Find Your Happy Place: Support Women Directors
It’s always bothered me how many male directors are household names as opposed to women, which is why I jump at the chance to support women filmmakers whenever possible. I want studios to keep them in top contention for all the same jobs as their male counterparts. This is something Smart Girl Kim Hoyos is also looking to do by launching the site The Light Leaks in early 2017.
Even with the kind of name recognition amazing directors like Ava DuVernay, Mira Nair, and Kathryn Bigelow have fought hard to achieve, it’s still not enough. What would make me happy is to know that one day, it won’t be considered momentous to make the names and work of women directors mainstream knowledge, it will just be. In the interest of kickstarting that process, I’ve listed directors below who are brilliant, diligent, and creative, whose names I believe everyone should know if you don’t already. And this is by no means a complete comprehensive list, just a small part of a huge network that needs to be more visible.
Fun fact: She was the first woman director on the show Rescue Me.
Besides directing episodes of Jessica Jones, The Good Wife, The Walking Dead, Empire, and tons of others, her most recent feature, Silver Skies, keeps extending its run in select theaters.
Fun fact: Sotheby’s asked her to make a film interpretation of Danaë, Orazio Gentileschi’s undisputed Baroque masterpiece from 1621.
An alumnus of several programs at the Sundance Institute, her first feature, The Adderall Diaries, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2015 and was released theatrically this year.
Fun fact: She’s a former World Kickboxing Champion who has been a stuntwoman AND an Oscar-nominated director (just a few reasons why both Supergirl and Arrow were genius to hire her to direct episodes).
She also directs features, including Green Street Hooligans, Marvel’s Punisher: War Zone, and the upcoming Chis Benoit biopic, and is also an important voice for promoting women in film.
Fun fact: An avid skateboarder and the first person to ever create a film categorized as an “Iranian vampire movie.”
Her first feature, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Midnight, won her the Gotham Breakthrough Director Award and her newest feature, The Bad Batch, won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival this year.
Fun fact: She’s going to direct an adaptation of Roxane Gay’s debut novel An Untamed State.
Known for beautiful romantic dramas like Love & Basketball and Beyond the Lights, Prince-Bythewood has also directed a slew of television shows including one of her own creation — Shots Fired — which is due out next year on Fox.
Fun fact: The first woman director to oversee a full episode of the BBC One/PBS series Sherlock with Benedict Cumberbatch. Previously only the original unaired pilot was directed by a woman, Corky Giedroyc.
You’d be hard pressed to not have watched at least a few shows directed by Talalay. Some of her current credits besides Sherlock are Supergirl, The Flash, and Doctor Who, but I personally love that some of her iconic past credits include episodes of Ally McBeal.
Smart Girls, I’m counting on you to keep me happy by adding to this list! Read more about these women and let’s keep it going! Who are the women directors you love and want to see more of?
