Women's cinema

Women's cinema is a variety of topics bundled together to create the work of women in film. This can include women filling behind the scene roles such as director, cinematographer, writer, and producer while also addressing the stories of women and character development through screenplays.

Women's cinema recognizes women's contributions all over the world, not only to narrative films but to documentaries as well. Recognizing the work of women occurs through various festivals and awards, such as the Sundance Film Festival.[1]

"Women's cinema is a complex, critical, theoretical, and institutional construction", Alison Butler explains. The concept has had its fair share of criticisms, causing some female filmmakers to distance themselves from it in fear of be associated with marginalization and ideological controversy.[1]

Famous women in film history

Silent films

Alice Guy-Blaché was a film pioneer and likely the first female director. Working for the Gaumont Film Company in France at the time that the cinema was being invented, she created La Fée aux Choux (1896). The dates of many early films are speculative, but La Fée aux Choux may well be the first narrative film ever released.[2] She served as Gaumont's head of production from 1896 to 1906 and ultimately produced hundreds of silent films in France and the United States.[3]

American-born director, Lois Weber was coached and inspired by Guy-Blaché and found success in creating silent films.[4] Weber is well known for her films Hypocrites (1915), The Blot (1921), and Suspense (1913). Weber's films often focus on difficult social issues. For instance, her film Where Are My Children? (1916) addresses the controversial issues of birth control and abortion. And she questioned the validity of capital punishment in The People vs. John Doe (1916).[5]

Mabel Normand was another significant early female filmmaker. She started as an actress and became a producer-writer-director in the 1910s, working on the first shorts Charlie Chaplin did as The Tramp at Mack Sennett's Keystone Studios.[6] She further collaborated with Sennett on other Keystone films and, during the late 1910s and early 1920s, she had her own movie studio and production company.[7]

Women screenwriters were highly sought after in the early years of the cinema. Frances Marion, Anita Loos, and June Mathis all had successful careers in the silent and early-sound eras. Mathis was also the first female executive in Hollywood.

In Sweden, Anna Hofman-Uddgren was that country's first female film maker—producing the silent film Stockholmsfrestelser in 1911. She also acted in the film.[8]

Classical Hollywood

As the American cinema became a highly commercialized industry in the 1920s and its content became more and more conventionalized, the opportunities for women producers and directors became fewer and fewer. By the time sound arrived in the US in 1927 and the years immediately after, women's roles behind the camera were largely limited to scriptwriters, costume designers, set decorators, make-up artists, and the like. And the industry's implementation of self-censorship in the form of the Hays Code in 1934 meant that topics such as birth control and abortion were taboo. Dorothy Arzner was the only woman director to survive in this unfriendly environment. She did so by producing well made but formally rather conventional films. Nevertheless, it is possible to trace feminist elements in her films.[9] Film critics find her film, Dance, Girl, Dance, about two women struggling to make it in show business, to be particularly interesting from a feminist perspective. When the film was selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry, it was noted that "The dancers, played by Maureen O'Hara and Lucille Ball, strive to preserve their own feminist integrity, while fighting for their place in the spotlight and for the love of male lead Louis Hayward."[10] Beyond Dance, Girl, Dance, Arzner also worked with some of Hollywood's most formidable actresses—including Katharine Hepburn in Christopher Strong (1933) and Joan Crawford in The Bride Wore Red (1937).

Experimental and avant-garde cinema

The experimental and avant-garde cinema is the genre considered to be closer to women filmmakers and one that also advances women themes. Annette Kuhn, for instance, noted such special affinity by citing that low investments of money and 'professionalism' have meant that it is more open than the mainstream film industry for women.[11] Both Pam Cook and Laura Mulvey also noted an alignment and alliance of experimental and avant-garde cinema with feminist interest and feminist politics. Specifically, Mulvey explained that mainstream or Hollywood films are unable to provide the experience of contradiction, reinforcing anti-realism and, this is where the avant-garde cinema is useful for women and feminism because they share "a common interest in the politics of images and problems of aesthetic language."[12]

Women's involvement in the experimental and avant-garde cinema started in the early twentieth century, although it was limited due to the constraints of the social conventions of this period.[1] It was only after the war when women became actively involved in this cinematic genre. Germaine Dulac was a leading member of the French avant-garde film movement after World War I.[13] There is also the case of Maya Deren's visionary films, which belonged to the classics of experimental cinema and focused on the North-American avant-garde.[14] The contemporaneous trend did not oppose the female filmmakers' entry into avant-garde filmmaking although, in its early years, they did not receive as much critical acclaim as their male counterparts.[1]

Shirley Clarke was a leading figure of the independent American film scene in New York in the fifties.[15] Her work is unusual, 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 were among the first to explore the artistic and political potential of videos.

