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How today's female directors broke out of 'movie jail'

Not one woman was nominated for this year’s best director Oscar. But some of the hottest upcoming movies are female-led – so has gender discrimination in the industry been busted?

A student called Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been invited to dinner by the dean of Harvard Law School, along with the eight other women in her year. Her wide-eyed eagerness is swiftly put in check when the dean asks each woman to stand up and say something about themselves, including “why you’re occupying a place that could have gone to a man”.

This is an early moment in On the Basis of Sex, a biopic about Ginsburg, who eventually became a US Supreme Court justice. It’s a scene that Mimi Leder, the film’s director, could identify with well. In 1973, Leder became the first woman to graduate from the prestigious American Film Institute Conservatory: “I never entered the world of film-making saying, ‘I’m entering a male-dominated business.’ I entered the world of storytelling because I felt compelled to tell stories. But throughout my career, I’ve been predominantly the only the woman in the room.”

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from Culture | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2DLhA67

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