COURSE BLOG for GWSS 3307: Feminist Film/Media Studies (Fall 2007)

We didn't get to discuss a couple of the questions much in class, so I thouht I'd post something about the choice of actors/actresses and the role of alcohol.

Pierce's utilization of relative unknown performers was, I think, an extremely essential decision. Just imagine if we knew the actress playing Brandon...it would be far more difficult to put aside associations with that actress and see her as "the character Brandon." Every scene in which he would appear, the audience would be bombarded with memories of that actress playing other roles. Just think if someone as well-known as Kate Winslet or Nicole Kidman was in the role. It would be impossible to separate such a radically different character from their former roles, and the illusion would be lost. Using Swank (as Katie said, relatively unknown apart from the indie circuit) both provided us with a mostly unfamiliar face. I was able to see the character, not the actress.

I think it was also important to use unknown actors for the other roles. Again, we didn't bring our own associations of their past performances to the screen, which would have seriously hindered our ability to see them as these wild, abusive men and alcoholic, desperate women.

By the way, did anyone notice the amount of alcohol consumed in the film? There was hardly a scene in which liberal consumption of beer was not involved. Having lived in a small town (my first two years of undergrad), I realize that drinking becomes a major event when the number of 'productive' community activities is low. I wonder, though, if Pierce is also drawing a connection between senseless violence and alcohol. I doubt that she is taking a moralizing position, because what she portrayed was hardly uncommon. Even so, it really struck me how often the characters were drinking and driving, drinking at home, drinking outside. Drinking, it seems, becomes a way to numb, especially for Lana. When we first see her, she's wasted, numb, apathetic. As the film progresses, though, she seems to drink less. Tom and John seem to be constantly buzzed; more often than not, drunk, and I think this contributes to their impulsiveness in the violence against Brandon (not that they don't clearly have a propensity for violence already).

Posted by Maren Mattson at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I hadn't seen this movie until I previewed in class, and I found it very moving. You could see the struggle Brandon had to deal with every day, which ranged from personal to legal issues. I found it interesting the time and process “he” spent in transforming to a male, but yet no matter what he did he still couldn’t stop the fact that he was biologically a female. For example when "Aunt Flow" came there’s was nothing he could do. Cleaning the stain and buying pads put him in awkward and uncomfortable situations, but yet I think the worse part of having his period to him was actually having a daily, mental reminder that he wasn't biologically a male, but actually a female.

Posted by Cassie Setter at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Peggy Hayes graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia in 1986. She had an internship on the set of the television series “In the Heat of the Night” (1988). She founded the Night of the Black Independents which an organization which showcases films written and directed by persons of African decent.

Nandi (1998) was the only work of Hayes that I could find. In this film, Nandi is the name of a (fictional) women’s magazine that caters to African-American women. A freelance journalist, Frankie Reynolds, uses Nandi to expose harmful information about a major pharmaceutical company. This spreads the controversy of the company throughout the community.

I was not able to view this film nor find any other information related to it.

I found this work through the Sisters in Cinema link.

It was easy to find Hayes from the links provided by the blog, but I was unsatisfied when I could not find further information about Peggy Hayes and her movie, Nandi.

Posted by Mary Ellen McCormick at 04:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kiri Davis was still in high school when she completed A Girl Like Me. The short documentary was completed in fall 2005 and screened at various film festivals. The documentary is about how beauty standards are imposed on young Black girls and how this affects their self-image. During the documentary, Davis also reconducts the "doll test" that was used in the Brown vs Board of Education case.

I saw a snippet of this film in one of my other classes this week, and found the entire documentary on YouTube. I think it is really moving and that it really demonstrates the power of media and culture in shaping how people view themselves.

I was really impressed because the director was so young when she made the film. I think she used grant funds to make the film.

Media That Matters Film Festival: A Girl Like Me
A Girl Like Me: Film and Featurette (this features and interview with Kiri Davis)

Posted by Heather Larson at 09:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. I decided to find out more about Ayoka Chenzira. She was born in Philadelphia in the 1950’s. She was reared by her mother who owned a beauty parlor in the building where they lived in north Philadelphia. While attending a private boarding school during her high school years, she discovered the world of art, film, and foreign languages. She went on to earn her M.A. degree in education and her B.F.A. degree in film production. Chenzira is a productive film artist whose works include: features, performance art, documentaries, experimental production, and animation. She is, in fact, considered the first African American female animator. She has also received many awards for her outstanding contributions to the field of Black independent cinema.
2. Some of her works include:
1. Hair Piece – An animated satire on the question of self-image for African American women living in society where beautiful hair is considered hair that blows in the wind.
2. Secret Sounds Screaming – Uses a variety of voices to look at the sexual abuse of young people.
3. Syvilla – A portrait of Syvilla Fort focusing on the beauty of her choreography.
4. Alma’s Rainbow – Is about a single mother and her coming-of-age daughter.
3. I was unable to view any of her work. However, I did find a website that she belongs to. It is called Ayoka Chenzira’s Red Carnelian Films, which is a collection of award winning films by African-American, Caribbean, and African writers and directors. This company was actually founded in 1993 by Ayoka Chenzira, who recognized the need for low budget, entertaining and thought provoking films that feature black people as the interpreters of their own stories.
4. I found some of her works at the Red Carnelian Film’s website: http://www.ayoka.com/. I also found others at the Women Make Movies website as well: http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/makers/fm113.shtml
5. It was not too difficult finding information about Ayoka, she is a very accomplished woman. I also found a clip about her Red Carnelian Films.
http://www.ayoka.com/content/flash/demotest.htm

Posted by Rachel Kyllander at 07:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. Safi Faye:
Nationality: Senegalese. Born: Dakar, Senegal, 1943. Education: Primary school in Dakar; Normal School in Rufisque, Senegal, Teacher's Certificate, 1962; studied ethnology at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris; trained as a filmmaker at the Louis Lumière Film School, graduated 1974; University of Paris VII, Doctorate in Ethnology, 1979; studied video production in Berlin, 1979–80. Family: Divorced; one daughter: Zeiba. Career: School teacher, 1963–69; actress in Jean Rouch's Petit à petit ou les Lettres Persanes, 1970; actress in her own short film La Passante, 1972; released her first full-length docudrama, Kaddu Beykat, 1975, which spearheaded her subsequent career as ethnologist-filmmaker. As film maker/director: A pioneer woman director in the male-dominated realm of African cinema, Safi Faye is today, with a career spanning more than 25 years, the best-known independent African female filmmaker. Safi Faye met the French ethnologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch at the 1966 Dakar Festival of Negro Arts. Rouch encouraged Faye to engage in cinema and seemingly triggered her subsequent use of the camera as an investigative and pedagogical tool in ethnographic filmmaking, which, to this date, represents the bulk of her cinematic output.

2. Films as Director:
1972
La Passante (The Passerby) (+ ro)
1973
Revanche (Revenge)
1975
Kaddu beykat (The Voice of the Peasant)
1979
Fad'jal; Goob na ñu (The Harvest Is In)
1980
Man Sa Yay (I, Your Mother)
1981
Les âmes au soleil (Souls under the Sun)
1982
Selbé et tant d'autres (Selbe and So Many Others)
1983
3 ans 5 mois (Three years five months)
1984
Ambassades nourricières (Culinary Embassies)
1985
Elsie Haas, femme peintre et cinéaste d'Haiti (Elsie Haas, Haitian Woman Painter and Filmmaker); Racines noires (Black Roots)
1989
Tesito
1996
Mossane

3. Reflections:
I could not find any clips of any of Safi’s movies to post on any websites that I visited, but here is a website about her 1996 movie Mossane: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117088/

4. Location:
I found Safi’s name on the Wikipidea website for women directors. She is a well-known African independent filmmaker so there were a few websites I could go to that provided a lot of information about her. The website that had the most information on her was filmreference.com.

