Why are female filmmakers important? We often don’t get mainstream movies and TV shows that accurately represent female perspectives and roles. Female filmmakers do a great job of creating stories that fill this void. If all society sees in the media is the male perspective and female roles that come second to the star male role, then we start to feel that this is the only way to do things. Generally, this is how things have been going. Women are usually portrayed as stereotypes and their characters aren’t strong enough to stand on their own without the male counterpart. Not only are female characters under represented, they are grossly misrepresented. The importance of female filmmakers is about encouraging diversity in our cinemas so that not only will women create the kind of films that more accurately portray female characters, but so will everyone else. The number of women in businesses like filmmaking is growing and we need to encourage those numbers to keep growing.

While 2018 was another banner year for both female filmmakers (like Marielle Heller, Ava DuVernay, Kay Cannon, Josie Rourke, and Mimi Leder) and female-centric stories (as studies continue to show that movies that put women at the center of their stories are box office gold), 2019 seems poised to only exceed steadily rising expectations for women behind the camera.

“In 2016, the National Museum of Women in the Arts introduced the viral hashtag #5womenartists, challenging us to name five women artists on the spot. The fact that this is a difficult task for many Americans underscores the extent to which women artists are absent from the art historical canon, both in textbooks and in popular culture. Inspired by this challenge and in celebration of Women’s History Month, MFA Film presents five new films by contemporary women filmmakers who are making history with their groundbreaking cinema: Cristina Gallego, Lynne Ramsay, Debra Granik, Josephine Decker, and Lucrecia Martel.”

 

Co-presented with the Boston Women’s Film Festival.

Now showing at the MFA Boston: March 3, 2019 – March 20, 2019.