Women at the Box Office This Weekend

Desire, sex and sexuality across generations is on tap from two new female writer/directors this weekend. Georgina Garcia Reidel brings us the story of three generations of women exploring their desires in How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer. America Ferrera (pre- Ugly Betty) plays Blanca a young woman coming of age on summer break with nothing to do all day but sit around with her girlfriends; Elizabeth Pena plays Lolita, Blanca's divorced mom with a ton of pent-up sexual frustration; and Lucy Gallardo plays Dona Genoveva a 70-year-old woman who knows what she wants and goes after it surprising herself and her family.

The French film Water Lillies tells the coming of age story of three very different 15-year-old girls also on summer break with nothing to do except hang out at the pool. They live in the bizarre world of synchronized swimming, training like competitive swimmers, yet forced to look like little princesses. This film allows the girls to explore their own sexual desires, both heterosexually and homosexually, as an organic part of life in a way few films have before.

American films are not as bold as European films especially dealing with sex and sexuality and Water Lillies is another indication of how limited the American film landscape is when dealing with girls. The Garcia Girls was slow at times (and could have been cut by 30 minutes), but I was impressed that Garcia Reidel wasn't afraid using silence to get her point across. Sciamma let the girls bodies and desires lead the story and exhibits a strong and impressive directorial vision.

Both films have received accolades, Water Lillies was screened at Cannes last year, and How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer played at Sundance several years ago. Water Lillies opens today in LA and will be playing in different cities throughout the summer. DVD will be available in September.
Read my interview with Sciamma: http://womenandhollywood.blogspot.com/2008/05/interview-with-cline-sciamma-director.html

How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summer opens in 11 cities today including LA, Chicago, SF, Dallas, Houston, Miami
More info: http://www.garciagirlsmovie.com/index.html

Films Remaining in Theatres:
Then She Found Me - if you haven't seen this yet, this should be at the top if your list
Baby Mama
Nim's Island
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Under the Same Moon
Jellyfish (Seattle)
Falling for Grace (Phoenix)

Interview with Céline Sciamma, director of Water Lillies

I missed Water Lillies when it was in New York recently but I was able to screen this very interesting film of young girls exploring their burgeoning sexuality in advance of the film opening this weekend in LA at the Nuart. (The film will be playing in a variety of cities throughout the summer and will be on DVD in September.)

First-time French director Céline Sciamma answered some questions about her debut film.

Women & Hollywood: There are so few films that realistically deal with girls coming of age that your film is like a breath of fresh air. Why do you think this is a topic is not explored more when boys coming of age films are so common?

Céline Sciamma: Cinema has been celebrating women for a century now but men have mostly done the talking. I think you have to be a woman to be truly genuine and committed to the subject and to tell that particular story, especially when it comes to coming of age stories. Hopefully, the rise of a generation of women filmmakers means that the topic will be explored.

W&H: You said that it's a tough job to be a girl. What do you mean by that?

CS: It's a tough job because of the many things that are expected girls that are often contradictory. Being strong but hiding your strength, being in charge but not being officially the boss. It’s a tough job because girls live in a man’s world.

W&H: Synchronized swimming is such a bizarre feminine activity. It's hard and athletic so you need to train but its also about beauty and smiling and looking pretty. Why did you choose to use synchronized swimming as the focal point of so many of the film's activities?

CS: The thing that interested me mostly about synchronized swimming is the way it tells a lot about the girl’s condition. Synchronized swimmers are soldiers who look like dolls. On the surface they have to pretend that they don’t suffer, with all the makeup and the fake smiles, whereas underwater/underneath they painfully struggle with the element. Synchronized swimming is about pretending, it’s about hiding the pain and the sacrifice you go through to be officially gracious. Those two levels you can find in ordinary teenagehood.

W&H: You said that Floriane's character gave you the opportunity to explore the tragedy of being a pretty girl. What do you mean by that?

CS: Films usually celebrate the beauty of girls like it’s an achievement. But being beautiful is an issue just as being unattractive is. It’s something you have to deal with, something you have to face. The lust that it generates. It’s one of the problems of femininity.

W&H: There seems to be a disconnect (especially here in the US) between the taboo of discussing the reality of girls sexuality and the constant push towards sexualizing girls through clothing, ads and images in the media. Do you have any thoughts on that?

CS: That’s one of the illustration of the tough job of being a girl! That’s the kind of contradiction girls have to deal with everyday. They have to lift up to the fantasy and in the meantime be discreet about their feelings and their urges. They must trigger desire but they don’t have the right to express theirs.

W&H: Why did you pick the title Water Lilies?

CS: I didn’t pick it myself actually. It’s the international title. The original french title is "Naissance des pieuvres" which means "Birth of the Octopussies". Rather different as you can see! But I really like the title "Water Lilies", it’s more smooth than the french title and it has that poetic feeling. One can say that the three characters are like waterlilies, beautiful flowers on the surface but hiding deep roots…

W&H: Do you think its easier for women directors in Europe and if yes, why?

CS: I don’t know if it’s easier, but this year –and I hope it’s not a coincidence- a lot of the first time french directors were women. France has a tradition of women filmmakers that really began in the 90’s and keeps blooming. But one cannot talk about Europe. I don’t know any women directors in Italy, nor Spain… When I came to New York for the release, film teachers at NYU were telling me that there most promising student were women… Something might be happening here…

W&H: Do you think your film is a feminist film?

CS: When a public woman is asked if she is a feminist, she tends to answer "no", as if it was some kind of an insult. I think the film is feminist. That doesn’t mean that the film is made for a woman audience, that doesn’t mean that it’s an exposé. It’s a story that I wanted to be generous, catchy, and touching. It’s feminist because it goes beyond the fantasy, because it goes against the folklore of teenage girl’s in cotton underwear. Water Lilies goes in the locker rooms of girls not to eye-drop, but to see the crude reality. It allows everyone in the audience to experience what it’s like to be a girl.

Sex and the City Part 2: Feminism and Backlash

As the opening of Sex and the City gets closer I've noticed a bunch of articles asking whether you can be a feminist and still like Sex and the City. Give me a break. Of course you can be a feminist and like Sex and the City.

While some feminists may now want me to turn in my feminist card (and yes, we do have a card...it's called a brain) I just want to take a step back. I understand that many feminists have trouble with the show's obsession with clothes, shoes, skinniness and men. I, too, couldn't understand how those women wore those shoes without falling over.

But honestly, I am so happy that we are even having this conversation. When was the last time a fictional film (and remember this is FICTION and FAKE) caused such a stir and encouraged a debate about feminism? Just the fact that people put the words Sex and the City and feminism in the same sentence makes me excited.

But the point is Sex and the City wouldn't exist without feminism. Sarah Jessica Parker herself sees Carrie on the same continuum with Erica (played by Jill Clayburgh) in the classic feminist flick An Unmarried Woman (a must-see); and to me, she also couldn't exist without Erica Jong's Isadora Wing of Fear of Flying.

The Guardian had some good points about the feminist messages in Sex and the City Can a Feminist Really Love Sex and the City?

And to dismiss the programme entirely on the basis of its shortcomings as a feminist text would also be to lose out on what it does deliver. Just to take the most headline-grabbing example, that includes some pretty frank discussion of sex, in which female sexual pleasure and agency is obviously considered a fundamental right, rather than a privilege. McCabe says, "The way they spoke, and the things they talked about, were revolutionary. And it was also a great study of female friendship.

And I think the relationship between the women and all the questions women have about how we fit into the culture is what sold the show and what makes women excited about seeing the film. (Remember it is the top requested film on Fandango)

From the NY Magazine cover story on Sarah Jessica Parker:

And despite the gobbling consumerism of its characters, the show has unsettling insights into women and money: the way bodies function as currency; the degree to which a woman alone can truly be autonomous of free; the marriage hunt as negotiation disguised as romance.

The Backlash
But since we are talking about women, sex, feminism and movies it was only a matter of time before the backlash started. For some reason (which I don't understand) the film premiered in London. But overexposure has set in and the knives are now out with still two weeks to go. The press made fun of the Sarah Jessica Parker's hat at the premiere, and then I did a double take when I saw the cover of Time Out NY (to the left) which had duct tape over the four women's mouths with the headline: No Sex! Enough Already- we love 'em, but it's just too much.

I'm sorry, isn't doing press a requirement for all movies these days? Is it these women's fault that there is such overwhelming and unprecedented interest in their film? The culture demands that they appear everywhere yet it criticizes them for being everywhere. Robert Downey Jr. was everywhere promoting Iron Man and there was never a picture on a cover of a magazine with his mouth covered in duct tape? That picture is beyond unacceptable and blatantly sexist.

And now the LA Times has a story this morning entitled Sex and the City movie may lack wide appeal which talks about whether there are enough women in this county over 30 interested in seeing this movie to make it a hit. (News flash to the studios- there are a lot of women in this country over 30, we have money and we go to the movies.)

Some box office prognosticators are predicting that it could make as much as $40 million on its opening weekend, others see it more in the $20 million range. Let's keep in mind that only one film starring a woman made more than $40 million on its opening weekend -- Angelina Jolie in the first Tomb Raider movie. That was an action movie (that appealed to boys more than women). Next is Charlie's Angels, another action flick that grossed $40 million. The Reese Witherspoon starrer Sweet Home Alabama has the highest grossing numbers at $35 million for a romantic comedy.

Let's not let this growing backlash put this film in a no win situation. It's not going to make as much money as an action film because it's not an action film. I also would love for Hollywood to take a pause and look at the numbers for this film beyond the first three days to see if women are coming out during the first week in larger numbers than usual.

We started off the movie season two weeks ago with the NY Times discussing the lack of films coming out this summer that have any women in significant roles. I find it very easy to be reconcile my feminism my love for movies on this one. This film needs all of our support. This feminist for one will be there supporting Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda. Hope you join me.

The LA Times Obits the Careers of Cameron Diaz and Gwyneth Paltrow

Yesterday morning's article in the LA Times was a lament on the lack of films that appeal to women but morphed into an obit on the careers of Gwyneth Paltrow and Cameron Diaz, two thirty something actresses who in any other industry would be still on an upwards career trajectory. More than anything else the story is just another indication on how pathetic a world it is for women working in Hollywood today.

It wasn't too long ago that Paltrow was the reigning queen of class. She has an Oscar, yet she's made some bad choices (I still can't forgive her for Shallow Hal), had some kids, and did the most horrible thing possible and actually aged. Now she's back, not as the star but as the sidekick assistant of Robert Downey Jr. (a guy who was written off so many times yet still get chances to come back). I can't necessarily blame her for taking the job, since she probably got paid pretty well and didn't have to work much. But still. She's a very good actress and she's still relatively young...so is Pepper Potts the roles she's doomed to play?

Cameron Diaz has been in some very funny movies and is very charming and likable onscreen. As the article says her new movie What Happens in Vegas with Ashton Kutcher has them evenly matched as co-stars. It probably helps the case that the script was written by a woman, Dana Fox. But an agent told Rachel Abramowitz (who wrote the article) that Diaz' problem is that she is stuck in the "woman-girl syndrome" like Melanie Griffith and Meg Ryan before her.

What the fuck is that? A "woman-girl syndrome?" I can't believe that someone could say that with a straight face and that a reporter would let them get away with that. That's just a load of crap. Would anyone say that about a male actor? He's caught in the man-boy syndrome? Oh right, yeah they are. They're all caught in the boy-male syndrome! And you know what? the boy-man syndrome seems to pay off in dividends for the guys. Have you been to a comedy recently where the guy acts like a man? Please, the double standard is beyond pathetic.

When the box office fire cools, what are actresses like Gwyneth Paltrow and Cameron Diaz to do?

The Tony Nominations

It's Tony Awards time, that time of the year to take a look at the theatre world and how women are doing in it. The news as you would expect is mixed to bad. Women still lag very far behind as playwrights -- none of the best play nominees were by women. Only two women figured into the creative teams on the best musical nominees, Heidi Rodewald was nominated as composer for Passing Strange and Quiana Alegria Hudes was nominated for writing the book of In the Heights. The good news is that two out of the four nominees for best director of a play were women -- Maria Aitken, The 39 Steps and Anna D. Shapiro, August: Osage County.

So while women might not be involved enough creatively, we make up a majority of the Broadway audience (62%) and are more likely to make the purchasing decisions (data from the Broadway League) Then why aren't there more women's stories being produced if we are the majority of the theatregoers?

