Q: I was struck by the amount of discrimination and sexual harassment these women have faced in their careers. Did you experience this, too?
A: Yes, and I didn’t have the courage and tenacity to fight and persevere in my craft. One cameraman wanted me to swim naked in the ocean with him after a shoot which had entailed walking up and down sand dunes with heavy metal boxes of film equipment. I had been so proud of myself, proving that I could do this grueling job, and for what? The manager at one of the unions that I joined only had one question for me, and it didn’t have anything to do with cameras: he wanted to know how tall I was. Another time, I spent a week in an equipment house learning to fix Arris in preparation for a shoot in a remote location, only to be replaced the day before the film went into production. It’s my admiration for those camerawomen who were able to stick it out—suing the unions and networks, if necessary, to get work—that led me to want to make this “North Country” for camerawomen.
Q: I noticed these women were modest in that they often referred to other women to be “true pioneers” or the “firsts” in the film business. They also continually thanked their mentors. Is this typical in the film business?
A: Actually, now that I’m a professor in the Department of Cinema and Television Arts at California State University, Northridge, I find myself continually training students to pitch their projects and toot their own horns. Modesty’s a nice trait, but when you’re in a business where the competition numbers in the thousands, you have to learn to speak up for yourself. (In my case, I was the first camerawoman outside of Lucasfilm to use endoscopic camerawork in my movies, and the first to incorporate filmic devices such as dissolves into my 35mm holographic camerawork.) Some films, like Visions of Light, make it seem as though great Directors of Photography descended from the clouds, fully formed in their talent and mastery of the craft. But actually, many of the top male DPs had to start as camera assistants, too, whether or not the people who gave them their breaks are fully acknowledged. In an industry where there’s traditionally been so much discrimination against women, it’s important to acknowledge those men and women who have been willing to open doors.