5. Research:
I wanted to find a female filmmaker from Ghana specifically, but that was very hard to find and the only results I could get were about male filmmakers. I also tried looking into other women filmmakers before I chose Safi Faye, but I could not find much information on them. That led me to Safi who had more information written about her than the others.

Posted by Timac at 01:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nnegest Likke is a African American filmmaker who is a native of San Francisco. She came from humble beginnings, eventually being an inventive film maker. She is half Ethiopian, and says it was tough being half African when she was younger.
After graduating from Oakland's Skyline High School and Georgia's historically black college Clark Atlanta University, Likké moved to Los Angeles in 1993 to pursue her love of screenwriting. To make money, she taught English and drama to high school students for a few years. Then she and a friend began a dating-advice show on public-access TV, which led to a job as a writer and producer for the reality TV show "Blind Date."
I have actually seen Likke’s movie “Phat Girlz” starring Mo’nique. The movie explores the struggles plus size women go through in living up to the standards of America. I did see the film in the movies and it can now be found on DVD. I think the film is good for building confidence for women who do not necessarily fit the typical “skinny” image that we see everywhere. It wasn’t that difficult finding information on Nnegest probably because her film showed in theaters around the country.

Posted by Thadis Coley III at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Neema Barnette was born December 14, 1949 and raised in Harlem. She attended New York's High School for the Performing Arts and NYU. She has dircted many episodes of television shows such as The Cosby Show, A Different World, 7th Heaven, and Gilmore Girls. She has directed eight television films and two feature films. Her 2002 film "Civil Brand" won best film at the American Black Film Festival. It also won the audience award and special jury prize at Urbanworld Film Festival. Civil Brand is a film based on a story by Preston A. Whitmore II. It is about a womens' prison that is corrupt. The women protest and eventually take over the prison. The film was made with a budget of only $500,00.

Neema Barnette was the first African American woman to get a three picture deal with Sony. She is also the first African American female sitcom director. She has her own production company called Harlem Lite Productions.

Finding information on this director was a little tricky. I started with Tressie Souders, the first African American female director in the United States and I couldn't even find a picture of her, let alone a biography/filmography. I decide, in the interest of time, to change my director. I chose Neema Barnette off of the "Sisters in Cinema" website. This assignment has made me realize how neglected women are inte the world of film.

Posted by Tara Weinberg at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Fashion Resistance to Militarism
USA, 2006, 10 Minute Running Time
Genre/Subjects: Lesbian, Local Filmmakers / Subjects
Language: English
DIRECTOR: Kimberly Alvarenga
I searched on Google for “women of color, film director” and this link http://www.qwocmap.org/festival2007/sched_dir.html was one of the first to come up.

I chose Alvarenga because her movie “Fashion Resistance to Militarism” (described as “A fresh and provocative look at the military's influence on fashion and popular culture. Kimberly Alvarenga was raised in the San Francisco and directs the Economic Justice and Human Rights Program at the Women of Color Resource Center in Oakland.”) might speak to something that bothers me- the increasing acceptance of camouflage and military uniform-styled clothing marketed toward children. I think this “trend” is only serving to desensitize us to violence and war. (ok, I’ll get off my soapbox now)

Kimberly Alvarenga is difficult to find biographical info on. I searched on www.imdb.com and found nothing. The best biography I could cobble together from various websites is that Kimberly Alvarenga is living and working in the Bay area and is an advocate for the rights of women, esp. women of color. I also can’t seem to find a compete list of her films; this was the most inclusive bio I could find:

Kimberly Alvarenga -Women of Color Resource Center
Country/Countries: United States

About Kimberly Alvarenga -Women of Color Resource Center
Kimberly Alvarenga is the Director of the Economic Justice and Human Rights Program at the Women of Color Resource Center. Kimberly has over 10 years of experience working directly with and on behalf of low-income women and other underrepresented communities in their struggle for economic security. She is a member of Women’s Leadership Circles, commissioner on the San Francisco Juvenile Justice Commission and part of the San Francisco Women’s Building Program Committee.

Kimberly’s first short film Espejo premiered in 2005 at the San Francisco Queer Women of Color Film Festival and was also featured at Frameline 29 San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival and the 2005 Barcelona International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

From: http://imaginingourselves.imow.org/pb/Profile.aspx?id=5528&lang=1&storyid=1266

Posted by Sienna Moore at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

http://faithfilmworks.com/art/sub_art/bio_christine_photo.jpg

Christine Swanson was born on July 1, 1971 in Detroit, Michigan. She attended the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where she received her MFA. At her school she was a Willard T.C. Johnson Fellow, which is the “most prestigious fellowship given to the student who has achieved high standards in his or her work” (IMDB.com) Along with graduating from Tisch, she graduated with a degree in Film Theory and Japenese from the University of Notre Dame. She has developed, written and directed various movie projects. She is married to Michael Swanson, and CNN featured the pair as the raising duo to watch in the film industry. (Biography from IMDB.com)

Some work she has done includes.. (IMDB.com)
1. All About Us (2007)
2. Woman Thou Art Loosed (2004)
3. All About You (2001)
4. Two Seasons (1997)

She has received two awards and one nomination for her work.
1. Two Seasons (1997) Won Short Film Award at the Acapulco Black Film Festival.
2. All About You (2001) Won Best Film at the American Black Film Festival and Nominated for Golden Starfish Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival

I found Christine Swanson’s name on the “Sisters in Cinema” website. I had actually heard of her before, but was not familiar with her work. There was actually attainable information on her, compared to other women of color filmmakers which I could not even find a bibliography.

Posted by Amanda Amundson at 09:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The director I chose to research is Maria Novaro. She was born in Mexico City in the 1950’s. She is said to be the most successful Mexican female director. She studied sociology at National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She studied film production at University Center of Film Studies in Mexico. She is very well known, especially in Europe, for her use of colors in her films. Maria Novaro is considered a pioneer because of her success in a male-dominated career. As of now, she is currently writing a novel about Chicana women.

Traducción simultánea (2006)
Morena, La (2006/I)
Sin dejar huella (2000)
Enredando sombras (1998)
Jardín del Edén, El (1994)
Otoñal (1993)
Danzón (1991)
Lola (1989)
Azul celeste (1988)
Historias de ciudad (1988)
Isla rodeada de agua, Una (1986)
Pervertida (1985)
Querida Carmen (1983)
7 A.M. (1982)
Conmigo la pasaras muy bien (1982)

I have never seen any of Maria Novaro’s work. The short clip that I saw from Sin dejar huella shows that the story is about two women who find friendship. They are both trying to escape from something or someone in their past.

I found Maria Novaro by searching through the links that Rachel so kindly posted as guidance. I typed Novaro’s name in google and clicked on the internet database website (IMDB). This is where I read a short bio about her and a list of her works.

It was not difficult for me to find Novaro because of the helpful links. I looked at the index of female directors and randomly chose one.

Posted by Kristen Kramer at 02:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kathleen (Conwell) Collins Prettyman was born 3/18/42 in Jersey City, New Jersey. She died 9/18/88 from cancer. She attended Skidmore College and did graduate work in Paris. Her accomplishments, among many, the first black American woman to make and release a feature film along with first prize at the Sinking Creek Film Festival for one of her first films. She also participated in play writes. She made films more for her race then her gender and is quoted saying,

To separate oneself from the black man is to allow America the final triumph of division.

Her works include many:

The Cruz Brothers and Mrs. Malloy (1980) screenplay
Losing Ground (1982) screenplay
In the Midnight Hour (1981) stage play
The Brothers (1982) stage play
Conversations with Julie (1988) screenplay
Waiting for Jane (1988) stage play
Lollie: A Suburban Tale (1988) novel

The work I wish to focus on was the one announced in the "Sisters in Cinema" website. Losing Ground is a comedy about a black American female philosophy professor and her incapable husband. He treats her terrible and restricts her and she fantasizes for something more; the word ecstasy is key, she ends up seeking out and experiencing it. This shocks her husband. It is a film about the character finding herself in a comical back drop and her ability to shake off her rigid barriers.

