ON
(experimental) FILM
As
part of his introductory remarks at a screening of my films in Calgary, Mike Hoolboom made the following comment:"...men outnumber
women [avant-garde] filmmakers maybe 4:1 and it has something to do with film
as traditionally conceived, that is, by and large for men, a fact reflected in
largely male film school environments.”
Why
are there fewer women experimental filmmakers than men? It seems there could be many factors: 1) the
largely male film school environment wherein the faculty are
still overwhelmingly male and where the 30% female students in first year
dwindles by fourth year. 2) some women experimental filmmakers move towards more
'mainstream' filmic modes because of strong commitment to feminist/political/racial
causes; they want/need their films to effect change; they want to have a voice.
Working in the margins is, perhaps a luxury only male filmmakers can afford.
Like it or not, they do have a central voice to be against or outside of!
Perhaps they are able to criticize or distinguish themselves as individual men
so long as the power does not shift too far from its patriarchal base. However
poor a man might be, he is, just by virtue of his gender, in a more empowered
position than the most successful woman. Perhaps, so far, women have felt it
incumbent on them, if they get the funds for a film, to spend it making a film
with immediately apparent social benefit. Maybe, it seems too 'selfish' to make
"personal" films? 3) The time
when many more women thought of working in media coincided with the
availability to artists of video equipment. Some potential filmmakers may have
gone to video for its relative ease of access and the emphasis/hope prevalent
in some early video use of mass distribution via the airwaves and so the
chance/hope of effecting social/political change. 4) Or is it that the
percentages are shifting and it's just too early to tabulate?
This
article originally appeared in Cinema