It was announced yesterday that Ebert and Roeper were both stepping down from their show “At The Movies”, Ebert for heath reasons, Roeper for contractual ones. And it was also announced that Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz would be taking over for them. And to me, this begs the question, why not a lady? Growing up I always wondered why two older white men had to tell America what movies they should see, why couldn’t there be some variety? So now I wonder why do two younger white men get to tell America what movies they should see?

Of course most critics are men (and are also white…) so it isn’t ridiculous that there would be many able white male candidates available, but given that “At The Movies” is a television show and the point is actually to see the critics, couldn’t the show at least try to move things forward and show an awesome woman talking about movies? Especially since both ABC and Disney have claimed the show is moving forward in a “new direction?”

Apparently that new direction doesn’t have anything to do with variety or breaking horrible industry gender barriers and instead only has to do with the youth market and hiring someone who claimed “‘I Am Legend’ as “one of the greatest movies ever made.” Do we really need more white dudes telling us to spend more money on big action blockbusters?

It’s always been interesting to me that as gender slowly becomes less and less of an issue in many fields (although lets be honest, it’s still very much an issue) that it somehow can’t transcend the world of the movies - the making of them, or the talking about them. It frustrates me daily..

So what I will leave you with today dear readers, is a list of awesome female film writers you should read and awesome female movie directors (that are working today) that you should watch. I give them all my two thumbs up…

Lady Writers:

1) Amy Taubin - Find her bio and resume HERE or just GOOGLE her name to find some of her work.

2) Manohla Dargis - She tears it up at the New York Times

3) Karina Longworth - She blogs daily at Spout Blog

Laundry List : Anne Thompson, Kristin Thompson

Anyone know of any other awesome ladies and where we can read their work?

Filmmakers (working today)

1) Lynne Ramsay : http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0708903/ (she really needs to make another film!)

2) Lucretia Martel : http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0551506/

3) Kelly Reichardt : http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0716980/ - (the first American I’ve mentioned is someone to watch out for)

4) Susanne Bier : http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0081540/ (I keeping hoping she’ll stop w/this Hollywood nonsense and go back to her Dogme roots…

5) (some ladies who are awesome, but have been working for a while longer) Claire Denis, Chantal Akerman, Jane Campion, Catherine Breillat

takepart and support Women Make Movies - an awesome group that supports women who make great films!

Read on:

• Arts, Briefly Ebert and Roeper No Longer at the Movies
• Ebert, Roeper exit the balcony
• A Siskel & Ebert & Roeper timeline

* photo by TheMumblingInferno