Speaking with “Manchester by the Sea” producer Kimberly Steward, both women agreed that in order for the system to change, women have to support other women. It’s what brought the two together in the first place. Washington remembered reading a profile of Steward, who mentioned Washington as a woman she admired in the business.
Washington has, in her stead as a producer of things like the HBO movie “Confirmation,” has made it a priority to hire other women, people of color and people of the LGBTQ community to work on their sets.
“(It’s) making sure people in society who we’ve labeled as other have a seat at the table,” she said.
Earlier in the event, Caroline Libresco, who heads up Women at Sundance, said they’d found the main obstacles to women getting jobs behind the camera were “access to and knowledge of financing” and “male dominated networks.”
Steward said that producers have to be willing to take more risks, too, while Washington chimed in that it’s not a risk to make movies for and about women and people of color.
“Why do we allow this myth of risk to remain?” Washington asked. “And if it doesn’t work, who cares? So many movies don’t work.”
___Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr