NIGHTBITCH: motherhood and rage

Unleashed into UK cinemas on Friday 6th December, NIGHTBITCH is a film “about motherhood and rage” according to writer-director Marielle Heller, and lauded by one critic as “Amy Adams’ off-leash opportunity and she runs away with it, likely all the way to the next Academy Awards with her almost guaranteed seventh Oscar nomination.” 

Based on the popular novel of the same name by Rachel Yoder, NIGHTBITCH is a part black comedy, part body horror, (or as critic Shantel Chisango describes it: “a comedy for women and a horror for men”), and an outrageously entertaining and refreshingly honest take on motherhood. Named only as ‘Mother’ in the film, Amy Adams’ character has paused her career as an artist to be a stay-at-home Mum. Exploring the inequalities in caring expectations between ‘Mother’ and ‘Husband’, the story takes a surreal turn for Adams as the realities, demands and sacrifices that motherhood brings start to have a physiological effect.  

Known for her acting role in THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT and as a director on previous features including THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL and A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD, Heller is also a mother to two children and outspoken advocate for mothers, parents and carers in the film industry.

Marielle Heller and Melanie Iredale. 2024

We sat down with Heller on the eve of her premiere at the BFI London Film Festival last month who said, “One thing we can talk about is how we don’t support mothers… How can I make this [filmmaking] a more sustainable career for myself and other working parents? Because the truth of it is it’s totally unsustainable: the way we’ve been working…  the 18 hour days, and the demanding and gruelling schedule.” 

Amy Adams herself has said she wouldn’t be able to have the career she does if it weren’t for the fact her husband is the primary caregiver. 

With so many women leaving the industry as a result of juggling parenting alongside production, compounded by unfair pay/budgets and conditions, and the precarity of freelancing, we take a deeper look at what’s needed for the ‘sustainability’ Heller and others are calling for. 

When I Grow Up...

“You light a fire early in your girlhood, you stoke it and tend it. You protect it at all costs…You keep it secret. You let it burn…..And then, you give it all up for a person who will one day pee in your face without blinking.” - ‘Mother’ in NIGHTBITCH 

Our industry is haemorrhaging mothers and people of marginalised genders with caring responsibilities and is all the worse off for it. 

A survey from the Production Guild of Great Britain  in 2021 found that 84% of respondents (producers) know someone who has left the industry because of a lack of suitable childcare provision. 73% of respondents' careers had been impacted by parenting responsibilities, and 82% feared they would be in the future. 86% of respondents were female and 70% of them freelance, a reflection of the greater expectation on women to meet caring responsibilities and the prevalence of freelance work.

It wasn't long ago that the UK faced an enormous skills shortage in film and HETV, which saw us struggling to find enough people for the jobs available, and now we now have the opposite problem. While the writers' and SAG strikes in 2023/24 shifted the landscape, causing the opposite problem with large numbers of people leaving the industry, this trend disproportionately impacts on parents, particularly mothers, as returning to work is always a challenge with many struggling to find their place in the industry even after a short absence. Looking at the most recent Looking Glass report 64% of respondents are considering leaving the industry.

According to Cinemamas, a platform for mothers (and all parents) working in the film industry, screen workers are twice as likely to be freelance as workers across UK industry as a whole, and parents and carers in the screen industry are twice as likely to be freelancers as non-parents. There are disadvantages to freelance work that can make raising a family and planning for the future challenging including inconsistent income, a lack of security and a lack of benefits, such as sick leave and paid holiday. Source BECTU

Another screen sector survey in 2021 from Raising Films, a campaign and supportive community for parents and carers working in film & TV, found that 77% reported caregiving as having a negative impact on their ability to work in the screen sector and 63% of women reported caregiving as the greatest challenge to their ability to work. 

As Heller asks in a 2019 Variety interview, “Why do so many women drop out of the workforce at this age, in our late 30s, early 40s? Well, often it’s because we’re raising kids, so, let’s be honest about that… We have pretended for many generations that we are not trying to do everything, but we are trying to do everything.” 

A recent boom in debuts from British women filmmakers has been incredible to see and well documented: 4 out of 5 films nominated in both the best debut feature and best documentary categories at the 2023 BIFAs were directed by women. The longer view undercuts this optimism, however, with USC Annenberg, U.S. gender and diversity in film initiative,  finding that, on average, female directors make just one film every 10 years, which is not a sustainable career and an indication of the impact caring responsibilities can have on their career prospects.