On another note, I heard Elizabeth Vincentelli, the Arts & Entertainment editor of Time Out NY talking on NPR yesterday about the nominations and how we are in a golden age for women in musical theatre. She said "the breadth of the talent pool is staggering." My take is that there has always been amazing female talent available (how about Betty Buckley and Bernadette Peters?) There's just never been enough vehicles to display their talents.

Two musicals which I have not seen A Catered Affair and Gypsy boast two generations of talented women. Patti Lupone as Mama Rose with Laura Benanti in Gypsy; and Faith Prince and Leslie Kritzer in A Catered Affair. Fun fact: Lupone who is nominated this year last won a Tony 28 years ago in Evita.

Other nominees:
Best Performance By a Leading Actress in a Play
Eve Best, The Homecoming
Deanna Dunagan, August: Osage County
Kate Fleetwood, Macbeth
S. Epatha Merkerson, Come Back, Little Sheba
Amy Morton, August: Osage County

Best Performance By a Leading Actress in a Musical
Kerry Butler, Xanadu
Patti LuPone, Gypsy
Kelli O'Hara, Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific
Faith Prince, A Catered Affair
Jenna Russell, Sunday in the Park With George

Best Performance By a Featured Actress in a Play
Sinead Cusack, Rock 'n' Roll
Mary McCormack, Boeing-Boeing
Laurie Metcalf, November
Martha Plimpton, Top Girls
Rondi Reed, August: Osage County

Best Performance By a Featured Actress in a Musical
de'Adre Aziza, Passing Strange
Laura Benanti, Gypsy
Andrea Martin, The New Mel Brooks Musical Young Frankenstein
Olga Merediz, In The Heights
Loretta Ables Sayre, Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific

Thoughts from Martha Plimpton on her nomination: (Best Performance By a Featured Actress in a Play, Top Girls): "I haven't had my coffee yet, so I'm a little bleary-eyed, but I'll tell you this...I'm really delighted and surprised, to be perfectly honest, and just very proud that I get to represent the ladies in our show at the big party. What an awesome year for women! Let's hope every season from now on is as lush with great women doing their thing." (Variety)

Karen Allen is Back in the New Indiana Jones Movie

One of the most exciting things I'm looking to this summer is seeing Karen Allen onscreen returning in the Indiana Jones movie. Her character Marion Ravenwood was a much more realistic foil and partner for Indy than the women who followed. (Granted the film was made in 1981 when there were many more strong roles for women in the movies -- think Silkwood, Norma Rae, 9 to 5, Yentl)

It's smart and bold for Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to team their 65 year old male star (Harrison Ford) with a female contemporary rather than following the trend and giving him a younger girlfriend.

Here's a sneak preview at the new issue of More magazine which features Karen Allen on its cover.


Here are some excerpts from the piece:

About getting the call from Steven Spielberg:

“What’s funny is that his wife, Kate Capshaw, had just bought a lot of my knitwear for Christmas presents. I though he was going to tell me he loved the presents! He said, ‘Haven’t you been watching television? We’re doing another film, and you’re in it.’ And it wasn’t a cameo, it was a big, beautiful part and I was jumping up and down.”

Life on the Indy set:

On the first day of filming, she and Ford, who turned 65 during the shoot, had to leap from the back of a moving truck into its cab. “Harrison and I were laughing in between takes, saying ‘Here we go again.’ It just felt really seamless.

About the second time around:

“Now, we’ve all grown up, we all have kids: Steven has seven children; Harrison has several families. As a younger actor, I had a harder time enjoying the process. I was so serious about it all, there was more ego involved. I’d never worked on big action things where you spend you entire day navigating through snakes or having corpses fall on your head, and I was overwhelmed."

Harrison Ford on Karen:

“Karen has this sort of girlish streak to her, even as a mature woman. And yet it’s not a coy thing. It’s not a weak thing. She has a sense of adventure.” On the first day of filming, “there I was in a fedora and a leather jacket and she showed up up looking like the Karen of old. Or of young.”

Women over 40 in Hollywood:

“There just aren’t that many wonderful roles for women over 45. I come from a generation of fantastic actresses, most of whom are not working at all and I don’t think it’s because they stopped wanting to.”

About the TV offers she’s turned down:

“For actors over a certain age, everybody thinks you’re going to work in television. It seems to me there’s one good show a year – like right now I love In Treatment. But most television I find unbearably bad. So, if an acting job comes along that I want to do, fantastic, and meanwhile, I have this really full, rich, interesting life.”

About her life now:

“Honestly, I have to say, 56 is my favorite age ever. I’ve raised my son, and I’ll never stop being his mother. But now he’s moved on in his life, and that opens up mine as well. It’s taken me this long to figure out how to create a life that’s diverse and interesting and balanced.”

The divorced star and her future loves:

“I feel that if I’m going to get involved at this point, I’m looking for a person I’d spend the rest of my life with. And short of that, I honestly like being on my own. Every once in a while, I’ll see a really romantic movie and think, why can’t I find somebody like him? But I’m kind of reconciled to the possibility that I might not.”

You can read the full story next week.

Fall TV Preview- Women's Shows Axed

Because of the prolonged writer's strike this TV season was totally messed up. Some shows have ended, some shows never came back and some shows just got screwed by the scheduling.

The TV powers said that things are going to be different post-strike and have announced their fall lineups, and one thing that looks really different to me is how many women's shows are not making it back next season.

ABC which boasts the best women's shows has just lost its mind by axing the wonderful Men in Trees, and Women's Murder Club. They also axed Cashmere Mafia but that show was so terrible that I can't cry and boo boo tears for that one. But I am pissed about the other two.

I have to say that ABC totally screwed Men in Trees over and over again. It seems that they wanted that show to fail. I think they changed its time slot six times and twice it disappeared for months. They were so stupid not to keep it on after Grey's Anatomy and embrace the night as a night for great women's TV.

Regarding Women's Murder Club, ABC declared it dead when they fired the creators Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain during the writer's strike. When the show came back post strike they really toned down the Angie Harmon character and made her giggle around a potential guy she liked. This woman was a sergeant in the SFPD and they reduced her to giggling. Putzes! I just don't get it. ABC renews the unwatchable Eli Stone but ditched Men in Trees and Women's Murder Club. Come on!

I also thought the the Judy Greer show Miss/Guided had a chance to come back on ABC but it doesn't seem to be on the schedule. CBS was also on the verge of dumping the great The New Adventures of Old Christine starring Julia Louis-Dreyfuss but as of this morning it looks like its been renewed but without a time slot or airdate.

