[soft music]
KARYN KUSAMA: Hollywood, it's an industry powered on fantasy.
It's the collective fantasies of the audience.
It's the collective fantasies of the filmmakers.
All of us are in this...
unconscious soup
in which we are attempting to claim
our piece of a dream.
This is so much a business
built on who has the power
to enact...
and execute on that collective fantasy.
And so what I would say, the beast of Hollywood
and the thing that it's reckoning with at this very moment
is, what is our relationship to power?
And does power have anything to do
with the creative impulse?
[music]
REBECCA KEEGAN: Hollywood on-screen is all about
sex and glamor and excitement,
but the hard reality is,
it's a multi-billion dollar business.
And, like any big business,
it has its own unique power structure.
The stakes are so high
because movies cost hundreds of millions of dollars,
and they're seen by millions of people all over the world.
- I grew up in a different country, and my views of the world
were shaped by Hollywood.
With the amount of content we are all consuming,
how we view the world is absolutely dictated by Hollywood.
For us to pretend otherwise is ridiculous and nïve.
FREIDA PINTO: The whole world looks up to Hollywood, and it's
a very shiny little piece of... a dream.
[laughing] And if you get it, wow.
Pretty much from my first film,
I was starting at the highest high you can think of.
I compare that entire experience to the "Alice in Wonderland" effect.
Everything is big and large and.. deep and wide
and colorful and scary,
and... it's all happening at the same time.
So, the feeling was truly like,
"I'm in a fairy tale land."
[chuckling] That's what it is.
MATTHEW BELLONI: The dynamic of sex in Hollywood
plays out in dollars and cents.
There, for decades, has been an expectation
that certain types of roles,
from women, are more likely to lead to box office.
Everything from the definition of, you know,
the bombshell, the femme fatale,
You know, all of these types of monikers
lead to the presumption
that the woman in the movie is going to be sexy.
- We're used to women being objectified on-screen.
And in fact, we get trained to think that that is quality.
That the way these... mostly male directors
shoot women is the best way to shoot women.
- Hollywood has played a big part
in shaping our views on sex and sexuality.
If it is being created, it's gotta be
some sort of reflection on society.
And if it is a lens that looks at women
that is intrusive and voyeuristic,
then it's because that's how society has
seen the women in the world as.
MATTHEW: Sex is Hollywood's main currency
in the sense that it powers
a lot of the images we see,
a lot of the relationships that are depicted,
and who is allowed to be in these movies.
TRACEY GOESSEL: There are women and men in the industry
who achieve their fame,
their power, their wealth,
through the sexuality
of their bodies and their being.
KIERSEY CLEMONS: I found strength in trying to do
the "sex sells" thing.
I did what everyone was telling me to do,
but the people that wanna groom you and get you to that place,
they don't let it go easily.
MATTHEW: Abuses of power and sex are baked into the industry.
From the very beginning, there was this group of men,
and they were all men, who were making decisions
about who got to be a star and who didn't get to be a star.
And when you have those kinds of situations,
it breeds abuses of power.
RACHAEL HOROVITZ: One of the ways that my whole career flourished--
and please don't take this the wrong way--
but being quote-unquote "attractive"
was a big factor.
And that is just less true for men.
Men can look like anything,
and, if they're liked,
they do well.
For women, 99% of being liked
is being physically appealing
and not threatening.
MATTHEW: A lot of people have been mistreated by Hollywood.
There is a long, long history of people being mistreated.
I think, as a category of men,
I think gay men have really been mistreated.
For women, obviously, it's much worse.
- The new headline tonight, involving one of the most
powerful figures in Hollywood.
Several allegations of sexual harassment
against movie producer Harvey Weinstein.
REPORTER: After years of denial
and claims that the encounter was consensual,
Bill Cosby for the first time faces criminal charges.
- One of television's most powerful executives has resigned.
CBS chairman and CEO Les Moonves
has been forced to step down
after more allegations of sexual misconduct.
KIERSEY: The way that #MeToo happened
and the way that women are...
earning respect right now in the industry
is through...
these men being afraid.
They didn't do it because they made the choice to,
'cause they thought we deserve respect.
They're doing it 'cause they're afraid that we're gonna tweet about them.
- There's a boys' club that is safe and secure,
and they take care of each other,
and I'm actually not saying that that's not a nice thing.
That's a very nice way to feel.
There is not a girls' club...
that makes you feel anything other than shatter-able,
fragile, breakable.
MAHA DAKHIL JACKSON: What we want is... pretty basic.
And we don't have what's pretty basic,
which is... a fair shot
at everything, all the time.
That's what we want.
NISHA GANATRA: There's an awareness now
of how discriminated female directors have been.
I, and a lot of other women I know,
had this moment where we thought, "Oh, it's not just me."
I thought I wasn't able to break in,
and I thought I wasn't doing anything right.
And it turned out the cards were stacked against me.
NINA MENKES: You didn't wanna talk about the fact
that you were discriminated against
'cause you thought that it made you look weak, you know?
Or, "Maybe I didn't work hard enough."
DIANA WILLIAMS: I don't like to berate the past.
The past is done, it's happened.
We have... an opportunity now to kind of...
to change our future.
RACHAEL: We are at a moment right now
where the old power structures
are being re-examined.
Whether change is really going to happen or not,
I think, is still to be seen.
- It's not to share these negative stories.
To say, well, just, "Woe is me."
It's not, it's: "Look at this boat we've all been in
just because it's been a conditioning."
It's amazing, isn't it?
2020? It's just now starting?
[music]