Billy LAx has asked me… yes me… to give a young female perspective on diversity in the Hollywood Film Industry. CC and Maxx, my two fellow Junior Espresso editors are great guys and when it comes to diversity, progressive as hell! So is billy! Zalak is too and is just as female qualified as I am, but since she is busy with her Espresso website design and development duties, I have the honor of opening on my favorite… then again not so favorite, subject. I told them to watch out, I will not pull any punches as my career suffers from male dominance too. Zalak said “you go girl” and billy faked the scared look as it was his idea.

So, I will start out by giving my appreciation to Dr Ana-Christina Ramón and Dr Darnell Hunt, both professors and researchers at UCLA for not only a thorough and accurate conclusion of a well-researched document but also through their initiative, a benefit for many people suffering from an unjust industry. UCLA has cleared showed itself as a progressive leader for minority and women business issues in Hollywood.

Well, we have good news and bad news from the 2020 UCLA diversity report. Hollywood has made significant advances nearly across the board in diversity, both for women and people of color. The statics have a very hopeful trend to get our long waited for fair treatment to our white male counterparts. However, the downside is we are still way behind in opportunity, especially when it comes to Hollywood business executives.

The 2020 report only analyzed above-the-line employment opportunities, leaving no analysis of the ‘foot soldiers’ who do all the thankless work. It is my opinion that since they are not of great focus, or have any specialized attention paid to them, their trend in fair treatment probably is nearly non-existent. But that is not backed by any data as that is beyond the scope of this opinion’s objective. However, this opinion is not completely void of evidence, since the place of greatest positive change is… you guessed it… leading minority actor improvement, the most visible film role of all. The industry is obviously trying to put a nice face on the ugly mess. However, the nice face is only so nice, as lead roles for women slightly went down. That is a big drop from what I call satisfactory since I expect it to improve each year.

But already this year, in 2020, we have a first-time feature director, Kitty Green, who directed the documentary “Ukraine is not a Brothel,” is making a huge splash with “The Assistant” at Film Markets and Film Markets as one of the top Indies this year. “The Assistant” is about the assistant of a deviant Hollywood executive exposing his corruptness. The movie does not name the executive, but Green created it in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, perfectly implying that it is Weinstein as the Executive. Green clearly has a long and illustrious future as a filmmaker exposing social ills.