Love film, hate sexism. The tagline for the Reel Equality Film Club says it all. Mainstream cinema is a huge multibillion dollar industry, however only one in four lead roles are given to women. Also women are four times more likely to be dressed provocatively, and in the first 50 years of the Oscars only four films awarded ‘Best Picture’ had women-centred stories. It seems like four definitely isn’t the magic number. The brand new film club had its launch night on 22nd August at Broadway, and with cake, costumes and charity, it was buzzing. The club aims to raise awareness of sexism in film whilst providing a fun alternative. I wanted to find out a bit more, so chatted to Chloe Cheeseman, the co-ordinator of the club and fundraiser at Equation, the charity behind it all.
Hi Chloe, it’s great to meet you. Are you excited about tonight? What’s been leading up to the event?
Yes I’m really excited about tonight. There’s a committee consisting of three of us, including myself from Equation and two volunteers. We’ve been meeting regularly and deciding what we want the club to be, and what our goals are. We then had to do the very difficult task of deciding what our criteria were going to be for the films, as we wanted them to be a fairer and better representation of women in film. But there are quite a lot of ways that that could be thought about, so we’ve spent a lot of time creating extensive criteria. After that was done and we had picked our films, it was time to get busy with publicity and promotion. Everyone has played a really important part in this process, and we’re recruiting for some more volunteers to join the committee. I’m hoping that tonight people will get fired up about it and the project and hopefully gain some volunteers to help out with the next season.
I feel excited to be here too, and there’s been a buzz around the event for a while and you can feel it at Broadway tonight…
Yeah, we had a proof of concept event in Broadway in March, where a group of street artists and illustrators came together to do some live drawings. They were representing women inspired by films where they are exhibiting qualities other than just being sexy, or attractive. They were trying to celebrate women and their diverse strengths. We had a really really good response to that event, a lot of people came, and we then had the motivation and momentum to turn this into an actual club. But since we’ve been talking about this we’ve had an enormously positive response, not just from local womens’ groups but also members of the general community who feel unhappy about the unbalanced gender representation in mainstream film.
Equation is a domestic abuse charity. How do you think a club like this can connect to victims of domestic abuse, and why is it important?
Equation is a domestic abuse charity that focuses on prevention, by working in schools with young people, and providing training for front line community professionals such as police officers in providing the best responses to domestic abuse. Another line of our work is campaigning for gender equality because the causes of domestic abuse are really complex, but we know many male perpetrators of domestic abuse against women hold disrespectful attitudes towards women, believing women are worth less than men. These views are supported by the societal attitudes towards women, them having a lesser status, which then feeds into a culture which allows the mindsets of abusers to develop these views. A key way of challenging domestic abuse on a societal level is by promoting a culture of respect for women and gender equality. Equation means the process of making equal, if we create a society which men and women are respected equally, this will have an impact on reducing domestic violence. Film is just one way in which women are misrepresented in media, and this club is a way of highlighting the issues but doing in an accessible and quite a fun way. That’s the best way to change attitudes, by engaging people in things which are positive.
There are definitely some fun aspects to the club, with a dressing up competition tonight as just one example. You asked me if I was a character before… Do you think I could create a Pulp Fiction character from my outfit? Maybe become an assassin for the evening?
*laughs* Yes yes yes! We wanted to create a party to launch the event so it was more than just a film screening. I did some research with people who already had film clubs, and they mentioned that dressing up is popular amongst film fans, so we decided to learn from their experience. Because we are trying to create an alternative attitude towards women in film, we asked people to come as their favourite cult characters, which in turn means they aren’t quite so immediately identifiable… I had to ask one of my volunteers if her entirely black outfit was just what she wears on a Friday night or whether she was in character, but she was Lisabeth Salander from ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ so yes… I think we created an inadvertent challenge there!
It seems like you’ve got a lot of fun things going on at the club?
