“A report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film showed that of the top 250 films at the domestic box office in 2018, 94 percent were scored by men,” writes Tim Greiving in Thursday’s (1/10) New York Times. “ ‘The numbers are bleak, but the landscape isn’t,’ said Laura Karpman, a veteran film composer (‘Paris Can Wait’) and a governor in the music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. ‘People are reaching out in a way that I’ve never seen it my whole career.’ Karpman was instrumental in expanding the diversity of her branch’s membership, which now includes the Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina…. Tamar-kali [who scored ‘Mudbound] is one of several new voices in a persistently white male milieu…. Mica Levi … was nominated for an Oscar for ‘Jackie.’ … The history of women scoring films [includes] Germaine Tailleferre [who] co-scored a travelogue in 1926…. Shirley Walker was a pianist who helped Carmine Coppola realize his score for ‘Apocalypse Now.’… There are also new resources… The Alliance for Women Film Composers … founded in 2014 … has close to 400 members.”
Posted January 15, 2019
