It's always a pleasure for me to watch a woman at the top of her game-whether it's Serena Williams clocking a 129-mph serve or watching Kathryn Bigelow's acceptance speech at the 82nd Academy Awards after her historic win as the first woman to snag an Oscar for Best Director. (She was only the fourth woman ever nominated.)
As Barbra Streisand said when she peeked in the envelope, "Well, the time has come . . ." It was a powerful moment, knowing what a "boy's club" the Best Director-ship (and filmmaking in general) has always been. Or as Bigelow put it, "This really is . . . the moment of a lifetime." Kathryn's been working the camera for a long time, including stints as an actress and a writer; "The Hurt Locker" is her eighth film.
She was grateful, rather than arrogant, about the honor. She delighted in being recognized as belonging in the "company of such powerful filmmakers who have inspired me and I have admired for, some of whom, for decades." That company included her ex-husband, James Cameron, whose best-selling movie of all time, "Avatar," was largely ignored in favor of his ex-wife's "small" film about post-invasion Iraq, "The Hurt Locker."
Backstage at the Oscars, Bigelow spoke about her fate as the first female director to win one of the golden statuettes. "First of all," she said, "I hope I'm the first of many. And, of course, I'd love to just think of myself as a filmmaker, and I long for the day when a modifier can be a moot point. But I'm ever grateful if I can inspire some young, intrepid, tenacious male or female filmmaker and have them feel that the impossible is possible and never give up on your dream."
Women directors are still a rarity in Hollywood. The Celluloid Ceiling, an annual report about the women employed in the film industry, revealed that out of the top 250 grossing films of 2009, only 7% were directed by women. But Kathryn made her dreams come true. And that's the value of the world watching something as "trivial" as an awards show. Some young girl in Africa, or the Middle East, or East L.A. for that matter, can have a dream, can have a story that she has to tell, and find a way to do it because she can no longer be told that "there aren't any good female directors." Now she has Kathryn Bigelow's shoulders to stand on.
It was an excellent prequel to International Women's Day. Progress for women in any industry speaks to the eventuality of women's equal rights and equal opportunities. Hooray for Bigelow, and hooray for all the rest of us who strive to fulfill our dreams!
