The Female Filmmakers You Should Be Watching

There's much to be commented on when it comes to the lack of female representation in cinema, for a more analytical look at the lack of progress head here http://thefilmsurgeon.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/hollywood-mans-world.html.

So in the interest of promoting a positive outlook here are some of the exciting female filmmakers to look out for. Seek out their work, be excited by them and never stop demanding more of it.


Ava DuVernay - DuVernay has worked in the industry for over a decade now. In 2010 she made her feature film debut with the sensitive drama I Will Follow. Her most successful film to date is Selma, the powerful period drama chronicling the civil rights march on Selma in Alabama, DuVernay brought out an exceptional performance from David Oyelowo as Dr Martin Luther King and captured in a grueling but necessary manner the brutality that the civil rights movement faced. DuVernay seems like a director with a great talent for capturing human struggle, it will be fascinating to see in what other areas of cinema she applies this skill.

Gia Coppola - It's both a blessing and a curse being born into one of the most talented Hollywood families. It offers up opportunities but also comes with a sense of entitlement that adds an extra level of scrutiny. Gia Coppola, the grand-daughter of Francis Ford-Coppola and niece of Sofia Coppola is now the third generation of Coppola filmmakers. Fortunately for Gia Coppola her debut feature Palo Alto is an impressive one. Coppola's talent lies in being able to impassively capture the human experience, in Palo Alto she focused on the everyday life and struggles of adolescents in California. It bodes well going forward, and having 3 generations of Coppola's making movies can only be a good thing.



Amma Asante - Ava DuVernay isn't the only black female director to be able to get an outstanding performance out of David Oyelowo. Last month saw the release of A United Kingdom which was Asante's third feature film. It felt like a film where Asante had properly matured as a filmmaker since her 2004 debut A Way of Life. Asante feels like an old fashioned type of filmmaker who is able to provide levity and heft to political period films but is so adept at capturing the smaller human moments. Having a female voice behind the camera is a rarity, having a black female voice even rarer, in times of unease around the world filmmakers such as Asante are going to become essential. A United Kingdom is still out in cinemas now.

Kelly Reichardt - Since her 1994 debut feature film River of Grass, Kelly Reichardt has built an impressive catalogue of films which have received great critical acclaim. She's a master of the minimalist movement in cinema and her career seems to be going from strength to strength. At this years London Film Festival, a festival which sought to celebrate women in film, Reichardt's latest film Certain Women took home the grand prize, based on Maile Meloy's collection of short stories it is Reichardt's third collaboration with actress Michelle Williams and features the three intersecting stories of three different women's lives in a small american town. Certain Women is set to be released in cinemas on March 3rd 2017.

Patty Jenkins - What may be noticeable about the other female directors on this list is they almost universally operate on the independent side of cinema. Patty Jenkins only has one feature film credit to her name, where she directed Charlize Theron to an Oscar winning performance in 2003's Monster. Fourteen years later Jenkins is getting another chance on the big screen with the DC superhero movie Wonder Woman set to come out next year. The early trailers look impressive, and if previous DC box office hauls are anything to go by then Jenkins has every chance of making Wonder Woman the highest grossing film directed by a woman, hopefully the film is great and audiences can make it a success paving the way for more blockbusters directed by women.



Kelly Fremon Craig - This month saw a very strong debut from Kelly Fremon Craig with her intelligent and witty coming of age film The Edge of Seventeen. With only one other writing credit to her name, The Edge of Seventeen showed Craig to have a really unique and individual voice, it has a rich vein of quite biting humour and like many young female writer/directors she's adept at capturing the catastrophising of the teenage psyche. Craig's dialogue could easily be applied to the MCU and there's no reason why her career couldn't take that path. The Edge of Seventeen is out in cinemas now.



Marielle Heller - More commonly known as an actress who has appeared in the likes of Macgruber and A Walk Among The Tombstones, Heller made her first outing as a director in 2015 with the brilliant, offbeat and vibrant The Diary of a Teenage Girl. It's a teen movie that was far more than those that had gone before it, it was morally complex and adult but never lost its sense of charm and wit. As always seems to be the way after a strong female debut, Heller's talent behind the camera has taken her to TV for the mean time, but with 2 possible projects announced there's potentially more to come from Heller on the big screen. 



Clio Barnard - As with many of the filmmakers on this list, there are too few films in their filmography, but the impact they make is all the stronger because of it. In just two feature length films, with her third due to come out next year, Barnard has cultivated critical acclaim for her work. In 2010 her first film The Arbor was a unique documentary on the British playwright Andrea Dunbar which garnered Barnard a BAFTA nomination. Barnard's second film The Selfish Giant, a social realist film about two young boys from Bradford getting into the scrap business was a hauntingly beautiful film which is funny in parts but also hits very hard when it has too. Barnard is a powerful voice in British cinema and an important storyteller.  



Andrea Arnold - Since winning the academy award for best live action short back in 2005 Andrea Arnold hasn't looked back. In just four films Arnold has developed quite the reputation, two of her films have won BAFTA's, she's a frequenter of many a film festival and even has an OBE. Her work has been lauded for their visual beauty as well as their sensitivity at portraying the human experience. Her works can occasionally feel indulgent and frustrating but they are all the type of films you have to see regardless. Seek out Fish Tank in particular which features an exceptional lead performance from first time actress Katie Jarvis.





