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Women's Cinema (Draft)

Female Filmmakers as Feminists

In the film world, many female filmmakers are not given much attention or chances to show what they are capable of. This issue is still being debated on, but several activists aim to change and overcome this type of inequality. These activists aim to raise awareness and produce a social change to what is currently shown in the media. During the 1990’s, many films came about presenting female filmmakers from different nationalities and racial groups. For example, one of the films released that year is called Sisters in Cinema directed by Yvonne Welbon. This documentary was to demonstrate how African American female directors inspect their present spot in the business. By giving these female film directors the opportunity to showcase their work and demonstrate their actions then feminist documentaries will be as equally important to any other documentary. Not only this, but many documentaries tend to showcase different social activists who aim for a social change by raising awareness and reinforcing female film directors.

New Female Norwegian Film Directors

Female film directors in Norway did not draw much attention from their audience and therefore were being neglected. With this current generation, many Norwegian female directors had showed courageous development proving the importance of female filmmakers. Film directors Anja Breien, Vibeke Lokkeberg, and Laila Mikkelsen are considered to be the top female primary filmmakers that had showed great advancement in Norwegian films. Most documentaries showcase crucial critiques about discriminating females. These three leaders have showed the difference between Norway’s current filmmaking generation from their past filming generations. Social and economic aspects are two categories that have aroused females to become film directors. Breien, Lokkeberg, and Mikkelsen have been strongly influenced by male filmmakers and have adapted some film techniques in their own documentaries. The only reason to why scholars consider these male filmmakers as part of women's cinema were due to the two forgoing generations that have direct control over films during that time of year.

Important male directors such as Tancered Ibsen and Arne Skouen are the two most prominent figures that have lived in the U.S to learn and borrow different film techniques and styles. For example, Ibsen toured around areas in the States such as Hollywood to pick up different stylistic techniques. One technique he borrowed was synchronous sound, which he incorporated in many films. Later on, Skouen also known as a journalist, came along to collect some of these techniques and adopt them in some of his own films, this has helped him become not only a film director, but also a critic and novelist. Most of Skouen’s work are shown having male actors and a few female ones. His films are usually based on heroic characters showing male leadership and action. One of the films he created is called Nine Lives, which bases on a character of a group aiming to disrupt an air tower. While, Ibsen’s work generally shows a bit more of female figures in his comedic films that focus on social standards. For him, characterization is the key component to making successful films. He prefers to film scenes through natural causes or different weather conditions. This is where the three top female leaders come along. These two important male figures are what made the three film directors borrow such creative techniques. For example, the techniques used by Ibsen filming outdoor settings and long camera shots has moved towards Breie n, in which she has incorporated in her own films like Witch Hunt. On the other hand, Skouen’s filming styles on social issues has been used by Mikkelsen film called Growing Up and Lokkeberg’s The Story of Kamilla. From this, we can see a huge shift of female directors from the past to the current. These films that they have created are shown and characterized as the main and center of attention. There are similarities from the male directors, which was the use of techniques, but the differences are the approaches that the female directors are trying to convey.

African American Women’s Cinema

Since the revolutionary start of filmmaking, black women filmmakers have continuously struggled and are still struggling to showcase their work on feature films in Hollywood. However, that does not exclude the fact that there were various black women filmmakers who sparked during their time and age because of their phenomenal work behind the scenes. Jessie Maple is considered to be one of the most recognized figure for the civil rights of the African American community and women of color within the film industry. Her film career took off when she first worked as a film editor for the crime drama film Shaft’s Big Score (1972) and The Super Cops (1974) which was based on a book. She continued to work as a film editor for several years but eventually became the only black union cameraperson in her time in New York. With her devoted passion for film and activism growing by the day, Maple and her husband, Leroy Patton, created LJ Film productions, Inc. and when on about to produce several short documentaries within the border and context of black representation, such as Black Economic Power: Reality or Fantasy? (1977). Her two major works, Will (1988) and Twice as Nice (1988), were the first ever independent feature films to be solely created and directed by an African American woman.

Alile Sharon Larkin is known as a film director, producer and writer. She began her film career while earning her Master’s degree in UCLA in film and television production. One of her first films called Your Children Come Back to You (1979) depicts the ongoing dilemma that a young African American girl faces while choosing between her aunt’s desire to take in a European lifestyle while her mother is strictly intact with her African roots and culture. Larkin’s second film feature A Different Image (1982) gained her popular recognition and praise, and eventually won a first-place prize from the Black American Cinema Society. Her ongoing success in the film industry gave her the potential and opportunity to form her own production studio in order to create and enhance educational videos and television for young children. Dreadlocks and the Three Bears (1992) and Mz Medusa (1998) are some of the productions produced in her studio during the 1990’s.

Mexico

Women filmmakers in Latin America, specifically Mexico suffer from absolute neglect and ignorance by the film industry and audience. However, in the 1980’s and 1990’s things started to take a turn. Women filmmakers in Mexico finally got the opportunity to create and produce professional feature films. The most popular two would be El secreto de Romeila (1988) directed by Busi Cortés and Los pasos de Ana (1990) by Marisa Sistach. These two feature films were considered the doors that opened opportunity for women filmmakers in Mexico as well as created a new genre that people were not familiar with, labeled as ‘women’s cinema’. The phenomenal growth of ‘women’s cinema’, not only meant that there would be an infinite expansion in the list of female names as filmmakers or creators; in reality, it created a daunting cinematic genre by objectifying women as well as displacing them within the film industry.

