John Lasseter
I really enjoyed watching this most recent Pixar film, it got me thinking about John Lasseter’s sexual assault allegations in June. The movie that we watched was released before any of these accusations became public so they obviously were unaware of the way they portrayed him. He will stay on Pixar as a consulting role until the end of next year. Sexual misconduct among famous and successful Hollywood male directors has been a hot topic these past few years. It is interesting to have watched this documentary that pretty much worships Lasseter as this underdog incredible leader only to be accused of terrible things years later. I read an article that went on to talk about how hard it was to work at Pixar as a woman and it was really hard to read stories of countless woman who were ignored and verbally violated by men. I hope that our generation actually changes the way women in animation are treated and that “the boys club” can come to an end.
Seeing this happen to Lasseter, who has been such a terrific artist on so many levels, is truly upsetting. I know the last thing he'd want is for his own bad behavior to influence how people view his work, making it all the more heartbreaking knowing that he made such bad decisions. On the bright side, I think men have seen the consequences of such actions many times over (from everyone from Weinstein to Lasseter), so hopefully the industry entire has learned its lesson and we can finally move on to a safer, respectable climate.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about this watching the documentary too. The film we watched completely idolizes Lasseter and at some moments I even thought, "Wow, he seems like a great guy." All of the men who work/have worked at Pixar were put in such a positive light. I'm sure most are lovely people, but that doesn't mean that Pixar isn't a boys club. In the documentary, you saw no women. There were tons of photos of Lasseter and his classmates of animators. He named so many of them and praised them, having the photo zoom in on their faces. Their were women in those photos, but no one even bat an eye for those women that probably worked just as hard as him and the other filmmakers. This documentary further demonstrates the mistreatment of women in the workplace because they're not held at high enough of a value to be featured in the documentary. Even if the problem isn't at the forefront of the documentary, it's definitely still noticeable and definitely still a problem.
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