The Piano
I had never seen his film before and my first reaction was surprise and confused. No I don't think because of the director Campion's gender the film was potentially feminist. I'm also not shocked that Campion has explicitly stated that she is "not a feminist filmmaker because nothing stood out to be feminist. Just because she is a women doesn't mean it has to be feminist. In the reading by Ann Kaplan she talks about male gaze "Assigned the place of object she is the recipient of male desire, the passive recipient of his gaze. If she is to have sexual pleasure, it can only be constructed around her objectification; it cannot be a pleasure that comes from desire for the other that is, her desire is to be desired." In The movie Piano we see this when Ada goes back to be with Baines because she figures out she desires him too. Ada is being desired by Baines and at first Ada does not desire Baines desire.