Who should be allowed to make movies?
The problem with trying to be a director is that, if you’re not well-off and well-connected, you’re going to struggle…and struggle quite a lot.
The statistics are depressing. In a 2024 study, it was reported that only 8% of creatives in the film and TV industries are working-class, meaning that the voices of middle and upper-class artists are distinctively elevated above the rest, despite the fact that almost half of the UK alone identifies as working-class. So, what we get here is a clearly uneven divide between those making art and the average person consuming it.
Becoming a filmmaker doesn’t even seem like an option to the average working-class creative, and the chances look even more unlikely when you see who is getting to make films. We’ve all heard the name Emerald Fennell being both praised and criticised over the past few years, first with Saltburn and then Wuthering Heights. It’s insane, really, that someone as strikingly well-off as Fennell was allowed to make an adaptation of one of the most important stories in English literature, one that deals so heavily with themes of class.
The relationships between every character in Wuthering Heights are affected by class, othering, and hierarchy, and for Fennell to take this and turn her story into nothing more than an erotically-charged romance is indicative of her out-of-touch, privileged position. Privately educated and born with a silver spoon in her mouth, this spills into her work, like the class disaster that was Saltburn. When this becomes an issue, it makes you wonder if certain people should be allowed to make certain films.
I know, you can’t police art. You can’t tell people what to make and what not to make. But the fact that out of everyone, Fennell was given the green light to turn Emily Brontë’s tale of abuse into a BDSM cringe-fest is just reflective of a landscape where those with more hierarchical status will always get to tell – and probably ruin – stories that they know little about. Of course, you can write about a class separate from the one you identify with, but Hollywood is quickly drowning out the perspectives of those who are already marginalised, all because some privately-educated creatives who have never struggled to get into the industry are given every opportunity.
Of course, there are working-class filmmakers out there who are bringing authentic stories to the screen, like Luna Carmoon, whose film Hoard feels like a genuinely raw and meaningful exploration of class and trauma. It’s just a shame that it’s so hard to find examples like this compared to how easy it is to find middle and upper-class creatives popping out movies without any issue of funding.
And what about the filmmakers who seem to continuously land jobs despite the fact that they’ve got a string of allegations – or convictions – against them? Now, I’m not saying Fennell is anywhere near as bad as this. Nowhere near. But when it comes to the people who Hollywood allows to make movies compared to those who really have to fight – essentially anyone who isn’t already rich and white, and most likely a man – it’s just further, ultimate proof that the voices of anyone further down the hierarchical ladder are not invited to the party. If you’re rich, it doesn’t matter what you’ve done.
Have you married your adoptive daughter? No problem! Have you served in prison for being a paedophile? Well, Francis Ford Coppola might encourage you to channel this pain into art and fund your film! Seriously, it’s insane just how much male filmmakers have gotten away with over the years, and after everything, they still wind up with a string of jobs lined up.
You don’t even have to have committed a crime – you could simply act in a way that would usually get you fired from a job. But in Hollywood, anything goes. If you’re a female actor, though, don’t get too demanding, or you’ll be labelled a diva – a label the most diva-ish male filmmakers will never be weighed down by. Look at Ridley Scott, he has recently been accused of being incredibly lazy, yet he is already gearing up to make another film following Gladiator II. But if you were that lazy at your minimum wage job, you’d be laid off quicker than Scott could say ‘You can’t ever be mad at me, I made Alien’.
The grim reality is that we can’t really stop anyone from making the movies they want to make, it’s just depressing when that reality is defined by extremely privileged people who leave little room for genuine diversity and cinematic representation. That 8% statistic is an absolute travesty, and the fact that only 16% of the top 250 grossing films of 2024 were directed by women, while just 9% came from Black filmmakers, adds further layers to this unequal divide.
So, while we can’t stop people from making movies – that wouldn’t be very democratic – it’s just important to consider that divide when consuming films. Perhaps then we can make more of a conscious shift towards a better direction.
