A 'Wonder Woman' Film School? Aprons Into Capes?

Jane Campion often speaks out at Cannes, where she's still the only woman to have won a Palme d'Or. Twice: once for her short, Peel, and once for The Piano. This year, as reported by Variety, she's spoken out again.

'We’re a long way from really understanding the female experience of being in the world', she said. 'There’s not enough female storytellers out there. We’ve been brainwashed a bit by the patriarchal experience of the whole way of being in the world.'

And now it seems that she and other prominent filmmakers like Andrea Arnold – last seen dancing on the Cannes red carpet (I've been enjoying the Cannes feed on YouTube), and  Maren Ade – the director of Toni Erdmann, and a member of this year’s feature film jury at Cannes, are thinking about founding a ‘wonder woman’ film school. 

'It’s all about turn your aprons into capes,' Campion said. 'If all of us ladies that have done something strong and good got together, I think it would give the issue some focus.'

What a beautiful, generous idea. If it's realised, I'm off: film school at last!

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(Jane Campion also mentions the film school idea towards the end of this interview with Indiewire's Anne Thompson.)




.....

Nicole Kidman's at Cannes too, with *four* projects, including Jane Campion's second series of Top of the Lake.

And she's pledged to work with a woman director every eighteen months, towards the end of this clip....  

Meryl Streep's record at 2014 is the one to beat, one achieved very quietly. Of eleven features she appeared in from 2008, men wrote and directed five, a woman wrote the sixth and women wrote and directed the other five. 

Let's see who will follow Nicole's lead...