Ladies behind the scenes

Shoma A. Chatterji

IN Gender within Film Crews, a Report published in 2013 based on a study by producer and writer Stephen Follows, showed that men dominate most positions within the technical crew of a film. The study covered 100 top-grossing films at the US boxoffice over the past 20 years totally amounting to an astounding figure of 2000 films. It broke down all crew positions to discover that women take up a paltry 22.6 per cent of people behind the camera. This clearly pointed out that opportunities for women working behind the scenes in films has not increased over two decades and in 2013 alone, it dipped to 21.8 per cent that is lower than the average over the past 20 years. (Melina Silverstein, Women and Hollywood, July 23, 2013.)

India is no exception. Revathi, actress-director from the South, had an all-woman crew for her directorial film Mitr, My Friend (2002), which bagged the Best English Film Award at the 49th National Awards, along with the Best Actress Award for Shobana and the Best Editor award for Bina Paul. This film’s direction, story, music, screenplay, editing, cinematography and costumes were solely by women. These instances are not unique but rare. In the independent documentary movement, many women filmmakers opt for as many women for their crew as they possibly can.

One of the USPs of Waiting, a feature film in Hindi, is that it has almost an all-woman crew. According to Anu Menon, who directed the film, “Waiting unwittingly ended being almost an entirely all-women-crew film. It led to cheeky T-shirts being printed that said, “Wo(men) at work” — which even the few good men on the sets wore quite sportingly. It was a tough shoot but the girl talk and camaraderie took a lot of the edge off when we shot in Cochin.”

Neha Parti Matiyani has done the cinematography, Atika Chohan has penned the dialogue, story and screenplay are by Anu Menon, along with Jimmy Ruzicka, Nitin Baid, and Apurva Asrani have edited the film and music is by Mikey McCleary.

Ring Road (2014), a Kannada film, directed by Priya Belliappa, a FTII alumnus, boasted an entire crew of women. It was a Kannada crime drama produced by Ranjini Ravindra Das, a woman. The film was loosely based on the infamous murder of software engineer Girish, by his fiancée Shubha in Bangalore in 2003. The film marked the debut of cinematographer Reshmi Sarkar and director Priya Belliappa. The crew included editor Maryann D'Souza and music director Vani Harikrishna. The lyrics were by Rekha Rani and Ranjini Ravindra Das. The costume designer, dialogue writer, choreographer and art director were drawn from among friends and acquaintances across India. Newcomer Khushi played the main role chosen after 500 girls were auditioned and 10 were shortlisted. As many as 16 technical departments were handled by an all-woman team.

Eva Acharya, a Nepalese immigrant in Australia, made a short film on a paranormal subject called The Legacy last year targeted for film festivals. The film had an all-woman team by Australia’s only Nepalese filmmaker Acharya. Indie romantic drama Below Her Mouth is believed to be the first Canadian feature made with an all-female crew. From director April Mullen to the camera, lighting, production designer, editor and “best boy” assistants, everybody on the set was a woman. The film is about a passionate, unexpected fling between two women that changes their lives forever. 

The annual Celluloid Ceiling Report for 2015 by San Diego State University stated that in 2014, only nine per cent Hollywood films were directed by women. As if this was not enough, the top 250 films of 2015 did not have a single woman in a key position behind the camera such as director, writer, producers, editor and cinematographer.