Looking at the new shows coming next fall here are some that look halfway decent:

NBC
Kath and Kim- based on the Aussie comedy of the same name starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair

CBS
The Ex List- based on an Israeli series about a woman who is warned by a tarot card reader that she needs to get married soon to a man who she's already known in her life. Written by Diane Ruggiero and starring Elizabeth Reaser (who I guess will have been finished with Alex on Grey's Anatomy since she now has her own series. I'm happy for her since she is a great actress.)

CW
Surviving the Filthy Rich - a Yale-educated woman serves as the live-in tutor to two wealthy heiresses. Written by Rina Mimoun.

Fox
Fringe- follows the exploits of a young female FBI agent who tackles unexplained medical and scientific phenomena.

Doesn't it seem that this fall seems kind of lackluster for women on TV?

Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Kristin Davis

At the premiere of the Sex and the City movie in London, Davis responded to the continued gossip that the four costars don't get along by saying:

"It's a sexist thing really," she told Reuters, complaining that magazines "don't talk about how the Sopranos all fought or whatever."

"We've got a woman running for president, we need to get with the times. Not all women are bitchy to each other," (Reuters)

Photo: Wireimage

Interview with Jennifer Fox, Director, Producer and Subject of Flying: Confessions of a Free Women

Parts 3 and 4 of the six part series Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman airs tonight (Monday) on the Sundance channel. The series focuses on Jennifer Fox's questions about gender issues, motherhood, marriage and in the parts airing tonight she asks these questions of women activists working on issues in countries around the world.

Women & Hollywood was able to ask Jennifer Fox about making the film and how it has changed her.

Women & Hollywood: Each episode starts off with the following resonant statement: "I never wanted to be a girl in the way a girl was supposed to be. I wanted to be a boy. They could do anything they wanted to do." Why was it important to begin each episode that way?

Jennifer Fox: I think it really sums up the dilemma of our lives -- boys can do everything and girls can do very little. Remember, I grew up in the late 50s but I have a feeling that girls grow up not so different today…the gender lines have not been broken. And on this iconographic issue of raising children in some ways its like we are back in the 50s.

W&H: In the beginning episodes you are focused on having a child after many years of ambivalence. You question whether you are real woman in our culture without having a child.

JF: We define women as being married mothers actually. It's marriage plus children.

W&H: Do you feel you are in a different place from where you started the film?

JF: You are looking at a woman who has run away screaming from a female identity, saying I will not be controlled by the rules, I will live as men live. At the beginning of the film I am a long way from being a feminist because I completely sided with my father. I arrive at the end of the film siding with my mother and realizing that I am a part of a fabric that I didn't know I was part of before. At the end of the film [which was two years ago] I was still much more focused on having a child than I am now. I certainly feel that you can be woman and not have children, but I don't think society feels that.

W&H: Do you think that if you would have had more of a feminist identity you have come to the film from a different place?

JF: Oh yeah, but I think the film would not have been as good. I think that if I would have talked as politically as I do now it wouldn't have made for a good film. What's good about the film is that I was in a crisis of identity; I couldn't speak the language because I couldn't identify. What you see is someone searching for who they are. That was real. The good news about the film is that you follow my journey and that made a better film and one that younger women highly identify with.

W&H: Because you are not self-identified as a feminist?

JF: Right, and just like when I was a kid a lot of people still see feminist as a bad word.

W&H: Your film is heterosexually focused. Did you think about having lesbian stories as part of the film?

JF: I did really want to have a lesbian story but all of my attempts failed. I always thought that at the end of the film I would break up with these 2 guys and go out with a woman as a way to investigate my bisexuality. It didn't happen. I think the problem is because there are so few films like this that we want it to cover everything. It's actually quite a narrow. It's about sexual freedom and control internationally. The main thing was that the film had to go around the world, not that it had to cover all female identities.

W&H: What was so interesting was that you are taking people on a journey and exposing them to the international women's movement that many people here in the US are so unfamiliar with.

JF: I think what's really important about Flying is issues of representation. We are used to looking at the third world in a kind of object-oriented way when the camera points at them and hides the filmmaker. What I was trying to do was to say that we (US) who think we are so different from them are actually in the same frame. That's why it was so important for me to put a white affluent, western woman in the same frame as a woman from Pakistan or Cambodia or India to visually shift the representation. I wanted to say these women are like us. That's why the issues of my sexual abuse and sexuality were so important to unravel in the film because they are so common and that totally breaks down the wall between us.

W&H: Your film was financed internationally? How did you make that happen?

JF: I have quite an international reputation in the documentary film scene. The reason why this was a Danish co-production is because the film making strategies -- the one person one camera -- and the intimacy is something they've done very successfully in Denmark. A producer approached me and we decided to partner. Doing a co-production is always quite hard. I lived in Denmark for a year and a half and my Danish editor was here and its hard and always more expensive. In our case it was successful because there was a creative reason to work together.

W&H: Why do you think that women are drawn to documentaries?

JF: They are just so much fun to make and they are hands on. Of course politically, [docs are more welcoming to women because of the smaller crews, smaller budgets, and less power] but at the same time it's also about having direct contact with a subject and people and I think women thrive on that. We are relationship beings.

There are very few women making series and when I made American Love Story I was the only woman I knew in PBS land who made a series. I'm probably still the only woman to have directed and produced a ten-hour series for public TV. One of the issues I had to deal with [at the time] was how a thirty something woman could be trusted with the scope and the money this would take. Those issues of money, power and responsibility are always the same for women.

W&H: Why do you think your film is resonating with people?

JF: I see this film is resonating so differently and it generates profound dialogue. Women and men say to me: "this is my life and nobody has put it on screen before and it's such a relief." I don't think that I've made a film that speaks so universally and directly before. My films have been successful but this is something different. Screening after screening I see this other reaction. I see it as a movement. You have to let people talk.

W&H: Do you embrace feminism now?

JF: I do. A lot of the effort is to get people to talk about gender in a new way and to see that sexism and gender issues are so ingrained in us and you have to do the daily work. It means don't capitulate to the idea of giving up your job because you have kids. There is a point where we have to demand gender equality and you have to start with yourself.

More info: Flying
Order the DVD

Women & Hollywood on the Radio and on the Web!