Dealing With Double Standards...

“How many men have delayed their greatness while their women didn’t know what to do with theirs?” - ‘Mother’, NIGHTBITCH

A growing number of organisations campaigning for change in the industry have voiced demands and proposed solutions, including: 

Pregnant Then Screwed - a charity dedicated to ending the motherhood penalty - demand for support for pregnant women and mothers to access free legal advice as well as supporting them to challenge discrimination and to take legal action against an employer. According to their findings, 390,000 working mums experience negative and potentially discriminatory treatment at work each year. Fewer than 1% of victims take legal action against a discriminatory employer. 

Raising Films’ How We Work Now report published in 2021 finds that 68% of respondents support childcare as a tax-deductible expense, which is especially needed given the disparity in production budgets for women and men, and the gender pay gap more broadly. Another 2021 study from the European Parliament Think Tank shows that at the peak of their career – between the age of 45 and 54 – female film directors earn 37% less than their male counterparts. 

The consensus among these and other organisations is that greater flexible working conditions are vital if the demands of child-rearing and film production work are to be reconciled. Models include job-sharing, part-time hours, flexi-time, job split and swing/rotating shifts, the benefits of which - for work/life balance, mental health and productivity - for mothers and for everyone - are well documented. 

Legal and institutional change has also been proposed. Raising Films call on the UK screen industries to design, provide and accredit comprehensive training in employment and equality law, and best practices for all screen industries workers who hire and contract, with public funding contingent on undergoing and implementing such training, and addressing the specific inequalities between employees and freelancers. They also call for the industry to mandate and fund an accountability body with sanction power to adjudicate fair and inclusive hiring, contracting, employment and retention across the screen industries, recognising all protected characteristics and axes of exclusion.

Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2024 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Marielle Heller herself has been speaking for years about creating more sustainable conditions on set for herself and other parents and carers - and likely benefiting most people - on her set: scheduling “more succinct” shoots of 10-12 hour days, in order that cast and crew can return to their children in the evenings. 

Beyond this, Marielle speaks in our interview about the benefit of speaking more openly and normalising conversations about home-life while at work, saying “we need more transparency about the things that we’re juggling and how we’re trying to do that, and then that gives permission for other people to be honest about doing the same… “ 

While NIGHTBITCH serves as an example of good practice in production and on screen a nightmare scenario of the toll pressures can take, what is coming from the sector at large is a collective howl for the urgent need for the industry to invest in its workforce and adapt working practices. Without these changes, we risk continuously losing incredible talent, which ultimately affects the overall success of an industry worth, for film & HETV in 2022, an annual 6.27 billion in the UK alone. 

And if we’re to “value a more diverse set of voices in film,” as our sector increasingly purports to do, then by making the industry more sustainable for mothers, one that “takes into account the rest of our lives, the better.” After all, by implementation of sustainable practices for mothers, “we’re making it more sustainable for everyone.

NIGHTBITCH can be seen in cinemas from Friday 06 December, more info here. 

With thanks for the input and expertise of Cinemamas - the online platform for mothers (and all parents) working in the film industry who want to connect and create a positive community. Other resources, and sources of support can be found here:  

• BECTU  - The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union. Provides useful information on leave entitlements  and a collection of materials that can help foster  flexible working arrangements.

  
  

• Film London  - offer bursaries, returnship schemes, and childcare support for those transitioning back into the industry.

  
  

• Film & TV Charity - offer physical, mental and financial support for everyone working behind the scenes in film, TV, and cinema, including a 24/7 helpline. 

  
  

• Le Ballon Rouge - Organized by the Marché du Film & The Red Balloon Alliance, Le Ballon Rouge aims to promote a healthier and more supportive work-life balance for those working in the industry and has been offering childcare services during the Festival de Cannes and other major film festivals since 2019.

• Raising Films - a campaign and supportive community for parents and carers working in film & TV.

  
  

• ScreenSkills - offer bursaries, returnship schemes, and childcare support for those transitioning back into the industry.

  
  

• Women in Film & Television - the Leading Membership Organisation for Women Working in Media.

  
  

• Reclaim The Frame - we champion marginalised perspectives in cinema, and connect with audiences through community building and conversation. Find out more about how you can #ReclaimTheFrame and become an Advocate, click here