This Changes Everything

Tom Donahue's 2019 documentary examines the proportion of women in directing and decision-making roles in Hollywood. Its starting point is a number: the share of women directing studio productions has been very low for decades and has at times fallen. The film explains the reasons through the agency system, insurance conditions, hiring habits and which films are counted as risky. Meryl Streep, Geena Davis, Cate Blanchett and many directors describe their own experience. Its most concrete section covers the research measuring representation in children's programming and how that data was used in the industry. The account is orderly and evidence-based, though the closing arrives somewhere too optimistic. Who it's for: viewers curious about how the film industry works. Who it's not for: anyone expecting a study of the films themselves; the documentary is about conditions of production.