Female directors still under-represented in film industry

With the Whistler Film Festival opening today, a film educator is raising concerns about gender disparity in the film industry.

Carol Whiteman is the producer of Women In the Director's Chair, a mentorship program that teaches female directors how to better develop their feature filmand television series projects.

"Because that's where the biggest gap is. It's in those higher-budget areas where women directors are lacking most," Whiteman told The Early Edition's Rick Cluff.

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So why is there such a gap?

"It's probably generational. There's a long-standing bias against women in our film industry, some would say it's unconscious at this point times haven't really changed."

In fact, since the first Academy Awards in 1929, only one woman has ever won for best director: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2010.

Whiteman says that having women directors is important because women account for 51 per cent of the population and have different experiences than men. She says it's important to reflect those experiences in film.

Whiteman's Women In the Director's Chair is launching a new four-month intensive program for women directors in conjunction with the Whistler Film Festival.

The program is open to established female directors who are working on television series, feature films and web series.

To hear the full story, click the audio labelled:Why are there still so few female directors?