MeToo Movement Was Like End of Apartheid Says Director Jane Campion

MeToo Movement Was Like End of Apartheid, Says Director Jane Campion

While promoting her new film The Power of the Dog, director Jane Campion compares the MeToo movement to the end of apartheid for women in film.

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MeToo Movement Was Like End of Apartheid Says Director Jane Campion

At the Venice Film Festival this week, acclaimed director Jane Campion spoke of the shifting gender dynamics in the film industry, comparing the MeToo movement to the end of Apartheid for female filmmakers. Campion made the comparison while speaking at a press conference for her new film The Power of the Dog. Set in early 20th century Montana, the film follows a menacing ranch owner (Benedict Cumberbatch) who psychologically torments his new sister-in-law when she unexpectedly marries his younger brother and comes to live on the ranch.

Like Campion’s whole body of work, The Power of the Dog is interested in gender dynamics. Cumberbatch stars as Phil Burbank, the domineering rancher, who is pitted against Kirsten Dunst’s reserved widow, Rose Gordon. The film also stars Jesse Plemons as Rose’s new husband, a mild-mannered foil to his magnetic brother. Kodi Smit-McPhee, known for his work in X-Men: Apocalypse, joins as Rose’s bookish son Peter, another subject of Phil’s ire.

As reported by THR, Campion said that the MeToo movement felt like a monumental shift for women in the film industry. Speaking broadly on opportunities and award-season attention for female filmmakers, she said that “the girls are doing very well.” Campion cited Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or-winning Titane and Eternals director Chloé Zhao as examples of current female success stories. The New Zealand-born director said she believes the industry has changed significantly for women since the MeToo movement swept over Hollywood. Read her comments below:

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“All I can say is that, since the MeToo movement happened, I feel a change in the weather … It’s like the Berlin Wall coming down or the end of Apartheid for us women.”

Campion, an award-winning director, is uniquely qualified to make such an assessment, having worked in the industry since the 1980s. She is only the second of seven women ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, which she received for her 1993 film The Piano. That film also won her a Palme d’Or at Cannes (she was the first woman to receive the honor), as well as an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Most recently, Campion co-created, co-wrote, and co-directed the acclaimed Elisabeth Moss-led detective series Top of the Lake.

Despite advancements and accessibility for female filmmakers, achieving equality is still an uphill battle. At the press conference, Campion noted, “I still know the statistics are not in favor” of women. That statistical gap is even more pronounced among female directors of color. Chloé Zhao’s lengthy list of awards is a collection of firsts, including the first woman of color to win Best Director at the Academy Awards. She then became the first woman of color to direct a Marvel movie with the upcoming Eternals. Similarly, with the success of her film Candyman, Nia DaCosta is only the first Black woman to direct a number-one film. She too will soon join the MCU’s roster of directors, helming The Marvels, which is set to release in 2022. If, like Campion suggested, a metaphorical Berlin Wall has collapsed within the industry, these women and their peers will no longer be a continuous exception to the rule of a male-dominated field.

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Link Source : https://screenrant.com/jane-campion-me-too-movement-apartheid-response/

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