I can’t take sole credit for this idea.
I was a member of the BBC Writersroom, Drama Room 2017 – there were 19 of us and every month we’d attend a workshop or seminar about some aspect of writing drama for television.
The night before our last session in December 2017, four of us, all women, went out for dinner.
There’s nothing like sharing your frustrations about the world with a group of like-minded people who can empathise because they have the same frustrations.
And it was out of this dinner and lunch the next day that the idea of only watching films or TV shows that were written or directed by a woman arose.
We’re 50% of the population – we should be making 50% of the content. And we’re not.
I want to see women’s stories. I want to see a lot more of them.
I want to make them too.
And so I need to support them. I need to prioritise them.
To play a tiny part in convincing the industry that there is a market for them.
So for 2019 that’s what I’m going to do. From the 1st January – 31st December 2019 I will only watch films or television shows written and/or directed by women.
What are the rules?
Woman for me means anyone with first-hand experience of being a woman, i.e., anyone who has presented or identified as a woman for a significant period of their life, so includes cis-gender women and trans* men and women and some gender neutral/fluid individuals.
If you have moved through this world as a woman and made a film, I want to watch it.
Written and/or directed by a woman means credited – I’ll be going by the information on IMDB.
Written by refers only to the screenplay – it doesn’t matter if the novel was written by a woman if they didn’t choose a woman to write or direct the adaptation.
Male co-writers/co-directors are acceptable. BUT the women have to make up 50% of the writing or directing team.
For film, the definition of written and/or directed is pretty straightforward but I want to clarify that film includes feature films and documentaries, and short films.
For TV, I’m only concerned with scripted fictional comedy or drama series, be that serial, limited series, or one-offs, so the following are excluded:
Current Affairs Programmes
Reality TV Show
Talk Shows
TV is episodic so it gets a little more complicated when it comes to credits - a female writer could be credited on a show but only write or direct one episode of a series - I’ve decided that won’t be enough to qualify a show.
US shows with a writer’s room:
the season has a female showrunner;
A woman directs every episode of a season (Thank you, Andrea Arnold and Big Little Lies, Season 2) ;
50% of the show is written and/or directed by women.
For UK/Ireland shows:
the show has a female creator who writes all the episodes;
at least 50% of the episodes in the series (season) are credited to a female writer;
Every episode in a series (season) is directed by a woman.
This might mean for new shows that I’ll have to hold off watching until I get the lay of the land – but I think that will be okay.
Netflix and Amazon Prime Originals shows are treated as TV Shows or Films as relevant.
If the show is an anthology show then individual stand-alone episodes will be judged like films. So say, for example, with Black Mirror, I could only watch the two episodes with a female writer credited or the one episode with a female director.
I’m like 36 so I don’t watch a lot of youtube stuff but if it’s a scripted web series or a stand-alone drama or comedy, whatever the length, then the rule applies.
Oh, yeh, the rule applies retrospectively – it’s not just for new shows or films. So I won’t be rewatching Say Anything (I’ll still love you, Llyod) or The West Wing or The Wire because in the case of boxsets the whole series has to meet the above criteria.
Also if a series started in December, I can’t keep watching it after 1st January unless it meets the criteria.
I’m making three exceptions to this rule:
Game of Thrones Series 8 – there will be NO way to avoid those spoilers. But I’m not allowed to re-watch the Series 1-7
Short Film Programmes that include one of my films in competitions
Children’s Films and Television – I watch a lot of TV with my daughter and I don’t think it’s fair to make her participate in the project. But I’m hoping it will encourage me to be more aware of the gender breakdown of what she’s watching.
How will this blog work?
As I’m a lone parent with a part-time office job and I’m running a production company, I may not be watching a lot. But I’m going to set myself the goal of watching at least one film a week.
I’ll post weekly updates laying out what I’ve watched that week, why it qualifies, where I watched it, and at least one or twos lines reviewing it. Usually on a Monday evening.
These will be interspersed with posts about the representation of women in film and TV. I’ll probably post links to interesting articles about this subject and maybe give reactions.
Can you recommend something for me to watch?
If you think it meets the criteria, heck yes – post a comment.
If you can give me an idea of where I can watch it that would be great (only legal sites please).
Can you play along?
Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. And please let me know how you get on.
What if you think I’m discriminating against men?
I’m not excluding men from my viewing next year: Men can make up to 50% of the creative team and the film/TV show will still qualify.
This is an experiment for a year.
I’m allowed to choose what I watch by whatever arbitrary rules I decide to impose on myself - that’s what we all do. I’m just writing mine down and blogging about it.
You are under no obligation to agree with me that such a project is wise or even necessary but please don’t hector me about why you think it’s a bad idea. Don’t waste my time or yours.
If you want to instigate Watching Men 2019, go ahead, you will have lots of options. You could even do a year watching films with no women credited as writer/director - oh, wait, that’s really easy and what a lot of people do anyway without realising. But no, I don’t want a link to your Watching Men blog … unless you’re doing a hilarious, feminist take on it.