Pecha Kuta

Petcha Kuta Notes 

1) What do these films share in common? Very surprised if you get this. Beautifully shot. Different genres. Indie and mainstream. All have female cinematographers. 

2) No woman has ever been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. The first studio film with a female director of photography was FATSO (1980). Women comprised 19% of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers working on the top 250 grossing films in 2015. 

3) Pie chart= women in what roles of the industry. The roles with the least number of women hires are cinematographers, only 5 percent of whom were females. As of 2014, 14 of 374 members of the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) are women, just 3.7%. 

4) Rarity. Why? Hollywood misogyny, lack of awareness, absence of opportunity? No expert and I am unqualified to say (but people are, which I will talk about later). 

5) Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep and Viola Davis have all spoken out about this. Natalie Portman revealed to Marie Claire that she was paid a third of what Anton Kutcher was in 2011 film No Strings Attached. Women earn 77 cents to the dollar that men earn. Is this what’s putting women off? 

6) People say “riskier” to hire women, but there’s male newbies too! No studies show that women aren’t a bigger financial risk. This isn’t what Hollywood is about. Evidence suggests women are more likely to employ other women. Sexism? On films with female directors, 26% cinematographers, shrinks to 5% on films with male directors. 

7) Before you start, this isn’t a feminist inspired bash. I am weighing out all the options. While researching, I found a lot of sexist and even felony stories in the industry which were hard to stomach and would put anyone off working in the industry. Maybe this is what’s putting women off? 

8) Questionnaires. Ask people what they think. Post it to a few professional pages too, I found a few contacts on ICFC (international collective of female cinematographers) website. 

9) Interviews! Found a few interview sources but they were asking if it was hard to raise a family in the industry, which shows even more sexism. Would rather conduct my own. ICFC has a lot I can contact. Found four with email addresses and based in the UK. 

Catherine Goldschmidt (Interviewed!) illuminatrix co-founder (another female cinematographer collective)

Suzie Lavelle (I really want her to reply as she has been cinematographer for Sherlock and The Living and the Dead!) 

(two more but no reply Nicola Daley and Neus Olle) 

10) Female cinematographers and females in the industry are a dying breed. Why? A lack of female filmmakers has made it difficult to imagine women in charge. Cinematography is hiring a kit rather than a person- usually more males are tech savvy. But there are still biases we can’t control, and we need to support other female filmmakers.