F06 :: Feminist Film Studies

On The Readings:

The weblinks (on our WebCT site) are crucial this week! Print the pdf files & READ! Remember big brother (no, call me big mama!) can see who visits each link and downloads off the site!

1. Intro from Creative Filmmaking (WS)
2. Excerpts on Kimberly Pierce's (the director's) creative process from Creative Filmmaking (WS)
3.Branding Teena: Misrepresentations... (CP)

* Be prepared to discuss the films and the readings in class next week! *

Assignment: Use one of the following questions as a spark to write your post about Boys Don't Cry. Please READ WHAT OTHERS HAVE WRITTEN and BUILD upon topics. Please DO NOT REPEAT someone else's point, but add to the conversation they have started. There are many prompts and many places you can go with your ideas. Really, the possiblities are limitless. This post is due by NOON on Nov. 13!

Using key moments from the film and some ideas generated in the assigned (and/or optional readings) on Boys Don't Cry, address (in a paragraph or two) one of the following questions or ideas generated by the question(s):

✢ What is the relationship between narrative storytelling, a "real" or "true" event, and documentary filmmaking? What changes were made to the actual events? Were the changes (in the filmic telling) warranted, deceptive, simply a choice?

✢ What does a narrative film do that maybe the documentary, The Teena Brandon Story, wasn't able to achieve (thinking: public attention, issue awareness, create an Oscar winner, etc...) What is/was at stake in (re)telling a true story?

✢ Is Kimberly Pierce responsible for the story she tells? How and why? (think factual accuracy versus creative license, artistic accountability, ethics and responsibility)

✢ Should Hollywood/narrative films/filmmakers/actors be responsible or accountable for the stories they tell?

✢ Do films such as this, impact the public views on issues?

✢ What does Pierce achieve stylistically (think Director's palette)? Does this match her vision articulated in Creative Filmmaking text? How important is style? content? representation?

✢ What do you think about Pierce's directorial choices like casting "unknown" Swank instead of "big name" actor? What do you think about Swank's portrayal?

✢ What is/was at stake in representing transgender issues? What was in the public about these issues before the film? How has the film impacted society's view on gender, violence, and the other issues presented in the film?

✢ What is the role of language in this issue (cross-dresser, transsexual, transgender, use of pronouns like he/she)? How does the film use language to tell this story?

✢ What does the film say about the body - gender performativity, binding, "passing", masculinity/femininity/androgyny, sexual ambiguity, identity transformation, violence, and intolerance... Does the film reinforce or complicate gender binaries?

✢ What story does this film tell about "small-town" America? American values? American life?