Impact on society

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.[16]

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 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 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.

A film notable for its empathic portrayal of sex work is Lizzie Borden's Working Girls (1986). Molly, a white lesbian in a stable mixed-race relationship, is a Yale-educated photographer who has chosen to augment her income through sex work in a low-key urban brothel. We accompany Molly on what turns out to be her last day on the job, understanding her professional interactions with her "johns" through her perspective, a completely original point of view, since, until Borden's film, sex workers had largely been depicted stereotypically. The story's sympathetic, well-rounded character and situation humanizes sex work, and the film itself combats the anti-pornography stance touted by many second-wave feminists, which Borden rejects as repressive.[17]

Typically women are portrayed as dependent on other characters, over-emotional, and confined to low status jobs when compared to enterprising and ambitious male characters (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Women in cinema are grossly misrepresented and definitely under represented. The roles that men play are the superhero, the wealthy business man or the all-powerful villain. When it comes to the roles females play they tend to be the housewife, the woman who can't obtain a man, the slut, or the secretary. The true comparison is masculinity versus femininity. The Bechdel test for film is a type of litmus test that examines the representation of women in media. The 3 factors tested are: 1. Are there at least 2 women in the film who have names? 2. Do those women talk to each other? 3. Do they talk to each other about something other than a man? (Sharma & Sender, 2014). Many roles that are given to women make them either dependent on the male counterpart or limits their role. Another characteristic of their role placement is that women are twice as likely to have a life-related role rather than a work-related role. Hollywood rarely chooses to have women be the all-powerful boss or to even have a successful career. There have been some examples that break this norm, such as The Proposal or I Don't Know How She Does It. Even in these two films, the male counterpart is a strong role and in both the female lead is reliant on both actors for the storyline. Women do not stand on their own in movies and rarely are the center of attention without a male being there to steal the limelight. Some roles that have been portrayed in recent films have worked against this norm, such as Katniss in Hunger Games and Furiosa in Mad Max: Fury Road. These roles break the norm, as women typically are portrayed as dependent on other characters, over-emotional, and confined to low-status jobs compared to enterprising and ambitious male characters (Bussey & Bandura, 1999). Women in cinema are grossly misrepresented and underrepresented.[18]

Resisting violence and violent resistance

Resisting 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.

(Re-) entering the mainstream?

Kathryn Bigelow works in male-dominated genres like science fiction, action and horror. She became the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director and the Directors Guild of America Award in 2010 for The Hurt Locker.[19][20] In 2013, her film Zero Dark Thirty was met with universal acclaim[21] and grossed $95 million in the United States box office.[22] Bigelow went on to be nominated for Best Director at the BAFTA Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Directors Guild of America Award among others. However, she failed to be shortlisted for the category at the 85th Academy Awards in what was widely seen as a snub.[23][24][25]

Anne Fletcher has directed four studio-financed films: Step Up (2006), 27 Dresses (2008), The Proposal (2009) and The Guilt Trip (2012) which have gone on to gross over $343 million at the US box office and $632 million worldwide.[26] She is also attached to direct the sequel to the 2007 film Enchanted.[27]

Catherine Hardwicke's films have grossed a cumulative total of $551.8 million.[28] Her most successful films are Twilight (2008) and Red Riding Hood (2011).

Nancy Meyers has enjoyed success with her five features: The Parent Trap (1998), What Women Want (2000), Something's Gotta Give (2003), The Holiday (2006) and It's Complicated (2009) which have amassed $1,157.2 million worldwide.[29] Before she started her directorial career she wrote some other successful films like Private Benjamin (1980) for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, Baby Boom (1987) or Father of the Bride (1991).

Sofia Coppola is a critically acclaimed director who has also had financial success. Her award-winning film Lost in Translation (2003) grossed over $119 million. The Virgin Suicides (1999), Marie Antoinette (2006) and The Bling Ring (2013) were also successful. Her father is Francis Ford Coppola.

Ava DuVernay is the director of the critically acclaimed Selma (2014) as well as the first African American woman to direct a triple-digit-budgeted film, A Wrinkle in Time (2018).

