Interview with Women and Hollywood founder Melissa Silverstein

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Interview with Women and Hollywood founder Melissa Silverstein

What made you decide to start Women and Hollywood and how long has it been running?
I started Women and Hollywood a little over three years ago because I realized that blogging was a great way for me to be able to discuss two things I am passionate about — feminism and popular culture.

Who reads your blog?
A lot of people read the blog but it is mostly women who care about images of women in the media.

Was there a turning point where you became successful or felt like you were being heard or what you were bringing to the table mattered?
One of my turning points was when I first got quoted in a mainstream news article and also when I became a source that people looked to discu ss this topic.

What value are contemporary female filmmakers adding to the reflection of cultural truths? Anything that is markedly distinct from men th at you’ve observed?
Women make up half the population yet are less than 10% of the storytellers. There are many women’s stories in the world that we should be hearing and seeing though we are not. I want to make people aware that we need to have a world where all people’s stories are valued.

Scene from Winter's Bone, directed by Debra Granik

Do you help to market women in film? How do you go about that?
I have worked in the past on films targeted at women and used social media and my experience as a blogger to help raise awareness of films that are opening. There are so many films fighting for attention that we need to provide women information to help them make decisions about what films to see. The more information people have the easier it is for them to see which films would be of interest to them. It’s about giving people the information they need in a way they can process it.

Why do you think Nora Ephron has had such sustained success?
Nora Ephron has a certain way of creating characters and films that are very accessible and also deal with women in ways other filmmakers are not. She is able to be at times mainstream and also feminist. She tells women’s stories and is able to get studios to release her films. And her films make money. She sustains success because people want to see her films and she has become a brand in herself.

There are a lot of powerful women in Hollywood (usually studio execs). Is this enough?
No, there are not enough women in power. I would like to think if there were more women making decisions we would be able to figure out a way to see more films about women being successful.

Does the market shape demand or do films get made and the market conforms to what there is, accepting it because they have no choice?
This is a very complicated issue. Because films are so focused on opening weekend a film has to play in enough theatres and has to make a certain amount of money to be successful. Movies about women are usually smaller films with less effects so in turn their budgets are smaller which means they will play in less theatres and will have smaller marketing budgets. It becomes a vicious cycle.

Do you think there are a lot of stories about women that are not being told? Which ones or what kinds of experiences do you think are the least greenlit or under-examined?
I think I answered that above.

Were do you see the biggest gap in the marketplace of stories being told about women?
There are few stories about older women and women of color.

What do you think of channels like We, Lifetime, Oxygen? Do you think they are doing a good job? Why or why not?
I don’t really watch We or Oxygen. I feel that they play into the whole “girls gone bad” image of women and I find that very disempowering. I do watch lifetime which at times is a schizophrenic channel vacillating between some decent shows about women and the damsel in distress films that I can’t stand.

What is your ultimate goal?
My goal is to provide people with information so that they can make the best decisions about how they participate in the entertainment business. I also want to challenge people to not accept the so-called narrative about women in entertainment. Women can direct any types of movies, women do go to see movies, women are great writers, men can see movies about women.

‘If we see three films this year’, what should they be? Where can we see films that you talk about? Other than the screening room, if they don’t get wide release, how can we see them?
Most of the movies that I write about are released in at least NY and LA and then they will all be on Netflix. We need people to go and see those films on opening weekend so that we can get more movies about women made in the future. Hollywood is a place that likes to repeat its successes. If a movie is successful it will be replicated. For 2010 I think people should see Winter’s Bone, The Kids are All Right and Tiny Furniture. All directed by women.

The Kids Are All Right directed by Lisa Cholodenk

What do you think the future of film-watching will be? Do you think people will suddenly stop downloading because of some very scary extreme law that people finally listen to or that the film companies will get really great at making films explode if you watch them and didn’t pay for them – or – barring that – what do you think will happen so that filmmakers and actors can get paid but we can still download movies and watch movies the way the trend is progressing (free)?
I don’t download movies for free because it’s wrong and people should know better. People should pay for other people’s work. I feel very strongly about that. People need to eat and pay rent and if we want to see more films about all of us then we need to pay for the very hard work that people have done to make films.

Any other female heroes you really admire?
I admire female astronauts like Eileen Collins the first woman to command the space shuttle; I admire Hillary Clinton for breaking boundaries for all of us in the future; I admire Eleanor Roosevelt; I admire Virginia Woolf. I love women who broke ground so that it is a bit easier for all of us who came after them.

Tell us about some of your other interests?
I love women’s soccer and women’s basketball. I jog and go to the gym. Spend a lot of time training my dog and walking him around the neighborhood. And I love to read.

Any advice for female filmmakers, entrepreneurs, or creators of any kind?
Keep going. Believe in yourself.