Diversity in Hollywood: It is bigger than Matt Damon and ‘Project Greenlight’
Diversity in Hollywood: The bigger picture
The Hollywood Diversity Report released earlier this year gives us the broader picture, taking into account the 200 top theatrical releases in the United States in 2013 and 2014.
In the report we saw that while minorities (non-whites) comprised nearly 40% of the population of the United States in 2013, they were underrepresented as film directors at 2 to 1 compared with white directors. Women directors were even worse off, with female directors underrepresented 8 to 1 compared with their male peers.
The Inequality in 700 Popular Films report, also released earlier this year, was even more damning. Of the 700 top-grossing films analysed between 2007 and 2014, only 5.8% of directors were Black (45 directors of 779), and only 2.4% were Asian (19 directors, only one of whom was female), as you can see below. Women directors helmed only 2 films of the entire 100 top-grossing films in 2014, and of the total 700 films considered, there were only 24 unique female directors.
Graphics by Patricia Lapadula via Inequality in 700 Popular Films
The same results are seen in television. The recently released Directors Guild of America Diversity Report showed that 69% of scripted television episodes were directed by white males. If you were from a minority background or a woman, it was immediately harder; if you were both, it was practically impossible.
The Directors Guild of America also found in their five-year analysis that when it came to first-time directors on scripted television series, only 13% came from marginalized ethnic/racial backgrounds, and only 18% were women.
These last statistics are perhaps the most pertinent to the situation at hand with Matt Damon and Project Greenlight. Yes, Hollywood is a tough industry to crack, but your best chance is clearly as a white male.
Damon shouldn’t be using the unique platform of Project Greenlight to provide further opportunities for these directors at the expense of directors from marginalised groups. A show like Project Greenlight is exactly the place for ensuring we finally start seeing greater diversity behind the camera, as well as in front of it. Not only is it far more likely for you to win an award, or be asked to helm a huge franchise you are a white male, it is also patently easier to get started.
And in dismissing the role of diversity as being about visibility only, Damon ironically is actually refusing to recognize the power of visibility. Project Greenlight is essentially a reality TV show; whether or not we would like to admit it, the directors chosen to participate in the show are as much characters for the audience as those in the screenplay Damon and Brown were debating over. Damon’s flippant comments appear to indicate that he at least recognizes diversity of casting to be important, so how about casting a member of a marginalized group in the role of “Director”?
Unfortunately, Brown’s comments went ignored, and we got another white, male director. Here’s the whole Project Greenlight cast together, see if you notice a pattern:
Diversity and “merit”: The big excuse
Damon’s comments only make plain the frustrating truth that we already knew, that Hollywood isn’t all that interested in diversity. This intention to maintain the status quo is often excused on the basis of “merit,” and not having “diversity for the sake of diversity.” The argument for “merit”-based decisions has been bandied around since Damon’s unfortunate comments, not least because Damon himself argued later, “It seems like you would undermine what the competition is supposed to be about, which is about giving somebody this job based entirely on merit.”.
Damon, like the majority of others who throw around this justification when issues of diversity come up, is speaking from a place of privilege. He can afford to be judged on “merit,” because the system is already set up in his favor.
However — if we indulge this justification — as Effie Brown rightly points out, why doesn’t this idea of “merit” (which is literally defined as “character or conduct deserving reward, honor, or esteem”) take into account a director’s ability to understand the characters they are working with. Surely, if the director’s role is to help convey the story to the audience in the best manner possible, this is just as important — if not more important — than their degree of technical skill. Doesn’t greater insight into a character make someone more deserving of the chance to tell that character’s story?
This is not about the “merit” of various directors. The award tallies, the opportunities to direct big blockbusters, and the analysis of Hollywood all show that it is simply more difficult if you are a director from a marginalized group.
Let’s consider female directors specifically. It’s hardly surprising that only Bigelow has taken home the Oscar, when there is such a small pool of women directors to draw from. Studios simply aren’t hiring them at the rate men are hired; a report from the Sundance Institute showed that of the 1,300 top-grossing films from 2002 to 2014, the ratio of male to female directors was approximately 23 to 1.
This is not due to a lack of worthy directors; the same report put the ratio of directors at the Sundance Film Festival during the same period at 3 to 1, yet found that films directed by women were more likely “to be distributed by Independent companies with fewer financial
resources and lower industry clout.”
Evidently both Hollywood, and we as a society, simply value the work of women directors less — and the same applies to directors from all marginalized groups. It is for this very reason that Matt Damon and Project Greenlight should have done better, as should Hollywood, and as should we, by continuing this important conversation.
And next time, let’s all hope that Damon listens when Brown speaks.
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