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Where are the women directors in China?|中国的女性导演在哪里?

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Initiatives to promote women directors have been increasingly popular in the West. However, coming as coercive directives from head-quoters of global brands, in Asia, and China particularly, they often look like an unnatural implant. A quota-like requirements are a debate minefield! It may look like a good starting point, but it’s definitely not a quick fix. The problem is global. To start, there are just not many female directors- neither in the world, nor in China. The percentage of women directors only rose from 9% in 1998 to 13% in 2019, while the percentage of women cinematographers climbed just 1% in the same period, from 4% to 5%. The big question is, why?

近年来在西方,鼓励女性导演,为她们发声的活动越来越受欢迎。然而,在亚洲,特别是在中国,部分来自国际品牌总部的“强制平权指令”看上去太过刻意,让不少女性导演处境尴尬。而这种类似“配额”的要求便成为了辩论的雷区!虽然出发点是好的,但这绝不是能快速解决问题的好办法。同时,这个问题是全球性的。首先,女性导演并不多,无论是在国内还是国外。过去的二十多年里,女性导演的比例仅从1998年的9%上升到2019年的13%,而同期女性电影摄影师的比例仅上升了1%,从4%上升到5%。这到底是为什么呢?

Dame Heather Rabbatts, Chair of Time’s Up UK, a group which was founded in 2018 by some of Hollywood’s most high-profile actresses in response to the #MeToo movement, gives two reasons to that in her interview to BBC Culture. One: “people tend to recruit in their own image,” ie the majority of directors are male, and they hire men. Two: “[directing] has not been a role where women have seen many other women role models. The more that we see women directors coming through, the greater encouragement that will give to other women to believe that they too can do these roles,” she concluded.

Time’s Up(时间到了)是由好莱坞的一些最知名的女演员为了响应#MeToo运动于2018年成立的一个组织, Heather Rabbatts 女爵是英国Time’s Up协会的主席,而她在接受BBC文化频道采访时总结出了两个原因。第一:“人们在招聘时倾向于参考自己的形象,例如大多数董事是男性,他们便会雇用男性。第二:在(导演)这个职业中,缺乏女性的榜样。人们看到的女性导演的成就越多,就会给其他女性更多的鼓励,让她们相信自己也可以扮演这些角色。”

In the previous words of female directors SHP+ has interviewed throughout the years in China, [female directors] “might not be viewed as authoritative or formidable on set, but we use our way to get the performance we want and that’s the most important thing, to get what you want in front of the camera. I think to support female directors is to respect them and trust them”, director Andrea Wang shared back in 2018 in SHP+ article Five Female Chinese Directors You Should Know.

这些年,SHP+在中国采访了不少女导演,用她们的话来说:“人们可能觉得女导演在片场不够权威没有气场,但其实我们有自己的方式去执导我们想要的效果,最重要的是能够通过摄像头找到自己想要的画面。我认为支持女导演就是要尊重并信任她们”,王俞心导演在2018年SHP+的采访《你应该认识的五位中国女性导演》的分享。

Andrea Wang | 王俞心

This year, and in honor of International Women’s Day, we continue our attempt to give more exposure to women directors based in China. First, we sifted through the credits of all the adverts we selected and published on SHP+ over the past year, and discovered a striking, but again unsurprising fact –  among all the spots featured in 2020 only four were directed by women. So we decided to follow up on some recent work of those women whose films caught our attention: Veda, Hou Zuxing, Dingding and Le Shuting.

而今年,为了庆祝国际妇女,我们将继续支持中国的女性导演,为她们发声。首先,我们筛选了过去一年来在SHP+上发布的所有广告片的演职员表,发现了一个惊人,但也不足为奇的事实:在2020年发布的所有广告片中,只有四部是女性导演的作品。因此,我们决定继续关注这些宝藏女性导演的近期作品,她们是: 戴维、侯祖辛、丁丁和乐舒婷

Shanghai-based director behind the hit ad for Neiwai, a brand name praised in China and abroad for body positivity, didn’t just help the brand to deliver the message once. She repeatedly assumed a multitasker’s role as director, editor, creative, and in 2020, Veda shot a series of documentary style BODY TALKS continuing to unveil the body positivity topic from perspectives of different women.

