Here's a list of my at-the-time favorite filmmakers that I compiled from memory in 2003 (the year I completed my first short film), when I was 17 years old: (A day after posting on Facebook, a good friend of mine commented on the lack of women filmmakers on the list. Here's my response:
"The lack of women filmmakers (or filmmakers of color, for the most part) on this list represent a sore and regrettable blind spot I had as an adolescent. But it duly reflects an industry whose greatest contributors have historically skewed male and white, no doubt due to unjust personal attitudes and institutional barriers.
"Thankfully, as I've grown in social consciousness over the years, so has my realization of this problematic reality. As it is, I often balk at the gender and racial composition of said ranks of esteemed filmmakers, many responsible for films I greatly admire. But in the face of such overwhelming homogeneity, I am compelled to practice and imbue this hallowed artform with a strong sense of counteraction and resistance to the status quo, past and prevailing. It's the most I can do.")
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