Vimeo Announces "Share the Screen" Intiative to Support Female Filmakers

Female filmmakers have been getting a pretty short end of the cinematic stick for the last well - entire history of cinema. Variety recently reported that of the 250 top films of 2015, only 9% were directed by women - the same statistic from 1998. So what's to be done about a seemingly unshatterable glass ceiling? Well, video streaming service Vimeo is taking a stand and starting the "Share the Screen" Initiative, which, according to this blog post from Director of Production Andrea Allen, vows to "foster equality by investing in female-led programming, educational workshops, meetups, interviews, and more that spotlight and support female voices in the Vimeo community."

"Gender inequality in filmmaking isn’t simply a woman’s problem: it’s everyone’s problem," Andrea writes, "When diverse voices are given equal consideration and weight, more informed artistic decisions are made, better stories are told — and it’s also the right thing to do as human beings." Hear, hear!

As TechCrunch details, "Share the Screen" launched at the Sundance Film Festival, and will be a part of the Women at Sundance program, which seeks to include female filmmakers, if not equally yet, much more in the forefront than Hollywood does. 25% of Sundance directors for the past 13 years have been female, and they continue to be a positive force for change. Vimeo will help fund and promote at least five female-driven projects in 2016, starting with Darby Forever, a short film written by and starring Saturday Night Live's Aidy Bryant and co-starring Natasha Lyonne and Retta. You can check out the trailer here:

You can follow "Share the Screen" updates on Vimeo's blog and pre-order Darby Forever now for $2.99. Andrea's post also encourages those who want to be involved to use the hashtag #ShareTheScreen and #behindthevid so your work can be seen and female filmmakers' work can be followed accessibly on social media. You can also kick-start your experience by checking out Vimeo's "Female-Directed, Vimeo-Approved" section here. Thank you, Team Vimeo, for taking a substantial step towards change in this industry. We can't wait to keep up with the amazing work of these featured female filmmakers!