Celebrating SWAN Day in Chicago:
Why Here & Why Now?
Explaining Chicago’s role in the birth of this internationally celebrated new holiday.
UPDATE: Click HERE to watch Jan’s 25 min presentation (recorded by Tim Bolger).
Date: Saturday, March 6, 2010
Time: 8 PM
Sponsor: The College of Complexes
Location: Lincoln Restaurant
4008 North Lincoln Avenue; Chicago 60618
Cost: $ 3 (admission) + $5 (food purchase)
Click HERE for more details about this program.
Click HERE for more details about SWAN Day.
26.Feb.10 
Events: Metro Chicago Only, Events: WITASWAN & SWAN Day 
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Meet The Schvesters:
Recent Films by Jewish Women Filmmakers
Jewish women all around the world are making wonderful movies that we can all see on DVD if only we know where to look for them. On March 7th, we will learn about Jewish life in Argentina, England, France, Israel, Mexico, and yes, the USA through the eyes of our filmmaking schvesters.
Date: Sunday, March 7, 2010
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Location: KAM Isaiah Israel Congregation
1100 East Hyde Park Blvd; Chgo 60615
Click HERE for more details about this program.
Click HERE for more details about SWAN Day.
26.Feb.10 Events: Metro Chicago Only, Events: Khaverot v' Khaverim, Events: WITASWAN & SWAN Day Read more Comments (0)
If I Ruled The World: Critique of 2010 OscarBowl
This will be my 5th Annual “If I Ruled The World” program analyzing this year’s Oscar Ceremony from a feminist perspective for the students of Harold Washington College.
Date: Monday, March 8, 2010
Time: 7 PM
Location: Harold Washington College
30 East Lake Ave; Chicago 60601
Click HERE for more details about this program.
Click HERE for more details about SWAN Day.
26.Feb.10 Events: Metro Chicago Only, Events: WITASWAN & SWAN Day Read more Comments (0)
Click HERE to download “Cultural Gendercide” handout as a pdf file.
Women & Film: A Historical Perspective
Global implications of the “Celluloid Ceiling” that has restricted opportunities for women filmmakers in Hollywood & beyond for decades.
Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Time: 7:30 PM
Sponsor: Glenview Branch AAUW
Location: Glenview Police Station
2500 East Lake Ave; Glenview 60026
Click HERE for Glenview AAUW website.
Click HERE for more details about SWAN Day.
26.Feb.10 Events: Metro Chicago Only, Events: WITASWAN & SWAN Day Read more Comments (0)
Oh, my… Ominous silence in response to my “Blue Oscar” chart, except for one [male] friend who wrote: “I don’t think women should block vote, whether it be a film director, political candidate, or whatever…”
It’s painful to read the statement “just vote with your heart for the films, performances, and technical accomplishments that you really believe are the best,” interpreted as telling women they should “block vote,” especially since (1) Kathryn Bigelow is already so far ahead in the handicapping that no “block voting” is required in her case, & (2) I gave no specific recommendations in any category.
My goal was to help explain the mechanics: Why is Oscar always Blue? Oscar is always blue because the process of selecting Oscar candidates systematically eliminates female POV. But now that only 5 candidates remain in most categories, if 1/3rd are the voters are women, then female AMPAS voters actually have an opportunity to affect the outcome. They don’t have to “organize” to do this; they simply have to understand the basis of the “cumulative factor” so they won’t be “seduced” by it.
For the record, I think the primary goal of moving from 5 to 10 Best Picture candidates was simply to increase TV audience. But consider: It’s no secret women are more interested in “OscarBowl” then men are (something obvious simply by comparing SuperBowl versus OscarBowl advertising). Nevertheless, the films actually in contention in recent years were rarely films most women felt reflected their own lives & experiences… Why? Because “women hold up half the sky,” but Oscar is way too Blue!
26.Feb.10 Rants: Oscars & Other Awards Read more Comments (0)
Read my Guest Post on Melissa Silverstein’s Women & Hollywood blog.
FYI, here’s the link to my award-winning article for Women’s eNews. Credit for the chart goes to WeN editor Alexandra Poolos, because I originally created it at her request. She was right! All the IWPA & NFPW judges loved it, & I’ve kept it updated ever since. Sometimes one picture (like “BlueOscar” here) is worth 1,000 words, but other times only numbers will do J
25.Feb.10 Rants: Oscars & Other Awards Read more Comments (0)
Click HERE to download UPDATED 2010 Oscar Impact Chart (pdf).
Kudos to my AAUW-Illinois sister Leslie Sulla for jerking my chain! In fact there are FOUR female screenwriters impacting this year’s high profile Oscars: Philippa Boyens & Fran Walsh (The Lovely Bones), Nora Ephron (Julie & Julia) AND Terri Tatchell (District 9). OK, so I’m not a Sci-Fi fan, but I did see District 9 & I did not catch this. My mistake!!!
Leslie’s addition of Ms. Tatchell brings the number of impacted films to 5 & the total number of nominations impacted to 11—the highest total since the peak in 2004!!!
