Claudia had the opportunity to have a candid conversation with filmmaker Maria Giese at the 2018 Houston Cinema Arts Festival about the film THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING. Maria, a writer, director, and advocate, instigated the biggest industry-wide Federal investigation for women directors in Hollywood history. Maria and Claudia dive into her personal journey as a female filmmaker, how this film came to be, and what she hopes the film will help achieve.
Directed by Tom Donahue and produced in collaboration with actress and advocate Geena Davis, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING is a revealing glimpse into the sexism permeating Hollywood and the women in film who are fighting to change the landscape.
Watch the interview below:
About Maria Giese: Writer. Director. Advocate.
Maria Giese wrote and directed the 1996 feature film When Saturday Comes starring Sean Bean and Pete Postlethwaite, and the award-winning digital feature film Hunger based on the novel by Nobel Prize-winner Knut Hamsun. She has also directed two Golden Cine Eagle-winning short films, and has written three screenplays that have been produced into feature films. She is a member of the Directors Guild of America, Film Fatales, and the Alliance of Women Directors, and is founding chair of the annual Women’s Media Summit.
In 2015 after four years of activism in the Directors Guild of America, Giese became the person who instigated the biggest industry-wide Federal investigation for women directors in Hollywood history. In The New York Times, Manohla Dargis referred to her work as “a veritable crusade.” She is now a subject in several feature-length documentaries including “This Changes Everything”, her new TEDx talk, “The Battle For Female Voices in Entertainment Media,” and her upcoming book,“Troublemaker,” describe her work getting the ACLU and EEOC to investigate this issue— the ramifications of which are resonating globally.
Giese holds a BA from Wellesley College and a Master’s degree from UCLA’s Graduate School of Theatre, Film and Television. In 2016 she was awarded the prestigious EQUITY AWARD from Stanford University and her articles have appeared in Ms. Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Elle, IndieWIRE, and Film Inquiry. Giese herself has appeared on CNN Global, BBC International, ABC Live, Sky TV UK Live, Bloomberg TV, and NPR. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Forbes, Fortune, Cosmopolitan, LA Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, The Guardian, among others internationally.
Visit Maria’s website to learn more about her projects and work.