Women have always been an instrumental part of the film industry, yet there is still a shameful lack of women in key roles behind the camera, including cinematographer. But while there may be too few female Directors of Photography, as this new video essay from Luisa Liz shows, the ones who are working are producing innovative and diverse images. The essay symbolically opens with shot from “Far From The Madding Crowd,” showing the camera forcing its way through a room crowded with men to Carey Mulligan, the one woman standing apart inside. The video proceeds in an eclectic sampling of the last 20 years of cinema showcasing a wide variety of genres, from comedies like “Walk Hard,” horror movies like “Sinister,” and auteur indies like “Coffee And Cigarettes.”
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If there is one type of movie missing, it’s the industry’s most visible blockbusters. This list doesn’t have a superhero in sight, and the closest thing to a tentpole film is Baz Luhrmann’s would-be epic “Australia.” Some highlights include the eerie motion-capture scenes from “Holy Motors,” ominous strobe effects through blackness in “The Neon Demon,” and a dash through a rapidly depopulating Grand Central Station in “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind.” The DPs featured here include Mandy Walker (“Australia,” “Tracks,” and more recently, “Hidden Figures”), Maryse Alberti (“The Wrestler,” “Velvet Goldmine”), and Ellen Kuras (“Eternal Sunshine Of the Spotless Mind,” “Be Kind Rewind,” and “Blow”).