Women’s History Month
is finally here! March is dedicated to celebrating the contributions women have
made throughout history, and Rock Hill is doing our part by highlighting some
of the most notable female directors in Hollywood! Check back every week in
March to find new posts showcasing trailblazing female filmmakers.
Kathryn Bigelow is one of the most celebrated and well-known
female directors in Hollywood. She is famous for her show stopping action films
and her effortless experimentation with traditionally masculine genres.
Bigelow originally studied painting before shifting her
interest to film. Film was a more attractive medium to her from a political
standpoint due to its wider accessibility and availability. She also credits
her father for her career choice, as she once said that his failure to become a
cartoonist could have been the reason for her attraction to the arts.
While in graduate school at Columbia, Bigelow made her first
short film called “The Set-Up”. The 20-minute film deconstructs cinematic
violence, which became a staple theme in her later work. Bigelow went to
extremes to bring her vision to life, which she has done throughout her
directing career. The filming lasted all night, which is grueling enough, but
she also asked her actors to actually beat each other.
In 1981, two years after graduating with her master’s in film
theory and criticism, Bigelow made her first feature-length film called “The
Loveless”. The movie, which features Willem Dafoe in his breakout role, earned
critical acclaim, but Bigelow gained more attention with her next film.
“Near Dark”, which premiered in 1987, put Bigelow on the map
for wildly imaginative movies. The vampire western horror flick was her first
attempt at genre bending. Though the film did not hit it big with audiences,
critics approved of her genre experimentation. This early work, like “The
Set-Up”, set the stage for Bigelow’s career as she continued to blur the lines
of film genres.
In 1995, Bigelow’s sci-fi thriller “Strange Days” was
released to mixed reactions. The movie was a commercial flop, which critics now
realize was due, in part, to its limited release, poor marketing, and a lack of
audience understanding. The failure put Bigelow’s directing career on hold for
five years before she dared to make another film. Nevertheless, Bigelow became
the first woman to win the Saturn Award for Best Director for the film.
Bigelow’s greatest success came with “The Hurt Locker” in
2010. The film, which Bigelow independently produced, is a pseudo-documentary
that follows a bomb squad in Iraq. The wildly successful flick earned 124 awards
and many more nominations. She became the first woman to win the Academy Award
for Best Director—beating out ex-husband James Cameron—and the fourth woman to
ever be nominated for the award. She also became the first woman to win the
BAFTA Award, Critics Choice Movie Award, and Directors Guild of America Award, all
for Best Director.
Since Bigelow’s enormous win with “The Hurt Locker”, she has
continued to find success with films such as “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Detroit”
and we will most certainly be seeing more of her in the future.
Bigelow has broken gender barriers since her start in the
industry, and she may be on her way to breaking age barriers as well. Female
directors typically work from their 30s to their 60s, while male directors
typically work from their 20s to their 80s. At 67 years old, Bigelow has no
plans for slowing down anytime soon and may become a trailblazer for older woman
directors.
Bigelow’s almost effortless ability to shatter glass
ceilings—along with her interest in defying genre expectations—has earned her a
special place in history. Rock Hill honors her and all women directors this
Women’s History Month with our display for films directed by women. Come check
out some of these wonderful movies at the library!
Notable Films: “Point
Break”; “Near Dark”; “The Hurt Locker”; “Zero Dark Thirty”
Sources:
https://www.biography.com/people/kathryn-bigelow-546542
https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/06/16/10-major-milestones-women-directors-hollywood/102814400/
http://time.com/3856444/kathryn-bigelow-aclu-sexism-hollywood/
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/kathryn-bigelow-how-the-oscarwinning-director-has-always-been-political-20171030-gzask4.html
http://www.television-talk.com/2015/02/oscars-trivia-oscars-2016-records-revenant-leonardo-dicaprio.html
https://annenberg.usc.edu/sites/default/files/2017/04/06/MDSCI_Inclusion%20_in_the_Directors_Chair.pdf
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Cinema_of_Kathryn_Bigelow.html?id=PtShseOVCe4C
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/awards/
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/kathryn-bigelow-how-the-oscarwinning-director-has-always-been-political-20171030-gzask4.html
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