Feminism
Before this class I never took a film/media class let alone feminist class. I came in not knowing what to think. The only images that came to my head when hearing the word “feminist” was a bunch of women burning their bras, and looking disheveled. My image of feminism has changed greatly by taking this class.
A feminist in my opinion is anyone, male or female, who believes in equality between the sexes. With this being said, a feminist filmmaker is one who produces/directs films, with an equality mindset. This would mean that through the movie’s content and during production no favoritism is shown to one sex or the other. An example of this is Rebecca Miller who directed Personal Velocity. Instead of having a team mainly composed of men, she hired more women who were just as qualified to make the team more even. Those who consider themselves feminist, I would probably agree with. If they share the ideals of not letting men and others with more power carry out control over others.
In the media, I have realized that many of the directors are men. Even for the classified “women shows” men direct them. Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives are both directed by men. After looking harder to find women directors, more and more were seen. For the series Gilmore Girls, most of the episodes were directed by women, and the many films we watched in class, with directors such as Campion (The Piano), Dunye (The Watermelon Women), and Pierce (Boys Don’t Cry).