If there’s specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can’t change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies. It’s irrelevant who or what directed a movie; the important thing is that you either respond to it or you don’t. There should be more women directing; I think there’s just not the awareness that it’s really possible. It is.
—Kathryn Bigelow
In its 82-year history, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has recognized only four women with best director nominations: Sofia Coppola, Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion, and Kathryn Bigelow. Last Sunday, with a joyous “the time has come” introduction from icon (and fellow director) Barbra Streisand, Kathryn Bigelow received the coveted statuette and broke through barriers to become the first woman to win an Oscar for best director for her movie The Hurt Locker. Bigelow, who was once a painting fellow, made 2010 hers by also becoming the first woman to take home a BAFTA and a Director’s Guild Award for directing. Bigelow proves that no matter what one’s sex (or marital status) is, nothing gets in the way of sheer drive, hard work, and great creativity.
The Hurt Locker follows a U.S. Army explosive ordinance disposal team during the height of the Iraq War and is based on journalist Mark Boal’s 2004 work with American bomb squads. The movie is action packed, but still character driven, and has been getting strong reviews from even those who normally don’t go for war/action films. While any female-directed movie winning best director would be a step in the right direction, the fact that the win came in such a nontraditional genre makes it all the more sweet.
The Hurt Locker is packed with great directorial choices that made the film pop: filming by the Iraqi border in Jordan, taking advantage of the nearby refugees and ex-POWs for more realistic extras, “downgrading” to personal, hand-held cameras, avoiding casting “celebrities” in any of the main roles to preserve the plot, and focusing on the characters and motives of the soldiers.
I also loved how the movie gets the audience reflecting right from the get-go with a quote from the best-selling 2002 book War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by New York Times journalist Chris Hedges: “The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug.” (Thanks to my international studies professor Richard Finnegan for making me read that one.)
Kathryn’s acceptance speech did not focus on gender, because she prefers to let her work speak for itself. Instead, she proved she could keep everything in perspective by continuously thanking those brave men and women in the armed services. AAUW is so supportive of this historic moment and can’t wait to see more from her.
This post contributed by Cori Fordham, AAUW’s public policy fellow.
