We are only just beginning to realize the extent of the sexist biases that have defined the history of cinema so far. The festival awards don’t lie: only three women have received the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 77 years, including two since 2021. However, in genre cinema, women find themselves even more marginalized. That is why, this year, Fantasia is paying tribute to the artisans of horror, science fiction and fantasy, with three events that look at their history and their future, both in Quebec and internationally.
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say that women have been deliberately erased from the history of cinema, but they’ve never had access to the resources to be able to be a part of it,” says Heidi Honeycutt, a Californian critic and programmer. On Saturday, she will launch her book at Fantasia I Spit on Your Celluloid: The History of Women Directing Horror Moviesthe first book to be devoted entirely to female horror film directors, and will host a round table with around ten guests on the subject.
If history has retained fewer genre films directed by women, it is mainly because of their production context, explains the author. “Until the 1950s, these films were mainly considered entertainment. They were produced by large studios, which also owned movie theaters and controlled the entire distribution chain. Not only did producers not trust women, but women who produced films independently could not present them to a wide audience.”
Present since the beginning
However, female directors have been making horror films since the early days of cinema, especially if we accept a broader definition of the term.me Honeycutt attributes the first example of the genre to The Emerald (1905), a short film by Alice Guy, considered the first female director in the history of cinema. Her film, now missing, is inspired by the character of the same name by Notre Dame de Parisby Victor Hugo. The first feature film would be The Ancestress (1912) by Luise Fleck, an Austrian cinema pioneer, according to the programmer.
“But it wasn’t until 1971 that the first modern American horror film directed by a woman was released: The Velvet Vampire, by Stephanie Rothman, says Heidi Honeycutt. This filmmaker is part of the first generation of women who had access to film schools, affordable equipment and alternative distribution channels. This liberation of the means of production also took place in parallel with the sexual revolution and social advances that contributed to the emancipation of women.
Has this new wave of filmmakers also changed the way films are made? “Only in certain cases,” replies M.me Honeycutt. When they have had the chance to write and direct their own scripts, women have sometimes focused on different topics than men, such as pregnancy, abortion or rape. And they have included more female characters. “This was also the case with The Velvet Vampirewhose protagonist is a vampire femme fatale.
Women’s contribution is also reflected in the production process. Anne-Marie Gélinas, president of EMA Films, has been a producer for thirty years. Along with three other colleagues, she will participate in a round table on the profession of genre film producer in Quebec on Saturday. “Our view on the scripts that we decide to bring to the screen or not is very important,” she says. “I still receive a lot of proposals that inflict gratuitous violence on women or that place female characters in degrading situations. I systematically refuse to produce them.”
Hiring criteria
Although more women are gaining access to filmmaking, many still have to fight to ensure that films reflect their values. “I remember a networking cocktail at the World Film Festival in my early years,” says M.me Gélinas: I was the only woman among dozens of white-haired men. I knew that time when men flatly refused to work with women. So, today, I am very careful when I put together my teams. I want to make sure that we approach our work with the same sensitivities.
Dominique Dussault, who will also participate in Saturday’s roundtable, happily notes that Quebec has “one of the most feminist film industries” in the world. “Talking to my counterparts at festivals, I realize that we have many more women producers here. On the one hand, we have good public schools, but also one of the most egalitarian job markets, all fields combined, although there are still gaps in terms of salaries.”
Heidi Honeycutt notes that “male producers still refuse to hire women, even if they will never admit that, for them, gender is a hiring criterion.”
The author, who also founded a festival of horror films directed by women in Los Angeles, emphasizes that international festivals are today “among the most important agents of change.” When a film like Titanium by Julia Ducournau wins the Palme d’Or in 2021, “we are gradually legitimizing a whole section of the history of cinema that has long been snubbed. But while it is mainly European films that stand out in this regard, I am still waiting for bold female proposals from the big American studios.”