Meet the Experts Film Documentary roundtable: ‘Frida,’ ‘I Am: Celine Dion,’ ‘Sugarcane’
What does it mean to have so many female directors thriving as documentary filmmakers? What are the movies and who are the directors who inspire you? These were some of the topics discussed by directors when they joined Gold Derby’s special “Meet the Experts” Q&A event with documentary contenders: directors Carla Gutierrez (“Frida”), Irene Taylor (“I Am: Celine Dion”), and Emily Kassie (“Sugarcane”). Watch our full group roundtable panel above, and click on each name above to view that nominee’s individual interview.
“In the history of documentaries, there’s always been more space for people that just do their own thing and make things happen,” says Gutierrez. “It’s not so much about getting access from the powers [that be] like with fiction. I think it attracts a lot of female producers and directors that just start a film even if they don’t have funding. Me, starting my career as an editor, there were definitely more access points as a woman. I would have to say, I don’t think that the industry is very accessible and welcoming to BIPOC producers and directors. I’ve seen a lot less of that in my long career as an editor, but I think it is a space where you see a lot more women.”
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Taylor admits, “I’ve tried to keep my head down to be honest. I don’t think about my woman-ness, necessarily, as informing my filmmaking. I think of my humanity as informing my filmmaking. I also find I start tripping over my words if I speak ‘as a woman.’ Certainly in this film with Celine, it’s undeniable a certain relatability we both had. We are both within just a few years of each other in age. We both have three sons. We just have these little things in common, but they ran pretty deep.”
“I also think, sometimes, gender can play a role in your subject’s willingness to talk to you,” Taylor continues. “And I don’t mean to say as a woman it was easier to talk to me, but I think sometimes it is helpful if there’s a gender difference.” She explains that when she made her film “Leave No Trace” about survivors of childhood sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts, “A couple of the men in that film pulled me aside to say, ‘I felt like I could talk to you because I feel some anxiety in sharing such embarrassing aspects of myself.’ I thought that was really interesting.”
SEE 2025 Oscar contenders: Watch all of our video interviews
Kassie agrees, stating, “We operate from a place as filmmakers, as human beings. I will say that it’s exciting for me to get to know and be surrounded by incredible women who I so greatly admire. Carla can attest to the fact that I rigorously pursued her for years wanting to work with her. There are so many women who have led the way in this industry and it’s really incredible to be amongst them.”
While thinking about her biggest influences, Kassie says, “I was really inspired by Julia Reichert, who did this film called ‘Growing Up Female.’ It is a film that she made almost 40 years ago, at a time that was kind of unprecedented, where she followed women of different races and classes in America. She was inside their homes, interviewing their husbands in a time when women didn’t have a lot of options in terms of where they could work and what they could do. She was a trailblazer and that was so deeply inspiring to me.”
Guitierrez is inspired by good filmmaking and storytelling. “There is so much responsibility that we have for our characters’ stories, but at the same time, getting very intimate and choosing what we want to focus on. We’re never going to present the entire life of somebody. We’re never going to present a character’s whole being. We’re making choices in terms of what we want to tell with this film, what we want to focus on.”
Taylor states, “When we’re calling upon other films we may have seen, it’s like calling on your ancestors. You’re sort of reaching back to try to duplicate or replicate that emotion you felt. When I was making this film about Celine, I was so surprised by her every day. I wanted to bring that element in, but I also just wanted to make sure that I had all of these elegant variables that I knew were fitting with who she was…I was constantly trying to put my audience in an emotional spot. We are all women here talking with you today, but I don’t think we’re more emotional, but I know that with my female colleagues and female friends, I can talk about those things with abandon and not feel like they’re womanly or embarrassing.”
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