Women's cinema: Encyclopedia - Women's cinema

Women's cinema

The term women's cinema usually refers to the work of women film directors. It can also designate the work of other women behind the camera such as cinematographers and screenwriters. Although the participation of women film editor, costume designers, and production designers is usually not considered to be decisive enough to justify the term "women's cinema", it does have a large influence on the visual impression of any movie.

Women's cinema - Silent films

Alice Guy-Blaché made the very first feature film La fée aux choux in 1896. More then 300 films followed. She worked in France and the U.S.. Lois Weber was among the most successful film directors of the silent era. Actresses like Lillian Gish, Mary Pickford, and others were the stars.

Women's cinema - Classic Hollywood

In the twenties large banks had assured control on Hollywood production companies. Production supervisors began to standardize film making. The introduction of sound demanded new investments which further increased the control of the banks. In 1929 Hollywood accepted a list of taboos which was later to become the Hays Code. Any unconventional film maker had a hard time. Women film makers could afford economic failures even less. Dorothy Arzner was the only women film maker to survive in this unfriendly environment. She did so by downplaying her lesbian identity and by producing well made but formally rather conventional films. Nevertheless she succeeded to smuggle some feminist elements into her films.

Women's cinema - Experimental and avant-garde cinema

Germaine Dulac was a leading member of the French Avantgarde film movement after World war I Maya Deren's visionary films belong to the classics of experimental cinema. The main focus of her interest moved from the political activities of her youth to dance and later to Vodoo which she explored passionately.

Shirley Clarke was a leading figure of the independent American film scene in New York in the fifties. Her work is rather unique insofar as she directed outstanding experimental and feature films as well as documentaries. Joyce Wieland was a Canadian experimental film maker. The National Film Board of Canada allowed many women to produce non-commercial animation films. In Europe women artists like Valie Export where among the first to explore the artistic and political potential of videos.

Women's cinema - Impact of second-wave feminism

In the late sixties, when the Second Wave of Feminism started the New Left was at its height. Both movements strongly opposed the 'dominant cinema', i.e. Hollywood and male European bourgeois auteur cinema. Hollywood was accused of furthering oppression by disseminating sexist, racist and imperialist stereotypes. Women participated in mixed new collectives like Newsreel, but they also formed their own film groups. Early feminist films often focused on personal experiences. A first masterpiece was Wanda by Barbara Loden, one of the most poignant portraits of alienation ever made.

Women's cinema - Representing sexuality

Resisting the oppression of female sexuality was one of the core goals of Second Wave Feminism. Abortion was still very controversial in many western societies and the feminists opposed the control of the state and the church. Exploring female sexuality took many forms: focusing on long-time censured forms of sexuality (lesbianism, sado-masochism) or showing 'normal' heterosexuality from a woman's point of view. Birgit Hein, Elfi Mikesch, Nelly Kaplan, Catherine Breillat and Barbara Hammer are some of the directors to be remembered.

Women's cinema - Resisting violence and violent resistance

Resting patriarchal violence has always been a key concern of Second Wave Feminism. Consequently many feminists of the second wave have taken part in the peace movements of the eighties, as had their foremothers in the older pacifist movements. Nevertheless the patriarchal cliché of the 'peaceable' woman needed to be criticized. Women film directors documented the participation of women in anti-imperialist resistance movements. In their Kali films Birgit and Wilhelm Hein assembled found footage from 'trivial' genres, the only domain of cinema in which the portrayal of aggressive women was allowed.

Women's cinema - Afro-American

Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust in 1992 was the first full-length film with general theatrical release by an African American woman. A long history of films by African American Women had preceded this achievement. Neema Barnette ("Civil Brand"), Julie Dash ("Funny KValentines"), Maya Angelou ("Down in the Delta"), Kasi Lemmons ("Eve's Bayou"), Cheryl Dunye ("My Baby's Daddy"), Stephanie Allain ("Biker Boyz"), Dianne Houston ("City of Angels") are among them.

Women's cinema - African

The first African woman film director to gain international recognition was the Senegalese ethnologist Safi Faye with a film about the village in which she was born (Letter from the village, 1975). Other African women filmmakers include Sarah Maldoror, Anne Mungai, Fanta Régina Nacro.

Women's cinema - Asian

Before 1980 it had been virtually impossible for a woman in India to become a film maker. Now Mira Nair, Aparna Sen, Vijaya Metah, Sai Paranjpye, Kalpapana Lajmi, Deepa Mehta and Gurinder Chadha are among the best known indian women film makers. The portrayal of female sexuality, especially lesbian, is still very controversial in India.

In Japan for a long time Kinuyo Tanaka was the only woman to make feature films. She was able to do this against fierce resistance because she enjoyed a status as star actress. Using genre conventions her films showed women "with a humorous affection rare in Japanese cinema of the period" (Philip Kemp).

