Screenwriter of biopic about the radical poet says the industry must do more to get
Women behind the camera lens
![‘My Elizabeth Barrett Browning film needs a woman’s touch – but where are all the female directors?’](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b2d7e25f2f4c9b9fcd4c641292440e5e26cdc71e/0_625_3539_2123/master/3539.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdG8tZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=f22f7662dd4e3736a6aa1f7f991e4c64)
A new film about a 19th-century poet and early feminist is crying out to be filmed through a woman’s lens, but it is likely to be directed by a man because there is such a shortage of female directors, according to one of Britain’s leading screenwriters.
Paula Milne has written a feature film inspired by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who campaigned against social injustice, including slavery and child
Labour, while living in fear of her own father. Milne believes that such a story, with its many contemporary parallels, should be filmed by a woman, because of the natural empathy that women have for one another, but that is unlikely to happen.