WOMEN VS HOLLYWOOD

An enlightening page-turner, stacked with stories and stats that will have your jaw on the floorAnna Smith, host of the Girls On Film podcastThis is the film history we need: one that gives leading roles to people who usually only get to be background playersPamela Hutchinson, film historian and criticA call to arms from Empire magazines geek queen, Helen OHara, that explores womens roles - both in front of and behind the camera - since the birth of Hollywood, how those roles are reflected within wider society and what we can do to level the playing field.The dawn of cinema was a free-for-all, and there were women who forged ahead in many areas of filmmaking. Early pioneers like Dorothy Arzner (who invented the boom mic, among other innovations) and Alice Guy-Blach shaped the way films are made. But it wasnt long before these talented women were pushed aside and their contributions written out of film history. How and why did this happen?Hollywood was born just over a century ago, at a time of huge forward motion for womens rights, yet it came to embody the same old sexist standards. Women found themselves fighting a system that feeds on their talent, creativity and beauty but refuses to pay them the same respect as their male contemporaries - until now...The tide has finally begun to turn. A new generation of women, both in front of and behind the camera, are making waves in the industry and are now shaping some of the biggest films to hit our screens. There is plenty of work still needed before we can even come close to gender equality in film - but were finally headed in the right direction.In Women vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film, Empires geek queen Helen OHara takes a closer look at the pioneering and talented women of Hollywood and their work in film since Hollywood began. Equal representation in film matters because it both reflects and influences wider societal gender norms. In understanding how women were largely written out of Hollywoods own origin story, and how the films we watch are put together, we can finally see how to put an end to a picture that is so deeply unequal - and discover a multitude of stories out there just waiting to be told.