FESTIVALS: * Festival Protesta (Barcelona, Spain) * Bathfilm Festival (UK) * Underwire Festival (London, UK) * Sundance Film Festival (USA) * SXSW South by Southwest (Austin, Texas, USA) * San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM) (USA) * Sarasota Film Festival (Sarasota, FL, USA) * Through Women’s Eyes * Newport Beach * Greenwich * Sydney Film Festival (Australia) * Sundance London * Inside Out - Toronto LGBT Film and Video Festival (Canada) * Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema (Toronto, Canada) * Athens International Film Festival - Opening Nights (Greece) * Sundance Hong Kong * Bergen International Film Festival (Norway) * ZagrebDox (Croatia) * Assen International Filmfestival (The Netherlands) * Tasmanian Breath of Fresh Air Film Festival (Australia) * DocedgeKolkata (India) AWARDS * What Next Award - Sundance London Film Festival * Impact Award - Through Women’s Eyes Film Festival DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT 
by Amy AdrionFor many years the discouraging statistics about women directors in film and television have been known, but a confluence of social media outrage, increased study and statistics, and a growing willingness of prominent women in the industry to call out the powerful forces working against them, have resulted in what some have termed a “genderquake moment.” That environment, coupled with the activism of a handful of fearless women directors frustrated by the lack of accountability in their industry, resulted in the ACLU’s 18 month long investigation into gender discrimination in the hiring of directors, the findings of which prompted the US Department of Justice’s EEOC investigation that began in October 2015, bringing powerful players into the fight for equal opportunity. HALF THE PICTURE seeks to document this unique time in our industry where systemic change seems possible and asks the question, unlike previous efforts to address gender inequality in Hollywood, will this time be different? Not only is the issue of women directors an employment discrimination civil rights issue, the larger cultural relevance of HALF THE PICTURE lies in the fact that when you only have a small sliver of the populace telling our collective stories, in this case overwhelmingly white men who make up 31% of the population but direct 85-95% of our media, many stories are left untold. Further, studies show that when women direct, the numbers and characterization of women and men onscreen is affected as well. Directors working behind the camera have a significant impact on the creation of this country’s main export around the world, our media, which give us powerful examples and social clues about who gets to be the hero, who gets to take up space, have a voice, be an active participant in the stories around them - and who does not. These images, when repeated throughout media, have ripple effects in the lives of real people around the world. I have been aware of women’s marginalization in media and the need for greater support of women’s voices my entire adult life. My graduate films at UCLA explored stories of women and girls’ love, loss, and perseverance and I was honored to have my films screen at the Tribeca Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, broadcast on PBS and MTVu, and be lauded by the Directors Guild of America where I won a DGA Student Film Award. When movement around the issue of women directors was gaining steam, I knew this was a story that needed to be told - these are my heroes, women who wouldn't take no for an answer fighting powerful forces, making movies and shows I wanted to see. After many years of stagnation, it seemed the timing could finally be right for something to change. I had to be there. |
Half the Picture
HALF THE PICTURE consists of interviews with high profile women directors including Ava DuVernay, Jill Soloway, Lena Dunham, Catherine Hardwicke and Miranda July, among many others, who discuss their early careers, how they transitioned to studio films or television, how they balance having a demanding directing career with family, as well as challenges and joys along the way. HALF THE PICTURE also includes interviews with experts about gender inequality in Hollywood including the ACLU’s Melissa Goodman, Sundance Institute’s Caroline Libresco, Vanity Fair’s Rebecca Keegan, USC’s Dr. Stacy Smith and San Diego State University’s Dr. Martha Lauzen, who establish the magnitude of this employment discrimination issue as women are shut out, across the board, of an industry that systemically denies their expression and point of view. PRESS “Fresh from Sundance, Amy Adrion's Half the Picture serves as a rallying cry for greater gender representation behind the camera…the articulate, often hilarious, personal recollections speak volumes of truth to power.” - AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL "With careful craftsmanship, “Half the Picture” is an important piece of testimony in the fight for the civil rights of female directors in Hollywood" LOS ANGELES TIMES "It’s experiential revelation as advocacy filmmaking, an incisive and inviting example of the personal as political...Half the Picture is a timely and entertaining antidote to the devaluation of women’s accomplishments" LA WEEKLY ‘Half The Picture’s’ director was told not to explore Hollywood’s lack of female filmmakers because sexism no longer existed. Amy Adrion’s documentary proves that it is obviously still a huge issue. METRO Half the Picture Is the #TimesUp Movie You Must See as Soon as Possible: "Nothing in popular culture has articulated the film industry's gender inequality as convincingly, succinctly, or powerfully as Half the Picture, an essential new documentary from director Amy Adrion" OUT MAGAZINE "Why there are so few female directors working in Hollywood? The documentarian Amy Adrion explains the film industry’s gender imbalance in Half the Picture" HARPERS BAZAAR 'You can go on stage at the Oscars, but you can’t talk': inside Hollywood's brutal war on female filmmakers THE TELEGRAPH Women Directors Explain Exactly What It’s Like To Work In Sexist Hollywood HUFFINGTON POST Female Directors in Hollywood Share Their Stories in ‘Half the Picture’. "An appreciation of directors working at the height of their craft and an inspiration to every girl and young woman who dreams of making films." INDIEWIRE PHOTOS PRESSE 
Lena Dunham 
Miranda July TRAILER : To rent (72-hour streaming period) or buy (stream and download anytime) this film. Go to : www. Vimeo.com/ondemand |
