BY LUCY CAULKETT
Inequality is rife in Hollywood Hollywood when it comes to top posts like that of a directors, according to a study released Wednesday.
In 2013 and 2014, women made up only 6.4% of the 376 directors of feature films released in 2013 and 2014 according to a diversity study by the Directors Guild of America. The percentage was even lower for women of color, who made up 1.3% of the directing pool. The report found that white males received significantly more director jobs at 82.4% of the total, while only 12.5% of feature directors during that timespan were minorities.
“The numbers indicate that women and minority directors are practically excluded from this multibillion-dollar industry, and this has a huge financial and cultural impact on our global society,” DGA Diversity Task Force co-chair Todd Holland told eye of media. “Progress in the film studios will only come when top bosses in the film industry take this information and commit to becoming real agents of change with solutions. It says a lot about an organisation when they snub a whole group of people even though they have the talents to make a positive and needed contribution to any given industry”
Throughout the period of the study, no woman directed a film conducted by top production companies including Warner Bros, Disney, the Weinstein Company or Open Road, according to the report. The DGA study does not include foreign films, documentaries, animated films or re-releases. The study highlights a disturbing reality that sexual and racial discrimination reigns supreme in big production houses and needs to be redressed urgently. The implication of the finding is that men and white males in production houses in America are unjustifiably preventing their counter parts from excelling in the industry , and suppressing them from advancing their careers to the levels desirable and possible.
The directors guild who conducted the research is an entertainment guild which represents the interests the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry and abroad. It was founded as the screen Directors Guild in 1936 and joined forces with the Radio and Television Directors Guild in 1960 and became the modern Directors Guild of America.
