Seen and Heard is a free film festival that battles the celluloid ceiling, celebrating the diverse and extraordinary work of women filmmakers and their not-to-be-underestimated diverse and extraordinary audiences. Seen and Heard in 2010, its second year, will follow on from a showcase of questions on class, race, ability/disability, gender and sexuality.click here for 2009 website Commercial cinema has a long history of having been a male dominated industry. Films that have dominated the mainstream were action films with male leads (need we list James Bond, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon?), comedies with male leads, from Ferris Bueller's Day Off to Shaun of the Dead, dramas with male leads, such as L.A. Confidential, Saving Private Ryan and Fight Club, have also dominated the choices of the movie-going public, leaving women-directed films a lesser-known, close to extinct choice. The modern film industry, however, is undergoing a dramatic change. Audiences now are more often making the choice to see arthouse films and independent cinema, such as Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Babel, and The Lives of Others, and the media attention given to these films continues to expand. With this shift in the audience's choice to see "decent" films, rather than films of somewhat thinner substance, there is no reason why women filmmakers should be ignored. In spite of the great depths filmmakers are currently exploring and audiences are embracing, there is a seemingly undying fear that women directors make films about women's themes. Just when audiences started to think that they were finally no longer being underestimated, women directors and cinematographers still go without widespread attention, and most importantly, work, because of the desire for capital "women's themes" do not make money in the movie business. The film industry shuts out both women filmmakers and audiences. Making just more than half the population, there are huge numbers of women who belong to at least one. The problem is not a lack of women who wish to work as filmmakers: the numbers of film school graduates are evenly male and female. Despite this, only 4% of directors are women. In the history of the Academy Awards, only three women have been nominated for Best Director (none of them have won). Sofia Coppola was the last woman to be nominated, in 2003, for Lost in Translation. Prior to this, Jane Campion was nominated in 1993 for The Piano. The third, and the first woman ever to be nominated, was Lina Wertmuller in 1976 for her film Seven Beauties. There has never been an Academy Award nomination for a woman cinematographer. The issue should not be the concern of filmmakers alone, audiences are also at the receiving end of the problem. To release films which feature "women's themes" may be believed to shut male audiences out, with films heavily featuring men's themes disguised as "people themes". January 3rd - 13th Blank_Space Gallery (http://www.blankspace.com.au) 374 Crown St Surry Hills NSW Australia |