Articles: Minority And Female Directors Losing Ground
   
 



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by
Tara Casanova
Special To Blackflix.com


  If you're a female or minority film or television director, the recent announcement by the Directors Guild of America that blacks and women directors are receiving less work in the industry for the third straight year, probably comes as little surprise.

  According to the Guild's recent study, employment of black directors remained unchanged at 4.4 percent in 1998, Hispanic directors plummeted from 3.1 percent in 1997 to 2.3 percent in 1998, and women directors, who accounted for 10.2 percent of the total days worked by the Guild, fell from 10.7 percent in 1997 -- their lowest rate since 1990.

  The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is threatening a nationwide boycott of the entertainment industry if minority hiring efforts do not improve.

  Felix Sanchez, president of the Hispanic Foundation for the Arts said the problem is, if the film industry can name one minority in every category, they feel they have done its job.

  Elizabeth Stanley, assistant executive director for Guild's union, says women fared better than minorities in assistant directing and subordinate jobs -- but those positions do not necessarily lead to directing jobs.

  "This is the last frontier of institutional segregation and closed-door opportunities," Sanchez told the Associated Press.

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