Although I have never seen the movie it was rated six of ten stars at the internet movie database online. The concept amuses me and I think that it could be an interesting piece. The most interesting part would be the ability to see Kathleen express her fierce opinions of life through her art.

The first site I looked at was the "Sisters in Cinema" site from there I clicked on the movie and was brought to the site mentioned above. The most useful site that I used that gave me a well rounded feel for her and her work was done by searching through Google. The site is http://www.answers.com/topic/kathleen-collins .
Her movies were shown in film festivals where they won awards. Her plays were also awarded and played at a noticeable level. Although I've heard of none of these films before now I am sure that Losing Ground is available for purchase.

There was no difficulty in finding information about Kathleen Collins. She was admired and praised for her work and the ability to search her name without inconclusive results proves that.

Posted by Lindsey Peck at 12:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. Lourdes Portillo is a Mexican-born filmmakers focusing primary in Latino identity in her work. She has an extensive career in both TV work and on the silver screen. She began her career when she was just 21-years-old when a Hollywood friend asked for help on a documentary. Her work on the documentary The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo was nominated for an Academy Award in 1985 for Best Documentary. Her 1993 film, Columbus on Trial was shown at both the London and Sundance Film festivals. Portillo has collaborated at length with several other noted female cinematographers, and continues to work on films that deal with identity struggle, Mexican identity, and satirical comedy.

2.
Over, Under, Sideways, Down—first camera assistant to Stephen Lighthill on Cine Manifest's feature.
After the Earthquake/Despues del Terremoto—1978 narrative film about a Nicaraguan refugee living in San Francisco.
The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo—1985 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary.
La Ofrenda :The Days of the Dead—1989 film funded by PBS after the success of The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo. Received widespread critical acclaim and was Portillo’s most serious attempt at challenging the notion that documentaries must always be associated with injustice.
Columbus on Trial—1993 film ironically showing Columbus’s “discovery” of America. This film was shown at both the London and Sundance Film festivals.
In The Devil Never Sleeps—delves into the Mexican psyche and works on the onscreen representation of Latinos and Chicanos.
Currently, Portillo is working on both “a low budget comedy set in the underworld of cockfighting,” and a film about a modern day Don Quixote whose gets lost in her life and art in her quest for the perfect film.

3. I could not find her works online, but I have read the story of The Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, and it is extremely moving. I would love to see some of her work as she seems to have a unique balance as an artist of female, Latino and artistically identified films with a quirky satirical and political twist.
Here is the link to her homepage:
http://www.lourdesportillo.com/lp.html

4. I found her in a simple Google search of Latina and women “of color” filmmakers. I looked through a few pages to find a noted artist like Portillo with films that showed both innovation and artistic range.

5. It was very easy for me to find female filmmakers “of color.” There are several sites and pages dedicated to honoring these women, their work and their contribution to feminism, minority identification and the craft of cinematography.

Posted by J Kriegs at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Shereen Noon is a Dutch, Swedish and Pakistani filmmaker who grew up in the midwest as well as Pakistan. Noon began working on films in 1993 and became known for her film "Body: The Value of Women," which highlights the depth of body image and self-esteem. Noon helped produce and was an actress in "Paper, Rock, Scissors," (not to be confused with "Rock, Paper, Scissors) which is about a depressed man wondering if he is on the right path of life for himself. She is the founder of Tano Media Institute located in Santa Fe which supports international film makers. At the institute she works to empower women film makers and teach them to produce powerful films. She was also a founder of Independent Women Filmmakers which helps bring women filmmakers together. I came across the website, http://www.whirledwydeweb.com/iwf/resumes.html, for independent women filmmakers when I found Shereen Noon. I googled her name and was able to find more information about her contribution to other women and the filmmaking industry. I wasn't able to find where I could watch any of her films or see clips. BUT, I do really love the website I found on independent women filmmakers and I am going to try and figure out how I could possibly find clips/full movies from them in the future!

Posted by Greta Fay at 09:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kinuyo Tanaka is a Japanese actor and director who’s career began in the 1920’s. I was finding conflicting dates on her birth but it was either in 1909 or 1910. She is a revered actor with over 100 acting credits according to IMDB.com. Tanaka was a major luminary in Japan. She married and divorced director Hiroshi Shimizu in 1929, and won many awards for her acting abilities. She directed her first of six films titled “Love Letters” in 1953. “Her directing career was the first of any significance for a Japanese woman, and it displayed the same intelligence, taste, and intensity of her acting”, claims one of her biography sites (www.stanford.edu). In 1977 Kinuyo Tanaka died of a brain tumor.

Her directing credits are as follows:

• Onna bakari no yoru 1961
... Girl of Dark
• Ruten no ouhi 1960
... The Wandering Princess
• Oginsama 1960
... Love Under the Crucifix
• Chibusa yo eien nare 1955
... The Eternal Breasts
• Tsuki wa noborinu 1955
... The Moon Has Risen
• Koibumi 1953
... Love Letter
Now here is where my disappointment comes in. I’ve read all these wonderful things about Kinuyo and have see some of her acting on youtube.com, but I cannot find any clips of the movies she has directed. Netflix has even failed me. Netflix! They also only had movies to rent that she acted in. So while it wasn’t difficult to find writing on her life and career, I am having a hard time finding examples of her directing.

Posted by Ashley Day at 08:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's true I always wanted love to be
Hurtful
And it's true I always wanted love to be
Filled with pain
And bruises

And there's no rhyme or reason
I'm changing like the seasons
Watch! I'll even cut off my finger
It will grow back like a Starfish!
It will grow back like a Starfish!
It will grow back like a Starfish!

-antony and the johnsons

I believe that any reference to Jane Campion's film, "The Piano," as being a "feminist film" ie, a film propagating feminist themes and beliefs, is highly problematic. First of all, let me clarify, I am in no way arguing the artistic merit or questioning the cinematic “value” of this filmic event. I am not debating the content of the film, its sex appeal, or questioning its themes (though I could).What I see as the danger, surrounding this film is any reference to it as being a “feminist film.” This statement (to be highly unprofessional and personal) fills me with horror.

To begin with, let me offer a working definition of feminism. I offer this definition as a base to work off and I am not making assumptions that disregard intersectionality. To clarify, due to time constraints I will try to restrict myself to simply addressing the relations between the two lovers (Ada and Bains). I am failing to address the issues of race, colonization, silenceing of women, mother daughter relations, and the stereotyping of women and men. I will now offer a working definition that I feel will provide me adequate fuel to argue.

“Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression” (hooks).

Under this definition, I question any claim that “The Piano” propagates a feminist viewpoint, or that its themes support the struggle against sexist exploitation and oppression. For me, the key factor is that issues of violence, racial difference, and aggressive sexuality “(...) is portrayed uncritically, as though it is "natural" the inevitable climax of conflicting passions. The outcome of this violence is positive” (hooks).
To present issues addressed by feminism without commentary on them further perpetrates these stereotypes instead of questioning them. We are meant to accept them as the norm, to internalize them, not to think about the implications of them.

One of my main issues regarding this film is its representation of heterosexual love. What starts out as an exchanging of commodities, Ada’s body for her piano, becomes an exchange of love with seemingly no transition inbetween. First of all, this act of exchanging a female body for material goods (to my understanding) does nothing to call for the end of sexual exploitation. Second of all, to call what these two individuals share “love” is most certainly perpetuating a patriarchal, oppressive structure of male/female relations. Bell hooks beautifully argues that:

“ (…)patriarchy, like any colonizing system, does not create the context for women and men to love one another (...) genuine love between females and males could emerge only in a context where the sexes would come together to challenge and change patriachal thought. To continue to speak of love, we would have had to break through the wall of denial that seduces us all to accept subordination and domination as natural facts of everyday life (...) domination and love do not go together (...) if one is present, the other is not” (bell hooks).

