Film Directing as Political Football

If movie directing is becoming a political football, it must be what we call soccer. The goal here will be to diffuse outright falsehoods being promoted. 1. The CBC has already committed to hiring women for at least fifty percent of its positions for directing TV shows. 2. If a script is submitted for funding to the Canadian Film Center or any other entity in Canada, there is an opportunity to indicate gender and visible minority. http://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/entertainment/lack-of-canadian-female-directors-a-political-issue-researcher-says-1.3071157 3. In TV especially, the writers/producers have more say about the content of an episode than the guest director of an episode. So it is false to assume that power resides in the director to turn a scripted lesbian triumph over the patriarchy into a hard-edged macho cop show that condones racism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDHqDEa1ed4 4. There is a "get the job done" work ethic in Assistant Directors, and a "never miss tiara Tuesdays" crew-service perspective that is of great human value on a set but does not have any relationship toward that person directing the audience through the frame once elevated to the job of "Director." Some comedy directors I enjoy keep it simple, keeping the cast in focus while they improvise, but there isn't much room for directing as an art form, by which I don't mean "fancy shots" (a term I hate) but the most appropriate shot for each beat or transition. https://youtu.be/3FOzD4Sfgag?list=PL2w4TvBbdQ3sMABf317ExCob_v6rW2-4s 5. Even though it may be true that having a "beer with the right person" or being "the kind of person people want to have a beer with after a long shoot," may result in getting hired as a Director on a project, it is questionable whether or not that is good news for the craft. Who has time for a beer after each shoot day, and even if that means the wrap party, it is movie lore that Steven Spielberg skips the last shot and wrap party on everything since Jaws - initially out of fear the crew would prank him or get revenge for a long shoot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q4X2vDRfRk 6. The argument that a writer or director must have empathy certainly is valid, but it is more important that the material is presented in a way that engages empathy and it is nearly impossible to tell just how much "empathy" any ambitious person in the film or TV business actually has. If that refers to male empathy for the plight of women who are not employed enough as directors, that is a First World Problem anyone can identify with who does not have that job. Many women hate Woody Allen because of his personal life and the writings of Mia Farrow, but some of the best acting roles for women have his name on them. Some of us might weep in life only when watching a movie or play or reading a book but in life respect ourselves and others enough to put up layers. As the line goes at the end of The Madness of King George, "I have remembered how to seem." So an actor or director feeling something is not the same as an audience feeling it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqFd_niDWA4 7. It has been said that, "Once the script is solid and the casting is appropriate, Ninety percent of the director's job is done." As vital as those aspects are, for the sake of evaluating a movie director, I would focus only on that remaining ten percent which makes as much difference as the microscopic difference of an extra chromosome at conception makes to the grown adult that results. Coppola talks about "performance" meaning the way a director presents on the set as only half of the actual directing and the other is preparation or vision. Being a social butterfly isn't part of it. Coppola has also said that, "A dictatorial reputation comes from the fact that an experienced crew after a while can do certain things by rote" and introducing something new can meet resistance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1D2_bovy20 8. There is little difference between having no script and having no storyboards. Unless the point of excess dialogue is to eat up time and be able to claim a huge number of pages have been covered on a given shooting day. For most of us who are slowly developing projects, there is time to do what we only need time for: sketch the shots to see the movie, how to visually introduce characters, what we need to see and what is more powerful without being focused on. The argument that storyboards "imply a cut" and may cramp the style of the editor may be something to discuss when choosing an editor. Or assistant editor who can be elevated to full credit after the fact and circumvent any politics. For low budget, storyboards respect the time crunch. A look book may additionally be provided to the art department but it is secondary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egwLenvNG0E 9. Anecdote: In a system where the statistics for women in film where far worse than they are now, in the Nineteen Nineties, Ruba Nadda was publishing poetry and making shorts with her sisters using a Bollex and 16mm film and spending her wages from Ontario Hydro to send prints to festivals overseas. She made a feature on black and white 16mm, another in colour, took a producer's course at the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and cast Arsinee Khanjian in her next feature which became Sabah. Atom Egoyan became her mentor. Christine Vachon became executive producer of her next few films. When people talk about influencing cinema to be more diverse, all they have to do is look at Christine Vachon's producing credits or read her books like Shooting to Kill. That's a producer with a voice and ideology that is rare. It comes from an individual and her own networking, not imposed from the top down with false expectations. https://www.facebook.com/The-Adventures-of-Porno-the-Clown-1561237830831389/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel 10. Do some Canadian productions put ideology before aesthetic? When Vincenzo Natalie submitted Cube to the Canadian Film Center Feature Film Project, it would become its biggest success but there was resistance to it because of the attitude, "This isn't the kind of thing we do." In other words, a major statement of visual invention almost didn't make the cut because it wouldn't blur together with small character pieces that pretty much all blend together. I had the pleasure of working on a CFC feature called Clutch toward the end of their shoot in 1998, and made a point to see the film when it was released. There were quirky elements, and it is the last CFC film to date I can remember finding and watching. I have tremendous respect for Norman Jewison's directing. I have And Justice For All, Moonstruck, and Fiddler on the Roof. I respect In the Heat of the Night, and got to see Jewison speak before a screening of Hurricane at the former Bloor Theater in Toronto. But even with my own politics leaning to the left (not leaning so far I topple), buzz words like story and character can ring hollow if over-shadowed by mission statements. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfZYVLRoPTo

johns and Jians

Standing on a crowded subway train, I had a Now Magazine open to a page spread that gave a full view to the woman peeping over my shoulder of either a Jian Ghomeshi trial analysis or an article about migrant sex workers at odds with well-meaning activists who want to end human sex traffic as a form of slavery. My only thought on human traffic is that an actress from The Walking Dead and the recent sequel to Dumb and Dumber had famously helped out with a sort of "underground railroad" operation to rescue some women who had been exploited that way. Law enforcement may state that they will focus on johns or clients, eliminating the demand for the supply. But then it could be argued that if the supply remains the same and demand is reduced then the price goes down and lower-end clients are attracted. And if those guys absorb all of the arrest risk, they might even take measures to make sure they won't be arrested. Sex workers of any stripe might be in more danger of violence. Just as rape or sexual assault victims in the future might more commonly disappear so the offenders won't be spending ten years waiting for a ticking Cosby or Ghomeshi time bomb to go off. What's in the Now magazine diverges quite a lot from my own concerns that these issues dredge up. Now usually takes the uber-progressive stance, while an umbrella like progressive or feminist or Christian or Humanistic just clouds the specifics. One might sympathize with sex workers not wanting to have contact with police, while at the same time understanding that no segment of society (even police) should be a permanent blind spot where it is understood that there just won't be investigation or policing of any kind. It would be like advertising the section of a bank where the CCTV cameras don't work. One might understand that a woman must be free to express herself as she sees fit in the say she dresses and use her body in sex work if that is her choice; the same could be said about the client using his body as he chooses. Is he merely circumventing the conventions and leagues of society or enjoying a thrill in an otherwise tame surface life, or is he cultivating a detachment from the feelings of a sex partner and a focus on his own whim that can escalate by increments into the demands of a rapist? If the latter possibility is true, then the availability of prostitution may provide baby steps for even the most cowardly character to embolden himself in the various forms or gestures of sexual assault or rape, overt physical struggle or covert with a drug in a drink. That sensibility might not grasp the idea that whatever joy or elevation comes from sex itself is part in parcel of a shared moment of individuals conspiring together like sharing a secret or simply accepting and wanting the contact of another human being. Not that some johns don't have that motivation. But it is all about the anomaly. The Crown prosecutor in the Ghomeshi trail seems like the only person in Canada who did not know how it would play out. The only reason the rest of us knew was by looking at the pattern. It is more difficult to prove rape or sexual assault than it is to create the impression that a witness is not credible. Certain things could have been checked as the witness was prepared. In movies or TV, we see practice runs with hard questions double-checking claims about whether the alleged victim tried to contact the offender at any time afterward. The prosecution team might make sure psychiatrists are brought in as witnesses to establish officially the well known human nature to behave irrationally following an event that is hard to process. They certainly could have done their due diligence to verify that a car specified as the location for an assault was of a make and colour the accused in fact owned and used at the time. Since there is the possibility of a witness lying, a continuity error can't be dismissed. Because there is so much unpunished or unreported abuse, assault and rape around the world, any high-profile case will have the added burden of being an effigy of evil and sadism incarnate waiting for a bonfire. A Ghomeshi or a Cosby might be notorious for behavior that is only finally talked about openly once that individual is vulnerable and people might well want to imprison someone simply for being an asshole. We now know Ghomeshi is not fondly recalled by those who worked with him. We can wait for someone to do a super-cut of interview clips where he is rejected by female guests of Q he asked on dates over the air, like Andrea Martin and Carrie Fisher. Either they dodged a bullet or he did, because entertainment icons don't have to worry about their future and would not likely have taken any quarter from him. The trial of an individual for several different crimes or counts of an offense might be efficient, but it also seems that we assume testimony for one specific incident supports the fact of another alleged incident witnessed by a separate person. But the only thing it bolsters is the character sketch of the accused and the likelihood of a seemingly soft-spoken and friendly persona to do something violent, criminal or otherwise creepy. We might conflate an impression of the accused as a person (two-faced, kinky, mean boss, hypocrite) with whether each allegation witnessed by one person in each case. If fifty women stood watching as Bill Cosby put something into a woman's drink and then grope her once she was asleep, those testimonies would support that case. As separate individuals with unrelated claims, they can only damn the accused in the court of public opinion. If Jian adversary Billy Bob Thornton were said to hit a woman, he would not be a pristine God falling from Mount Olympus. Nobody is salivating to prove Billy Bob is not Bad Santa or not someone capable of a dark side. Had Bill Cosby refrained from lecturing young black men about droopy drawers and staying with the mother of their children and education in general, he might not have angered Hannibal Burress and whoever used a cell phone to record the anti-Cosby bit and he might still be rambling on the Tonight Show for a polite Jimmy Fallon. If Toronto didn't have such a small entertainment community, downsized broadcasting industry, and executive indifference to building on-air personalities or talent in general let alone celebrities, a Jian would not be such a big fish rising under a girl swimmer. Is anyone from CBC checking out Second City or Lunacy Cabaret or other comedy shows around the city? There are veteran comedy folk still getting air-time, as well they should, but there could easily be open floodgates of exposure for a true cutting edge, new blood, and new faces. No need to compromise themselves or be quiet about rotten behavior when there is more investment in opening doors and building new brands.