Female directors becoming rarer

Their representation is down. But a new mentorship program hopes to change that.

- BY SAMANTHA MASUNAGA

Times photo illustration; photographs by RICHARD SHOTWELL Invision/Associated Press; MARK VON HOLDEN / Invision/Associated Press; Getty Images

Six years ago, Ally Pankiw got her first big TV breakthrough: She directed the first season of the Netflix comedy-drama "Feel Good."

But getting there was a slog. She recalls being told repeatedly that she couldn't land such jobs without first having directing experience in TV, a catch-22 situation shared by many women and people of color trying to break into the business.

Frustrated by that common refrain and motivated to push back against Hollywood’s larger diversity problem, Pankiw decided to take action.

She started to bring mentees to her sets, first paying them on commercial shoots from her own rate, then eventually asking film and TV productions to pay them as part of the budget.

The idea was for those aspiring directors to shadow her on set and get that firsthand knowledge about an industry that is so often out of reach.

Pankiw’s individual efforts have now grown into Breadcrumbs, a mentorship program she formally launched late last year that helps up-and-coming women and nonbinary directors get access to paid, credited shadowing opportunities on film, TV and commercial sets.

So far, she said, about 25 directors and production companies have signed a pledge to commit to these paid mentorship opportunities, including “Freakier Friday” director Nisha Ganatra and Lilly Wachowski of “The Matrix” franchise.