Directing Workshop For Women - History

History

The organization received much interest, and many of its applicants were famous actresses, writers, producers, etc. The initial twelve students the review board chose did not include any of the famous actresses who applied; in fact, the review board excluded the prominent thespians intentionally, opting, instead, to choose unknown women. But Haag and Vellani believed admitting a few famous names would not only bring recognition to the program, i.e. media attention, but also help women exercise enough influence to step into directing very soon. With only unknown names, they feared that the DWW would become an admirable program that would never wield enough power to help women direct major motion pictures. Haag managed to expand the number of students to nineteen, thus including some well known actresses as well as at least one minority woman.

The nineteen women admitted were: Maya Angelou (writer), Karen Arthur (actress), Ellen Burstyn (actress), Juleen Compton (actress), Lee Grant (actress), Nessa Hyams (casting director), Margot Kidder (actress), Joanna Lee (writer), Lynne Littman (producer), Kathleen Nolan (actress), Julia Phillips (producer), Susan Martin (actress/producer), Marjorie Mullen (script supervisor), Giovanna Nigro (producer, writer, director), Susan Oliver (actress), Gail Parent (writer), Marion Rothman (editor), Lily Tomlin (actress, comedienne), and Nancy Walker (actress).

Despite the limited funds, the DWW enjoyed enough notoriety to ensure a larger amount of financial support in its subsequent cycles. For example, Nessa Hyams went on to direct episodes of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. For its second cycle, the Rockefeller Foundation approved a $100,000 grant. In its fourth cycle, the A.F.I. decided to stop admitting famous actresses, and just as Haag feared, shortly afterwards, the media lost much of its interest.

The DWW still exists today with two goals: to offer women career opportunities to direct films and offer them educational opportunities to learn to develop their filmmaking skills. Several early films received Academy Award nominations and many alumni have won awards at film festivals, including Cannes.

Read more about this topic:  Directing Workshop For Women

Famous quotes containing the word history:

    No matter how vital experience might be while you lived it, no sooner was it ended and dead than it became as lifeless as the piles of dry dust in a school history book.
    Ellen Glasgow (1874–1945)

    A man acquainted with history may, in some respect, be said to have lived from the beginning of the world, and to have been making continual additions to his stock of knowledge in every century.
    David Hume (1711–1776)

    There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.
    Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)