Women’s Panel “Creative Forces:Women in the Biz” (SBIFF, 2012)

Reiewed by Linda Sweatt. Viewed at the Lobero Theater, Santa Barbara film Festival 2012

 The Women’s Panel  has been a tradition at the Santa Barbara International film festival since 2005 honoring influential women in film; from all stages of film production including editing, directing, costuming, casting, production design and producing. Women on this years panel included: Denise Ream, Leslie Urdang, Dede Gardner, Melissa Cobb and Julia Louis Beyfrus. The moderator was Madelyn Hammond.

They began by discussing why there are so many more women in producing than other film positions. They agreed the reason is because women can multitask, listen, have patience and are good at ‘wrangling divisive personalities’. They discussed having to work hard on developing one’s own voice as producers fight for others.

They talked about working in collaboration. Producing films independently is exhilarating, as an artist, exciting to keep vision intact. Not having any one else telling us what to do, you have to follow your own instincts. It’s important most of all to be passionate about the film you choose to work on because that is the driving force. Otherwise you will get lost because so many people working in film have their own opinions.

The women on the panel discuss how there are many parallels to show business and politics. There are so many more options than before, it’s a huge transition with lots of current opportunities. While this is all great and interesting, things got allot more heated when they opened it up to  the audience.

What was especially disturbing was one of the questions asked from the during the Q & A. A woman asked if someone on the panel could please speak about how they have been able to work as a movie producer in a field that is predominantly male dominated. Clearly this woman asking the question fully realizes this is a simple truth of the matter, or at least the present reality in this field. Obviously she was looking for a little support and guidance on how to best navigate this situation.

Many women are disappointed in the lack of professional answers. Instead it was an empty, ignorant response given by Julia Louis Beyfrus (actress from ‘Seinfield’ turned movie producer. She said , “Just forget you  are a woman, don’t let anything stop you, follow your vision.” I suppose she might have thought she was being encouraging, but to me this was a ridiculous answer almost comical in it’s naivety. Sadly, same as last year, no on on the panel of women is coming from a feminist perspective.

Usually all of my film reviews are very positive, but for this panel experience I feel quite critical. There were allot of awkward pauses between questions and answers as the moderator, Madelyn Hammond insisted on pointing questions at a  particular panelist. As apposed to the Director’s Panel when the moderator, Patrick Goldstien was much more able to keep up the energy moving because he left questions opened to whoever felt inspired to respond. That method seemed to work better and flow more organically.

Personally coming from a feminist perspective, attending any kind of  ‘women’s panel’ it would seem logical to have at least one woman on the panel who would actually be concerned about women’s issues in particular. I don’t really think that is too much to ask. This is the second year in a row that the Santa Barbara International film festival has put together a panel of women who are not especially interested in addressing this subject.