It is not an innocent act to show or suggest that “male sexual domination of women in no way threatens female autonomy or independence” (hooks). This is not a question of desire, this is not an issue of giving space and voice to the practice of sadomasochism as a legitimate sexual experience. A female expressing sexuality or acting upon her desires does not just inherently equal a feminist. Feminism does not equal a woman doing whatever she wants. For instance, we must constantly question why we want what we want. Who is it that has constructed the society that we live in and how are these powers being used to construct the ways in which we think? The study of historiography tells us that very way in which we think is organized in a particular fashion by the institutions under which we function. In the society we function in, it does not service the institutions that govern us to promote love and sex between genders in a way that disempowers marriage, or “traditional” Christian notions of heterosexuality.

One cannot generalize a sexual act as being feminist as every woman has her own intentions and circumstance. For what purpose is the sexual act being used? Both celibacy and active sexuality can be used to empower and liberate individuals in the correct context. But to assume that expressions of sexual expression or lack of is “inherently” feminist is problematic and incorrect.
Bell hooks explains,
“We are bombarded with images suggesting that male sexual domination of women in no way threatens female autonomy or independence. In actuality, male domination of females in the sexual arena (whether they maintain control by wanting too much sex or none at all) is a constant reminder that females are not free, that we have not attained full equal rights or equity.”
-bell hooks

I would argue that Ada never employs agency within the film. She simply operates within a patriarchal structure, drifting between masters and loving the man who can dominate her most fully, allowing her to “be so wholly his that I exist no longer” (simone de beauvoir quote from “Janet”). This seductive idea of heterosexual love is deeply problematic for the contemporary feminist when it is romanticized and allowed to exist without commentary. It echos the love stories and fairy tales we were raised with as children. When will our knight ride in to rescue us? When will the man strong enough to tame me arrive? What makes this dream so seductive is that it is the ultimate Oedipal fantasty, “the fantasy of the all-powerful parents who will take care of you forever”(hooks).

As long as women are conditioned to believe that they are not their own saviors, that they do not need to exercise agency in love, women will not be free to love or to exist free of patriarchal control. “It takes courage for women to challenge the seduction of domination, the making of love synonymous with the erotic conflict between the powerful and the powerless” (hooks). Women need to have the courage to question the sexual sadomasochism in both the public and private arenas of their lives and see this sadomasochism not as, an innocent portal of sexual normality, but as a response to the “unresolved changes in the nature of gender roles” (hooks).

If we feel we are without agency and lack the courage to change our inadequate model of relationships in which neither party truly loves the other, then it helps to romanticize, erotizes, and pretend we want the model we already have. This is a mistake. Our power as both women and men to challenge the “essential differences” in our attitudes towards loving and towards each other is one of our greatest weapons.

“Women who learn to love represent the greatest threat to the patriarchal status quo” (hooks).

As long as men and women allow ourselves to believe that love can exist in relationships charged with pain, humiliation, and domination (Ada and Bains), we negate all possibility that we may someday learn to love each other in a way that promotes the end of sexism and oppression. In order to promote feminism, this film would have to approach this relationship between a man and a woman in a way that allowed them to come together to challenge the patriarchy. It does not. It instead presents us with a woman who asks to be given away by her husband to another man in the hope that he will be able to “save” her.

Allow me to propose that “There is a silence where hath been no sound. There is a silence where no sound may be” and that that silence must be filled and broken down. It takes courage to have agency and to take responsibility for ones actions, but until we jump together, men and women, into the unknown, into a parallel world where we redefine our notions of viewing each other, we will never see each other. As long as we allow ourselves to be duped by our institutions into believing that the current mainstream representations of love given visibility are harmless, we will continue to rationalize and exist within a structure that promotes a gender binary that oppresses and exploits us.

.

Posted by Alissa McCourt at 03:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. Aurora Guerreo has always had a strong interest in her family's culture and history. She received her bachelors degree in psychology and Chicano studies, and then went on to receive her MFA in film making. Guerreo strives to bring an intelligent and realistic view of her cultural roots to the rest of America. She wants to fill the void that exists in the proper representation of her culture. In 2006 she was voted #13 in Film Maker Magazine's list of 25 faces of independent film.
2. Her most notable works include: Pura Lengua (2005)- debued at the Sundance Film Festival, Viernes Girl- which won the 2005 HBO/New York Latino International Film Festival short film competition, and Mosquita y Mari - for which she wrote a feature length script, and for it won the Sundance Ford Fellowship and Paul Robeson Development Grant in 2005, and was also selected for the Tribeca All Access Program.
3. I was unable to find a link to any of her work, but here is a link to the previously mentioned article from Film Maker Magazine: http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/summer2006/features/25_faces11-15.php

4. I personally found Guerrero by going to google.com and typing in "women 'of color' film makers." I then clicked on a link that was titled "Women of Color Film Festival." I found her name on the site and went back to google.com and typed her name in and found many articles about her. Her work shows in film festivals all around America, but as of yet has not shown in many major theaters.
5. It was not too difficult for me to find Aurora Guerrero. Especially because she is, according to Film Maker Magazine, one to look for in the near future.

Posted by Brigitte Bartholdi at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hala Khalil is a writer/director born in Egypt in 1967. She was an engineering student at one point, but switched paths and instead became a student at the Film Academy in Cairo, where she got a degree in film directing in 1992. Since then, she has made many short films and documentaries, along with two feature films in the past three years. Most, if not all, of her work has earned her recognition and awards at film festivals and she is proving to be one of the more acclaimed new directors from Egypt.

Her earlier work is mostly shorts and documentaries, including "The Kite" (1997) which received awards at both the Milano and Egyption Film Festivals. More recently, though, she has begun making fictional feature films, the first of which was "The Best Times" in 2004. This film shows the growth of a young woman who, after her mother's death, returns to her childhood home to become better acquainted with her past and herself, helped along by music and anonymous letters. The numerous awards (from the Rotterdam Arab Film Festival, the Rabat Film Festival, and the Egyption Film Festival) and good reviews for "The Best Times" have created much hype for her current film, "Cut and Paste" (2006). "Cut and Paste" follows two strangers with dead-end jobs in Cairo who meet with hopes to emigrate from Egypt to New Zealand. They decide to get married in order to be able to obtain visas more easily, and plan to part ways once they have arrived in Oceania. However, the involvement of family and friends in the complicates everything...

This trailer (and a similar one, but in the form of a music video) seem to be the only media of Hala Khalil's work I can find online. Even without subtitles, the film seems a little silly, a little (over)dramatic, and brimming with fun and sometimes intense (though maybe cheesy) music; it seems to be, essentially, a true romantic comedy. Hopefully it finds its way to Minneapolis.

I found Hala Khalil by searching through Landmark Theatres' websites in different cities, which eventually linked me to an Arab Film Festival taking place in San Francisco. Her films are, from what I could find, almost exclusively shown at film festivals and they seem to do well there. However, her awards seem to mainly come form Arab film festivals, so I am not sure if her films are screened only at these specific events, or if these just happen to be the ones where her and her films get more recognition.

Though it was fairly easy to find Hala Khalil, it was extremely difficult to find any information on her or her projects. I was even searching in Arab and translating pages on a random basis to see if one would have some real, solid information on her and her films. Unfortunately, it didn't help much. I did get some basic facts, though, and there were quite a few reviews of her two feature films. Now that I know her name, I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for her.

Posted by Magyar at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bridgett M. Davis is a woman of many talents. She is currently an associate English professor at New York’s Baruch College. Her area of teaching pertains to creative writing and literature. She dabbled in film, both directing and penning the screenplay for the award winning and critically acclaimed film Naked Acts in 1996. Prior to her teaching and film, she was a news journalist for the Philadelphia Inquirer as well for the Chicago Tribune, New York Newsday, Columbia Journalism Review, Wall Street Journal and the Detroit Free Press. She is also an established author, with her recent book Shifting Through Neutral, which Booklist Magazine calls, “A riveting family drama filled with sharply drawn individuals who love and fail each other with stunning intensity.” She has also written In The Tradition, a compilation of pieces from young African-American writers.

Her only film has been Naked Acts, released in 1996. She was both director and screenwriter for this film.

