Women directors share experiences

Speaking out about stereotypical portrayals of the fairer sex, women who have made it big as movie directors and producers shared the secrets of their success with an audience at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival’s Doha Talks yesterday. Participating in the talk, titled ‘She is Film’ were the acclaimed Lebanese director/actress Nadine Labaki, Turkish-German director Yasmin Samdereli, 2006 Golden Bear winner and film director from Bosnia and Herzegovina Jasmila Zbanic and Hong Kong film producer and presenter Nansun Shi. They shared their individual experiences on film-making while at the same time highlighting stereotypes and discrimination against women both in the film industry and within society. The speakers dwelt on how much women were being stereotyped and portrayed in the film-making industry, either as movie actors or behind-the-scene crew, despite being skilled and qualified. They also touched on the impact women were making despite constituting only 3% of key positions in the mainstream media. Shi, who has been in the film industry for nearly thirty years and has contributed a lot to the Hong Kong cinema scene since the late 1970s, said: “Despite many issues in China such as religion, politics and racial issues being taboos for the film industry, we’re still able to pass our messages in a subtle manner and the few women working in the industry were actually having very high success rate.” Labaki made Caramel which won acclaim globally. Her latest movie Where Do We Go Now is one of the most watched Arab movies at the ongoing fest, explained how being a mother has had an influence in her work. “The fact that I was going to be a mother played a part in some of my films because, looking at the animosity between people, I am always thinking what kind of society will my child grow up in, especially having witnessed the wars in Beirut, particularly in May 2008 when people that have lived together peacefully for years suddenly became enemies within hours since the war,” she noted. According to her, politics, history and conflict in Lebanon have inspired most of her films. “Films are a way of expressing my frustration on all these issues and as an avenue to front women’s issues and problems, especially in the Arab world,” she added. Noted for her 2006 Golden Bear winning film Grbavica, Zbanic mentioned that women in most Bosnian films were being portrayed mostly as “mothers and only in supporting roles”. Samdereli believed women were good managers and that she “trusts them to deliver”, while also advising upcoming film-makers “not to put all their eggs in one basket”.