To combat this, Vimeo is launching what they are calling Share the Screen, an initiative that they "hope will help close the gender gap that is so pervasive in the entertainment industry." With the presence that Vimeo has on the internet, they hope to do much more than just bring about awareness. Here's more from Andrea Allen:

We intend to foster equality by investing in female-led programming, educational workshops, meetups, interviews, and more that spotlight and support female voices in the Vimeo community.

Gender inequality in filmmaking isn’t simply a woman’s problem: it’s everyone’s problem. When diverse voices are given equal consideration and weight, more informed artistic decisions are made, better stories are told — and it’s also the right thing to do as human beings.

Andrea also mentions that Vimeo has worked to support female filmmakers in unofficial ways as well, and is releasing Aidy Bryant's short film Darby Forever as a Vimeo Original (you might recognize her from SNL):

The goal of this endeavor is not to just highlight famous filmmakers, however. As Andrea mentioned in the comments:

We’ll be investing in female-led projects over the next year, and some of those will absolutely be from creators who haven’t had as much exposure as they deserve. We don’t want to rule any female creator out simply because they are or are not yet well known.

As she says above, gender inequality is everyone's problem. The industry will be better off when there are much more diverse stories being told. As Robert Redford recently said at Sundance, life experience is probably the most important part of being a storyteller, and those voices who aren't heard as often already have a different set of life experience coming into filmmaking.

Vimeo hasn't laid out all of the details yet, but they will be looking for a minimum of five projects from women filmmakers this year, and once those projects are picked, they will offer them for sale or rental. Here's more from Wired:

Under the initiative, announced today at the Sundance Film Festival, Vimeo will bankroll at least five projects from women filmmakers this year. It will identify burgeoning directors through its current acquisitions pipeline, the team behind its original series, and the in-house group that handles the platform’s Staff Picks. Staffers also will meet with female filmmakers during Sundance in a bid to find candidates.

In the future, Vimeo will likely expand this to other underrepresented groups. This initiative is a huge step in the right direction, especially for a company with such a large user base.

Source: Vimeo

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