Statistics

A study done by USC Annenberg researched what it meant to be a female in the film industry, no matter if they were working behind the scenes or were fictional characters. USC Annenberg looked at two test groups for films, the top 100 films every year from 2007 to 2015 and the top 100 films in 2015.

For the top 100 films in 2015, women were leads and co-leads in 32 of them, while of the 32 films, only 3 of them included a race other than Caucasian. Out of the thousands of speaking roles, only 32 characters were LGBT and of those characters, 40% of them were racially diverse. Female characters were also three times more likely to be seen in a sexual context.[30]

Behind the scenes had similar statistics to the female fictional characters. Female directors, writers, and producers made up 19% of the 1,365 people that it took to create the top 100 films in 2015. The percentage of female writers (11.8%) and producers (22%) can be seen as high compared to female directors (7.5%). Of the 7.5% of female directors, three of them were African American and one was Asian.[30]

For the top 100 films every year from 2007 until 2015, of the 800 films, 4.1% were directed by females.[30]

Documentaries

While there is still a gap between the percent of female and male filmmakers, women tend to be more involved in documentary films. There is a higher percentage of women directing documentaries than women directing narrative films.[31]

In the history of the Academy Awards, there have been 11 female documentary directors that have won Oscars for Best Documentary Feature. Barbara Kopple received two of those awards with her films Harlan County, USA (1977) and American Dream (1991).[32] Yvonne Smith's film Adam Clayton Powell (1990) was nominated as well, making her the first African American producer to be nominated for 'Best Documentary Feature'.[33]

Celluloid ceiling

The Center of the Study of Women in Television and Film has dedicated 18 years to the study of women in the film industry. An annual report is created, discussing how women have contributed to as filmmakers. Most of the findings from the research shows that, statistically, it says the same from year to year.[34]

The group also contributes their time to creating articles discussing how women are viewed in film, not only as filmmakers but as fictional characters as well.[34]

African American women's cinema

Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust (1991) was the first full-length film with general theatrical release written and directed by an African American woman. Since then there have been several African or African-American women who have written, produced or directed films with national release. Neema Barnette (Civil Brand), Maya Angelou (Down in the Delta), Kasi Lemmons (Eve's Bayou), Cheryl Dunye (My Baby's Daddy), Stephanie Allain (Biker Boyz), Tracey Edmonds (Soul Food), Frances-Anne Solomon (A Winter Tale) and Dianne Houston (City of Angels), Leslie Harris (Just Another Girl on the IRT) are among these filmmakers. In 1994 Darnell Martin became the first African American woman to write and direct a film produced by a major studio when Columbia Pictures backed I Like It Like That.[35]

To date, Nnegest Likké is the first African American woman to write, direct and act in a full-length movie released by a major studio, Phat Girlz (2006) starring Jimmy Jean-Louis and Mo'Nique.

For a much fuller accounting of the larger history of black women filmmakers, see Yvonne Welbon's 62-minute documentary Sisters in Cinema (2003).[36]

Africa

The Cameroonian journalist Thérèse Sita-Bella directed a 1963 documentary, Tam-Tam à Paris, and Sarah Maldoror, a French filmmaker of Guadeloupean descent, shot the feature-film Sambizanga in Angola in 1972. But 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). The 1989 Créteil International Women's Film Festival included short films by Leonie Yangba Zowe of the Central African Republic (Yangba-Bola and Lengue, 1985) and Flora M'mbugu-Schelling of Tanzania.[37] Other African women filmmakers include Anne Mungai, Fanta Régina Nacro (The Night of Truth, 2004), Tsitsi Dangarembga (Mother's Day, 2004) and Marguerite Abouet, an Ivorian graphic novel writer who co-directed an animated film based on her graphic novel: Aya de Yopougon (2012). The most successful film in the history of Nollywood, The Wedding Party, was directed by Kemi Adetiba in 2016.

Asia

India

Mira Nair, Aparna Sen, Deepa Mehta, Gurinder Chadha, Manju Borah are among the best known Indian women filmmakers, partly because of commercial success of their films. However, there are a number of other Indian women filmmakers who have made some remarkable films that address a variety of issues. Other noteworthy Indian women filmmakers include Nisha Ganatra, Sonali Gulati, Indu Krishnan, Eisha Marjara, Pratibha PJaaparmar, Nandini Sikand, Ish Amitoj Kaur, Harpreet Kaur, Leena Manimekalai and Shashwati Talukdar, Rima Das.

Japan

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, she showed women "with a humorous affection rare in Japanese cinema of the period" (Philip Kemp).

