Shattering the Celluloid Ceiling
According to the website ‘Women and Hollywood’ only two percent of the top 100 films of 2019 had female cinematographers. Two whole films...Cinematography is beautiful and so necessary to film. Which is why I think it is a shame that Reed Morano has never been recognized for her work.
Have you ever seen a film and found something just a bit distasteful about the way female actor came across but you couldn’t quite point to exactly why it didn’t sit right? And, maybe others have pointed out that the main female character have been treated very well because they ended up saving the day, so what are you complaining about? There’s more to a film than the simply action that takes place and who is on screen. It’s a visual art form and we’re all trained in the visual language of cinema from the moment we start watching films. By ‘visual language’ we mean the way people are photographed in order to convey meaning beyond what they say or do. Someone shown in the frame as towering above another person is often the one with the power for example.
In 2017, Rachel Morrison became the first woman in history to be nominated for an Oscar in Best Cinematography. It goes without to say that this is a major milestone for female filmmakers, especially since this is an area of filmmaking that is heavily dominated by her male counterparts. It only took nearly nine decades for us to achieve this breakthrough .
