Women's cinema

Women's cinema is the work of women film directors and, to a lesser degree, the work of other women behind the camera such as cinematographers and screenwriters.[1]

Many films created by women are not heavily focused on the woman and femininity as expected by most viewers, but created to assert messages that would be impactful to critical audiences.

Most of the distinguished female directors have avoided any association with cinema in the hesitation of marginalization and ideological controversy.[2]

Famous women in film history

Silent films

Alice Guy-Blaché, the first female director debuted La Fée aux Choux in 1896. She continued her work in silent film following 700 additional films with production locations in France and the United States.[3]

American born female director, Lois Weber coached and inspired by the first female French director, Alice Guy-Blache, found success in creating silent films.[4] Weber is well known for her piece Hypocrites (1915), The Blot (1921), and Suspense (1913). Weber challenged herself and the audience to create films that would address social issues and other controversial topics that would later be heavily criticized by her processors. For instance, her piece Where Are My Children? (1916) addresses what was, at the time and still present day, the issue of birth control and abortion. She also inscribed the idea of capital punishment in The People vs. John Doe (1916) [5] Mabel Normand started as an actress and became a writer-director in the 1910s, including the first shorts Charlie Chaplin did as The Tramp.[6]

Women screenwriters were highly sought after including Frances Marion, Anita Loos, and June Mathis. June Mathis was the first female executive in Hollywood and produced and wrote several silent films.

In Sweden, Anna Hofman-Uddgren debuted the first female film director when she produced the silent film Stockholmsfrestelser in 1911, in which she herself also acted as actress.[7]

Classical Hollywood

Half the American films until 1925 were made by women. In the twenties large banks had assumed control of 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 woman film maker to survive in this unfriendly environment. She did so by producing well made but formally rather conventional films. Nevertheless, she succeeded in smuggling in feminist elements into her films.[8]

Experimental and avant-garde cinema

Germaine Dulac was a leading member of the French avant-garde film movement after World War I, and Maya Deren's visionary films belong to the classics of experimental cinema.

Shirley Clarke was a leading figure of the independent American film scene in New York in the fifties. 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.

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.[9]

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.[10][11] In 2013, her film Zero Dark Thirty was met with universal acclaim[12] and grossed $95 million in the United States box office.[13] 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.[14][15][16]

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.[17] She is also attached to direct the sequel to the 2007 film Enchanted.[18]

Catherine Hardwicke's films have grossed a cumulative total of $551.8 million.[19] 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.[20] 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.

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 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) 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.

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).[21]

Africa

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 (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).

Asia

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 Parmar, Nandini Sikand, Ish Amitoj Kaur, Harpreet Kaur, Leena Manimekalai and Shashwati Talukdar.

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).

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 actrice 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 a breakthrough into a bigger budget; it starred Takeshi Kaneshiro and was released all over the world.

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.

One of the important fifth-generation filmmakers of China is Ning Ying, who won several prices 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.

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.

In Pakistan, where 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. Specially on 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.

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.

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 of 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

Marta Rodriguez is a Colombian documentary film maker.

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).

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 Caffe, Helena Solberg, Lucia Murat, Sandra Kogut, Suzana Amaral, Tata Amaral.

Europe

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.

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.[22]

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

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[23] and the highest-grossing film ever in the United Kingdom.[24] Lloyd's next film, the Margaret Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady (2012) grossed $114 million worldwide.[25] 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.[26]

Bibliography

Books

Journals

Films (selection)

1890s–1940s

1950s–1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Film festivals

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Mayne, Judith. The Woman at the Keyhole: Feminism and Women's Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990, p. 2, ISBN 978-0-253-33719-1.
  2. ↑ Butler, Alison. Women's Cinema: The Contested Screen. London: Wallflower, 2002, p. 2, ISBN 978-1-903364-27-7.
  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. ↑ Chaplin at Keystone: The Tramp is Born
  7. ↑ Marika V. Lagercrantz (2009). "En oavslutad berättelse. Om varietéstjärnan Anna Hofmann". Kulturellt: Reflektioner i Erling Bjurströms anda.
  8. ↑ Clara Kuperberg, Julia Kuperberg (2016). The Women Who Run Hollywood. Wichita Films (documentary).
  9. ↑ Sherwood, Glynis, Alexandra Devon, and Catehrina Tammaro. "Anarcha-Filmmaker: An Interview with Lizzie Borden." Kick It Over 18 (Spring 1987). Web. 30 Oct. 2011.
  10. ↑ Matthew Weaver (8 March 2010). "Kathryn Bigelow makes history as first woman to win best director Oscar". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  11. ↑ "Kathryn Bigelow wins DGA Award". The Hollywood Reporter. 2010-01-30. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  12. ↑ "Zero Dark Thirty Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  13. ↑ .http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=binladen.htm
  14. ↑ "Millions More To Get Outraged About Kathryn Bigelow's Oscar Snub As 'Zero Dark Thirty' Opens Wide". Forbes. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  15. ↑ "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.
  16. ↑ "'Lincoln' Leads 2013 Oscar Nominations; Bigelow Snubbed". Indiewire. 2012-10-26. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  17. ↑ "Directors: Anne Fletcher". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  18. ↑ Marc Graser (2010-02-03). "'Enchanted' to see second chapter". Variety. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  19. ↑ "Directors: Catherine Hardwicke". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  20. ↑ "Nancy Meyers". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  21. ↑ "A Resource Guide for and About African American Women Feature Filmmakers". Sisters in Cinema. 2007-10-14. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  22. ↑ "OE2012/Cultura: Associação Portuguesa de Realizadores defende nova política para o cinema". Visão (in Portuguese). Impresa. 2011-10-12. Retrieved 2012-02-09.
  23. ↑ "2008 Worldwide Grosses". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  24. ↑ Ben Child (2008-12-17). "Mamma Mia is UK's highest grossing film". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  25. ↑ "The Iron Lady (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-06-25.
  26. ↑ Gregory, Mathilda (21 June 2013). "Fifty Shades of Grey the movie – could it maybe, just maybe, be good?". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 August 2014.
  27. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285191/
  28. ↑ Rea Tajiri
  29. ↑ "B Movie Man Review of Denizen (2010)". Denizen (2010 film). 2009-11-25.

External links

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