Currently, the best-known women filmmaker of Japan may be Naomi Kawase; 2007 she won the Grand Prix in Cannes, while Memoirs of a fig tree, the directorial debut of well-known actress Kaori Momoi, saw the light of the day in 2006. The sociocritical adventure film K-20: Legend of the Mask by Shimako Sato's was Sa breakthrough into a bigger budget; it starred Takeshi Kaneshiro and was released all over the world.

South Korea

Similarly in South Korea, Yim Soon-rye landed a box-office-hit with Forever the Moment, while So Yong Kim got some attention for her film In Between Days and Lee Suk-Gyung made the women-themed and subtly feminist The Day After.

China

One of the important fifth-generation filmmakers of China is Ning Ying, who won several prizes for her films; in contrast to the controversy over some of her sixth-generation colleagues such as Zhang Yimou, who got accused of having sold out their ideals, Ning Ying has gone on to realize small independent films with themes strongly linked to Chinese daily life, therefore also being a link between the 5th and 6th generation. The Sixth Generation has seen a growing number of women filmmakers such as Liu Jiayin, best known for her film Oxhide, and Xiaolu Guo; in 2001 Li Yu caused quite a stir with her lesbian love story Fish and Elephant.

The most famous women filmmaker from Hong Kong is undoubtedly Ann Hui, who has made a wide array of films ranging from the wuxia genre to drama; Ivy Ho and Taiwanese Sylvia Chang also are known names in the Hong Kong industry, while in Taiwan queer filmmaker Zero Chou has gotten acclaim on festivals around the world.

Lindan Hu has documented the post-Mao re-emergence of female desire in women's cinema of the 1980s in mainland China. The films Hu considers are Army Nurse directed by Hu Mei and Women on the Long March directed by Liu Miaomiao.[38]

Malaysia

Yasmin Ahmad (1958–2009) is considered one of the most important directors of Malaysia; originally a commercial director, she switched to feature films relatively late and gained international acclaim while also stirring controversy among conservatives in her home country.

Pakistan

In Pakistan, where the film industry is not very big, some prominent and brilliant directors are working. Conventional film industry has directors like Sangeeta and Shamim Ara who are making films with feminist themes. Especially to Sangeeta's credit there are some issue-based films. Now some new directors from television industry are also coming towards the medium of films. Sabiha Sumar and Mehreen Jabbar are two new names for films in Pakistan and are making brilliant films. Both of these directors has made films which are not only issue based addressing national issues but also these films have won international awards at different film festivals.

Iran

Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, a writer and a director, is probably Iran's best known and certainly most prolific female filmmaker. She has established herself as the elder stateswoman of Iranian cinema with documentaries and films dealing with social pathology. Contemporary Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad (1935—1967) was also a filmmaker. Her best-known film is The House is Black (Khane siah ast, 1962), a documentary of a leper colony in the north of Iran. Samira Makhmalbaf directed her first film The Apple when she was only 17 years old and won Cannes Jury Prize in 2000 for her following film The Blackboard. Her step-mother Marzieh Meshkini made "The Day I Became a Woman" and Samira's sister Hana Makhmalbaf started her career with "The Joy of Madness", a behind-the-scenes documentary about Samira's film "At Five in the Afternoon", and has subsequently made two features, Buddha Collapsed out of Shame and "Green Days", a film about the Green Revolution that was banned in Iran.

Sri Lanka

Sumitra Peries is a veteran film director in Sri Lankan cinema and she is the wife of great Lester James Peries. She also held the post of Sri Lanka's ambassador to France, Spain and the United Nations in the late 1990s.

Inoka Sathyangani is an internationally acclaimed Sri Lankan film director and producer. In the year 2002, she received many number awards for her maiden effort Sulang Kirilli, which deals with the theme of abortion. The film secured the highest number of awards won by a single film in the history of Sri Lanka's film industry.

Latin American women in cinema

Colombia

Marta Rodriguez is a Colombian documentary film maker.

Argentina

Though women played a "minimal" role in the development of cinema in Argentina, two pioneering women were the director María Luisa Bemberg and the producer Lita Stantic.[39] Lucrecia Martel is a major figure of the Argentinean "buena onda", the post-economic crash new cinema. Lucia Puenzo is the other prominent contemporary Argentinean director. Each of them has made three features to date (2014). In addition, María Victoria Menis has written and directed several critically acclaimed films, including La cámara oscura (2008) and María y el araña (2013).

