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| Feds probe discrimination against female Hollywood directors |
| 2015-11-12 |
| On the afternoon of Nov. 4, Catherine Hardwicke trekked to the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles, laptop in tow, to offer testimony for a federal investigation into the lack of female film and television directors. The Twilight and Thirteen helmer had not received a letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, as about 50 women have this year. She appeared voluntarily. "When I read about it, I reached out because I want to be involved in the change," explains Hardwicke. "This is a historic moment, and we cannot let this slip away. We've got to inspire people to be on the right side of history, to make a change." Despite spending about three hours with federal investigators, during which she described in detail how she lost out on studio directing gigs to male rivals, Hardwicke says she only got about halfway through her story and will return for a second round with lead investigator Marla Stern-Knowlton and her team of agents later in November. "Why is my testimony so long? Because I have some very sad, disappointing, criminal details of slander and libelous and untrue statements that have been made about myself and other women," says Hardwicke. The EEOC is hoping that she is one of many women who step forward in the investigation, which insiders acknowledge is a difficult one because of the secretive nature of Hollywood and the difficulty of proving discrimination in a creative industry governed by subjective choices. In fact, the federal agency tasked with administering and enforcing civil rights laws against workplace discrimination has set up a system so that female directors can report anonymously their own experiences of gender bias without fear of retribution. "Traditionally, the problem has been that women are scared of getting blacklisted," says director Maria Giese (When Saturday Comes), the first woman to offer testimony to the EEOC. "But now, it can be totally anonymous, which makes it a whole new landscape. More women are becoming emboldened to go in." More at the link |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #11 waste of time and money for a nothing issue. It's all political - replacing people with obamazombies like they did in the universities and government, and unions, and schools, and.... |
| Posted by: newc 2015-11-12 19:03 |
| #10 Hollywood leftists are biased and discriminatory? Water is wet. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2015-11-12 16:22 |
| #9 No comment from Roman Polanski. |
| Posted by: Airandee 2015-11-12 11:54 |
| #8 I like it P2K. For all copyrights. There was a reason they were limited in the first place. Make up some new shit assholes and for fuck's sake stop with the reboots! Deadpool for Prez!!! |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2015-11-12 10:53 |
| #7 Nothing could kill hollywood faster than.. ....or by bringing back the original 14 year copyright along with one 14 year extension by the original individual artist (not corporations). It would be like a dying star sucking its last helium atoms. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-11-12 09:44 |
| #6 Let them make anime |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-11-12 09:12 |
| #5 As Insty says: end the Hollywood tax breaks. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2015-11-12 08:26 |
| #4 ...And it just occurred to me - only in 2015 America can someone whose net worth is north of seven figures go before a committee and cry 'discrimination'.... Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2015-11-12 07:34 |
| #3 female directors can report anonymously their own experiences of gender bias without fear of retribution I don't suppose the quality of their product has anything to do with their lack of employment. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2015-11-12 06:51 |
| #2 Nothing could kill hollywood faster than making merit based work illegal. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2015-11-12 06:17 |
| #1 ...So very glad that we've solved all our other problems. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2015-11-12 05:28 |