The Evolution of Citizen Jane

that 10.26.17 // FREE EVERY THURSDAY LET THEM EAT CAKE SPOOKY TUNES Take a bite out of the wedding Show off your best Monster cakes that are trending in Mash at these Halloween CoMo this year PAGE 5 music events PAGE 15 The future is female (films) As Citizen Jane celebrates 10 years, the world needs its spotlight on women’s voices more than ever before PAGE 7 THELMA AND LOUISE* A DECADE OF putting female filmmakers in the spotlight The Citizen Jane Film Festival continues to connect female students with film professionals who create stories that empower women BY ANN MARION decade ago, a popular film lecture series at Stephens College evolved into what would become an internationally recognized festival of women’s contributions to an industry that so often A overlooks them. The Citizen Jane Film Festival is a feminist powerhouse that has the ambiance of an intimate gathering of close friends and has drawn approximately 6,000 film-focused women (and men) to the heart of mid-Missouri every year. Although the festival has expanded in size and content, at its core, it remains dedicated to launching Stephens College students into film careers with guidance from industry professionals. Festival director Barbie Banks, who has been a part of Citizen Jane for quite some time, has seen the festival do just that. After the screening of Love Stinks last year, the film’s producer and director met with veteran filmmakers and connected with students. Banks says she sees that as the epitome of Citizen Jane. “You could see this clear line; that’s why we do this CITIZEN JANE BOX OFFICE: 1405 E. Broadway festival,” Banks says. “We’re making changes in women’s lives who want to Box office hours: Thursday, 3–8 p.m.; Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; be filmmakers.” Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Stephens senior Ty-Kiera Berry met Love Stinks director Alicia Harris 815-5849; [email protected] during the event in 2016. The two discussed their experiences as women *For this feature, Vox recreated classic feminist images from history and film. Read more about our source materials on page 14. TIMELINE: THE EVOLUTION OF CITIZEN JANE 2008: 2010: 2012: The Citizen Jane Film Festival begins Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture opens the festival. The festival hosts its first-ever as a way to expand the Stephens Dunham, who wrote, directed and starred in the film, Citizen Jane Summit, a discussion on College film lecture series, which would go on to create the HBO hit series Girls and the current state of women in film connects students with industry pen the bestselling autobiography, Not That Kind of that brings together filmmakers and professionals. Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s Learned. scholars from across the country. 2009: 2011: 2013: Festival attendance doubles Citizen Jane screens Niki Caro’s drama Whale Citizen Jane screens controversial from the previous year, and Rider, starring Keisha Castle-Hughes. At the documentary Citizen Koch, co-directed by Citizen Jane becomes a movie’s release in 2003, then 13-year-old Tia Lessin, which explores how money mainstay of Columbia arts and Hughes was the youngest-ever nominee in influences American politics after the culture. the Academy Award Best Actress category. Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision. PHOTOS BY OR COURTESY OF EMILY JOHNSON, AP IMAGES, PIXABAY AND CITIZEN KOCH 10.26.17 | VOXMAGAZINE.COM 7 STEPHENS COLLEGE’S HOLLYWOOD HISTORY of color in the industry. “We have to be on our game and never give up on our dream just because one person doesn’t Any Stephens College attendee will proudly like it,” Berry says. “It was like the best motivation speech The director’s cut inform you that iconic actress Joan Crawford and heart-to-heart as a college student working on their was a student in fall 1922. She left to become senior project.” The two still keep in touch. Of the top-grossing movies of 2016, only 7 percent were directed by women one of the most well-known names in This year, Citizen Jane also started a brand-new Hollywood but not before making a lifelong screenwriting competition called Screengrab, which gives BY LIDIA MOORE friend of then dean James Madison Wood. Stephens students the opportunity to have a screenplay Each year, Stephens presents “The Joan produced. Submissions to Screengrab will be critiqued When you ask a friend, “Who is your favorite film director?” Crawford Effect,” which showcases her letters live at the festival on Friday, and a producer will buy the statistically speaking, they will most likely name a man. When to Wood and gowns similar to Crawford’s in winning screenplay. The