Well-documented inequality: Why the world needs more women behind the camera

Could our growing obsession with documentaries finally pave the way for more female visionaries to enter the male-dominated industry? 

The inhabitants of planet Earth are forever bound by our shared experience of the global pandemic, which kept many of us at home since March. As a subsequence, for those of us fortunate enough to have a Netflix subscription, an unlikely anti-hero quickly emerged in the guise of a gay, polygamist, tiger loving/hating (depending on your stance), gun-toting cowboy, showman, internet personality, musician, and convicted felon, Joseph Allen Maldonado-Passage nee Schreibvogel. You may know him better known as Joe Exotic, from now internationally renowned documentary series, Tiger King; Murder, Mayhem, and Madness. 

With 34.3 million people streaming the stranger than fiction docu-series during the first ten days of release, Tiger King was the ultimate form of escapism during the lockdown. Celebrities dressed up as Joe, and farmers painted cows to look like tigers. Opinion pieces and memes were strewn across the internet, while TikTok dances were choreographed in honour of the flawed characters. And, of course, debate was triggered across Zoom and WhatsApp on whether or not Joe's nemesis, Carole Baskin, fed her husband to her tigers.

The common bond created through the sheer disbelief and, sometimes, the horror of the goings-on in the big cat world confirms the fact that documentaries – not superhero blockbusters, far-fetched soap operas or complex dramas – have become our unifying lifeblood during the most difficult of times. 

 Tiger King was co-directed by documentarian Rebecca Chaiklin and took over five years to make, beset with unpredictable, if not dangerous, characters and situations at every turn. It's the commitment to exposing the stories and cast which has, no doubt, helped create such a frenzy around the series—with even US President Donald Trump wading in.

For many women, however, spending years away from home in hot pursuit of a story – with no promise it'll be picked up by a distributor – is an impossible consideration. With the top-rated documentaries on film industry website IMDB.com include murder, crime, child abuse, and genocide as the subject matter, it is perhaps unsurprising that women make just 16% of documentary films in Scotland. 

However, the Scottish Documentary Institute wants to change that with the launch of its 50/50+ Women Direct campaign, which aims to see half of the documentaries made in Scotland have a female director by 2025. 

While women are largely overlooked in this medium, documentary-making is as old as film itself. As a race, we've long felt compelled to document and view lives different to our own. With the buzz and around the genre reaching fever-pitch, now is the time for the forward-thinking work from women documentary makers to be seen. And we certainly support indie cinema in its quest to become an equal place. 

As such, Hood asked the Scottish Documentary Institute for its list of the most exciting female directorial voices of 2020. Prepare to be inspired.

Emma Davie, Becoming Animal (78 mins)
Shot in Grand Teton National Park, Becoming Animal embraces the sensory tools of cinema to trace how the written word and technology has affected how we see the natural world around us. 

Dr Amy Hardy, Seven Songs for Long Life (82 mins)
This documentary grabs life through song. Six hospice patients allow us into a tender, vulnerable and funny moment of their lives. Singing unlocks the patients' pasts, guides their dreams and their futures. 

Heike Bachelier, Of Fish and Foe (92 mins)
A story of seals, salmon and saboteurs on the Scottish high seas, as the last fishing family using traditional salmon sets battles animal activists.

Isa Rao, Crannog (15 mins)
A moving and contemplative story about Alexis who provides palliative care for farm animals, from her home in rural Scotland, so however long they have left they do not take their final steps alone. 

Hannah Currie, Scottish BAFTA-winning That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore (12 mins)
Can Lindsay's love for husband Paul sustain her through the trauma of his brain injury, which leaves him in a perpetual loop of joke telling?

Inma de Reyes, Vivir Bailando (14 mins)
In rural Spain, where increasingly villages are left uninhibited, Cari (79) and Vincente (80) get a second chance at teenage love, feeling free to play loud music and dance their lives away.  

The Scottish Documentary Institute has very kindly collated the films listed above and they are free to watch exclusively for Hood readers Women.scottishdocinstitute.com/hood/  password is: filmsforhood

To find out more about the campaign or to get involved, visit Women.scottishdocinstitute.com/