Although I have not been able to view her film Naked Acts, I was able to read excerpts of her writing online. I was also not able to locate a clip of her film on YouTube, sadly.

I found Bridgett Davis through the Sisters in Cinema link on our course blog. Her film Naked Acts was released in 1996, so it is obviously out of theatres. According to IMDB it is available on DVD, which I was able to locate on Amazon on both DVD and VHS.

It was not very difficult to locate information about Bridgett Davis. There were many biographies available about her on different college university as well as publishing houses websites. Her literature is readily available in bookstores, and her film is readily available online; information for both was easy to find.

Posted by Mr. Hilton at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Trinh T. Minh-ha was born in Vietnam, and she is a filmmaker, writer and composer. She is the recipient of several grants and awards, such as the “Trailblaizers” Award at MIPDOC and the AFI National Independent Filmmaker Maya Deren Award, along with fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundations, Rockefeller Foundation, and the American Film Institute. Trinh Minh-ha has traveled and lectured in the States, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealan. Her lectures are on film, art, feminism, and cultural politics. She taught at the National Conservatory of Music in Dakar, Senegal, at universities like Cornell, San Francisco State, Smith, Harvard, and Ochanomizu in Tokyo. She is a Professor of Women's Studies and Rhetoric (Film) at the University of California, Berkeley.

Her works as a filmmaker are:
Night Passage (2004)
The Fourth Dimension (2001)
A Tale of Love (1995)
Shoot for the Contents (1991)
Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1989)
Naked Spaces - Living is Round (1985)
Reassemblage (1982)

She also has a number of books, installations, and musical compositions. I did not get a chance to see any films or trailers but by reading the descriptions of the film it seems that she really focuses on the image. She tries to encompass feeling and humanity through an image that seems almost like a fantasy. Many of her films are mostly about women's journeys in life, political issues, such as the Tiennamen Square event, and deeper issues such as identity, culture, and humanity. I think that these are issues that are important to portray in film because they are not often seen in film. Seeing images about these issues can be a very powerful experience and I think it is great that she makes films about issues she is passionate about. I would really like to see a film of hers one day.

This is a link to her website, in which one can view descriptions of all of her films, books, installations, and music compositions. http://www.trinhminh-ha.com/

Her website lists 10 locations that one could buy her films, and these are spread across Japan, Australia, France, Britain, U.S.-New York, Korea, Germany. One can also buy her films from the Women Make Movies website. Other than that I believe that I would only be able to view her films at film festivals or indie movie theatres. I found her because I was reading an article about "Women of Color Filmmakers" in the New York Times online. Other than that I do not think I would ever have heard of her, and it is pretty difficult to find her online unless you search directly for her.

Posted by Magda Bilska at 10:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ngozi Onwurah was born in Nigeria in 1966. Her familiy fled Nigeria becuase of the civil war when Onwurah was nine years old. They settled in Britain where she studied film at St. Martin's School of Arts and the National Film and Television School. She makes films in a variety of formats. Short films, documentaries, and feature length narratives. Onwurah's first short length film (an under graduate senior project) COFFEE COLOURED CHILDREN won first prize in the BBC Showreel competion, jumpstarting her career. She has won four other awards.

Onwurah has over a dozen directorial credits. A few of her works include: Shoot the Messenger (2006), Mama Africa (2002, also the only one of her films available on Netflix), Welcome II the Terror Dome (1995), The Body Beautiful (1991), Coffee Coloured Children (1988).

Reading about her work, especially The Body Beatiful and Shoot the Messenger, definetly made me want to see it. The ideas she addresses in her films, anti-imperialism, the construction of race, and the many cultural constructions of the body are all very interesting to me. However, her films seem to be very difficult to obtain in this country. I gather in the UK she is better known, but here only one of her films is readily available over the internet. Others are available on Women Make Movie's website– which is where I started my inquiry into Onwurah. Unfortunately, her work rarely shows outside of film festivals. I couldn't find a personal webpage but her IMDB page is: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0648937/

Posted by Eben Kowler at 09:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. While searching through the women film directors’ link, I ran across Nora Ephron, so I decided to randomly pick her. Nora was born in New York City on May 19, 1941. Nora was educated at Wellesley College, Massachusetts with a degree in journalism. She started out in journalism and eventually moved into screenwriting. She is an acclaimed essayist, novelist, and has written screenplays for several popular films. Nora is the daughter of stage and screen-writing team Henry Ephron and Phoebe Ephron.

2. Nora made her directorial debut with the comedy This is My Life in 1992, which was a story about a single mom who struggles to establish herself as a stand up comedian. Most of her films feature strong female characters. Her follow-up to her debut, she co-wrote Sleepless in Seattle (1993). More of her work includes:
• When Harry Met Sally (Nora earned an Oscar nomination for her original screenplay)
• Bewitched
• You’ve Got Mail
• Michael
• My Blue Heaven
• Mixed Nuts
3. I have seen a lot of her work. I absolutely love Sleepless in Seattle; you’ve Got Mail, Michael, and When Harry Met Sally. I had no idea that she was part of these movies.
4. I found this information on The Internet Movie Database website and also in the Nora Ephron Biography page online.
5. It was not difficult to find information about Nora; she is a very well known female in the business.

Posted by Rachel Kyllander at 07:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

1 - name, short bio, background info on filmmaker (and image if you can find it)
Kim So Young, 37, Korean woman, who married Korean producer and worked with him to make her movie. The day after So Yong Kim’s directorial debut, In Between Days, premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival,

2 - names, short summary of any of their work
In Between Days, 2006)…Filmed almost entirely in Korean with non-professional actors, Days’ entrancing vérité tracks young Aimie (Jiseon Kim) and her budding, unrequited love for her best friend Tran (Taegu Andy Kang). Amy’s struggles adapting to foreign culture partially reflect those of the filmmaker, who moved to America from her native Pusan, Korea, when she was 12.

In Between Days is a love story, so hopefully it can reach out to other people who are not Koreans and not immigrants but [who] relate to growing up

3 - any reflections on their work (if you are able to view), and post link to the work and/or homepage
She said it was first time writing a scenario and she focused to write about Aimie’s whole life. But But she realized that it will get to complex to picture all of Aimie’s life and she had to cut and edit her story again. I though that this is what helped this movie great, because it became easy and simple. I think deduce complex to make it simple is good. That’s why I liked the movie.

4 - where you've found them (and/or where their work shows)
I found So Young’s information through Filmmaker magazine's "Top 25" to watch article. However I knew about her before and I started to search on Korean web site, because it is easier for me to find info there. Not like America, I think that Korean people are more aware of Korean woman filmmaker and their work. Even people don’t realize whose work it was, they are more interested to watch woman filmmaker’s production as they seem they are open mind to them.
5 - how easy/difficult it was for you to find these women (the where are the women ?)
It was not difficult to find her work and about her because there were so many articles about her (in Korean). Maybe it is my mistake that there are more woman filmmakers who haven’t had spotlight and assume that everything seems okay to me. I don’t know. But I know Koreans are hybrid movie watcher and they are aware of responding woman filmmaker’s voice.

Posted by Stella at 07:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Biography
Maureen Blackwood, a Jamaican descendent, was born in 1960 in the United Kingdom. At the time, the United Kingdom was racially and class divided, which caused a great inspiration for Blackwood's film making. She was able to take something so sad and sick, as this dividing, and turn it into an amazing artform, that is Maureen Blackwood. She attended the University of Westminster and received a degree in media studies. After this, in 1983, Blackwood and many others formed Sankofa, a film makers and producers company that promotes the black film makers in every way. Blackwood sees Sankofa as a tool for Blacks in the United Kingdom to use in order to have their voice heard, since they have such an amazing and completely different story to tell then the white community.

Work:
* The Passion of Remembrance, Sankofa Film and Video Collective (A great representation of the complexity and diversity that make up the black woman.)
* Representation and Blacks in British Cinema; Channel Four Television (Documentry of.)
* Perfect Image? Sankofa Film and Video Collective, 1988 (Challenges society's sterotype of black women and of women as a whole.)
* Home Away From Home, Channel Four Television, 1994 (The story of a black woman and her triumphs and trials as an immigrant worker.)

