When I read the prompt for this assignment- to remix a piece of media that lacks
adequate representation of some aspect of my identity- my mind immediately traveled to The
Oscars. Undeniably, the awards show is the largest stage in the film industry where all the talent
on screen, employers behind the camera and investors from production companies convene to
celebrate the year’s work and search for new projects to support creatively and financially. It’s
also an immensely culturally significant event, drawing in millions of live viewers globally and
even more online. Considering the importance of the event and the intensity with which the
public examines it, one would think that The Oscars would present an accurate representation of
the film industry. Disappointingly, it truly is not, and women have been dramatically excluded
from non-gendered awards categories every year since The Oscars began. When women aren’t
shown the same respect as their male counterparts on a stage as far-reaching as this, it allows for
a societal reinforcement of the false belief that women are not as good as men and therefore can’t
be trusted with something as financially burdensome as a film. There exists a cycle in the film
industry where women are restricted from working important jobs on set such as director,
cinematographer, editor, composer, etc. because male producers haven’t seen much female
filmmaking nor have they seen widespread critical acclaim of female films, and therefore they
don’t value women’s skills and creativity nearly as much as male filmmakers who have been the
face of Hollywood since its inception. That’s why I tried my best to include many different
women of different backgrounds and different roles in my project- because I wanted to remix
how women are currently included in the industry. The Oscars, being the focal point of
Hollywood, absolutely have the power and the responsibility to break the cycle by nominating
women proportionately to men, but traditional patriarchal hierarchy has prevented them from
doing so, and the film industry remains male-dominated as I enter it.
This issue deeply resonates with my identity as a woman planning on working in the film
industry as a filmmaker, so I wanted to use this project to critique the awards show and advocate
for a wider respect for the ideas and art of women. In my remix, I aim to give women the time
and space to share genuine insights into their work, something they are robbed of in place of
questions about their husbands and their dresses. I also aimed to celebrate the work of a woman
in filmmaking by scoring my video with two songs written and performed by a female film
composer, Mica Levi, originally for the movie Jackie. Looking back at my other works for this
course, I made sure to include in my montage of women sharing their ideas, some powerful
words from Mary Harron who I wrote about in my “critical updates” paper on American Psycho.
Additionally and importantly, although I am white, as an activist and ally, I wanted to highlight
women of color since they have been statistically excluded much more severely than white
women in terms of Oscars nominations and wins.
My project employs Judith Butler’s definition of critique in a few different ways. First,
my critique is dependent on and defined by the cultural object I’m analyzing. In this case, my
cultural objects are several interviews on Oscars red carpets throughout the years, a video of the
moment the first female director, Kathryn Bigelow, won the category for Best Director, and a
series of female filmmakers speaking on their work in various interviews. The format of my
remix is a compilation or a video collage of these clips, so my critique is dependent on my
cultural objects. I add my own words briefly to clarify the message of my remix, but even then,
some of my words contain statistics researched by a USC Inclusion project research team. More
central to my remix, however, is an examination of the systematic hierarchies present in the film
industry that elevate white men and marginalize women. By comparing side by side red carpet
interviews of men and women, I aim to show that while men are given deep, hard-hitting
questions on the intentions and meanings of their films, women are flattered on their dresses, the
real questions are deferred to their husbands, and when women rarely are presented with the
opportunity to share real insight- they are interrupted and taken less seriously than men. This
makes my work a critique because I am responding to a culturally influential media by calling
into question its traditional prejudices, therefore emphasizing a central contradiction in society’s
framework where women make up fifty percent of our nation’s population but are only
represented in seventeen percent of Oscars nominations.
In a world consumed by a constant flow of new media, pure originality is extremely rare
to come by. Remixing is a much more accessible, common and creative way to pursue originality
in our current social landscape. If executed correctly, remixes are original content because they
should be an infusion of the remixer’s identity with source materials in an attempt to celebrate it
and/or critique it. A successful remix will recontextualize source works into a new context that is
influenced by identity and personal experience. If a critique is a resistance to dominant thought
systems by responding to a work that contains problematic hierarchies, then a remix can function
as a critique by relating those hierarchies to an identity you possess and challenging them by
removing them from their original contexts and showing them in a new light. In the case of my
project, I took a source work- The Oscars- whose initial intentions were to entertain the public
and to celebrate an exclusive selection of filmmaking, and I recontextualized it as a critique of
the sexist framework of the awards show, effectively repositioning The Oscars into a new context
that relates to my identity as a woman in film.
Works Cited
“Arrivals at the Academy Awards in 1994.” Youtube, Oscars, 4 Feb. 2016.
“Bradley Cooper Feeling ‘Pretty Grateful’ at 2019 Oscars | E! Red Carpet & Award Shows.” Youtube, E! Insider, 24 Feb. 2019.
“Cate Blanchett Calls Out E!’s Glam Cam E! Online.” Youtube, Our JoyLAND, 22 Jan. 2014.
“Frances McDormand Wins Best Actress.” Youtube, Oscars, 17 Apr. 2018.
“Greta Gerwig on ‘Lady Bird.’” Youtube, CBS Sunday Morning, 7 Jan. 2018.
“Halle Berry & Gina Prince-Bythewood Discuss Filmmaking and Storytelling | Vanity Fair.” Youtube, Vanity Fair, 1 Dec. 2022.
“Is Scarlett Johansson an Adrenaline Junkie? | E! Red Carpet & Award Shows.” Youtube, E! Insider, 27 Feb. 2017.
“Kathryn Bigelow Wins Best Directing | 82nd Oscars (2010).” Youtube, Oscars, 10 Mar. 2010.
Levi, Mica. The End. 2 December 2016. Youtube, Milan Records USA.
Levi, Mica. Vanity. 2 December 2016. Youtube, Milan Records USA.
“Live from the Oscars 2018: Red Carpet Interviews with Hollywood Stars and Filmmakers.” Youtube, Washington Post, 4 Mar. 2018.
“Mira Nair Interview on ‘Monsoon Wedding’ (2002).” Youtube, Manufacturing Intellect, 20 Feb. 2017.
“Oscars 2013 Red Carpet Arrival Live Full Version.” Youtube, ABC, MrSagitarius13, 25 Feb. 2013.
“Oscars 2023: MUST-SEE Red Carpet Moments | E! News.” Youtube, E! News, 13 Mar. 2023.
“Oscars Red Carpet 2014.” Youtube, ABC, Ajay Pulivarthi, 4 Mar. 2014.
“Raw: Jennifer Lawrence Backstage after 2013 Oscar Win.” Youtube, CNN, 25 Feb. 2013.
“Red Carpet Arrivals: 1993 Oscars.” Youtube, Oscars, 4 Feb. 2016.
“Variety’s Directors Roundtable – TV 2018.” Youtube, Variety, 15 June 2015.
“Women nominees and winners across 95 years at the Academy Awards.” Inclusion List, USC Annenberg, 2023.
“‘Mudbound’s’ Rachel Morrison on Shooting Her ‘Dream Period’ Piece | Close Up With THR.” Youtube, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Jan. 2018.
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