Lorelei

You probably know that making movies (and television and games and internet comedy) has been largely a white, male enterprise. Today we pay attention to the percentage of others behind and in front of the camera, and guess what? Even composing music for media is male-dominated.

TBH, we never thought about this until director Christina Burchard told us about the Hollywood Chamber Orchestra playing a concert exclusively featuring the works of women composers in a concert at the historic Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles.

“The Future Is Female” included works by the women who composed for the movie Coco (over $800 million at the box office), the Oscar-nominated Mudbound, and emerging composer Jessica Weiss, who performed the vocals for her composition “Sailing at the Bottom of the Sea.” Weiss wrote the song for the film Lorelei, featuring specially-commissioned choreography by Joffrey Ballet Master Nicholas Blanc starring principal dancers Jeraldine Mendoza and Dylan Gutierrez.

“This was the world premiere, and the audience loved it,” Director Burchard told us happily.

What part did our AWB grant play? We helped pay for the filming of the dance, which was projected on a screen above the orchestra during the performance. Burchard expects the finished film to play the festival circuit. And everyone connected with “The Future Is Female” expects directors and producers to expand their thinking when it comes to hiring the next composer. Or the next anything.

Follow along with all of the great people and organizations involved with this event: Christina Burchard (website, Instagram), Jessica Weiss (website, Instagram), TFIF (Instagram), The Alliance of Women Film Composers (co-sponsor of TFIF: website, Facebook, Twitter).