The results of a new study on parity in Quebec fictional cinema were unveiled on Tuesday at noon.
If the world of cinema in Quebec remains a “boy’s club”, to use the formula consecrated by Martine Delvaux, the place of women in film production is more important than ever. However, the construction of a fair and diversified representation is not yet very visible on our screens.
This is what emerges from new research on “the representations of women, in front of and behind the camera, in recent Quebec fictional cinema”, carried out in collaboration with the organization Réalisatrices Équitables, the highlights of which have been unveiled. Tuesday.
In 2019, women made 15 of 39 fictional films. In a previous study in 2011, the directors had signed barely 7 of the 35 feature films released in Quebec.
Another cause for joy for the directors, they benefited from an increase in their average budgets, estimated at 2.7 million. However, this is a partial catching-up, as their average budgets remain lower than those of men, whose average in 2019 reached almost 4.5 million, according to the study.
Non-mixed
Women directors give women 84% of the leading roles, and directors give 72% of the leading roles to men. Filmmakers of all genres tend to hire actresses who are younger than their characters, but directors give almost 60% of the roles to actresses between the ages of 20 and 39.
Another surprising fact is the non-mixing and the division of the environment. Of the 49 films studied, all those directed by women had been scripted (or co-scripted) by women, and all films directed by men had been scripted or co-scripted by men. This tendency is also observed among producers in the studied corpus: 44% of films directed by women are produced by women, against 28% which are produced by men; the other projects were financed by mixed production teams.
How to explain this division between the sexes? Would a feminine solidarity movement come against the “boy’s club” in the industry?
This is an explanatory path that remains to be validated over several years, nuance Anna Lupien, one of the researchers of the study. “We also tend to characterize films made by women as intimate auteur cinema,” she says, “when many male filmmakers tell very personal stories. Each work is unique and personal. It is perhaps the prejudices of the milieu that prevent women from making action, genre films. ”
The corpus of films studied also highlights the place of indigenous, racialized characters and of sexual or gender diversity. According to the study, parity in front of the camera could be achieved if women direct more films or if directors give women more voice in their films.
“For now, the range of female representations remains quite stereotypical. Although less gendered than in the films of the past, the female characters remain on the margins of the unfolding story, or passive in the narrative, ”concludes Mme Lupien.