View:
I was lucky enough to view "Home Away From Home" since one of my roommate's has it on DVD and is a great follower of her work. Unfortunatly, I was not able to view any of her videos online, so I will not be able to upload any of her videos. Her material, specifically this one, is very raw. She is shows the "nitty-gritty" of what it is like to live a life as difficult, but as great as the woman portrayed. The movie is very short, but within those few passing minutes, you take away a great deal of emotion that some director's can convey within their whole careers.

Where is the Work?
My roommate received this DVD copy from his film maker mentor in St. Paul, who is also a great follower of Maureen Blackwood. Otherwise, I did not find any of her work on your regular Blockbuster or Hollywood Video shelf. I found this very disappointing, since I was fortunate enough to view her work.

Where are the Women?
If it was for the odd coincidence that my roommate is a film student AND a huge fan of Maureen Blackwood, I would not have been able to view her work, unless I ordered it, and even then it is difficult to find. It seems to me that the people who work with films or know them well, are the only people fortunate enough to view her amazing work.

Resources:
http://www.wmm.com/filmcatalog/makers/fm12.shtml
http://www.answers.com/topic/maureen-blackwood

Posted by Meredith Martyr at 06:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Kinuyo Tanaka was the first female director of Japan. Prior to directing, she starred in many of the films of such famous directors as Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujiro Ozu. She was featured in one-hundred and thirty-one films, ranging from years 1924 to 1976. Her first film was a film entitled Kuibumi, releaesed in the year 1953. She went on to direct five more features in the next six years, including Tsuki wa Noburinu (1955), Chibusa yo eien nare (1955) Oginsama (1960) Ruten no Ouhi (1960) and Onna Bakari no Yoru (1961), which was her final film that she directed. She died in the year 1977.
I had a very easy time finding out about Kinuyo Tanaka. On the wikipedia page for women directors, under the subcategory of women of color, she was listed as a director from Japan. I was able to obtain a more complete list of the films that she has directed by going into imdb.com. While I had no problems in finding out who she was, there is very little information about her available beyond this basic overview. The information that is about her tends to focus more so on her role as an actress within the male directed films that she starred in than the films that she directed. Similarily, while it is is quite easy to find many of the films that she has starred in from a place such as netflix, none of the films that she has directed have any video distribution in the US, which makes them very difficult to obtain. Even from import sites such as HKDvd.com or Nippon-export.com, they do not have any of the films that she directed available. I have also been unable to find any reviews or even plot synopsis of any of the films that she has directed. This does not necessarily mean that she has been forgotten about as a director, as a great deal of information never really makes it from Japan to the western world. Still, it is unfortunate that none of the films she directed and that very little information about these films is available in this country, as I'm sure it was a difficult task, even for an established movie star, for a woman to succesfuly direct films in 1950s Japan.

Posted by Robin Youngman at 04:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"This is an important step for Latina women, so we don't have to rely on the whole glamour actress thing. My film cost $500,000, and with the small budget and level of control, I didn't have to let anyone tell me how to portray my own culture."
-Maria Escobedo

Maria Escobedo was born in 1964 and was raised in New York City. She earned a BFA in film at the School of Visual Arts and studied advanced screenwriting at NYU. This is about the extent of background information that I was able to find on her.

She and her partner/husband established Rain Forest Films, where Maria wrote and directed

Rum and Coke (Synopsis courtesy of imdb.com)
Linda (Diana Marquis) is a bright, confident and independent daughter of Cuban immigrants who has vowed to stay away from all Latino men. She has a safe, comfortable relationship with her average, self-absorbed boyfriend, Steve (Christopher Marazzo). Her passionless life is all planned until she meets Jose (Juan Carlos Hernandez), a handsome, aggressive and charming firefighter, who woos her back to her roots and proves love is a risk... and so is learning to dance Salsa!

Rum and Coke won praise at film festivals worldwide, aired on Starz/Encore and was released on video and DVD. As a Disney·ABC Writing Fellow, Maria was staffed on Grey’s Anatomy.

I think that Rum and Coke looks very professional (on the trailer) and seems very put together for a beginning filmmaker and writer. I like that Escobedo seems to be connecting herself with the film, demonstrated in the quote at the top of this blog.

This is the trailer I found of Rum and Coke:
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/193573/Rum-and-Coke/trailers
I was browsing through several online issues of Movie Maker magazine. In the archive I came across an article pertaining to Latin Cinema and as I read further I discovered Maria Escobedo’s work. There were also several other female directors being quoted within the article. It was difficult to find personal information on Escobedo, but the popularity of Rum and Coke seemed to have put her on the radar.

Posted by Nicole Berg at 03:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Don't get me wrong, I believe "The Piano" to be a very smart movie, rife with feminist theories and building blocks. But at the end of the day, Campion correctly distinguishes a "film about feminism" from a "feminist film".

Pick your adjective: independent, strong, career-driven. Women can be all these things (and more) and still promote a patriarchal system. Call me uppity, but I think snapping the binary of male-female onto the binary of patriarchy-feminism is, frankly, barbaric.

Feminism does not end with women elected into established positions of power; feminism (as per my beliefs) is an active critique on those established positions of power. Should Hillary Clinton win the 2008 presidential race, will it be a shining day for feminism everywhere or just "business as usual"? I argue the latter. Philosopher Antonin Artaud postulated that any CONTENT was fleeting, but that FORM was "the invisible pistol held to people's heads". As long as we perpetuate the same top-down, "all [X] dominate all [Y]" form (even if it's all women dominating all men!), aren't we just feeding the same system that feminism originally sought to destroy?

"The Piano" was produced by Lions Gate Entertainment, an American-based studio mired in a capitalistic society. Lions Gate gave the final greenlight, and the only reason why they would do that is because the saw the project as profitable. And profitable movies require a narrative and cinematic vocabulary that the masses can understand ("Passion of the Christ", anyone?). How feminist can a film be when its very construction is painstakingly framed by established models, rubrics, and systems?

Again, I thought "The Piano" was a moving and brilliant film, an evocative film that utilized feminist building blocks, but above all, a Hollywood (read: patriarchal) film.

Posted by Christopher Kehoe at 09:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hi all, just wanted to reserve a director like a few others...I'll be posting more after I research Maria Novaro!

Posted by Kristen Kramer at 06:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I can understand why many people would argue that this film is not feminist. I however, would have to disagree. I think that the film is feminist. Just because the main character isn't an outspoken, independent, career driven woman, does not mean that the film isn't feminist. Feminism comes in many different forms and personalities. Also, there needs to be conflicts within a film to make it interesting. For the sake of good filmmaking, there needs to be different points of views within it.

The camera focuses on the naked male. Ada is only naked a little bit in the movie, and when she is the camera does not focus on her body, it just focuses on the scene. Both George Baines and Alistair Stuart are naked on camera. Only when the males are naked the camera gazes at them. It moves up and down their body for long periods of time. It is a sexual gaze. This is the opposite from almost all other Hollywood films where the naked female body is the main object to look at.

Going back to Ada, I think she has a lot of feministic qualities. She sticks up for herself and doesn't let anyone push her around, not even her husband. Which is a good accomplishment guessing that it is some time very well in the past. She is very stubborn and always gets what she wants. Even when the men tell her no. She lets George sexually do things to her in order to get her piano back. Even though she sort of sells her body for her piano, she does not loose her pride. The piano is what she wants, and she is going to get it no matter what. She shows no signs of being ashamed. Thats another good quality Ada possesses. She never feels sorry or ashamed of herself. She stands up for herself. Everyone is frustrated that she can't talk, but Ada does not care. She does not want to talk and so she does not. Also, she is not ashamed of wanting to have an affair with George. I realize that it is very unethical, but that is besides the point. She does not love her husband, but she does love George. So she sees him and has an affair with him. Feminism is about women being able to make their own choices. The marriage of her husband was a forced marriage. She broke free from it.

