women.

“These issues are getting addressed and they’re getting addressed quickly,” Gluck said.

She said she believes “equal opportunities should exist, but we cannot simply look at the surface — we have to look deeper in encouraging women to be more powerful in negotiation, to not be afraid to ask for more and to not be afraid to take certain risks.”

The pay gap between men and women is an issue Gluck also feels needs fixing.

Gluck, as Mazel noted, says that to help change these challenges, women need to be strong and to ask the difficult questions.

“I always tell my students to get the ‘no’ — don’t be afraid to ask,” Gluck said. “If you’re afraid that the answer is going to be no and you didn’t ask, then the answer is already no.”