Brazil

Brazilian Cinema has a number of women directors whose works date from the 1930s. Brazilian women directors' most prolific era unfolds from the 1970s. Some contemporary names include: Ana Carolina, Betse De Paula, Carla Camurati, Eliane Caffé, Helena Solberg, Lúcia Murat, Sandra Kogut, Suzana Amaral, and Tata Amaral.

Mexico

Matilde Landeta was the first woman to become a filmmaker during the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. Her films focused on the portrayal of strong, realistic female protagonists in a patriarchal world. Some of her films are adaptations of Francisco Rojas González's novel Lola Casanova (1948) and La Negra Angustias (1949).

Europe

Bulgaria

Binka Zhelyazkova was the first Bulgarian woman to direct a feature film with Life Flows Quietly By... in 1957 and was one of the few women worldwide to direct feature films in the 1950s.

Irina Aktasheva, a Russian, made several Bulgarian films during the 1960s and 1970s, including Monday Morning in 1965.[40] Radka Bachvarova was a Bulgarian director of animation.[41] Lada Boyadjieva had two films compete for the Short Film Palme d'Or in 1961 and 1962. Ivanka Grybcheva made films in the 1970s and 1980s.

Denmark

The first Danish feature film to be directed by a woman was Ud i den kolde sne from 1934, directed by Alice O'Fredericks, who would go on to be one of the most prolific Danish film directors. She initially co-directed her films with Lau Lauritzen Jr., however in the 1940s she started directing films on her own. She is credited with directing more than 70 feature films as well as writing screenplays for more than 30 films making her one is one of the most productive directors in Danish cinema and among her most memorable films are the Far til Fire-films and the filmatization of the Morten Koch novels, which were all very popular during the Golden Age of Danish Cinema. She is also noted for her films focusing on women and women's rights.

In the 1940s the star actress Bodil Ipsen and the screenwriter Grete Frische joined O'Fredericks in directing mainstream feature films. Ipsen would towards the end of her career co-direct with Lau Lauritsen Jr. and Fische would co-direct Så mødes vi hos Tove with O'Fredericks.

Other prolific Danish directors include Astrid Henning-Jensen, who became the first female director to be nominated for an Academy Award with Paw, Susanne Bier, the first female director to win a Golden Globe, an Academy Award, an Emmy Award and a European Film Award, and Lone Scherfig, whose films have been nominated for Academy Awards, BAFTAs and a European Film Award.

The oldest Danish film award is named Bodil Award after Bodil Ipsen and Bodil Kjer, and the Alice Award, which is award to the best female director at the Copenhagen International Film Festival is named in honor of Alice O'Fredericks.

France

In the silent era French women directors were prominent Alice Guy-Blaché directed around 700 films and is credited with introducing the narrative form. Germaine Dulac was one of the most creative art film directors and went on to be the leader of the French cinéclub movement. Marie-Louise Iribe developed from being an actor into owing a production company and directing significant feature films.

During the "golden age" of "Classical" French cinema Jacqueline Audry was the only woman to direct commercial films. 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 Agnès Varda, Claire Denis, Diane Kurys, Danièle Huillet, Nelly Kaplan and Catherine Breillat. The work of many more French female directors is rarely screened outside France. Others include Zabou Breitman, Julie Delpy, Virginie Despentes, Valérie Donzelli, Pascale Ferran, Alice Guy-Blaché, Maïwenn (Le Besco), Mia Hansen-Love, Agnès Jaoui, Isild le Besco, Noémie Lvovsky, Tonie Marshall, Christelle Raynal, Céline Sciamma, Coline Serreau, and Danièle Thompson.

Germany

The Economist wrote of Leni Riefenstahl that Triumph of the Will "sealed her reputation as the greatest female filmmaker of the 20th century".

German woman filmmaker Helke Sander was also one of the pioneers of the feminist movement. Other prominent female film-makers include Margarethe von Trotta and Helma Sanders-Brahms. Monika Treut has also won recognition for her depictions of queer and alternative sexuality. Contemporary German-language women directors of note include Maren Ade, Barbara Albert, Doris Dörrie, Frauke Finsterwalder, Katja von Garnier, Jessica Hausner, Nicolette Krebitz, Caroline Link and Angela Schanelec.

Feminist German movies were helped and praised by all kind of organisations ; Festivals, cinemas just for women (Frauenkino), newspaper "frauen und film", association of film makers... Those tended to be exclusively for women, arguing that they wanted to bring balance. Different objectives were pursued with those organisations : more attention, more discussion and claims like 50% of the grant allowed to film makers should be given to female directors.[42]

Hungary

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

Italy

Elvira Notari was a pioneer of Italian cinema, and she was followed by other prominent female directors as Lina Wertmüller and Liliana Cavani.

Belgium

Chantal Akerman was a notable Belgian director. Her best-known film is Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975).

Norway

Edith Carlmar was a prominent Norwegian film director, working in a variety of genres (crime, melodrama, comedy).

Portugal

Portuguese editor and director Manuela Viegas' 1999 film Gloria, premiered in competition at the 57th Berlinale, is considered in her country the climax of a cinema of feminin sensibility. Other Portuguese female film directors include Teresa Villaverde, Catarina Ruivo, Raquel Freire, Margarida Gil, Cláudia Tomaz and Rita Azevedo Gomes. The current President of the Portuguese Directors Association is Margarida Gil.[43]

Spain

Ana Mariscal was a pioneer among Spanish female filmmakers. She was also a prolific actress in the 1940s and 1950s. In the early 1950s she became a producer and shortly after started directing and writing her own films. Her best-known film is perhaps El camino (1963), an adaptation of the novel by Miguel Delibes. Other films include Segundo López, aventurero urbano (1953) inspired by Italian neorealism or Con la vida hicieron fuego (1959), about a former combatant of the Republican faction who tries to start a new life while battling the haunting memories of the Spanish Civil War.

Josefina Molina, also a novelist, started her career in the 1960s. She was the first woman who graduated from Spain's National Film School in 1967. Her prolific TV résumé includes the highly successful miniseries Teresa de Jesús (1984), a dramatization of Teresa of Avila's life. Her work on film includes Vera, un cuento cruel (1974), Función de noche (1981) or Esquilache (1989) which was entered into the 39th Berlin International Film Festival.

Pilar Miró was a celebrated director and screenwriter of film and TV whose notable works include Gary Cooper, Who Art in Heaven (1980), Prince of Shadows (1991) which won the Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival and El perro del hortelano (1996), an adaptation of a Lope de Vega play which won 7 Goya Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. She was also in charge of Spain's national broadcast television TVE from 1986 to 1989.

Icíar Bollaín made her acting debut as a teenager under Víctor Erice's direction in El sur (1983). She made the jump to directing and writing in 1995 with Hola, ¿estás sola? which earned her a nomination for a Goya Award for Best New Director. Her subsequent filmography includes Flores de otro mundo (1999) winner of the Grand Prix award at the International Critics' Week at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, Te doy mis ojos (2003) which won her a Goya Award for Best Director and a nomination for a European Film Award for Best Director or Even the Rain (2010) which made the January shortlist for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Isabel Coixet directed numerous commercials during the 1990s for clients like IKEA, Pepsi or Ford. She usually films in English with international actors. Some of her best known films include My Life Without Me (2003), starring Sarah Polley, Mark Ruffalo, Scott Speedman and Deborah Harry, The Secret Life of Words (2005) once again starring Polley as well as Tim Robbins and Julie Christie, a segment on the omnibus film Paris, je t'aime (2006) and the Philip Roth adaptation Elegy (2008) starring Ben Kingsley, Penélope Cruz, Dennis Hopper and Patricia Clarkson.

Gracia Querejeta has won acclaim for her ensemble dramas By My Side Again (1999), Héctor (2004) and Seven Billiard Tables (2007). She has also directed documentaries and TV episodes.

Other notable filmmakers include María Ripoll (Tortilla Soup, The Man with Rain in His Shoes), Patricia Ferreira, Chus Gutiérrez, María Lidón aka Luna (Stranded: Náufragos, Moscow Zero), Rosa Vergés, Lydia Zimmermann, or Laura Mañá.

United Kingdom

Joy Batchelor was an English animator, director, screenwriter, and producer. She married John Halas in 1940[44] and subsequently co-established Halas and Batchelor cartoons, whose best known production is the animated feature film Animal Farm (1954), which made her the first woman director of an animated feature since Lotte Reiniger.

Muriel Box was an English screenwriter and director, directing her first film in 1941.[45]

In Britain Jane Arden (1927–82), following up her television drama The Logic Game (1965), wrote and starred in the film Separation (Jack Bond 1967), which explores a woman's mental landscape during a marital breakup. Arden went on to be the only British woman to gain a solo feature-directing credit for The Other Side of the Underneath (1972), a disturbing study of female madness shot mainly in South Wales. Arden's overtly feminist work was neglected and almost lost until the British Film Institute rediscovered and reissued her three features, and the short Vibration (1974), in 2009.

Andrea Arnold won a 2005 Academy Award for her short film Wasp, and has twice won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, in 2006 for Red Road, and in 2009 for Fish Tank.

Two of Lynne Ramsay's early short films (Small Deaths and Gasman) won the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival, and her subsequent three feature films, Ratcatcher, Morvern Callar and We Need to Talk About Kevin have all screened at the Cannes Festival.

Mamma Mia! directed by Phyllida Lloyd became the #5 highest-grossing film of 2008[46] and the highest-grossing film ever in the United Kingdom.[47] Lloyd's next film, the Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady (2012) grossed $114 million worldwide.[48] Debbie Isitt has directed successful mainstream films, including "Confetti" and the "Nativity!" trilogy.

Cinenova is a London-based organization that distributes women produced films.

Sally Potter is a prominent British feminist film maker.

British filmmakers Ngozi Onwurah and Pratibha Parmar explore the legacies of colonialism.

Partially as a result of funding from the UK Film Council (disbanded in 2010), a new generation of British women filmmakers has emerged in the twenty-first century, including Penny Woolcock, Carol Morley, Joanna Hogg, Clio Barnard, Sally El Hosaini, Amma Asante, and Tina Gharavi. Gallery artists Gillian Wearing and Sam Taylor-Wood have both moved into feature cinema, with Taylor-Wood (now Taylor-Johnson) named as director for the adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey.[49]

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, New Jersey [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)
  • Rebecca Hillauer, Encyclopedia of Arab Women Filmmakers, American University in Cairo Press, 2005, ISBN 977-424-943-7
  • 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 [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 A. 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
  • Women Filmmakers: Refocusing, edited by Jacqueline Levitin, Judith Plessis and Valerie Raoul, Paperback Edition, Routledge 2003

Journals

Films (selection)

1890s–1940s

1950s–1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Film festivals

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 Butler, Alison (2002). Women's Cinema: The Contested Screen. Wallflower Press. pp. 1–3. ISBN 9781903364277.
  2. ↑ Simon, Joan. Alice Guy Blaché Cinema Pioneer. ISBN 978-0-300-15250-0.
  3. ↑ "Education & Resources – National Women's History Museum – NWHM". www.nwhm.org. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  4. ↑ "Education & Resources – National Women's History Museum – NWHM". www.nwhm.org. Retrieved 2016-03-15.
  5. ↑ "Lois Weber Facts, information, pictures". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2016-03-16.
  6. ↑ "Charlie Chaplin : Chaplin at Keystone: The Tramp is Born". www.charliechaplin.com.
  7. ↑ Harper Fussell, Betty (1992). Mabel: Hollywood's First I-Don't-Care Girl (Illustrated ed.). Limelight Editions. ISBN 978-0-87910-158-9. Retrieved July 29, 2010.
  8. ↑ Marika V. Lagercrantz (2009). "En oavslutad berättelse. Om varietéstjärnan Anna Hofmann". Kulturellt: Reflektioner i Erling Bjurströms anda.
  9. ↑ Clara Kuperberg, Julia Kuperberg (2016). The Women Who Run Hollywood. Wichita Films (documentary)|format= requires |url= (help).
  10. ↑ Librarian of Congress Announces National Film Registry Selections for 2007, from the Library of Congress website
  11. ↑ Butler, Alison (2002). Women's Cinema: The Contested Screen. London: Wallflower Press. p. 57. ISBN 1903364272.
  12. ↑ Mulvey, Laura (1989). Visual and Other Pleasures. New York: Palgrave. p. 120. ISBN 9780333445297.
  13. ↑ The St. James women filmmakers encyclopedia : women on the other side of the camera. Unterburger, Amy L. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. 1999. pp. 122–124. ISBN 9781578590926. OCLC 41086659.
  14. ↑ Maya Deren and the American avant-garde. Nichols, Bill, 1942-. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2001. ISBN 0520224442. OCLC 45888927.
  15. ↑ Cohen, Thomas (2012). "After the New American Cinema: Shirley Clarke's Video Work as Performance and Document". Journal of Film & Video (published Spring–Summer 2012). 64: 57–64 – via Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text.
  16. ↑ ENELOW, SHONNI (September–October 2017). "STRONGER TOGETHER". Film Comment. 53: 50–55 – via Film & Television Literature Index with Full Text.
  17. ↑ Sherwood, Glynis, Alexandra Devon, and Catehrina Tammaro. "Anarcha-Filmmaker: An Interview with Lizzie Borden." Kick It Over 18 (Spring 1987). Web. 30 Oct. 2011.
  18. ↑ Murphy, Jocelyn Nicole, "The role of women in film: Supporting the men -- An analysis of how culture influences the changing discourse on gender representations in film" (2015). Journalism Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 2. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=jouruht
  19. ↑ Matthew Weaver (8 March 2010). "Kathryn Bigelow makes history as first woman to win best director Oscar". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  20. ↑ "Kathryn Bigelow wins DGA Award". The Hollywood Reporter. 2010-01-30. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  21. ↑ "Zero Dark Thirty Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  22. ↑ "Zero Dark Thirty (2012) - Box Office Mojo". boxofficemojo.com.
  23. ↑ "Millions More To Get Outraged About Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar Snub As 'Zero Dark Thirty' Opens Wide". Forbes. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  24. ↑ "Scott Mendelson: Why Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar Snub Is a Symptom of a Larger Problem in Film Criticism". Huffington Post. 2013-01-11. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  25. ↑ "'Lincoln' Leads 2013 Oscar Nominations; Bigelow Snubbed". Indiewire. 2012-10-26. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  26. ↑ "Directors: Anne Fletcher". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  27. ↑ Marc Graser (2010-02-03). "'Enchanted' to see second chapter". Variety. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  28. ↑ "Directors: Catherine Hardwicke". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  29. ↑ "Nancy Meyers". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  30. 1 2 3 Smith, Dr. Stacy; Choueiti, Marc; Pieper, Katherine (2016). "Inequality in 800 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, LGBT, and Disability from 2007-2015". USC Annenburg: 1–6.
  31. ↑ Lauren, Martha (2013). "The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind the Scenes Employment of Women on Top 250 Films of 2015" (PDF). Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film.
  32. ↑ Morfoot, Addie (2016-02-18). "Oscars: Examining Gender Bias in the Documentary Categories". Variety. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  33. ↑ "Yvonne Smith". African Film Festival Inc. 2014-10-27. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  34. 1 2 "Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film". womenintvfilm.sdsu.edu. Retrieved 2016-12-06.
  35. ↑ "She Likes It Like That". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  36. ↑ "A Resource Guide for and About African American Women Feature Filmmakers". Sisters in Cinema. 2007-10-14. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  37. ↑ Angela Martin (1990). "Africa". In Annette Kuhn. The Women's Companion to International Film. University of California Press. pp. 4–8. ISBN 978-0-520-08879-5.
  38. ↑ Hu, Lindan (2017). "Rescuing female desire from revolutionary history: Chinese women's cinema in the 1980s". Asian Journal of Women's Studies. Taylor and Francis. 23 (1): 49–65. doi:10.1080/12259276.2017.1279890.
  39. ↑ Ana López (1990). "Argentina)". In Annette Kuhn. The Women's Companion to International Film. University of California Press. pp. 19–21. ISBN 978-0-520-08879-5.
  40. ↑ Djulgerov, Georgi. "Irina Aktasheva mini bio". IMDB. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  41. ↑ Djulgerov, Georgi. "Radka Bachvarova mini bio". IMDB. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  42. ↑ "Film and feminism in Germany today by Marc Silberman". www.ejumpcut.org.
  43. ↑ "OE2012/Cultura: Associação Portuguesa de Realizadores defende nova política para o cinema". Visão (in Portuguese). Impresa. 2011-10-12. Retrieved 2012-02-09.
  44. ↑ Shail, Robert (2007). British Film Directors: A Critical Guide. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. pp. 88–89. ISBN 978-0809328338.
  45. ↑ Spicer, Andrew. "Box, Muriel (1905-1991)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved April 24, 2018.
  46. ↑ "2008 Worldwide Grosses". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  47. ↑ Ben Child (2008-12-17). "Mamma Mia is UK's highest grossing film". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  48. ↑ "The Iron Lady (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  49. ↑ Gregory, Mathilda (21 June 2013). "Fifty Shades of Grey the movie – could it maybe, just maybe, be good?". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  50. ↑ "History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige". 10 April 1991 – via www.imdb.com.
  51. ↑ Rea Tajiri
  52. ↑ "B Movie Man Review of Denizen (2010)". Denizen (2010 film). 2009-11-25. Archived from the original on 2010-01-24.
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