Women & Hollywood (aka Melissa Silverstein) appeared Friday on the segment "Does Hollywood show a Gender Bias with Summer Movies?" on the Patt Morrison show on KPCC (the southern CA NPR station). Listen to it here: Does Hollywood show a Gender Bias with Summer Movies? (Scroll down to the last segment)


A big shout out to Debbie Zipp, who is trying to make movies for women over 40 at her In the Trenches Productions for the great blog post on Women & Hollywood. Check out the post here: Women Over 40 on a Roll

Women at the Box Office This Weekend

New to NY and LA this weekend is A Previous Engagement a comedy starring Juliet Stevenson written and directed by Joan Carr-Wiggin. (Disclaimer- I have been working on the marketing of this film.) Read my interview with director Joan Carr-Wiggin

Then She Found Me continues its roll out to Phoenix, Denver, CT, southern FL, Atlanta, IL, Baltimore, MA, Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston.
Here's my review

Also opening in NY is The Tracey Fragments starring Ellen Page, that is getting its US release due to Page's fame. Pretty cool. Here's an analysis of this film's release that I found interesting from Karina Longworth at Spout: Tracey Fragments and the Ellen Page Conundrum

Remaining in Theatres for your viewing pleasure are:
Baby Mama
Nim's Island (which over the last month has made a respectable 42 m with a budget of 37 m)
Under the Same Moon
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Under the radar success story: Hats off to Fay Ann Lee for self distributing her film Falling for Grace which was number 1 Harkins Camelview in Phoenix and is now in its fourth weekend there! She's looking for a national distributor. Ideas?

A Previous Engagement- Written and Directed by Joan Carr-Wiggin

I met Joan and her husband and producer David Gordian over a year ago as they were struggling to get a distribution deal for their film A Previous Engagement starring Juliet Stevenson. We became friends and I have been working with them over the last couple of months to try and get the word out about this comedy, which is unique in this film climate, because at its center is a woman over 50.

Joan Carr-Wiggin answered some questions about her film and why its so hard to get women's stories made in the business.

Women & Hollywood: What made you decide to write this story?

Joan Carr-Wiggin: I really wanted to tell a story about an older woman taking control of her life. Not in a "she realizes taking care of her family is the most important thing when she becomes terminally ill" way. I see so many fascinating, funny, and complicated older women living great lives, but I don’t see women like that in films.

W&H: Did you know that you would be directing it when you wrote it?

JCW: Yes. That influenced the script. I don’t think I’d enjoy directing something too depressing. I write a wide range of scripts, I even wrote a sci fi one once which was a lot of fun, and I’ve written some very dramatic pieces, but I’m only interested in directing comedy. Preston Sturges is my favourite director, and I agree with the theme of his wonderful movie Sullivan’s Travels. Watching comedy makes life a little easier for people.

W&H: Most women filmmakers struggle to get financing for their films, but you seem to have had an easier time with it. Why do you think that's the case and what secrets can you share with other women looking for financing?

JCW: It's really hard to finance any kind of character-based film in Hollywood, not just one about women. One of our biggest advantages is that my husband David Gordian, who produced the film, raises our financing in Canada and Europe, which are much more welcoming of women directors and character-based films than the American system. And the less money you need to raise, the more freedom you have as a filmmaker. We’re only interested in doing smaller character driven films that feature performances rather than stunts and explosions. We have no desire to make a number one film at the box office. We just try to make a movie we’ll enjoy ourselves. But Hollywood always wants to maximize gross revenues, even if the budget and the advertising costs wipe out their profits. It’s a “bigger is better” mentality, and we just don’t share it at all.

W&H: The line that resonates the most in the film is: "if people really knew who their mothers really were the world would end." Why do you think it resonates so much?

JCW: It's one of those things everyone knows is true but no one ever talks about it. I think most of us, as we get older, start to glimpse that our mothers were much more complicated than we realized, and we often regret not getting to know the real woman underneath.

W&H: Why do you think it’s so difficult to get films about women over 40 made?

JCW: There's a tendency in Hollywood to see films that have a young and male sensibility as universal, and to see films that have an older and female sensibility as only appealing to a niche. But I’ve discovered that A Previous Engagement strikes a chord with a lot of men as well as women. So their premise just isn’t accurate. Part of the problem is that even when Hollywood does make a film about an older woman, it often ends up presenting an absurd caricature instead of a real woman, so of course the film fails. And then Hollywood uses its failure as an excuse not to finance interesting and promising films about older women. But I was an economist before I was a filmmaker, so I know there are many economic models which can allow films to be made and distributed. I think smart filmmakers should just turn their backs on Hollywood. It operates on a business model which functions, fairly efficiently, for the delivery of simplistic movies for the lowest common denominator. And sometimes I enjoy those movies myself. But usually I don’t, and I would never want to direct one.

W&H: Why do you think that the climate is so hostile to women directors?

JCW: Sexism is the short answer, and that explains a great deal of it. Women make up about 6% of film directors, so there are actually more women law partners, politicians and even astronauts proportionally than directors. The fact that Hollywood lags so far behind other industries helps to explain why they continue to make movies that don’t show women accurately. And they use absurd excuses to resist change, such as the myth that directing is a difficult job for mothers. Except for during the actual filming, which is a small part of the overall job, the hours are flexible and a lot of work can be done from home. And of course no one talks about directing being too demanding a job for fathers. But I’m optimistic that things will start to get better for women directors with the rise of digital cinema and the internet, which are both breaking down the entire economic model of the Hollywood production and distribution system. The world is changing in wonderful exciting ways, even if Hollywood isn’t.

W&H: What advice would you give to other women filmmakers?

JCW: Watch great movies, and remember that once you get past the financing struggles, actors and crew people are really accepting of women directors. A Previous Engagement was an absolute joy to make. And be persistent.

A Previous Engagement opens today in NY and LA.
A Previous Engagement

What Does the Demise of Picturehouse Mean for The Women?

Yesterday, Warner Brother shut down its two indie operations Warner Independent Pictures (headed by Polly Cohen) and Picturehouse. Warners, if you recall, if the studio headed by Jeff Robinov who declared his love for women by stating that he didn't even want to read any scripts that had women leads (earlier post Do Women Matter to Hollywood?.)

Picturehouse led by Bob Berney (who brought us the awesome Whale Rider) has a couple of women friendly films on track to be released within the next several months: First is Kit Kittredge: An American Girl based on the American Girl dolls which stars Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormand, Joan Cusack and is directed by Patricia Rozema from a screenplay by Ann Peacock. It's a family friendly film with a G rating and Abigail plays a young reporter. Sounds cute. Film will be released in early July.

Second is The Women an update of the classic film written and directed by Diane English starring Annette Bening, Meg Ryan, Eva Mendes, Jada Pinkett Smith, Debra Messing and Candice Bergen and Bette Midler. Yowsa. Every time I write this cast I can't help but get excited.

Now that The Women is technically in the hands of Warner Brothers which has a horrible track record with women, what will they do with this film? I'm nervous. I really hope they don't dump it (the release date has recently been changed from October to September 12). I remember what happened when the Weinsteins left Miramax and there were a couple of films that never got released properly. Hopefully they sell it or partner with someone who can figure out how to market this to women (not that anyone is Hollywood is good at that).

Anyone know what's going on?

Lioness- a film by Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers

I've been going to the Tribeca Film Festival for a couple of years now and one of the strongest parts of the festival has been the documentaries. Each year I manage to see a couple that I can't get out of my head. This year one of the films was Lioness, a film about women soldiers on the front lines in the war in Iraq. Yes, women soldiers are on the front lines in Iraq. Just like the farce of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the policy that prohibits women in combat does not reflect the reality of this war. Team Lioness was created out of necessity on the ground in Iraq in 2003 to diffuse tensions with women civilians and children during raids and operations where soldiers were on the hunt for insurgents.

This film focuses on five of the earliest Lionesses, their lack of training for the missions, (because women are not in combat so, of course, the can't be trained for the combat they won't be seeing) their experiences in battle, and what it was like to come back home to a world that doesn't acknowledge or understand your contribution to the war effort. The most moving story for me was that of Shannon Morgan, a young woman who joined up in the wake of 9-11 in order to get money for college. Shannon knew how to shoot and was so tough that the guys requested her to be attached to their missions. Shannon was sent out on the most potentially volatile missions. She got caught in a firefight and had to kill in order to not be killed herself. Killing screws up everyone and when Shannon came back from Iraq with PTSD needing therapy there were no services available for a woman soldier who has done what she has done. The therapists don't have any context or training to help her.

No matter how you feel about war, especially this war, this film illuminates an important issue that needs way more attention. But the defense department can't bring the issue to the Congress or to the public's attention because women in the military is still such a hot button issue they can't afford to be told to pull women out. Women make up 15% of the force in Iraq and with a force stretched thin, losing necessary soldiers is not something that can be contemplated. So again, here we have another story of women being invisible and denied rights and services for political expediency. What else is new?

Directors Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers answered a few questions about the film.

Women & Hollywood: What interested you in making this movie and how did you find out about the Lioness program?

Daria Sommers: Like many Americans we watched the war unfold over the first year and we began to get a sense as a footnote that women were engaged and involved in the war in a way that marked a historic shift in the role that women were playing especially in the army. So we took that as a point of departure and decided to investigate and ask questions to find out what was going on.

W&H: Were you surprised that the Army agreed to work with you?

Meg McLagan: I think we were initially surprised because like many people we had a pretty uninformed understanding of how the military works and how decentralized it is. It's not as monolithic as it appears from the outside. We wrote a letter stating our interest in exploring the issue of women in combat and in talking to female soldiers who have come back from Iraq. They gave us permission and facilitated our visits to a couple of bases. At that point we were starting to learn about the Lioness program and identified names and individuals.

DS: Because the Lioness program happened below the radar and on the ground in Iraq and it wasn't a formalized program, in a way we knew more about the story than the army did here.

W&H: Do you think they keep themselves in the dark because of the controversy regarding women in combat. Is there a disconnect between the reality of the battlefield and the political conversation?

MM: The question is who is having those conversations here. Those conversations and policies are driven by congress and the folks in congress, like Duncan Hunter, who felt strongly about pulling women back from certain roles in 2005 are civilian politicians. They don't have day-to-day working knowledge of what is going on in Iraq. I think the army does know but they can't afford another big debate and they can't afford for Congress to say you need to pull them back.

DS: The whole issue of women in combat is one that is uncomfortable in the culture. It does reflect a disconnect because on the one hand there are people who might respond well, fine, ok. But there are factions in the country for whom this is really an uncomfortable subject.

W&H: In your material you say that the program is still publicly denied and they are not properly trained. There was one woman in your movie Shannon who really doesn’t have the services she needs and by publicly denying the program, and by not providing services it is another way of keeping the women invisible.

MM: We are hoping that people will see this film as not about Iraq but about the women soldiers and their experiences. Our interest is in telling the story from their point of view and putting it out there for people to respond to and talk about. We want to acknowledge what they have been doing and to hopefully move the conversation along to bridge this disconnect between the policy and reality. It allows them to be taken seriously in political terms, it allows them to come to the table politically.

W&H: I've seen a bunch of the Iraq movies both fiction and non-fiction and your movie feels different. Those films overwhelm you with the battles and this seems to be more about the human aspects of war.

DS: Even though the events that trigger our narrative are in Iraq our goal was to create a film that reflects back more to our own culture. In some ways its less about Iraq but it is about the "gray zone" that these women have had to occupy where they are not officially trained to go into combat and as a result, they don’t get the specific kinds of services that they need because they are all created on a male model.

MM: We were really interested in their qualities, their competences, their abilities to overcome the challenges they faced both on the battlefield and then at home to have to take care of sick parents and children. We wanted to look into their multifaceted lives.

W&H: You mentioned that people come up to you thinking that women have been in combat because some Hollywood movies (Courage Under Fire, GI Jane) have portrayed women on the battlefield. That seems to be another disconnect between what movies teach us and what really exists. How do you have that conversation?

MM: We see the film as educating people. Most people say either I had no idea or I saw that film with Meg Ryan and I thought women have always been doing this. For us its been interesting because its been either one reaction or the other. We see this film as educating people in addition to telling a compelling story. We are educating people about something very few people know about.

W&H: When did you start working on this movie?

DS: About three years ago.

W&H: And you just finished it?

DS: Yes.

W&H: Have you worked together before?

MM: No, this was our first project together.

W&H: How did the work relationship come about?

MM: We were friends through the writers room and we were talking about the war and were noticing that women were there but were never reported on in and significant way except for the Jessica Lynch incident. It was a very organic friendship and collaboration. It took us time for us to decide what we wanted to do and then to raise the money and do all the research.