There was a lot of feminist points in the movie, the biggest most obvious one to me was Ada. She is a very strange person, but I believe that in her own way she exhibits feministic qualities.

Posted by Whitney Hanssen at 06:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. Gina Prince-Bythewood (38) is an African American woman film and television director and writer. She studied at the UCLA Film school, where she received the Gene Reynold's scholarship for directing and the Ray Stark Memorial scholarship for outstanding undergraduate. Upon graduating from UCLA in 1991, she was immediately hired as a writer on the TV series "A Different World." She continued to write and direct for a number of TV series, before making the transition to film direction with award winning films such as "Love and Basketball." She currently works and lives in Southern California with her husband Reggie Rock Bythewood, who is also a film writer and director and their two sons, Cassius and Toussaint.

2. Her most well recognized films include "Disappearing Acts" (2000) A love story about an African American couple in Brooklyn New York and "Love and Basketball"(2000) which was produced by Spike Lee and debuted at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. For "Love and Basketball" she won an Independent Spirit Award for best first feature and a Humanities prize.

She earned her first feature film producer credit for her work on "Biker Boyz"(2003). Which is a Dreamworks film, that she co-wrote with her husband. Although she is best known for her work on the films "Love and Basketball" and "Disappearing Acts", she has also written and directed a remarkable number of television episodes and series. Including, her directorial television debut on the CBS school break special "What About Your Friends" (1995) for which she earned an NAACP image award, for best children's special and two Emmy nominations for writing and directing. Some of her other television works include, Felicity (1999), Reflections (2007), Damn Whitney (1997) and the Courthouse (1995). She is currently working on the upcoming film "The Secret Life of Bees", which is a film adaptation of the book written by female author Sue Monk Kidd that should hit theaters in 2009.

3. I have not seen and was unable to find online, any of her television work, or any of her films besides "Love and Basketball." Love and Basketball was one of my favorite movies as a teenage, which is why I was excited to finally learn more about it's amazing African American woman director. Love and basketball is a very inspiring, touching love story, about two African American teens' love for each other, and of course, for basketball. The female character is a great role-model for young women. She is simultaneously strong, beautiful, athletic and uncompromising. Also, I have read The Secret Life of Bees, and I love the story. It is about young girls coming of age and mother-daughter bonds. I am very excited to see Gina Prince-Bythewood's interpretation of Sue Monk Kidd's story.

4. In Love and Basketball Gina Prince-Bythewood is essentially telling a story about breaking the athletic glass ceiling. The lead female character has incredibly agency and resists several gender and racial stereotypes in her role. Specifically, the character of Monica repeatedly stands up for herself, by choosing her professional career as an athelete, over romance and the "lady-like" way that her family and friends want her to bahave. Although she struggles with many of the same aspects that women in society do such as, the balance between family and career, the last scene depicts her husband holding their baby while watching her in a WNBA game. Demonstrating a contradiction to the stereotypical gender roles in relation to sports and familiel roles. Furthermore, throughout the film the "gaze" is most often from the female protagonist's perspective and the sex scenes focus far more on the male character's body than the female's. Furthermore, when the gaze does focus on the female characters' bodies, it highlights their muscles and shows their sweat, in effect, making strong sexy in a similiar manner to the way hollywood movies depict men as strong and sexy.

5. I found "Love and Basketball" in the new release section of Hollywood video in 2001. Apparently you can easily rent her films and probably see her TV work either on network or cable television, or by renting the episodes or series that she has worked on. I found some trailers and music videos for "Love and Basketball" and "Reflections" on youtube but no feature length stuff. I found several photographs of her on google images and I read her biographies on IMDb and Wikipedia, although her biography on Wikipedia's was missing a great deal, to put it nicely.

6. It was very easy to find information on many women of color film-makers. The links definitely helped but it made me realize how many women of color film-makers there are and how much more I have to learn about them!

Posted by Rose Coleman at 05:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Just claiming my lady film maker.

more in a few hours.....

1. Catrina Chaos (born Catrina Roallos) was born in Manila, Philippines. As a child she grew up the San Francisco Bay Area. She considers herself a social activist and a punk rock, hip-hop street artist. Her mediums include video, 35mm film, mixed media and digital art. She is quoted saying that she enjoys puzzles and questions.
2. In 2003 Catrina received a Queer Asian & Pacific Islander Pride Scholarship. In 2004, her short video, Every Surface, was shown at the National Queer Arts Festival. Every Surface is an exploration of the graffiti art that surrounds us everyday on “every surface” and that slips by us on our car rides to nowhere.
3. I am fascinated with graffiti art and any social art form that seeks to “take back” and transform public spaces. Here is a link to some of her work I found.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQbnKKE66e8
4. I remembered seeing on YouTube a short shadow puppetry video by Chaos sometime back and I wanted to find out who she was. When I searched her name I found many references to her in links to the “Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project.” She has participated in the National Queer Arts Festival where her film was shown at a Queer Women of Color Film night.
5. Other than these references to her work regarding the Queer Women of Color Media Arts project, I had difficulty in finding any article or web page that did more than scratch the surface or just name drop about Chaos.

Posted by Alissa McCourt at 03:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Shonda Rhimes is an African-American woman who grew up in University Park, Illinois. Rhimes attended a private Catholic school growing up in Chicago. She went on to graduate from Dartmouth College with a BA in English literature. As a student she was active as a director in the Black Underground Theatre and Arts Association, which is a student group at Dartmouth for the performing arts. Shonda also graduated from the University of Southern California – School of Cinema-Television with a MFA. She was awarded the Gary Rosenberg Writing Fellowship, which is a prestigious award for writing at USC. Shonda Rhimes is a writer, director and producer.

Shonda is well known for her highly successful writing in the series Grey’s Anatomy. Before Grey’s Anatomy, she directed the film Blossom and Veils in 1998, which stars Jada Pinkett Smith and Omar Epps. She has also written for Crossroads (starring Britney Spears), The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement, and Private Practice, the new Grey’s Anatomy spin off series.

I have seen Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, Crossroads, and The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement. Shonda’s work portrays strong, smart women, or women who become stronger over the course of the films. This is why I enjoy watching Grey’s Anatomy. They are strong women from every walk of life. It shows that women do not need to have a man to support them. They can achieve anything in life with knowledge. Personally, my favorite character in Grey’s Anatomy is Izzie Stevens, a blonde doctor, who came from absolutely nothing and put herself through medical school. Shonda defies the blonde stereotype with this character, and with many other characters.

I knew of Shonda from watching Grey’s Anatomy. However, I did not originally think of doing her because she is the writer. After many other attempts of trying to find information on other women filmmakers, I decided to search Shonda’s work and see if she had directed before. It was very easy to find information on Shonda Rhimes because of her recent success with Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. There is much more information posted about Shonda on websites like IMDB and TV.com than other women filmmakers, which is why I decided to switch to Shonda.

Tv.com
IMDB.com

Posted by Tapex002 at 03:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Demane Davis
1. She is the one on the right in the picture. She was born in Roxbury and I was unable to find her age anywhere. She started copywriting first and then started to direcct comercials just to pay the bills and learn more about the medium. She later became a screenwriter and a director.
2. She made her first film "Black, White & Red All Over" in 1997 in which she directed and wrote with Harry McCoy. This film went to the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for awards but unfortanatly did not win anything. She then co-wrote and co-directed "Lift" with Khari Streeter in 2001. Which is about a female car booster with a troubled family and also deals with the issues of shoplifting. This was also shown at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the NHK Award. It was also shown at the Uraban World Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize.
3. I was unfortanatly unable to find any of her work in clips.
4. I found the most information about her on the link to Sisters of Cinema and another website www.newenglandfilm.com/news/archives/01january/lift.htm
I posted the link to this site above if anyone would like to read it. It is an interview with Demain about her film "Lift."
As of where to view her work the only place that I found that it was available was to buy it online. Other than that it has just been shown at different film festivals.
5. I found it extreamly difficult to find her anywhere. It took me almost an hour to find any info that seemed crediable. I am still a little unsure on the information I did find. It was also hard to find a great deal of information on her movies. I was unable to find a clip of either one and was only able to find a way to buy it through a site on google and on the Sisters Of Cinema website. I would think that anyone who won awards at the Sundance Film Festival would be a whole lot easier to track down. The whole process I would say took me about two hours just to get all the information right. She is deffinetly tough to learn about.

