A Surefire Way To Increase Screen Time For Female Characters

Here's one surefire way to increase screen time for female characters in film and television:

Before casting, creative teams should go through their scripts and simply change some of the male characters to female. 

Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning actress Geena Davis offered this solution during a Nov. 5 panel discussion on the status of women in film during the 2017 American Film Market. The panel also featured filmmaker Jen McGowan ("Kelly & Cal") and producers Catherine Hand and Jim Whitaker (co-producers of the forthcoming movie "A Wrinkle In Time" directed by Ava DuVernay and starring Oprah Winfrey).

Changing a male character to female has been done before to great success. Whitaker shared that the lead character in the 2005 movie "Flightplan," which he produced, was originally written as a man. But when Oscar winner Jodie Foster expressed an interest in the project, Whitaker and others backing the movie gladly changed the protagonist to a woman. They even kept the character's masculine-sounding name "Kyle Pratt" at Foster's suggestion.

"Flightplan" went on to earn more than $100 million at the worldwide box office, proving that movies with female leads can be blockbusters.

In addition to the success of female-led movies like "Flightplan," much of the conversation at the panel discussion centered on the pioneering research conducted by the Geena Davis Institute for Gender In Media. Davis shared that the institute has found that despite gains in recent years, the problem of fewer roles for female characters persists in everything from children's programming to grown-up action movies.

Not only do women get less screen time and fewer lines of dialogue, Davis said, but when female characters are onscreen, editors tend to cut away to the reaction of male characters rather than focusing on the women talking.

This issue is of particular interest to me, since I directed the forthcoming documentary "Lady Wrestler: The Amazing, Untold Story of African-American Women in the Ring," which portrays a little-known chapter in women's history.

The pervasive problem of inequity in Hollywood unfortunately doesn't seem to going away, but it's good to know that people like Davis, Whitaker and the other panelists are working to bring about parity.

This is the first in a series of blog posts about my experiences at the 2017 American Film Market. The annual conference brings together filmmakers and film buffs from all over the world to sunny Santa Monica, Calif.

To view the video version of this blog post, click here.