OUR PIECE OF THE SKY

Our Piece of the Sky is a short documentary film that explores the experiences of women pilots. Despite the presence of women in the early days, aviation has persistently remained a highly gendered and male-dominated field. Our Piece of the Sky explores the journeys of five pilots through reflective interviews that offer insight into the reality of gendered experience that permeates and influences everyday life.

• Premiered at University of Southern California, 2014

I’m often asked “what got you into flying?” 

I have a go-to answer. It feels pretty inadequate. 

I usually start by saying that no one in my family is a pilot. Then I bring up my stint with skydiving as the logical link. I make the joke that my parents are happier that I’m flying planes now instead of jumping out of them. I stopped jumping after a bad line twist and a rough landing. But I didn’t start flying until three years after my last jump, so,

I don’t actually think this answer answers the question…

So here’s the story :

After graduating from college there was a lot of uncertainty in my life. I like to think of myself as pretty level-headed, sure-footed, confident and yet I fell into the typical post-graduation death spiral of questioning my future. What am I going to do with my life? What matters to me?

I spent the summer living in Amman, Jordan working as a research assistant for an anthropologist. I lived above a bookstore and under the flight path to the international airport. I spent cooler afternoons sitting out on the porch reading for work and watching the endless stream of jets coast overhead.

I think I can pinpoint one particular afternoon as the start of it all. I was sitting out on the porch with my friend who had also just graduated. We were trying to figure out the next step, frustrated at the idea of moving back stateside without any real prospects. So we started talking about our dreams. Savannah talked about being a journalist, traveling the world and writing about things that matter. Looking up, I told her if I could do anything in the world, I would fly planes. 

Don’t ask me where I got this crazy idea. I have no freakin clue. Well,

Maybe it had to do with flying away from the uncertainty of my life maybe it had to do with my personal struggle to find my own freedom and independence while living in a region that is so damn scarred from that very pursuit. 

And so, when I actually did find myself back stateside without any real prospects, I took a flight lesson.

I fell hard for flying. Something about being in that sky got into my blood. I worked hard. I studied hard. I earned my private pilots license in 8 months. 

Throughout my training I have only encountered male instructors. On the radios it’s rare to hear another female voice. In June I met a male pilot and airplane owner who asked if I was sure that I wanted to pursue aviation as a potential career. He urged me to consider the consequences of this choice on having a family. What a bunch of bullshit. 

The women I have encountered in aviation are passionate about flying, they fly because they love it, not because it’s easy. While some may view the women pilot population as just privileged and wealthy it is clear that they face other forms of discrimination. One woman, a pilot since 1984, quit flying five years ago and has vowed to not fly again until the situation for women in aviation is better. What would a better situation look like? Why should we care? Why should more women be in aviation? 

Aviation is a world that is heavily male dominated, so much so that women are a mere six percent of the American pilot population. Why is this? 

Our Piece of the Sky seeks to open a discussion. The aim of the film is not to identify the factors that contribute to the gender disparity that persists in aviation, but rather to explain the significance of the gendered experience through the voices of women who are in the air. 

I suppose my project is in search of answering a lot of my own questions. What got me into flying? What does it mean to take command, take control, take that piece of sky? What do we pursue? How do we pursue it? What do we give up to pursue? What do we do about obstacles? How do we perceive obstacles? How do we take responsibility for our own lives? Who the hell is going to stop us? 

For me, flying alone is a meditative practice. Nothing matters in the entire world except the sky, the air, the lift on the wings. I like to close my eyes when I fly. Let it all go. Just for a moment. Just to feel all of that nothingness. Just to feel all that everything.