Ana Lily Amirpour - Amirpour is what can only be described as seriously cool. After writing and directing several short films Amirpour made the leap to feature length films in 2014 writing and directing A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Described by Amirpour as "the first Iranian vampire spaghetti western" it is a film that oozes cool, its features stunning black and white cinematography and its pace and tone are akin to the works of Jim Jarmusch with a touch of Nicolas Winding Refn. After such a daring debut film her second feature The Bad Batch, described as "a post apocalyptic cannibal love story set in a Texas wasteland" won the special prize at the Venice film festival and is set to hit screens sometime next year.

Guide to Festive Film Viewing

And so it is that we enter the festive season, Wham, Wizzard and Slade are on hard repeat in your local supermarket and television adverts have entered that weird time of year when they are exposed to some weird form of social criticism on how 'Christmassy' they are.
As the Christmas trees go up so to do the Christmas films get turned on, with a smattering of less than enticing new festive releases at your local multiplex, here is your guide to the classic Christmas films to watch this year, and where you can fortunately catch them.

It's A Wonderful Life - Unquestionably the most classic of all classic Christmas films. The story of hard on his luck George Bailey (James Stewart) who reaches the point where he feels things would be better if he wasn't alive, that is until angel in training Clarence (Henry Travers) comes to Earth to show George exactly what life would be like if he had never existed. It's immensely heartwarming in showing how much one man can do in his life and how a community comes together when a good man is in need.
Park Circus will be screening It's A Wonderful Life in lots of places over the Christmas period, but try and catch their Christmas Eve screening at The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.

The Nightmare Before Christmas- Wanting to successfully bridge the gap between Halloween and Christmas? Then look no further than this stop motion animation classic from the dark mind of Tim Burton. Though actually directed by Henry Selick (Coraline) this is unmistakably Burton's imagination. It's a perfect blend of Halloween darkness and Christmas warmth and features some genuinely timeless songs such as the exceptionally catchy 'Whats this?'.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - With vacations to Wally World and Europe there's no question that the Griswald's adventures would feature a festive vacation. This is one of those Christmas films that isn't entirely heartwarming and sacren, it does however feature a brilliant comic performance as the patriarch of the Griswald family attempting to keep things together as they look increasingly like spiraling out of control. It's worth it alone just to see Clark's epic rant about his boss.

Gremlins - Speaking of not-so-festive Christmas films, Joe Dante's Gremlins is the ultimate example of a family film that's given a nasty edge. After teenager Billy inadvertently flouts three important rules surrounding the care of his new pet Mogwai he unleashes a collection of anarchic creatures on his town known as Gremlins. It features exceptional special effects work from Rick Baker, It's mischievous and naughty and guaranteed to entertain children and adults alike.

The Muppet Christmas Carol -  For most 20 somethings this is almost the definitive adaptation of Dicken's classic novel, and that's because of the immense love people feel towards the Muppet's. The most impressive thing about this adaptation is the great pleasure to be taken from what Muppet's crop up as which characters, Gonzo shoe horned in as Dicken's narrating the story on screen works well, and Mr Fezziweg was destined to become Mr Fozzywigg. You do have to witness Michael Caine singing but it more or less comes out unscathed from that.
Park Circus will be screening The Muppet Christmas Carol on Sat 18th and Sun 19th at Liverpool FACT cinema.

Miracle on 34th Street - Before seeing this film make sure that you're watching the original version, though the 1994 remake is a spirited and interesting attempt at the story it loses a lot of the warmth that original has in abundance. It's a weird film which features the story of a nice old man called Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) who is institutionalised when he claims that he is in fact the real Santa Claus. A young lawyer (John Payne) decides to defend him in court to try and prove that he is in fact who he says he is.

Home Alone - It launched the career of child star Macaulay Culkin and since it's 1990 release has since become a classic. Home Alone is the story of 8 year old Kevin McCallister who must protect his home from hapless burglars (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) when he is accidentally left behind when his family goes on vacation meaning he is left home alone. It's a film based on a very flimsy premise that doesn't really make much sense, but its carried by a brilliant lead performance from Culkin and the endless borderline sadistic slapstick comedy is consistently hilarious.

Elf - Probably the most recent example of a film that's become a staple of the Christmas period. Will Ferrell stars as Buddy the Elf, a man who has been raised by elves and has become increasingly more hapless as he's grown larger until he eventually decides it's time to head to New York to find his birth father (James Caan). The pleasure of this film is in the brilliant 'fish out of water' comedy performance that Ferrell gives, surrounded by able support from talented actors this is a proper Christmas treat, and it has Bob 'freaking' Newhart in it for Christ's sake.

Scrooge - There are so many different versions of the Dickens classic that its difficult to know which one to pick (the muppety one already features on this list). There's fairly average versions such as the Patrick Stewart starring version and the mildly irritating George C Scott version. Then there's Robert Zemeckis' motion captured version which is fairly impressive in terms of the dynamic visual way it chooses to tell the story. There can, however, be only one definitive version of the story and that is the Alistair Sim starring Scrooge from 1951. There's something of the age of this version that holds a warmth and nostalgia like no other version does, and no other actor can hold a Victorian candle to Sim's performance as Ebeneezer Scrooge.

Die Hard - No list of Christmas film's would be complete without the ultimate smart-arse answer of one of the greatest action films ever made Die Hard. It is set at Christmas and has popularised the use of Christmas jumpers being bestowed with the message of 'Ho-ho-ho now I have a machine gun'. Outside of that however it is a balls to the wall action film and an incredibly exciting way to spend 131 minutes. Also in the year that we lost the great Alan Rickman, what better way to remember him then watching his feature film debut as the greatest on screen villain of all time, Hans Gruber. No one did benevolence like Rickman and few could make you shiver with a line like 'I'm going to count to three, there will not be a four'.