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Director Of "Brave" Tells Her Own "Binders Full Of Women" Story
Before Brenda Chapman went on to direct "The Prince of Egypt" and "Brave," she was a CalArts grad looking for a job.At that time, she came face-to-face with the executive at Disney Animation in 1987, who hired her with those magic words every woman wants to hear from a potential employer: "We need a woman. And you're the right price."
Chapman blogged about her hire at her website. She doesn't call it a "binders full of women" story, but the tale reminds us of the internet famous one we heard Mitt Romney tell two debates ago. Romney claimed that when he became governor of Massachusetts and noticed that none of the candidates for his cabinet were female, he asked women's groups to send on "binders full of women" to be considered. (Romney's claim that the idea was his own was challenged by a local altweekly almost immediately after he told the story.)
But back to Chapman. When she was hired, Disney had a female problem: there weren't any women in the story department and other creative positions, and the company was getting a lot flack for it. The hire seems to have been a good move for all parties involved. Chapman got a shot doing what she wanted to do during the Disney Renaissance, and we're assuming Disney got what it wanted since Chapman rose through the ranks to become the head of story on "The Lion King." (She eventually left Disney for DreamWorks and became the first female director of an animated feature for a major Hollywood studio.)
The audience got modernized Disney heroines:
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Looking back, I can see now that my inherent “femaleness” may have had an effect on my work and the work of those around me. I think by just having my presence in the room, and because we had such a mutual respect for each other, the men were more aware of what might be condescending, or to put it bluntly, “sexist” toward women in their work. Or… as I assumed at the time, it could have just been that they were all just really nice guys who had open minds. Who knows? Whatever the reason, we all seemed to work together trying to move the Disney fairy tale into a more contemporary point of view for the heroines - and the audience.
It's nice to hear a story like Chapman's given all the others that we've heard about Hollywood's celluloid ceiling.Related:
Director Says She Didn't Get A Gig Because She's A Woman
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