Women's cinema - Latin American

Marta Rodriguez is a Columbian documentary film maker.

Women's cinema - European

Elvira Notari was a pioneer of Italian cinema.

During the "golden age" of "Classical" French cinema Jacqueline Audry was the only woman to direct commercial movies. In 1959 writer Marguerite Duras wrote the script for Alain Resnais' Hiroshima mon Amour. She turned to directing with La Musica in 1966. Among the best known French women film makers are Agnes Varda, Claire Denis, Nelly Kaplan. The work of many more French women directors is rarely screened outside France.

German woman filmmaker Helke Sander was also one of the pioneers of the feminist movement. Other prominent women film makers include Margarethe von Trotta and Helma Sanders-Brahms.

In Hungary Marta Meszaros has been making important films for decades.

Sally Potter is a prominent British feminist film maker. British filmmaker Ngozi Onwurah explores the legacies of colonialism.

Women's cinema - Re-entering the mainstream?

Since the beginning of sound cinema, with very few exceptions, the films of women had been absent from mainstream cinema fore more then half a century. Sometimes actresses enjoying a star status turned to directing (like Barbara Streisand). Thelma & Louise and The Color Purple showed the acceptability of feminist themes – when the director was a man. These films turned out to be rather isolated incidents whereas blatantly sexist films like Basic Instinct continue to be Box office hits.

Kathryn Bigelow works in male-dominated genres like science fiction, action and horror. Dörris Dörrie landed a box office hit with her satire Men. Italian Lina Wertmüller has directed a great number of popular films on the war of the sexes, with various artistic success.

Women's cinema - Bibliography

Books

• Ally Acker, Reel Women. Pioneers of the Cinema. 1896 to the Present, London: B.T. Batsford 1991
• Attwood, Lynne, Ed., Red Women on the Silver Screen: Soviet Women and Cinema from the Beginning to the End of the Communist Era, London: Pandora 1993
• Jacqueline Bobo (ed.), Black Women Film and Video Artists (AFI Film Readers), Routledge 1998
• Russell Campbell, Marked Women: Prostitutes and Prostitution in the Cinema University of Wisconsin Press 2005
• Ellerson, Beti, Sisters of the screen : women of Africa on film, video and television, Trenton, NJ [u.a.] : Africa World Press, 2000
• Lucy Fischer, Shot/Countershot: Film Tradition and Women's Cinema, Princeton University Press 1989
• G.A. Foster, Women Film Directors (1995)
• Kenneth W. Harrow, ed., With open eyes : women and African cinema , Amsterdam [u.a.] : Rodopi, 1997 (=Matatu - Journal for African Culture and Society)
• Claire Johnston, "Women's Cinema as Counter-Cinema" (1975) in: Claire Johnston (ed.), Notes on Women's Cinema, London: Society for Education in Film and Television, reprinted in: Sue Thornham (ed.), Feminist Film Theory. A Reader, Edinburgh University Press 1999, pp. 31-40
• Julia Knight, Women and the New German Cinema, Verso 1992
• Denise Lowe, An encyclopedic dictionary of women in early American films, 1895 - 1930, New York, NY [u.a.] : Haworth Press, 2005
• Judith Mayne, The Woman at the Keyhole: Feminism and Women's Cinema, Indiana University Press 1990
• Janis L- Pallister, French-Speaking Women Film Directors: A Guide, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press 1998
• Sarah Projansky, Watching Rape: Film and Television in Postfeminist Culture, New York University Press 2001
• Quart, Barbara Koenig: Women Directors: The Emergence of a New Cinema, Praeger 1988
• Judith Redding, Victoria Brownworth,Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors, Seal Press 1997, based on interviews with 33 film makers
• Rich, B. Ruby. Chick Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement. Durham, N. C.: Duke University Press, 1998.
• Carrie Tarr with Brigitte Rollet, Cinema and the Second Sex. Women's Filmmaking in France in the 1980s and 1990s, New York, Continuum, 2001.
• Amy L. Unterburger, ed., The St. James Women Filmmakers Encyclopedia: Women on the Other Side of the Camera, Paperback, Visible Ink Press 1999 – excellent resource
• Women Filmmakers: Refocusing, edited by Jacqueline Levitin, Judith Plessis and Valerie Raoul, Paperback Edition, Routledge 2003

Journals

• Camera Obscura
• Frauen und Film
• Women and Film
• Jump Cut
• New German Critique

