WOMEN MAKE PANELS
I arrived at the “Women In Film” brunch late, sweating, having run up Main Street with too many bags and not enough high-altitude oxygen. The discussion was “A New Social Consciousness In Film.” The panelists were Mary Ann Smothers Bruni (DP, Quest For Honor), Beau St. Clair (Producer, The Greatest), Liz Garbus (Director, Shouting Fire: Stories from the Edge of Free Speech), Lili Haydn (Composer, Over the Hills and Far Away), Emily & Sarah Kuntsler (Directors, William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe), Nancy Schreiber (DP, Motherhood), and Trudie Styler (Producer, Moon, Crude). I set up my tape recorder, tried to catch my breath and started to listen. Trudie Styler talked about working for social change, Liz Garbus demanded more public discourse about Israel; Sarah Kuntsler pointed out that more evil has occurred on behalf of the legal system than all the illegalities in the history of man. Thirty minutes in, I was restless and confused — why aren’t they talking about women? Isn’t this about being a girl on set? What of the glass ceiling?? Then I realized that they each had much more important things to talk about than being a woman, which was precisely the point and the power of the whole afternoon.
