Women and Hollywood

Melissa Silverstein is a writer, blogger and marketing consultant with an expertise in the area of social media regarding women and Hollywood. She is the founder and editor of Women and Hollywood, one of the most respected sites for issues related to women and film as well as other areas of pop culture. She is the Artistic Director and co-founder of the Athena Film Festival – A Celebration of Women and Leadership at Barnard College in NYC. The third annual festival will take place from February 7-10, 2013.

Blog Roll

Cannes Film Festival Slammed By Feminist Group La Barbe For Excluding Women Directors

Blogs

The French feminist group La Barbe which was started several years ago in response to the sexist media treatment of Segolene Royal in her race against Nicholas Sarkozy, has taken on one of the most sexist film establishments, the Cannes Film Festival for its exclusion of female directors from this year's competition. They are kind of like the Guerilla Girls in that they dress up in beards and as they say "crash high level meetings to protest male supremacy."

By Melissa Silverstein
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May 14, 2012 12:00 PM
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8 Comments

News

Finally some organizations have stepped up and stood up and committed resources to work towards improving the amount of female filmmakers working in the business. Women in Film and the Sundance Institute are going to track female filmmakers who show their films at Sundance to get a sense of the trajectory that these directors go on after they leave the festival.

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 24, 2012 11:00 AM
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2 Comments

Women and Hollywood Joins the National Domestic Workers Alliance #BeTheHelp Campaign

I have always believed that culture can help make change. I believe that you can use film and TV to move people about issues -- if you do it right. The smart folks with the National Domestic Workers Aliiance are using a cultural opportunity with the film The Help and have created the #BeTheHelp campaign to raise awareness of the real situations for domestic workers. These mostly women are part of an underground economy many times paid in cash and not given the same rights as other workers. Yet they are the life blood of families enabling parents to go to work each and every day knowing that their children are being cared for my people they trust.

By Melissa Silverstein
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January 12, 2012 11:45 AM
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0 Comments

Guest Post: Women War & Peace: Bosnian Women Testify for Change By Pamela Hogan

For eight years as a founding producer of PBS’s award-winning international documentary series WIDE ANGLE, I made it my mission to expand coverage of under-reported global women’s issues. I’m proud of the ground-breaking films we made, tackling stories almost no one else was talking about from maternal mortality in Africa to the worldwide crisis in access to education, especially for girls in developing countries. But I began to feel that overall we were paying too much attention to a “narrow angle” of war. There was plenty of press reflecting a masculine narrative: warlords, generals and border conflict. There was bountiful footage of men with guns, bombed homes and soldiers on tanks and trucks. But something was not being captured on film: the women.

By Melissa Silverstein
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October 11, 2011 3:37 AM
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0 Comments

Women's Rights Advocates Win Nobel Peace Prize

What amazing news. I am beyond inspired and excited.

By Melissa Silverstein
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October 7, 2011 9:20 AM
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1 Comment

Variety's Women's Impact Report - 2011

Variety had a luncheon last week where they honored over 30 women for their impact on the business and included two pieces on how Sweden and Norway are working on getting more women directors (they implemented a mandate) and a report on the great work that Geena Davis does through Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.

By Melissa Silverstein
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September 26, 2011 3:00 AM
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0 Comments

Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler pens a letter in support of Planned Parenthood. Here's some of it:

By Melissa Silverstein
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June 29, 2011 3:37 AM
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0 Comments

Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Mariska Hargitay

Mariska founded the charity Joyful Heart Foundation which is up for a $500,000 Chase Community Giving Grant. Joyful Heart's mission is to heal, educate and empower survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse and to shed light into the darkness that surrounds these issues. They also have a website endthebacklog.org that is educating people and advocating to change the unbelievable backlog of rape kits that have not been tested.

By Melissa Silverstein
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May 23, 2011 2:14 AM
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3 Comments

Scarlett Johansson and Gwyneth Paltrow and Other Celebs Stand Up for Planned Parenthood

As the budget battle continues one of the last sticking points is Title X funding which covers family planning funding (and not abortion funding.)

By Melissa Silverstein
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April 8, 2011 2:16 AM
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1 Comment

Happy 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day

Here's to hoping there is a time when women are treated equally. When we don't have to fight twice as hard for half the pie. For girls to be able to go to school without regard for being assaulted. For girls and women not to be sold into slavery just because they are girls and women. For women's voices and visions to count as much as men's. For people to remember to respect others no matter what color, gender or belief.