March 8, 2007: International Women’s Day.
At a cozy boutique in northeast Portland 30 or so people fill the room to watch several short films, not an unusual activity for one of the country’s most art-oriented cities. However, tonight these spectators have come out to see films made by women and support the Portland Women’s Film Festival. The first of several fundraisers for the spring of 2008 film festival, the Milagros Boutique sponsored a pay-what-you-can function that was presented by Portland’s own Sour Apple Productions, Zonker Films and Film Action Oregon.
The organizers of the Portland Women’s Film Festival are seeking to increase the participation of women in film. According to a 2005 report by National Public Radio, of the top 250 grossing films in 2004, only 5 percent where directed by women. It’s not just the top dog positions that were disproportionably male dominated; only 12 percent of screen writers in 2004 were women and only 3 percent were camera operators. None of this is particularly surprising considering Hollywood’s equal opportunity track record, but it is still disheartening that so few of the independent movies being nationally recognized are made by women.
Film has always been a powerful medium for people to express themselves or expose their situations, and with the advent of digital filmmaking this medium should be bursting the mainstream at the seams with previously unheard of directors of all colors and sexes and ages and stories, yet it’s not. This is what charges so many professionals and communities to initiate their own change, offering women a platform where there was none before, as the Portland Women’s Film Festival does.