We realised there were a lot of films on at mainstream cinemas that may be limited in their gender representations, but Arthouse cinema in general tends to be better at representing diversity. But due to the number of films out these days, we realised just showing films may mean it’s difficult for this film club to compete with other cinemas. So each screening is going to have a themed event. For next month’s screening at The Savoy we are having an American burger night at the Crocus Cafe around the corner as we are showing an American Sci-Fi film. We are also having a women in sci-fi quiz with prizes. The next one we might do an American deep south theme with southern cocktails and Mississippi mud pie and stuff, so we are trying to make each screening fun, gather people and discuss issues. One of the things we want to do with this is not just provide an alternative which is better in terms of gender representation, but also to raise awareness of how dire the situation is in mainstream cinema. Unless someone points it out to you, or it’s a specific area of personal interest, many people might not have noticed how limited and stereotypical roles are for women.
I agree. Society is bombarded with stereotypical and derogatory representations of women that sometimes I guess it can be hard to actually see the blatant sexism. The film club sounds like a great way to address those imbalances.
Ultimately we want the film industry to change and produce films which are more gender equal, and the only way we are going to get there is if there is a mass movement and a mass demand for that change. As well as providing an alternative, we want to connect people and inspire them to push for change to happen. It’s an enormous problem and Hollywood is one of the worlds’ most powerful industries but we are not under the illusion that one small film club in Nottingham will change the way that mainstream films are made.
But I guess it’s about changing attitudes and that comes gradually through the domino effect and such. Don’t underestimate yourselves though! Reach for the sky!
Absolutely! *laughs* You have to start somewhere! We are hopefully going to open some peoples’ eyes to the inequality that is happening now, and we can inspire people to take action, and even if that action is just talking to their friends and family who might not have thought about it either. Because once you start seeing these misrepresentations and gender inequality in the world around you, you can’t un-see it. It’s something that will hopefully have a long lasting impact on the people we reach and there are lots of things going on at the moment regarding womens’ stance in society and a resurgence in interest around feminism and a realisation that actually we haven’t won the battle, and we are contributing to that movement whilst fulfilling Equation’s move for gender equality. What’s really good is these movements often find new fun energies which enable them to reach out further, and hopefully this club will do that with its’ costumes and themed parties.
I can see that you are very passionate about the work you are doing here, where has that passion come from?
I guess I was one of those women who grew up thinking men and women were equal and that we didn’t need feminism anymore, but it slowly and suddenly dawned on me when I came out of my teens and early 20’s that actually women are still massively discriminated against. I started to notice it more, and I couldn’t un-see it, I began to read more and got inspired by women who were well versed in feminism and were passionate about this issue. Then through working at Equation and seeing how directly derogatory attitudes towards women in society leads to violence towards women, you start to draw those links from what seems trivial to things that are substantial. Also looking at the ways in which language and stories impact me is something I’ve always been interested in because my family background is in the arts and film, with my father and sister being directors and my mother being an actress, I’ve always cared about the power of stories to impact communities. I think that often people don’t realise that it’s the subtle ways that derogatory messages are perpetuated through adverts, songs, TV, film and they all add together to create a massive negative impact. If you take each one in isolation you may think “What’s the big deal?” but when you consider the broader context they all connect to something bigger. That’s where my inspiration comes from. Equation is great in that respect as it teaches change through positive action in younger communities too, and will hopefully enable them to have healthy relationships as a result. The desire to bring about change through positive action is something that the charity really strives towards.
The Reel Equality Film Club seems like a fantastic way to do that. Finally, I have noticed you are wearing a very fetching yellow cardigan… Are you dressed as a character this evening Chloe?
Yeah I am dressed as one of my favourite characters from one of my favourite films which is Cher from Clueless!
Ah! Perfect! I think you nailed it. Thanks for chatting with me Chloe.
After our interview I milled around a bit and ate some delicious cake. With it being a busy Friday night it was impossible to tell who was there for the club or just for some beers. I do wish there had been some stickers identifying people who were there to join the club, that way it might have been easier for the members to find each other and chat. I hope that the future clubs have a more focused element of discussion. However, finally when the film started, the cafe bar was packed out with people enjoying the film that was projected on two walls simultaneously. After a few sound issues, it all ran perfectly smoothly, and was a great success. I really enjoyed the screening of Ghost World and its off beat comedy and kick ass characters were a great way to begin the Reel Equality Film Club, and I’m looking forward to future events and hopefully getting stuck in to some great thought provoking and equality promoting films!
For more information on the Reel Equality Film Club, you can visit the Equation website here, or check out the Facebook page here.
Interview/Review by Cassia Helme
