The Ottery
“If an otter can’t have fun doing something, it just simply won’t do it.”

AFI’s New 100 Greatest Films List: UPDATE

June 21st, 2007

Via LookingCloser.org, here’s a response to the AFI list pointing out the lamentable lack of women directors (as in, none on the Top 100 list, and only 4 among the list of 400 nominated films). How many of the films have you seen on the counter-list of the Top 100 American Films Directed by Women? I got some catchin’ up to do, I admit.

I’m guessing there’s also a notable absence of films directed by African Americans, Asian Americans, or Latinos.

In looking over the two AFI lists again, I realized that one of the differences between the old one and the new one was the removal of The Birth of a Nation. Interesting. I’m not sure I’d be comfortable voting for The Birth of a Nation myself, as it was a piece of racist propaganda. But it sure was influential and culturally significant, which are two of the AFI’s criteria. There seems to be a greater shift towards taking a film’s message into account–which makes it all the more ironic that there are so few female directors or directors of color on the list.

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