“The 4%: Film’s Gender Problem,” a series of short films highlighting the female director gap in Hollywood, will premiere March 8 on pay TV channel Epix in connection with International Women’s Day.
The documentary shorts hail from Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions. The shorts feature a range of film bizzers discussing the role of women in Hollywood. “The 4%” draws on the research of Dr. Stacy Smith, founder and director of the Media, Diversity, and Social Change Initiative at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.
“The 4%” shorts are directed by Caroline Suh and produced by Erika Frankel. The title refers to Smith’s research documenting that among the top 1,300 highest-grossing films released between 2002 to 2014, only 4.1% of directors were women.
“The series offers an opportunity for a national audience to hear from the entertainment industry directly about the issues women face both as filmmakers and in other creative roles,” Smith said. “My research is clear: females face a very real fiscal cliff as they pursue work at the highest echelons of this industry.”
The shorts will air on Epix throughout the month of March. The first in the series is scheduled to bow today at the Sundance film festival’s Women at Sundance brunch presentation.
“Our objective is to help provide a forum for the discussion of ideas and potential solutions, as we collectively work towards closing the gap that exists today,” said Epix president-CEO Mark Greenberg.
Among the notables featured in the shorts are Judd Apatow, Lake Bell, Patricia Clarkson, Paul Feig, America Ferrera, James Franco, Catherine Hardwicke, Amy Heckerling, Dawn Hudson, Anjelica Huston, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Michael Mann, Mira Nair, Jill Soloway, Christine Vachon and Kristen Wiig. Exec producers are Suh, Gibney, Stacey Offman, Laura Michalchyshyn, Lynne Kirby and Betsy West and Epix’s Jocelyn Diaz, Ross Bernard and Jill Burkhart.
