Kathryn Bigelow and the Hurt Locker

Name five female directors.

Not an easy task. Nevertheless, Kathryn Bigelow will become a well known female director this year because of her film THE HURT LOCKER. She has been a highly respected independent film director for a number of years but has made few films as the process of making an indy film where you have to arrange financing is a long process. Her films are not what studios would expect from a female director and so she ensures that she has control over the making of her films. Bigelow's passion is evident in this quote of hers: "If there's specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can't change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies. It's irrelevant who or what directed a movie, the important thing is that you either respond to it or you don't. There should be more women directing; I think there's just not the awareness that it's really possible. It is."

THE HURT LOCKER (its title implies a place of ultimate pain) won four awards at the 2008 Venice Film Festival and received a 10 minute standing ovation at its conclusion. It was written by free-lance journalist turned screenwriter Mark Boal who was embedded in a Bomb squad in Iraq. There, he accumulated the material to tell this action-filled gripping tale of three men finishing off their stint in a U.S. Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit in Iraq. It was one of the top films at the Toronto International Film Festival and after a very positive worldwide festival run will open, hopefully fairly wide, in July.

Bigelow was adamant that it had to be filmed in the Middle East with local actors rather than in an American desert. Although well known actors like Guy Pearce and Rafe Fiennes are in the film, the three main male roles are played by lesser known but excellent actors: Jeremy Renner (Dahmer), Anthony Mackie (Half Nelson), Brian Geraghty (Jarhead).

Here's an excellent audio interview with film critic James Rocchi and a good text interview at AV Club and a video interview at the Dallas Film Festival.

Visit the official site and click on video to see the trailer.

With the increase to 10 of the number of Best Picture Oscar Nominations, my guess is that this will easily receive one of those nominations. With ratings of 90+ on both Metacritic.com and Rottentomatoes.com it will be one of this year's highest rated films.

Julian D.