Ep. 25: The Perks and Pains of Being a Hollywood Outlier

Director Stella Meghie has had quite a year. In 2016 her debut film ‘Jean of the Joneses’ premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival to rave reviews, and just over twelve months later she had her first big financial hit with with the studio film ‘Everything, Everything’. It’s an impressive trajectory for any young director, but when you consider how grossly underrepresented black women filmmakers are in Hollywood, Stella’s ascent seems even more significant. In fact, Stella is the only black woman with a wide-release movie in 2017, a shocking stat that speaks volumes about Hollywood’s diversity problem. Stella sits down with Rob and Geoff to discuss how she went from indie darling to studio director in just over a year (3:25), the challenges that come working within the studio system (5:30), and why, despite her recent mainstream success, she’s excited to go back to telling more personal stories (6:45). She also explains why women filmmakers have more trouble making the leap to studio films than their male peers (12:00), the consequences of diverse audience members not seeing themselves represented onscreen (17:25) and why she’s not happy with the distinction of being the only black woman with a wide release film in 2017 (18:30). Stella is currently an ambassador for TIFF’s Share Her Journey campaign, a five year initiative prioritizing gender parity within the film industry. To find out more about the campaign, please visit: http://www.tiff.net/shareherjourney/