Calling the Shots: Women and contemporary film culture in the UK, 2000-2015

'Calling the shots: Women and contemporary film culture in the UK, 2000-2015' investigates women as creative practitioners in contemporary UK cinema.

The media regularly report that women make up less than 10% of all directors and less than 15% of all screenwriters in the film industry. Statistics cited invariably originate from research done by the Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, California. Focusing on the top 250 grossing films of each year in the U.S.A., this research shows that the numbers of women in six key roles (director, writer, editor, cinematographer, produce and executive-producer) have not changed from 1998 to 2012 (17-19%). Despite the British Film Institute's statistics on directors and screenwriters, most media reports on women filmmakers in the UK also use the American research, assuming a straight equivalence with the UK situation. In fact no research has studied comprehensively the numbers, status and films of women practitioners in the contemporary UK industry.

Considering the cultural and financial dominance of Hollywood, this research gap may not be so surprising. However, the study of British Cinema is well established in the UK, and research on women and women's cinema is growing. By establishing a baseline history of women working in the twenty-first century UK Film industry, our research will compliment and extend other work coming out of the Women's Film and Television History Network - UK/Ireland that seeks to construct a history of women working in UK film and television up to 2000. A particular context for Calling the Shots is the rise and demise of the UK Film Council (2000-2011) and the takeover of its responsibilities by the BFI (a project partner).

Working closely with organisations supporting women in film in the UK, Calling the Shots will produce an historically specific and grounded analysis of the concerns and achievements of women working as writers, directors, producers, editors and cinematographers in the first fifteen years of this century. Under its auspices, two books and a journal issue will be produced which will intervene in academic debates about the contemporary UK film industry and twenty-first century female practitioners of film. The project will support one research assistant and two PhD students. We will host an international conference for academics and practitioners, developing cutting edge research on women and film, encouraging knowledge exchange between women filmmakers and academics, and sharing current research via public events in conjunction with our project partners. Calling the Shots will produce annual reports on its statistical findings, plus a bank of practitioner interviews. These will underpin our own outputs, and will also be made available to other researches and to the public through our project partnership with the BECTU History archive, who will store the interviews in perpetuity. In addition, we have planned events to showcase women's films at UK film festivals, and to host a public study day at a local cinema.

The project, and its methodologies, will develop strong links between female filmmakers and academics researching women in current cinema production. Most importantly, our analysis of careers, films and industry will establish a foundational history of women and UK film in the twenty-first century which will benefit contemporary academics, students, archivists and advocates. Traditionally, women's history has been a process of recovering the contributions of women that have been lost to or hidden by mainstream narratives. Our project will give future historians and researchers of women and film in the UK a foundation from which to build.

Women are a drastically under-utilised resource for the UK film industry. This project investigates three interrelated areas which each have distinct impact potential:
1. It will show the precise nature of women's employment status across different roles in the industry, relevant to funders, financiers and policy-makers. In 2010 the Government announced its decision to abolish the UK Film Council (UKFC), transferring a central source of film funding to the British Film Institute. Other areas overseen by the UKFC transferred to public/private partnerships including Film London, the Production Guild, UK Screen, and Pinewood-Shepperton Studios. Importantly, the diversity unit of the UKFC was closed (whilst the BFI does have a diversity policy, its remit is different, with, as of yet, no comparable unit for targeting film funding towards projects with diverse personnel). In light of this, our research is prescient, timely and necessary. As the UKFC was founded in 2000 and our research covers the period of its existence and the first few years of film production after its demise, our data will offer specific insights into the value and effectiveness of the council's diversity initiatives, useful for those who have taken over some of the roles of UKFC.
2. The project will show the importance of promoting equality in the film industry through analysis and celebration of the interesting work which is produced when women are enabled to flourish in areas of production in which they are commonly under-represented. We expect educators of budding filmmakers at school-age as well as in higher education and film school training to benefit from interviews conducted with both women starting out in the industry and from more established filmmakers. Our analytic work (in the form of our books and academic conference activities) which focuses on films developed by and for women will inform public events detailed in our Pathways to Impact statement, such as festivals and special cinema events.
3. Our research provides UK-specific information which will feed into the work of charities and organisations promoting women's filmmaking in the UK, including Women in Film and Television UK (WFTVUK), and Bird's Eye View (BEV). BEV's most prominent activity is its annual women's film festival, but it also mounts national/regional screenwriting workshops for women starting out in the industry in conjunction with organizations such as Bafta and the National Film and Television School. In addition to holding an awards ceremony every year, Women in Film and Television UK runs mentoring programs for women in the industry, hosts networking evenings, lobbies for women's interests and collaborates with educational and industry bodies on research. Because our research is focused on the UK, it will directly influence the public work of both of these organisations, facilitating stronger effectiveness through deployment of precise and current information. Our interviews with practitioners will feed into more relevant development and focused educational and outreach activities, and both WFTUK and BEV are project partners with us, collaborating on Impact events. Project Partnership statements from BEV, Shetland Arts and Harbour Lights confirm the importance of this project in supporting their own outreach and educational agendas.