Hollywood Remains a Closed Set to Some : Film: A study by the Director’s Guild finds slight gains for women but a decline in the number of days worked by minorities.

Women directors face far greater problems in Hollywood than Barbra Streisand failing to get an Oscar nomination this year for directing “The Prince of Tides.”

And just because John Singleton was nominated for “Boyz N the Hood” doesn’t necessarily mean doors are opening for African-American filmmakers.

Streisand and Singleton are the notable exceptions in an industry where doors still are largely closed to women and minorities, a new Director’s Guild of America study confirms.

The study, released Monday by the DGA, was described as “discouraging” by Warren Adler, the group’s western executive secretary and affirmative action officer.

The study found that the total days women worked as directors increased from 3% of all the work done by guild members in 1983 to 8% in 1991. The increases were greater for assistant directors and unit production managers.

But the report said employment of DGA minority directors fell from 5% in 1983 to 3% last year--despite the rise of many high-profile African-American directors.

Of the guild’s 9,759 members, 1,875 are women, 260 are African American and 167 are Latino.

“(This is) why we try so hard to make it known that there are talented, skilled, professional women filmmakers who receive less recognition and less opportunities,” said Harriet Silverman, the executive director of Women in Film.

Silverman said she’s impressed with the progress directors such as Penny Marshall, Randa Haines, Martha Coolidge, Jodie Foster, Penelope Spheeris and Streisand have made.

“But they’re just the icing on the cake,” she said. In fact, Streisand’s status as a major star gave her leverage to bring a project before the cameras that thousands of others will never have.

“It only reaffirms what the NAACP has been saying for the last 10 to 20 years,” added Sandra Evers-Manly, president of the Beverly Hills/Hollywood NAACP chapter. “But the issue is, when are we going to stop issuing reports and put in motion some actual programs that will bring about a change?”

Coolidge, who directed the recent “Rambling Rose” for Carolco Pictures, reacted to the study by asking dryly: “Did we think it was getting enormously better over the last few years? It just sounds like business as usual to me. There is an enormous resistance to women (directors).”

Previous awareness of the problem caused the DGA to begin a “mentor/mentee program,” in which established directors advise and share knowledge with newcomers, said Jane Dawson, who is co-chair of the guild’s Women’s Steering Committee and Latino Committee. “This addresses the common complaint that employers have . . . that the women or minorities are not qualified.”