Losing Lena: How a Playboy Centrefold Encapsulated Tech’s Gender Problem
There’s a secret hidden behind pretty much every digital image you’ve ever seen, and her name is Lena. The ‘70s Playboy centrefold is the most-used test image in the world, and has been described as ‘more studied than the Mona Lisa’.
Unfortunately, she’s also become emblematic of a wider issue in the tech industry. In 1973, her image was chosen by men at the University of Southern California (USC) as an ideal test image for the algorithms they were working on to turn physical photos into digital bits. This was the research that would later spawn the JPEG, the image standard that came to define the digital world.
As a result, she’s also symbolic of how women have been pushed out of the digital world. That story is the basis for the film Losing Lena, which features interviews with Lena and others involved in the industry, and looks to provide a way for women to feel more included in the industry.
To find out more about the film, as well as look back at her career, LBB’s Adam Bennett spoke to the film’s director Kyra Bartley.
LBB> What first attracted you to get involved in this project?
Kyra> My world is based around images and the stories they tell, yet the story of Lena’s image and its role in modern computer science - and thus, the modern world at large - was a revelation to me.
It was immediately clear that it encapsulates so many of the underlying problems that women face when pursuing a career in tech (or, more broadly STEM), and I felt it was a story that needed to be told. It was only in the process of telling it that I realised how deeply that was true; topics like feminism, women’s rights, and gender bias have got a lot of air time in the last couple of years, yet so many people still seem unable (or perhaps unwilling) to grasp what the consequences of not embracing diversity in tech truly are.
LBB> Was it always your intention to make a statement with this film? If so, was it the same one you felt the finished documentary made?
Kyra> When we started out, I think the emphasis was more strongly on why and how we should be retiring the Lena image from use in tech, and how that would send a strong message of support to women in the industry. As we talked to women and men around the world and got a more nuanced understanding of the issues, the focus shifted from being a story about the past - the repercussions of the Lena image, and the various ways women have been sidelined - to positioning it as a cautionary tale for the future. I wanted to highlight the ability of small actions to radically change the path forward (for both good and bad) and, as we become increasingly more reliant on tech to run our lives, how vital it is that the teams of people developing it are truly reflective of the diverse world they service.
LBB> After working on this film, do you feel more or less optimistic about our potential to move away from our unconscious biases?
Kyra> As one of the subjects in the film says, recognising we have a problem is the first step towards fixing it. So in that sense, I think the conversation has moved forward in a really positive way in the last couple of years, as people all over the world have acknowledged the imbalances and begun to find ways to address them. I think sometimes there’s a kind of paralysis people feel in tackling an issue that’s so big and multi-faceted, but the process of making this film has really made me understand how important each small step is - that although it might seem insignificant in the scheme of things, those individual actions made with intent and purpose actually have the potential to push the needle in the right direction.
That said, it’s obviously a divisive topic, so just when you’re feeling confident about the future you can pretty much guarantee that someone will pop up online to tell everyone how it’s just science that girls don’t like tech because they have lizard brains or get distracted by sparkles or whatever, and that optimism fades a little.
LBB> What were the most difficult elements in making this film and how did you overcome them?
Kyra> There was so much to fit into this film - Lena’s story, a history of women in STEM, an understanding of the current problems as well as the way forward - so finding the right balance of all these elements was definitely the most challenging part of the process for me. There was an enormous amount of passion and urgency and frustration that came out of the interviews with all our female subjects, and originally that featured much more heavily in the edit. What we found when we did test screenings, however, was that (particularly for male audiences) the relaying of those experiences came across as whingey, and it was affecting their ability to take on board the messages of the film. That threw up a pretty problematic situation for me as a filmmaker, because naturally I wanted to make sure that the womens’ voices were being heard - yet in order to make the film more effective, we found that we had to give more weight than we initially thought to our male subjects. This didn’t sit well with me at first, but looking at it objectively and being conscious of wanting to engage people in a conversation rather than just finger-pointing, I think we ultimately found an effective balance.
LBB> Looking at your career more generally, did you always know that you wanted to work in film?
Kyra> Ever since seeing a documentary about the director Julie Taymor in grade 12 drama class, working in film has been a pretty unwavering passion for me. That’s not to say it’s been a straight path; I gravitated towards post production early on in my career (it suited my brain, and it seemed to be one of few opportunities as a young filmmaker to get paid for your work) and that led to the better part of a decade spent as an animator and animation director. I was so immersed in that world that it was only when I got the opportunity to go to Cannes with a project in 2017 that the universe sort of nudged me back on my initial path; for the first time in years, I opened my eyes to the enormous breadth of awe-inspiring work being done in the live-action space, and I knew that ultimately that’s where I wanted to be. So in pretty short order, I left post-production and dived into a mentorship opportunity with the ADG at FINCH, and haven’t looked back since. That’s not to say I won’t ever return to my animation roots, only that for now I’m focusing on developing my storytelling craft and finding the projects that will allow me to exercise it in interesting and challenging ways.
LBB> Looking back at your career, is there one particular project that stands out as especially defining?
Kyra> I think I’m yet to make something that I feel is definitive for me, but looking back I think the projects that have had the biggest impact on me are probably those with some element of failure in them. I’ve always been someone who enjoys being thrown in the deep end, but there’s one project in particular where I inadvertently stacked the deck a bit too high (child actors, big group dialogue scenes, limited prep and far too little shooting time) and the outcome was... not ideal. It was the first time I’d had to sit with something I’d created and realise that I’d fallen short with no achievable way of making it better, and it completely knocked the wind out of me. So, it stung (and I briefly considered whether stacking shelves at the supermarket might be a better fit for me, career-wise) but it taught me a lesson about the importance of craft, collaboration and preparation that I know will stick with me forever.
LBB> Who are your creative heroes, and why?
Kyra> Overwhelmingly, my creative heroes are those who have carved out a space to tell complex, interesting stories in a world that more often favours the straightforward narratives which reinforce dominant power structures. They’re people like Mati Diop, Nadine Labaki and Chloe Zhao who use their own experiences or views on powerlessness and inequality to create work with singular voices, and which often speak on behalf of people under-represented in mainstream cinema. The older I get, the less tolerance I have for stories that don’t make an effort to connect in some way to the human experience - I love a bit of spectacle, but it’s the complicated stories full of empathy and nuance and compassion for their characters that remind me why I love film.
LBB> What is the best piece of advice you've received in your career?
Kyra> It’s not a race.
(From my partner, at least once a week)
With an unending stream of incredible work from around the world at our fingertips at any given moment, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the feeling of not being good enough, or experienced enough, or prolific enough compared to other filmmakers out there. But the reality is that everyone has taken a different route to get to where they are, and I find if I give myself permission to embrace the deviations I’ve taken (like a casual three years in Cambodia setting up the country’s first animation studio!) I can see how valuable they are in contributing to a view of the world that is deeply held and uniquely mine - and that as I hone my craft, will lead to interesting stories told with a confident voice. So, in heeding that advice, I’m trying to focus on taking the time to be engaged, curious and brave in my career decisions, rather than worrying about how they might compare to others’.
LBB> Finally, what do you do in your spare time? Any current obsessions?
Kyra> Both my brothers were champion runners in high school, but despite my mother’s urging to join the cross-country team, I am not a natural long-distance athlete. So no one was more surprised than me when, in my late twenties, I suddenly decided to take up running and trained for a bunch of half-marathons around Australia and overseas. My knees don’t always play along, but when I can manage to keep them sedated for long enough I love getting out for a jog – I am not a yoga person, so I feel like it’s my form of meditation and stress release.