戴维长居上海,执导的爆款《内外》广告曾因其对身体的正面评价而在国内外屡获好评,做到了不仅仅是作为导演帮助品牌传递信息。她担当了导演、编辑和创意的多重角色。戴维还拍摄了一系列纪实风格的BODY TALKS(身体有话说)系列短片,从不同的女性视角继续解读正面看待身体的话题。

 

After shooting Jim Hsiao for Weather Bureau’s ad with a goal to make “a distant and formal government organization more relevant to common people”, Hou apparently worked on more personal projects, other than advertising. Well at least, that’s what she showed on her public account. Last year she updated her Xinpianchang portfolio with a director’s cut of Oppein futuristic campaign, actually shot in 2019, and a Gaokao-centered documentary for Rejoice.

为了让一个正襟危坐的政府机构更贴近普通民众,侯祖辛为中国气象局和萧敬腾拍摄了一部“接地气”的广告。在那之后,她便投身于更多的个人项目,而不是广告。当然,这只是她公众号上的消息。去年,她在自己新片场的主页上更新了为欧派拍摄的未来科幻风格的导演剪辑版广告片,但这部广告拍摄于2019年,此外她还更新了一部为飘柔拍摄的高考主题的短纪录片。

OPPEIN欧派 家园

 

Creating minimalistic worlds with a touch of fantasy to promote smartphones seems to be the area Dingding is comfortable in. We featured her directorial work for Vivo X60 spot, that brought to life a Lego playground with meticulous detail, and a bit of nostalgic, in a festive setup. Her Xinpianchang portfolio also features short, atmospheric commercials for Oppo and Huawei. Dingding’s most recent work in the profile— a touching CNY spot for Budweiser.

丁丁喜欢用充满幻想的极简主义世界来拍摄智能手机广告。我们之前介绍了她作为导演为

Vivo X60 创作的作品,该短片非常有节日气氛,用细致的细节和一点怀旧的氛围将乐高游乐场带到了生活中。她的新片场作品集还包括Oppo和华为的广告短片。而丁丁作品集中最新的一部作品十分感人,是为百威拍摄的春节特别广告。

Budweiser 百威

 

«Wuhan balconies»《阳台里的武汉》

Last year, while the industry suffered the influence of the COVID virus outbreak, some talented individuals were seizing the opportunity for creativity and promotion. Viral social ads, watched by millions, put the unknown young director Le Shuting on the map. Her short film “Wuhan balconies” was an instant hit, generating over 8 million views on Weibo.  The director hasn’t seemed to use the momentum to her further advantage though, as we haven’t seen her credited on any other spots, which admittedly we easily may have missed. So far her Xinpianchang portfolio updates have shown Le  continued honing her filmmaking skills in the area of emotional mini-films about Wuhan, working on Hubei Media Group’s “2020 User Manual” and “2020+1”.

去年,在行业受到新冠肺炎疫情影响的同时,一些优秀的人才却才抓住机遇创新升级。被数百万人观看的爆款社交宣传片,让不知名的年轻导演乐舒婷一举成名。她的短片《武汉阳台》一炮而红,微博浏览量超过800万。但这位导演似乎并没有利用这一势头为她带来更多的优势,因为我们没有看到她出现在其他作品中,当然我们可能不小心错过了。到目前为止,乐舒婷在新片场的更新显示,她继续拍摄关于武汉的情感微电影,比如湖北传媒的《2020使用手册》以及《2020+1》。

2020+1

Voila! We whole heartedly wish these talented women a happy and fruitful continuation and promise to keep an eye on their upcoming work.

我们在此衷心地祝愿这些才华出众的女性,好风凭借力,送她上青云,并承诺持续关注她们未来的作品。

Next, we’ll follow up with a deeper-dive on several other female directors, whom SHP+ interviewed this time in person and had a chance to ask questions on the perspectives and positioning of women filmmakers in the advertising industry in China. Stay tuned!

接下来,我们将深入采访其他几位女性导演,SHP+这次面对面地采访了她们,并借机就中国广告行业女性电影人的视角和定位提出了问题。请继续关注我们后续的精彩内容!

RELATED ARTICLES:

Five Female Chinese directors you should know | 走近五位中国女导演

Is gender parity a reality in China’s ad industry?| 中国广告业男女平等了吗?

 

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