Greenhouse Theater Project asking Google that same question, it spat out 55 examples the 1930s and ’40s. This year’s exhibit at Lela will do a table read on Sunday. Banks says she thinks the of critically acclaimed directors, including Martin Scorsese, Raney Wood Hall will stay open until Dec. 17. program will be beneficial for Stephens College. She says Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino and Alfred Hitchcock. Of she hopes the director will be a woman so that the winning those 55, not one of them was a woman. HIT REWIND, AND screenplay can be made into a Citizen Jane film. In the age of Academy Award-winning directors Kathryn WATCH THESE FILMS This year’s festival also premieres the Frances Award, Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty) and Sofia Coppola Lost( in which celebrates the contributions of Frances Marion, who Translation), alongside the only female director to win the FROM PAST FESTS was the first-ever female screenwriter. The first recipient is Palme D’Or Jane Campion (The Piano), why are their names Linda Woolverton, the highest-grossing female screenwriter not as recognizable? Trouble in the Water: Tia Lessin’s 2003 in Hollywood. In true student-oriented, Citizen Jane spirit, “I think it actually starts right Academy-Award nominated documentary the award will be sculpted by an MU graduate student. from the beginning,” says director Above is a still image from “Little Wilderness,” a project offers a sobering look into Hurricane Katrina. Also new this year is Citizen Jane Suggests, a and animator Lindsey Martin, director and animator Lindsey Martin is currently working on. Citizen Jane showed the film in 2008. who is attending this year’s festival. partnership with Ragtag Cinema that launched in July. for women on screen but in all roles. Privilege and access Watch it on SundanceNow and Amazon Prime. Each month, Ragtag showcases a film by a female director. “Even before that, though, when you’re watching film and you’re are major barriers for underrepresented individuals in film. Daughters October’s film isBattle of the Sexes featuring Emma Stone watching television, and you don’t “Especially coming from an educator’s point of view as well as of the Dust: and Steve Carrell as tennis rivals Billie Jean King and Bobby see yourself reflected in what a filmmaker’s point of view, I can see at 17, 18 years old those Citizen Jane Riggs. “Ultimately, numbers at the box office are the most you’re consuming. You don’t even folks who have access to college and film schools, and those screened important,” Banks says. “So if we’re not getting these films have an idea of, ‘Oh, I can do that. tend to be of certain socioeconomic makeup of people who Julie Dash’s out to play after they’re shown at our festival, we’re not Or I can be that.’” Of the highest-grossing 250 movies in 2016, have the privilege,” Martin says. “So, right away, it tends to be 1991 classic really doing our job.” only 7 percent were directed by women, which is a 2 percent mostly white men who have access to that.” about the multi-generational journey of an Banks says the two programming directors of the decline since 2015, according to a 2016 study from the Center According to the SDSU study, when looking at the top African-American family in 2016. Find it on festival, Amy Sharland and Donna Kozloskie, have delivered for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego 250 films of 2016 as a whole, women accounted for 7 percent Netflix. the best film lineup to date this year. The festival opens with of directors, 13 percent of writers, 17 percent of executive Landline, directed by Gillian Robespierre, who co-wrote the State University that has tracked women’s representation in I Believe in Unicorns: Director Leah producers, 24 percent of producers, 17 percent of editors and film alongside Elisabeth Holm. Banks says the opening film television and film for 20 years. Meyerhoff brought her first feature-length film, So why aren’t women directing big-budget movies? 5 percent of cinematographers. In television, women are most is meant to reach the widest audience. “You don’t have to be the 2014 coming-of-age drama, to Citizen Jane Is it the lack of financial backing from male-dominated likely to be hired as actors, but according to the study, female a film buff to enjoy it.” following critical acclaim at SXSW Film Festival. film studios? According to writer and producer Lauren characters were younger than their male counterparts and less The Citizen Jane Summit began in 2012 as a lecture on Watch it on Amazon Prime. Domino, she makes a conscious effort to hire women and likely to be seen at work.

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