Women's cinema - Films small selection

• 1896 La fée aux choux; director: Alice Guy-Blaché — the first feature film
• 1921 The Blot; director: Lois Weber
• 1922 La souriante Madame Beudet (The Smiling Madame Beudet); director: Germaine Dulac — often cited as one of the first feminist feature films
• 1923–1926 Die Geschichte des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed); director: Lotte Reiniger — animated film
• 1927 The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty; director: Esfir Shub
• 1931 Mädchen in Uniform (Girls in uniform); director: Leontine Sagan
• 1940 Dance, Girl, Dance; director: Dorothy Arzner
• 1943 Meshes of the Afternoon; director: Maya Deren
• 1959 Bridges Go-Round; director: Shirley Clarke
• 1964 The Cool World; director: Shirley Clarke — the cruel reality of street life in the U.S.
• 1966 Sedmikrasky (Daisies); director: Vera Chytilová — the story of two young girls who explore the world without taking it too seriously
• 1968 Rat Life and Diet in North America; director: Joyce Wieland
• 1969 La fiancée du pirate (A very curious girl); director: Nelly Kaplan
• 1971 The Woman's Film; directors: Louise Alaimo, Judy Smith
• 1971 L'aggetivo donna; directors: Ronny Daopolus, Annabella Miscuglio — a radical feminist documentary which analyses the double exploitation of women workers and the isolated situation of housewives and children
• 1971 Wanda; director: Barbara Loden
• 1972 Sambizanga; director: Sarah Maldoror — feature film about the liberation movement in Angola
• 1972/73 Es kommt darauf an, sie zu verändern; director: Claudia von Alemann — organised women workers discuss the possibilities for change
• 1975 Kaddy Bekat — Lettre Paysanne (Letter from My Village); director: Safi Faye
• 1976 Jeanne Dielmann 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles; director: Chantal Akerman — the daily life of a housewife
• 1976 Pasqualino settebellezze(Seven Beauties); director: Lina Wertmüller
• 1978 Die allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit (The Universally Reduced Personality); director: Helke Sander
• 1978 Mais qu'est ce qu'elles veulent? (But what do they want, after all?) — director: Coline Serreau
• 1979 Daughter Rite; director: Michelle Citron — a feminist pseudo-documentary which deconstructs the conventions of Direct Cinema
• 1979 Bildnis einer Trinkerin (Aller jamais retour; Portrait of a Female Drunkard); director: Ulrike Ottinger
• 1979 Killing Us Softly; directors: Margarete Lazarus, Renner Wunderlich — the effects of advertising on women
• 1979 Deutschland bleiche Mutter (Germany pale mother); director: Helma Sanders-Bahms
• 1980 The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter; director: Connie Field
• 1981 36 Chowringhee Lane; director: Aparna Sen
• 1983 Born in Flames; director: Lizzie Borden
• 1983 Le Grain de sable (Grain of Sand); director: Pomme Meffre — the gradual disintegration of a woman (played by Delphine Seyrig)
• 1985 Verführung: die grausame Frau (Seduction: The Cruel Woman); directors: Efi Mikesch, Monika Treut
• 1986 Ethnic Notions; director: Marion Riggs
• 1988 Love, Women, and Flowers (AmorR, Mujeres, y Flores); directors: Marta Rodriguez and Jorge Silva (Colombia)
• 1988 Die Jungfrauenmaschine (Virgin Machine; director: Monika Treut
• 1988 Kali-Filme (Kali Films); directors: Birgit Hein and Wilhelm Hein
• 1989 A dry white season; director: Euzhan Palcy
• 1990 An Angel at My Table; director: Jane Campion
• 1991 Daughters of the Dust; director: Julie Dash
• 1991 A Place of Rage; director: Pratibha Parmar
• 1993 Bhaji on the Beach; director: Gurinder Chadha
• 1994 Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter; director: Deborah Hoffman
• 1995 Coûte que coûte (At all costs); director: Claire Simon — documentary
• 1996 [Ffire (film)|Fire]]; director: Deepa Mehta
• 1996 White Men Are Cracking Up; director: Ngozi Onwurah
• 2001 "Ophelia Learns to Swim"; director: Jurgen Vsych
• 2003 Te doy mis ojos (Take my eyes); director: Icíar Bollaín
• 2003 Gujarat: A Laboratory of Hindu Rastra, Fascism; director: Suma Josson
• 2003 At Five in the Afternoon; director: Samira Makhmalbaf

Women's cinema - Films about women directors

• Filming Desire. A Journey Through Women's Film, A film by Mary Mandy, 2000

• Sisters of the Screen. A film by Betti Ellerson, 2002

Women's cinema - Film festivals

• Asian Lesbian Film and Video Festival
• Lesben Film Festival Berlin
• Festival internazionale del cinema lesbico - Bologna
• Festival international de films de femmes - Créteil near Paris (english version)
• Paris Lesbian Film Festival
• festival internazionale del cinema delle donne - english version available
• Madcat Women's international film festival
• Feminale - german festival
• Women in the director's chair - Chicago
• Made By Women: International Women’s Film Festival - India

See also

• African Cinema
• Feminist film theory
• List of female directors
• Third Cinema

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Women's cinema", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki