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A Documentary Examines Sexism in Hollywood

NEWS | February 17, 2020
After the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Tom Donahue's This Changes Everything is asking essential questions about misogyny in the industry, and bringing viewers more testimonies on sexism in cinema.

Et Hollywood créa la femme, ("And Hollywood Created Woman") is a 2015 documentary by sisters Clara and Julia Kuperberg, riffing on the title of the famous New Wave flick starring Brigitte Bardot, And God Created Woman. Illustrating women's enormous contribution to the development of Hollywood as we know it today, it also shows how quickly and completely they were eclipsed from the very landscape they helped to sculpt. Nearly a hundred years later, how much has changed? According to a study published by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, only 8% of the top 100 highest-earning films in 2008 were made by women. In 2019, woman-directed flicks accounted for a meager 10%. While it may be progress, it remains entirely insufficient in terms of addressing gender inequality.

Thankfully, strong voices are being raised and commitments are multiplying. A few weeks ago, the President of the famous Césars ceremony — the French Oscars, if you will — announced that there would be gender parity within the Academy before the end of the year. We'd also be remiss to gloss over Natalie Portman's gesture at this year's Oscar ceremony. She arrived in a dress embroidered with the names of women she felt unjustly absent in that year's nominations.

This Changes Everything is a valuable update on the situation. With statistics and exclusive interviews, Donahue exposes the systemic discrimination against women in the industry. Meryl Streep, Shonda Rhimes, Reese Witherspoon, and Jessica Chastain are accompanied by peers in sharing their experiences.

Following the Weinstein affair, #MeToo, and the liberation of women's voices, Hollywood is doing some soul searching as its biases come to the fore. Of the 1300 box-office hits from 2007 to 2019, less than 1% of them were made by women of color, and 82.5% by white men. The film discusses the topic through an intersectional lens, ensuring that the work remains entirely contemporary.

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