(Women in photo: L to R: Specialist Shannon Morgan, Major Kate Guttormsen, Specialist Rebecca Nava - photo credit: Yori Irisawa)

Sex and the City - Will it be the Biggest Women's Movie Ever?

Building on this thread over at cinematical Will 'Sex and the City' Quietly Become Summer's Biggest Hit?, I must respectful disagree about the word quiet. There is nothing quiet about this movie. People are going nuts. (Update- heard from the folks at Fandango and Sex is the top selling film, selling more tickets than Indiana Jones -- which comes out earlier -- and is the most visited page on the site.) In fact, they've been going nuts since the film was shot, where people were lining the streets during the shoot.

The only thing that's been quiet is the fact that none of the plot details have been revealed. I'm on the internet all day long and I have found nothing. I've never seen anything like it for a film about women. It's like people actually want this film to succeed. Writers like ones in the NY Post and the NY Daily News have written reviews without revealing anything; bloggers and who are usually so keen on breaking news about plots are not writing anything either. I bet that part of it is that the guy bloggers who are usually the news breakers really don't care much about the film film because it is well, about women.

The film is ironically being released by New Line which is going out of business and will be subsumed (after the requisite job losses) by Warner Brothers run by Hollywood's resident admitted sexist, Jeff Robinov (see my earlier posts on him: Do Women Matter to Hollywood?)

So I'm thinking, can this be the biggest women's film ever?

What's interesting to note is that in the summer one really big film opens on each weekend. Women's films are never considered really big, but this film is, because there is no real competition opening on its weekend. Granted, Indiana Jones opens the week before and there will be many people still wanting to see that film, but Sex and the City has its own weekend. That is a story in itself.

I've looked at the numbers of how other women's films have opened and I really think this movie can break the records. I think that the film (depending on how many screens it opens on) can open with 50 m.

The top grossing opening weekends of movies starring women are:

• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider - 47 m (Angelina Jolie)
• Charlie's Angels- 40 m (Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Lui)
• Sweet Home Alabama- 35 m (Reese Witherspoon)
• Panic Room- 30 m (Jodie Foster)
• The Devil Wears Prada- 27 m (Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway)
• Erin Brockovich- 28 m (Julia Roberts)
• V for Vendetta- 25 m (Natalie Portman)
• Flightplan - 24 m (Jodie Foster)
• Mean Girls- 24 m (Lindsay Lohan)
• Double Jeopardy- 23 m (Ashley Judd)
• 27 Dresses- 23m (Katherine Heigl)
  
• Princess Diaries- 22 m (Anne Hathaway)
• Freaky Friday- 22 m (Lindsay Lohan, Jamie Lee Curtis)
  

So, as Oprah said on her lovefest for the film last week, (and she also said that she has never not shown the ending of the film to the audience) take your girlfriends and head to the theatres on May 30th.

Women will make or break this film. Because of the big buzz and hype this film can be a changemaker. We have the added bonus in that the film is supposedly really good.

I am psyched, a movie about women, the celebrates women, that's actually a good movie. Can't wait.


Stay tuned for part 2 - a discussion of Sex and the City and feminism

The Business of Being Born Comes to DVD

In case you missed this film in limited release this past winter, the film is now out on DVD. Here is a rerun of an interview I did with director Abby Epstein and my review.

If you are in NY, both Abby and Executive Producer Ricki Lake will be signing copies of the DVD today, at 1pm at the Borders in the Time Warner Center.

Purchase the DVD at: The Business of Being Born

Women & Hollywood: How did you become involved with this film?

Abby Epstein: Ricki Lake and I became friendly when I directed her in "The Vagina Monologues" Off-Broadway. We stayed in touch and I knew that she was planning a homebirth for her second child, although at the time I thought she was completely nuts! A few years later, Ricki had finished her talk show and relocated to LA so I stopped by to see her new house and have a visit. I had just completed my first doc "Until the Violence Stops" about the worldwide V-Day movement and Ricki was looking to start a "dream" project about midwives and birthing. I was completely ignorant on the topic but intrigued by Ricki's passion, so I asked her for some reading material and she gave me a book called "Spiritual Midwifery" by Ina May Gaskin. Then Ricki showed me the home video footage of her homebirth (which we use in the film) and I was completely blown away. We began from there.

W&H: How did your involvement with the film effect your own birth experience?

AE: On the one hand, I was very fortunate having spent 2 years researching birthing options in NYC before I became pregnant. I was not only a highly informed customer, but I had attended several births and did not have any more fear about the birth process. So, I felt like I had all these amazing people to choose from when it came time to selecting a provider (of course not all of them took my HMO, so that limited me a bit) But on the other hand, I was put in a position where there became pressure to include my birth in the film - which I resisted. I had no interest in turning the cameras on myself and was unsure whether we were in fact going to document my birth until the very last moment.

W&H: Explain why you chose the title The Business of Being Born.

AE: Truthfully, we couldn't think of anything short and catchy. None of us really loved the title but it seemed to encompass the broad range of aspects we were looking at in the birthing "business."

W&H: It seems that you and Ricki are both on a type of crusade here - using the film to help educate and organize women to take back their own bodies and their births. Did you ever expect the film would morph into this type of movement?

AE: We never expected that the film would have such an impact on mainstream birth culture. I think we suspected that it would hit a nerve, but we honestly just wanted to put the information out there in a bold way - not watered down. It all stemmed from Ricki's personal experience and grew organically from there. But we have definitely started a movement along with other writers and activists - Jennifer Block's book PUSHED was published at the same time we premiered, which was amazing. I think we are on a crusade to inform, but not to convince women to have natural births or homebirths. The modern woman wants information and options - but no one should feel pressured or regretful about their choices.

W&H: There seems to be a lot of women directing documentaries these days. Why do you think that is?

AE: I think that documentaries often have more substance than features and women are attracted to material that is potent and meaningful rather than commercially viable. Of course, there is also the fact that docs are low-budget and don't pay well (if at all!) so there is less competition.

But mostly I think that docs are usually self-generated passion projects where a director can have total control and women are organized, not afraid of hard work and always like a bit of control!

W&H: What's next for you?