Remember that ceiling-smashing woman who titled her award-winning book It Takes a Village? Well, my friends: Here’s more proof J
Photo: Terri Tatchell at the Nominee Luncheon (2/15/10)
23.Feb.10 Rants: Oscars & Other Awards Read more Comments (0)
Click HERE to download Oscar Impact Chart for 2010 as a pdf file.
Here is a 2010 update of my award-winning Oscar Impact chart. As everyone with any interest in this topic already knows, Kathryn Bigelow is the fourth woman ever nominated for a Best Director Oscar, & the very first woman to actually be a genuine contender.
As of today, she is the first woman in history to win a Best Director award from the DGA, and first woman in history to win a Best Director award from BAFTA. Handicappers put her so far ahead at this point that there is almost no chance that she will NOT win an Oscar too, thereby kicking a huge crack in the Celluloid Ceiling.
But in every other respect, it’s “same old, same old.” Female Impact this year is 20%, which is much better than last year (7.5%) but only in the middle for the decade as a whole. (The high was 37.5% in 2004 & the low was 2.5% in 2005.) Note that the denominator changes this year from 40 (8 categories X 5 nominees) to 45 (because there are now 10 films contending for Best Picture).
Me, I won’t be able to relax until March 7, 2010 is history. I’ll be sitting on pins & needles right up until the moment Bigelow’s name is announced & she steps up to the stage in triumph… or not…
More on this subject on March 8 J
Photo: Kathryn Bigelow with team members
(from left: screenwriter Mark Boal plus
producers Greg Shapiro & Nicholas Chartier)
23.Feb.10 Rants: Oscars & Other Awards Read more Comments (0)
Click HERE to download Oscar Impact Chart for ‘09 as a pdf file.
So I never updated my award-winning Oscar Impact chart last year… I guess I was so bummed out by “My SLUMDOG Brouhaha” that I just couldn’t bring myself to post numbers that didn’t include Loveleen Tandan…
But what a difference a year makes! Who could have believed just twelve short months ago that a woman would not only be nominated this year, but would actually be a genuine contender?!?
So here, at long last, is JAN’S OSCAR WATCH updated with all information thru 2009. Without Loveleen Tandan, “Female Impact” behind-the-scenes at the 2009 Oscars was a piteous 7.5% (one of the lowest years of the decade). Total nominations were 3 (2 for FROZEN RIVER & 1 for RACHEL GETTING MARRIED). Neither film won any Oscars although Melissa Leo (the star of FROZEN RIVER) surprised everyone by winning an Independent Spirit Award in the Lead Actress category. And so it goes L
23.Feb.10 Rants: Oscars & Other Awards Read more Comments (0)
So Up in the Air just won another “Best Adapted Screenplay” award (this time from the Writers Guild of America) for condescending use of the sorrows of real people as “topical garnish on a Cary Grant movie” (credit for these well-chosen words go to my fellow Chicagoan Jim Jones).
Me, I’m personally, I’m incensed about the way Jason Reitman betrays his female characters, most especially “Alex” (Vera Farmiga). Just who is this woman supposed to be??? Obviously, finding an actress with a beauteous backside was way more important to Reitman than building a coherent back story for her.
The idea that Alex would tell her children at the very last moment that she isn’t coming home for the weekend (so she can gallivant around Wisconsin) is completely ridiculous (even if we do buy her mid-week road warrior “think of me as you only with a vagina” brio). No, this whole sequence (which is NOT in Kirn’s novel) was created because Reitman’s Ryan needs an urban queen to adorn his arm when he deigns to visit his lowly country bumpkin relations in the “heartland.”
We learn in “the big reveal” that this is a woman with secrets to protect, but how does Ryan even know where she lives? If Reitman were honest, he’d have to show Ryan going thru her wallet or something equally distasteful, but that would spoil the light, breezy “fun,” wouldn’t it?
And, oh yes: how does Alex pull not one but two sexy black dresses from her rollway when she didn’t even know about potential weekend activities when she packed??? Movie magic?!? Puh-leez!!! Am I the only person who noticed this? And yes, I’m sure because I watched the Wisconsin scenes again so I could be sure.And of course Wisconsin comes way after Ryan’s insufferable “how to pack” lecture when he dumps half of the contents of Natalie’s suitcase into a garbage bin while she just stands there with a gaping mouth. And what happens to that big, newish & relatively expensive suitcase anyway? Natalie just let him toss it?!?
I could say more about “Natalie” (not in the novel at all) as well as Ryan’s sisters (again Reitman totally distorted Kirn’s characters), but Alex is the character who really makes my blood boil.
Golden Globe Award? WGA Award? SIX Oscar nominations??? For shame!!!
Me, I nominated Up in the Air for Hall of Shame Awards posted by both the Women Film Critics Circle & the Progressive Film Critics Circle!
21.Feb.10 Rants: Oscars & Other Awards, Raving/Ranting about Critics/Journalists Read more Comments (0)
