By 2010, women between the ages of 40 and 64 will be the largest age demographic in America.
"Invisible Women" is a short documentary written, directed and produced by Susan Davis ~ Steve Mills ~ Susan Valdes
INVISIBLE WOMEN explores the fading image of mature women in the media. It spotlights the diminished careers of actresses who find themselves "pink-slipped" at forty and in danger of losing their eligibility for pension and healthcare. Among those interviewed are Susan Sarandon; Christine Lahti; Larry Gelbart; and Dr. Ken Dychtwald, psychologist and author of AGEWAVE; who discuss plastic surgery, our personality cult-driven society and solutions to ageism in show business.
Who is responsible for what we see in the media: Madison Avenue, the networks, the studios, the consumer--or is it a shared responsibility?
62% of the women in America today are over the age of 40.
Women over 40 influence 80% of the purchasing decisions.
SOME QUOTES...
Susan Sarandon:
“My best work is yet to come.”
Christine Lahti:
“I have never felt better.
I mean truly never felt better."
Deborah Harmon:
“It was like I got "pink-slipped"
and nobody told me.”
This twenty-eight minute documentary challenges the youth-obsessed message the media is sending to our children and the world. It poses the question: Will the baby boomers, the largest, most powerful generation that's ever lived, allow themselves to become invisible on the screen?
GOALS
Our goals for INVISIBLE WOMEN are three-fold. This documentary was funded by a grant from the Screen Actors Guild Foundation and will be used by the Screen Actors Guild to focus awareness on the issue of ageism as it affects thousands of Guild members, in particular women over forty who are the first to be "pink-slipped". It will act as the centerpiece for symposiums, forums and screenings sponsored by industry guild and entertainment organizations like Women in Film, who has already co-hosted two screening in New York and Los Angeles.
Robert Altman, director
“It’s noble, inspiring…very well done.”
Mike Nichols
“ Right on the money!.”
John Kander, composer
“INVISIBLE WOMEN is a sophisticated and much needed documentary about a rarely discussed subject that affects thousands of women in the industry.”
Our second goal is to reach out to our younger generations. INVISIBLE WOMEN is available to university and college departments of Film and Television, Media and Communications, and Women's Studies, film schools, museums etc. to promote educational and artistic awareness among our future filmmakers. It carries the message that there is this massive and growing audience in America that craves stories that reflect their lives.
Lastly, we will continue to seek additional funding to produce this documentary, or an expanded version, for broadcast on PBS or cable.
Source: http://www.invisiblewomen.com/
Ingres' violin by Man Ray
(CBS) For years we've heard actresses bemoan the fact that there were no good roles for women as they got older. Conventional wisdom in Hollywood has been that young is good and old is bad — especially when it came to leading ladies.
This week's Oscars have changed that. Three of the five actresses nominated in the best actress category are older than 50: Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep and Judi Dench.
Bill Newcott, the entertainment editor of AARP the magazine, said he wasn't surprised at all that older women dominated the best actress category because Mirren, Streep and Dench delivered wonderful performances.
"It's a trend we have seen in the pictures we've been doing, a trend we have seen all along where more and more the actresses who are 50 and over are getting these wonderful roles in terrific movies," he told The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen. "There was a time, if you were the young you are the ingénue, teenage you were a friend, and older, grandma."
Streep received her 14th Oscar nomination playing the editor of a fashion magazine in "The Devil Wears Prada," and Newcott said a 22-year-old actress couldn't play that role.
"An actress needs to be accepted in a leading role in a film," he said.
In "Notes on a Scandal," Dench plays a manipulative, repressed and psychotic teacher who becomes obsessed with Cate Blanchette's character. Technically, the producers didn't have to cast someone older, but Newcott said that Dench brings a greater depth to the role.
"This is a woman who has had a lifetime of terrible things happening and we don't know what they are, but she brings to it that lifetime experience unspoken in her face," he said.
Mirren was charged with playing the queen of England, but Newcott said she delivers a great performance even though she said the role was "intimidating and scary."
Older actresses such as Mirren and Dench are being more selective and are refusing to play the stereotypical roles, Newcott said.
"They aren't settling for the supporting role," he said. "They are saying, 'I want the starring role or I won't be in the movie.' "
Read Newcott's column at AARPmagazine.org.
MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Copyright 2009 CBS. All rights reserved.
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/25/earlyshow/main2397493.shtml#ixzz1Nu2N5uRb
Margaret Tyzack as Oenone in Phèdre
by Jean Racine at the NT © Catherine Ashmore
"Margaret Tyzack champions older actresses"
In language that is hardly becoming, Margaret Tyzack, the Olivier award-winning actress, has condemned the ageism that she feels is blighting the career of women in her profession.
By Tim Walker, 12 Mar 2009
The 77-year-old star of West End plays such as Lettice and Lovage and the recent acclaimed production of The Chalk Garden at the Donmar Warehouse, says the types of roles older actresses are offered amount to "a load of cliched old bollocks".
She feels that even the way parts are described – "witch-like," "crone" and "squalid" – is insulting.
"If they were used to describe any other group in society people would be up in arms," she says. "I don't want us to be treated with kid gloves, but a fraction of respect would come in handy."
In what appears to be a reference to Julie Walters's recent television performance as an Alzheimer's victim, she says: "Not everyone is unfortunate enough to have that terrible disease. Let's hear stories about people who are in another category."
She adds that it is "amazing" when a writer comes up with a part for a woman over 70 who has control of both her brain and bladder.
RELATED ARTICLES
John Bercow, 12 Mar 2009
Mandrake reported last month that Imelda Staunton, Harriet Walter and Maxine Peake had signed a petition organised by the actors' union Equity which urged the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 to find better parts for women – and more of them.
Resource: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mandrake/4980543/Margaret-Tyzack-champions-older-actresses.html