AE: We are still opening the film in major cities (Chicago, Seattle, Boston, DC) so I am busy with that until April. Then, I am planning some vacation time with my family! Ricki and I are in the midst of writing a book based on the movie which will come out in April 2009 and a follow-up DVD that will accompany the book. We are also hard at work on our website - turning it into a resource for birth information and options. So, I will still be busy with all things BOBB for a while and then I plan to direct an independent feature film. I'd like to get back to working with actors and writers, which is truly what I love.

Review: The Business of Being Born

Welcome to the New, Post-Female American Cinema

That's the title of the lead article in the NY Times summer movie preview and I gotta say it sure looks like Manohla Dargis has been reading this blog cause everything she writes in this piece I've been writing about since the day I started blogging. The piece is great and reiterates the point that Hollywood has given up on women especially in summer. (It's worthy to note that things don't markedly improve throughout the rest of the year, especially not for studio movies -- which are the movies that most Americans get to see in their towns. Indie movies might make it to cities with art houses or are released under a banner like "AMC Select" or Regal's "Cinema Art" Both the $150 million hit Juno and the current Then She Found Me were released in this pattern.)

The question is what can be done about it, and does anyone with any power care?

Some quotes from the piece and my analysis:

And, frankly, it is hard to believe that anyone in a position of Hollywood power would be so stupid as to actually say what many in that town think: Women can’t direct. Women can’t open movies. Women are a niche.

Remember Hollywood is a town where its ok to be a sexist, it's even a badge of courage and why shouldn't it be -- the boy crap movies make the money. I've said this before and I'll say it again, we (women) need to use our economic power TO GO AND SEE the good female centric films. I'm not saying that we should see any and all women centric films or the bad women directed films. I don't want to see bad movies that are directed by either men or women. I want to see good movies. But if we don't support the women making good films and the good films that have female leads, we're toast. And don't think they don't know exactly who is seeing their movies. They have detailed research (like political exit polls) and know gender and age breakdowns.

Nobody likes to admit the worst, even when it’s right up there on the screen, particularly women in the industry who clutch at every pitiful short straw, insisting that there are, for instance, more female executives in Hollywood than ever before. As if it’s done the rest of us any good. All you have to do is look at the movies themselves — at the decorative blondes and brunettes smiling and simpering at the edge of the frame — to see just how irrelevant we have become. That’s as true for the dumbest and smartest of comedies as for the most critically revered dramas, from “No Country for Old Men” (but especially for women) to “There Will Be Blood” (but no women). Welcome to the new, post-female American cinema.

I gotta say this is a good point. There is a huge disconnect between women gaining power in Hollywood and the women appearing onscreen. My question is are there too few women in senior enough positions to have any power? Can that still be? Or are women making decisions like guys cause its all about money and not about content?

Last year only 3 of the 20 highest-grossing releases in America were female-driven, and involve a princess (“Enchanted”) or pregnancy (“Knocked Up” and “Juno”). Actresses had starring roles in about a quarter of the next 80 highest-grossing titles, mostly in dopey romantic comedies and dopier thrillers. A number of these were among the worst-reviewed movies of the year, including “Premonition” (Sandra Bullock) and “The Reaping” (Hilary Swank), the last of which was released by — ta-da! — Warner Brothers. The days of “Million Dollar Baby,” for which Ms. Swank won an Oscar, and “Speed,” which rocketed Ms. Bullock to stardom in the summer of 1994, feel long gone.

Knocked Up does not count in my book as a female-driven movie. I would count Hairspray as a female driven film but that came in at #24 and The Golden Compass came in at #39 (using stats from Box Office Mojo).

There may be more women working in the industry now — Amy Pascal is a co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment — but you wouldn’t know it from what’s on the screen. The reasons are complex and certainly beyond the scope of a seasonal rant like this one. Some point to the lack of female directors, whose numbers in both the mainstream and independent realms hover at around 6 percent. Others blame the female audience, though the success of “Baby Mama” indicates — just as the summer hit “The Devil Wears Prada” suggested two years ago — that if given something decent that speaks to their lives and lets them leave the theater without feeling slimed, women will turn out.

Among the pleasures of the movies are the new worlds they open up, but there are pleasures in the familiar too, like seeing other women bigger, badder and more beautiful than life. And whether it’s Sigourney Weaver in “Alien,” Rosario Dawson in “Death Proof” or Meryl Streep in whatever, I am there. The black filmmaker Tyler Perry has built his success partly on the truth that when audiences look up at the screen what they want to see are faces much like their own. In 2008, when a white woman and a black man are running for president and attracting unprecedented numbers of voters partly because they are giving a face to the wildly under-represented, you might think that Hollywood would get a clue.

Nah.

These last two paragraphs resonate. Women will see movies that are good and speak to them. But the problem is that women (especially older women) still might not show up exactly how Hollywood wants them to show up, on the first weekend. I think that it will happen occasionally, and I am betting big on Sex & the City making it happen in a couple of weeks, but it's not something that's going to happen every weekend. So wouldn't it be good for Hollywood to pay attention to what happens in the second weekend or third or fourth? Baby Mama which was number one last week dropped off 40% in its second weekend, but Harold and Kumar which was #2 last weekend dropped almost 60%. Do movies with women have longer legs because women don't only go out the first weekend? If anyone has research, I'd love to see it.

But more importantly, we need to learn from Tyler Perry model like the article says and start our own studio. We need to make movies that we want to see and use the great marketing experts out there who know how to market to women (cause Hollywood clearly is not employing them). I'm ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater. We need a whole new model cause at the rate we're going sooner rather than later there will be no women in the movies at all.

Full article: Is There a Real Woman in This Multiplex?

Flying- Confessions of a Free Woman

Jennifer Fox is a brave woman. She turns her camera on her life and her friends and family's lives and asks a question so many of us have asked (although probably not out loud) - what does it really mean to be a free woman today?

This six part documentary premieres tonight on Sundance at 9pm (two hours air over the next three weeks). I've only seen the beginning but I am hooked and can't wait to watch the rest. It starts off like this: "I never wanted to be a girl in the way a girl was supposed to be. I wanted to be a boy because they could do anything they wanted to."

AWESOME.

Here is a woman taking on all the challenges of having grown up with the benefits of feminism (keep in mind she is a privileged, white American woman). She's 42 years old in the film, her best friend gets sick, and after many years of ambivalence about motherhood (because she was desperate not to become her mother) she finds herself pregnant.

This is a must see!

More info: Flying

Women at the Box Office This Weekend

Summer Movie Season Has Arrived
Thanks to women,