"Celluloid Ceilings"
From the opening title card, which runs a BBFC-esque classification that assures audiences of all viewing ages are welcome, it’s clear that the next ninety seconds of Rocking Horse Pictures’ Women In Film is to be delivered atop a reverent foundation of cinema homage. Like their award-winning 2023 film The Women Who Made Us, this new uncommissioned piece continues a streak of bold, purpose-driven storytelling made “just because”. Here we have a creative who has something they’d like to say for themselves, in between the bread-and-butter task of saying things for others. Visual fidgetry like this, if you haven’t read anything film history related (Bordwell & Thompson, anyone?), is a consistent sign of excellence.
Created to mark International Women’s Day 2024, this film celebrates the talent, creativity and resilience of women working in the film industry - while mournfully lamenting their absence behind the camera. Built on research from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and The Celluloid Ceiling, WIF blends data with design-led craft. Each cut comes as another inferred nod to the aesthetic language of colossal female directorship, from Ava DuVernay to Sofia Coppola, Greta Gerwig to Chloé Zhao. It’s stylish and curated, with a filmic texture that rewards the geekier among us who enjoy spotting the references. As a happily unrecovered film geek, I loved these - thanks for the ‘spot the ball’ game RHP.
But the truth is that, even out with the time constraints here, we’ve always exhausted these types of lists far too quickly. Make no mistake, Women In Film might use poppy and cinematic postcard stylings to carry a catchy tune, but this Clarion Gold-winning film is anything but blithe. In fact - intentionally or not - Rocking Horse Pictures have taken a leaf from a familiar Film Studies seminar playbook, a question that I myself have used with students many a time to generate a healthy back-and-forth:
“What does a story look like without a principal character?”
The notion that missing someone causes a heavy heart to pine is undeniably true, but it is no daydream to spend time reflecting on those who never received ‘the nod’ that would have gotten them off the proverbial bench, had fate only looked their way. But that’s the point, fate plays little part in a closed system, and the unreal statistics we’re shown are what seem like the real fantasy. Remember, many sit on that bench still.
Released across LinkedIn and Instagram, the campaign encouraged viewers to identify the directors referenced and to reflect on their own viewing choices. See? Generating conversation…
A closing list of recommended films by female filmmakers serves as both a resource and a call to action.
Short but impactful, Women in Film is a reminder that representation matters. It always matters. And so we’re left to chew on another award-winning example of how Rocking Horse, even outside client briefs, like to turn an emotive song for us just because they know how. Comms is a hurry to get the message out, for sure. But for a minute or so at least, you’ll be jumping fences in a Rocking Horse race.