Posted by sketch at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. Troy Yvette Beyer was born on November 7, 1964 to an African American Muslim mother and a white Jewish father in New York, New York. Beyer began her acting career with a role on the children's program Sesame Street at the age of four years old. She later attended City University of New York's School of the Arts studying acting and psychobiology. She then landed a bit part in Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club in 1984. She would then move to Los Angeles, where she became a regular on the ABC Prime-time soap opera Dynasty in 1986. Beyer went on to earn ShoWest's Newcomer of the year Award for leading role in the feature Roof Tops in 1989. Beyer is known as an American film director, screenwriter, and actress. She also has a very large supportive family that is made up of two paternal half brothers Jerry and Ryan Beyer and four Maternal half brothers Gregory, Mahmoud, Muhammad, and Jibreel and three Maternal half sisters April, Bahiyyah, and Imani. Beyer is married to Mark Burg and is currently still producing films today.

2. Troy Yvette Beyer has acted in features such as Weekend at Bernie's II (1993), Eddie (1996), The Gingerbread Man (1998) and John Q (2002). In 1997 She put her skills to use, making her screenwriting debut with B*A*P*S, which starred Halle Berry. In the next year she directed her next screenplay, Let's Talk About Sex .(1998). She also made a trailer and took it to the Sundance Film Festival where she would hand it out to executives. The film was quickly picked up by a prominent distributor. She next wrote and directed Love Dont Cost A Thing (2003). It's important to keep in mind that Beyer was romatically linked to musician Prince in the 1990's and appeared in the video for his song "Sexy MF".
Here's a link for Let's Talk About Sex Trailer The Film is about what women really want in a relationship.

3. I have personally watched Weekend at Bernie's II, which is very funny. I enjoyed the movie and I would watch it again. I have also seen Eddie, which starred Whoopi Goldberg. This film is also a comedy and I would watch is again. She plays key roles with Goldberg, which helps her gain fame. I have not seen Gingerbread Man, therefore no personal take on it. My favorite screenplay that Beyer is director of and acts in is Let's Talk About Sex. The film is very telling about what women really want in relationships and pushes the limits. The film is very modern and realistic. I like how she took real interviews and made them part of the production. Like I mentioned earlier she took Let's Talk About Sex to the Sundance Film Festival where she quickly gained recongization.

4. I found Troy Yvetter Beyer on the Filmmaker's list on the Sister In Cinema website that is listed on the right hand side of this page. She was listed with many others who have made themselves known through their work. Beyer work shows in many, many places. She has been to many film festivales, and her films are in local public places like Blockbuster, Hollywood video etc. You can view clips/trailers on any major hollywood film site. She is a very well known name for the works she has acted in and produced.

5. I found it very easy to find these women and especially Troy Beyer. She is very talented and known for the works she puts out. She pushes the boundries about women's sexuality in her pieces and talks about romance a lot. She uses sexuality to sell and it really works in her films. Sundance has her in their timeline for recongization for Love Don't Cost A Thing, and Let's Talk About Sex.

Biography information found on Wikipedia.com
Film information on SundanceFilmFestival.com

Posted by Jessica Haddrill at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

1. Short Biography:
Euzhan Palcy was born in Martinique, France in 1957. She moved to Paris in 1975, and in 1983, won the Silver Lion award for her first film, Sugar Cane Alley. She is noted for being the first Black woman to direct a mainstream Hollywood film: A Dry White Season. She is best known for her films focusing on social change and cultural issues

2. Filmography:
1975 La messagère (The Messenger) (for TV)
*Her first piece, written at age 17 for French television.

1982 L'atelier du diable (The Devil's Workshop) (for TV)
*A comedy short

1983 Rue cases nègres (Sugar Cane Alley, Black Shack Ally)
*Her feature debut, shot for less than $1,000,000. It documents the love and sacrifice of a poor black family living on a sugar cane plantation in Martinique in the 1930's, as seen through the eyes of a gifted young boy.

1989 A Dry White Season
*Adapted from the novel by South African writer, Andre Brink, this film concentrates on the social movements of South Africa and the Soweto riots. On this film, she became the first black female director produced by a major Hollywood studio.

1992 Siméon
*Set in the Caribbean and Paris, this is musical fairy tale between the dead and the living in which the ghostly spirit of a revered musician, poet and ladies man is held captive by a young girl until he performs a good deed.

1994 Aimé Céaire: un voix pour l'histoire (Aimé Céaire: A Voice for History)
* A three part portrait of Aimé Césaire, famed Martinique poet, playwright and philosopher.

1998 Ruby Bridges (for TV)
*The true story of Ruby Bridges, an African-American girl who, in 1960 at age 6, helped to integrate the all-white schools of New Orleans.

2001 The Killing Yard
*A drama is based on the true events surrounding the 1971 Attica prison uprising which had an indelible impact on the American prison system and jury selection process.

3. Response to Work:

This is the only bit of her work I was able to get a hold of. In this trailer to Sugar Cane Alley I was most interested in the way the segments were shot to tell the story from the childs perspective. There was something youthful and playful about the cameras gaze that reinforced the nature of the protagonist. I was also moved by the landscape and color pallete. There was something beautiful yet raw about the location and the connection the characters have with it.

4. Where did I find her/Where does her work show:
I found Euzhan Palcy through the Index of Women Filmakers page. From there I researched her life and work and I found her official site, which proved very useful.
http://www.euzhanpalcy.com/ephome3.html

Most of her work appears in France and the United States. Many of her works are made for television and screened at film festivals. Some of her films have been produced by big Hollywood companies but even those do not seem to have a lot of publicity.

5. Where are the women?
It was easy to find Euzhan Palcy from the links provided on the blog, but that was the last step of this search that was easy. Other than her website, there is very little publicity surrounding her life and works. The trailer I posted was the only bit of her work I was able to view. I am surprised that even with Hollywood backing I was not able to locate trailers or clips for A Dry White Season.

Posted by R.S. at 12:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Patricia cardosa was born in Bogota, Columbia. Her family moved to the united states in 1987. She earned a degree in archeology and anthropology. She spent her time researching the Tairona culture, and had her findings published in numerous academic journals. She worked as a teacher at Universidad Javeriana, and had a stint as an assistant director at the Columbian Institute of Culture. She felt unfulfilled by her work and went back to school for film. Her 2002 film Real Women Have Curves is her most successful film to date, this is the only film by her that i have seen. i enjoyed the film, and i think it shows a realistic picture of modern life not only for Latinas, but also for young women in general. She is an independent film director, so her films are harder to come by. most work is shown at film festivals, like sundance.
Her Work (from imdb)-
Nappily Ever After (2008) (announced)
Real Women Have Curves (2002)
Reino de los cielos, El (1994)
... aka The Kingdom of Heaven
The Water Carrier of Cucunuba (1994)
Cartas al niño Dios (1991)
The Air Globes (1990)
Aisle of Dreams (1989)

Posted by Emily Dolentz at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Before this class, I had never studied any sort of feminism. I have brushed upon it slightly in one or two of my other classes in high school, but I really didn't know exactly what it was. After being educated on the subject, the people in the video that we saw on the first day of class seem extremely silly. I think a lot of the reason why their answers were so pitiful is because they are uneducated on the topic. I think when the word feminism comes up, men don't care and aren't interested because they think it is only for women and it does not affect them, so they choose not to learn about it. What they don't know is that it affect both genders and it is positive. A lot of them are probably even intimidated by it. I think spreading the word of what feminism really is will make feminism a more positive word.

Posted by Whitney Hanssen at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)