Barbara Ann O’ Leary
Sharing Films by Women
~ by Lee Edgren
After years near New York City, Barbara Ann O’ Leary now lives deep in the hills of Brown County. From this hilly, woodsy, sparsely populated area, she is busily working to create a global change in awareness. Working pretty much alone, but electronically connected to people around the world, and to databases and archives, she has created both an international directory of films by women, and a way for people to gather to see them.
Her work grew out of a life-long love of film and her own passionate viewing habits. If you Google-search“ Directed by Women,” you will access O’ Leary’ s Twitter feed“ Inviting the world to fall madly in love with films # DirectedbyWomen! I share what I’ m watching here: < directedbywomen. tumblr. com >.” Each September, O’ Leary calls people to participate in“ Directed by Women: Worldwide Film Viewing Party.”
“ One thing I want to change is perception,” O’ Leary states. She points out that most of us see films directed by men, produced in studios headed by men. There’ s a myth that most of us have heard— there just aren’ t many films directed by women. O’ Leary says there is actually a great abundance of films directed by women. Her directory includes more than 10,800 women directors. The first film by a woman was made in 1896. Women have been making films ever since.
Having a directory, while necessary and valuable, doesn’ t get the work of women directors shown. And O’ Leary held the need for a next step in mind. One day, in April, 2014, she had a vision of the“ Worldwide Film Viewing Party.” And from her vision emerged her month-long September viewing event.
It’ s a little hard to grasp at first. O’ Leary has a very brief outline that provides some ground rules, but the viewing events are otherwise totally unscripted and left for people to spontaneously organize as they like. Rules say:“ Celebrate women directors( film, TV video, whatever); respect intellectual property rights: be bold and celebratory.” The exact form is up to each organizer to explore.
The vision comes to life when she describes what people have actually done during the first three years.“ A film viewing party that started in a backroom of an Irish pub on New York’ s Upper East Side expanded this year to become bi-coastal, with matching screenings in New York City and San Francisco.”
Every year, friends in Portland Maine have done an outdoor screening.“ The first year they showed films on the outside of a bike shop. Those of us who didn’ t get to go to Maine got to see pictures and share information about it.“
In the first year, directors in a Spanish filmmaking collective heard about it.“ It was amazing,” says O’ Leary. # DirectedbyWomenSpain has held multi-city, multi-day events each year. In 2017, the viewing parties were held in Madrid, Mallorca, and Seville.”
Every year, the viewing party has grown. She is thinking ahead to 2018. The vision this time is of expanding to places around the world where the energy to organize and watch films arises.
She saw it happen in Bloomington, Indiana last year. She is thinking it just might happen in Brown County next year.“ It could be a really fun way to attract people in September. You could show films in galleries, lodges, bars, living rooms. We have a lot of places where people can gather.”
It’ s not too soon to begin planning film-viewing parties for next September. You can create a viewing party with a group of friends gathered in a living room. Or you can go all out and arrange viewing parties in movie theaters and other public places. Some people have organized online parties.
O’ Leary is intent on inviting more people to explore and discover film. She is always on the lookout for women filmmakers“ I would
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56 Our Brown County • Nov./ Dec. 2017