Gender Gaps Between Man And Woman In Canadian Film Making

Cinema, Media And Technology

With this assignment, I seek to address that; women have made some progress in Canadian film making and distributing but, still remain under- represented in the technical and artistic process of the industry. When 50.4 percent of the Canadian population makes up of women; that is a large part of the market that is untapped by the film industry. If entertainment is mainly a business; then how come majority that comprises of the industry have not recognised this fact? Let’s be honest, if the majority agree, it is very likely that it is a cause for change. In all fairness it doesn’t look to me that the majority agree on the fact that women are under-represented.

If we were to look in to the matter deeper; in the recent past, only 4 percent of the funding from telefilm is provided to women directors for a full-length feature film. Sarah Polley, Deepa Mehta and Patricia Rozema; to name a few who are successful locally and internationally to receive that fund. And it has stayed this way for quite some time with a list that is underdeveloped and still being gradually lengthened. Celebrating these few women while worthwhile and well deserved also makes it easier for the powerful and influential white male executives in control to ignore the gender gap problem that still exists and is getting worse.

Through my research I have found out that this gap in gender is a problem that roots far into the deeper sense than an imbalance between the numbers in different genders working in the same environment. Of course, one of the ways to minimise this imbalance is to create more opportunities for women. However; working conditions alone are more challenging for women than men. A real time director of Black Bold and Beautiful Nadine Valcin; recalls to a reporter that, she got into a 30minute argument with her male editor who wouldn’t cut the scene according to her plan. This was then resolved after getting another party – a male administrator to ask the fellow editor to comply to the director’s vision. That happened in the 21st century. There are many more accounts of women who have faced far worse. This is just a snowflake on the tip of the iceberg. This shows that the problem is rooted deep within the culture.

Carolle Brabant the previous executive director of telefilm the source of primary funding system; announces at a public event that; “our intention is to have by 2020 a more diverse portfolio in terms of gender, in terms of cultural diversity and in terms of indigenous representation.” If you notice there was no initiative, no plans, ideas or strategies on how to achieve this by telefilm. Things have gotten better of course since the beginning of cinema; hundreds of years is long enough to fix gender gaps; somehow, we are still working on it. And I want to bring to your attention; the progress through the course of these years.

Bibliogrohpy:

1. Simon Pillai Radheyan, “Because it’s 2016: the Canadian film industry’s gender gap.” (https://nowtoronto.com/movies/because-it-s-2016-the-gender-gap-in-canadian-film/,2016).
2. Les journal des femmes: A history of women’s filmmaking at the national film board of Canada. ( http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/0715_COM_Journée-de-la-femme_EN_V1.pdf,2017) at 1-4.
3. Armatage Kay, Moore Paul, Pelletier Louis, “the absence of Canadian woman in the silent picture industry” (https://wfpp.cdrs.columbia.edu/essay/the-absence-of-canadian-women/,2013).
4. Canadian media producers’ association: “woman and leadership: a study of gender parity and diversity in Canada’s screen industries”. (http://www.omdc.on.ca/Assets/Research/Research+Reports/CMPA+Women+and+Leadership+English.pdf,2017) at 20 – 22 & 24.
5. Taylor Kate, “NFB pledge for gender parity could spur change in Canadian film industry” The globe and mail, 8/03/2016, (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/nfb-pledge-for-gender-parity-could-spur-change-in-canadian-film-industry/article29083931/, 2016)