She Said Cinema Puts Female Directors First

Independent female directors who have struggled to get their films made and seen by the public have found a home on the Sundance Channel. The cable channel’s mission--showcasing the works of emerging filmmakers--will devote the month of April to the diversity and artistry of women filmmakers.

She Said Cinema--now in its third year--will air a different feature directed by a woman each night. And on Sundays, Sundance will present short films. The festival not only features several world premieres, She Said Cinema will also spotlight the works of Polish director Agnieszka Holland (“Europa, Europa”) on April 8 and 24.

The idea for the series belongs to Liz Manne, executive vice president of programming and marketing. “I’m a rabble-rousing feminist from way back,” she says. “Without being too precious, [the festival] is a little bit of a soapbox opportunity. There are unbelievably wonderful films made by women directors all the time and have been through cinematic history. But much like in contemporary American history or world history, people forget about all the valuable contributions women have made. I think the same thing is true in our contemporary cinema culture.”

The Sundance Channel features films by female directors every month. “It’s not like women are ghettoized into this one-time period in April and then banished,” says Manne. “But this is an opportunity to take these films that we have and buy some special new ones and put them all together in a place and say, ‘Hey, this is the depth and the range of women filmmakers.’ ”

With more than 30 narrative and documentary features and 20-plus shorts, the 2001 She Said Cinema festival is the largest and most diverse to date. Included are works by African American directors Maya Angelou, Zeinabu irene Davis, Cauleen Smith, Native Cree Shirley Cheechoo and Indian Gurinder Chadha. World premiere titles include Adrienne Shelly’s “I’ll Take You There,” Davis’ “Compensation” and veteran animator Faith Hubley’s “Our Spirited Earth.”

Manne says many women get a crack at directing a film, but “the real question is, do they get a crack at it a second time? That’s where you see a lot of falloff.”

As to why filmmaking remains a boys’ club, Manne replies: “I am not finger-pointing at the studios, making movies is a very expensive pastime. As a culture, if girls go to boy movies but boys don’t go to girl movies, then what does that mean about the economic potential of a ‘woman’s movie’? That is a much deeper and far-reaching cultural question.”

Shelly, who is best known for her work as an actress in such Hal Hartley-directed films as “Trust,” will have her romantic comedy, “I’ll Take You There,” featured April 13. Her film is an offbeat tale about a New York real estate agent (Reg Rogers) suffering from depression because his wife has left him for his best friend. His sister (Shelly) decides to get him back into the dating world by setting him up with her very unconventional friend (Ally Sheedy).

In all, Shelly has made two features and three shorts, and is looking for funding for her next feature, “Good Girls.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll definitely make it,” she says, laughing. “It’s just a matter of when and how. I have managed somehow without really the acknowledgment and encouragement of the larger, more established film community to write and direct. . . . I am not going to stop any time soon.”

Davis, a professor of communications at UC San Diego, has been making films for 18 years. “Compensation” is her first feature-length film.

Airing April 20, “Compensation” appeared at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, won the 1999 Gordon Parks Directing Award at the Independent Feature Project in New York and the 1999 Reel Black Award for Outstanding Film, Black Film and Video Network.

The black-and-white film tells parallel stories of two African American couples in Chicago in which the woman is deaf and the man can hear. One is set at the turn of the century and the other in the modern day. Both were inspired by a Paul Laurence Dunbar poem.

Just as Shelly, Davis is thrilled to be part of the Sundance She Said Cinema festival. “I am in the good company of such great women filmmakers,” she says. “It’s a pretty amazing series this year.”

Davis acknowledges one of her biggest disappointments is that while the film generally plays to sellout audiences on the festival circuit, larger distributors haven’t picked it up. “ ‘Compensation,’ unfortunately, not in my mind, but in distributors’ minds, is handicapped. I have subtitles, title cards. I have black-and-white. It’s 16 millimeter, and I am relatively unknown.”

She may be disappointed but Davis refuses to be discouraged. “Now more than ever you have to be determined, tenacious and resourceful as a real independent filmmaker, not a Hollywood independent filmmaker,” she says. “Especially being a filmmaker of color and a filmmaker who happens to be a woman--I don’t think all of those things put you in a position that will open a lot of doors in Hollywood. But that is not necessarily who I want to support my work anyway. I am more interested in the audience.”

* She Said Cinema airs weeknights at 9 through April on the Sundance Channel; She Said Shorts start this Sunday at 8 p.m. and continue through April.