Most of the female filmmakers in Mexico recognize as feminists. The primary reason for many of them to commit to being filmmakers was to depict stories of women in their original and true essence as well as to strive in readapting roles of females on the Mexican screen. According to Patricia Torres San Martín, an honorable film scholar, there is a new theme emerging within the film industry in Mexico which is known as the ‘new female identity’. This new structural change in cinema created a geographical cultural change in Mexico due to its new emerged eye-opening concept in the film industry.

Haifa Al - Mansour

Saudi Arabia

Haifa Al- Mansour is the first Saudi female filmmaker and is considered to be Saudi’s most controversial film creator, especially after her iconic film that created a buzz, Wadjda. She completed her undergraduate studies in the American university in Cairo then continued to pursue her master’s degree in film production from the University of Sydney in Australia. One of her three successful short films, Women Without Shadows, inspired hundreds of uprising Saudi filmmakers as well as raising questions towards the issue of publicly opening cinemas in Saudi. Her films have been both celebrated and criticized due to the fact that her work brings serious social topics Saudis are struggling with regarding their conservative culture and traditions.

In Wadjda, the main character, Waad Mohammed decides to go against social norms imposed on a ten-year-old girl in the kingdom. She becomes an outcast because of the bicycle she rides in public. However, the film ends on a light and inspiring note that frees Wadjda from all the social constraints set upon her. Haifa al Mansour reflects a portion of the Saudi society that refuses to accept the submissive traditional way of living. However, Wadjda promotes an amount of freedom for female rights that need more than an overnight change in such a conservative and restricted culture.

Australia

Australian Gothic Films

Gothic films incorporate Gothic elements and can be infused within different genres such as horror, romance, science fiction, and comedy. Australian Gothic films have been an accordant genera ever since the 1970s. Gothic Australian films means to make films that are diverse and use camera techniques in different ways to question what the audience may perceive. One of the Australian Gothic films created by female filmmakers: Suzan Dermody and Elizabeth Jacka called The Screening of Australia (1987), shows different stylistic thematic terms and was the most successful at showing what is called the ocker. The ocker is a term to describe an Australian savage man. Other than this, there is a strong relationship between Australian Gothic Films and Gothic literature. The characters and the actions that happen in a Gothic novel is created into a Gothic film. Most Gothic novels during the 1970s referred to female characters and their Australian cultural values. Although, the film Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), was directed by a male filmmaker it was written by a female storyteller Joan Lindsay. Lindsay decided to make this film cultural related to Australian societal issues of day to day lives. Her film included Gothic materials and gave a twist of horror that later the director will showcase through the mise-en-scene and cinematography. The use of Gothic materials were offered by the filmmakers Dermody and Jacka to other Australian Gothic films that have opened up to a more thematic analysis. Other Gothic films were made to broaden Australian characteristics and features, a film called Smoke Em If You Got ‘Em (1988) produced by Jennifer Hooks showcased the protagonist in a super natural horrific way, but also added a comedic twist to not lose its characterization of film style.

India

Deepa Mehta

The Indian film industry has been an ongoing success since the revolutionary start of their musicals and romantic family dramas. Majority of these popular “Masala” films are usually directed by men . Female roles in the filmmaking industry were solely restricted to acting, singing and dancing. However, recently women have stepped up and took the lead as successful directors, producing films mainly revolving around female issues within society . Like majority of women around the world, Women in India have been struggling to prove their point . Films made by women were usually categorized as art films or films of the parallel cinema. Indian women filmmakers could not have full access to funds and film publicity like male filmmakers did.

Mainstream cinema in India basically consists of the “Masala Movies”, which includes several genres such as comedy, action, revenge, tragedy, romance combined together to create an entire film. Women continuously face struggles with attempting to get a fraction of the millions of dollars spend of these masala films . This forces women to drift away from the masala genre in order to get some recognition, which can often cause controversies and raises suspicion. Fire (1997) was directed by Deepa Mehta, who previously produced two feature films before. Fire is a story of two sisters in law who go against their traditions and culture aiming to begin a new life together. When the movie was first screened in Bombay, it caused a backlash by a few political parties such as the Shiv Sena. Majority of the theaters stopped screening the film because of the violent mob attacks which caused serious damage to the theatre hall and property. The attackers did not want the film to be screened because it went against their beliefs and was a violation to “Indian culture”. The Indian society is still not equipped to understand and accept gay and lesbian relationships into their community. On the other hand, there are some who praised Mehta’s film for showcasing social issue India was facing.

Mehta’s film Earth (1998) was inspired from Bapsi Sidhwa’s “Cracking India”, which was a story revolving the India-Pakistan Partition of 1947 and had a successful outcome. Mehta began working on her last film, Water (2005), in her trilogy. The movie was set in the 1930’s when India was fighting for independence against the British colonial rule. The film portrays a group of widows who struggle with poverty in the city of Varanasi. It also looks at the dynamic between one of the widows, who aims to be free from the social restrictions forced upon widows and a man who is from a lower social class and is a follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Mehta was forced to stop the film production because of the political party of Hindu extremists in relation to Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP), responded by stating that the film tarnishes India’s image and was associated in organizing attempt by the Christian church to revolt against Hinduism.

Majority of female filmmakers in India try to change the film industry by bringing in real social issues, instead of the mainstream masala movies that India has been known for. Daman (2001) is directed by Lajma who decided to take on a unique yet distinct theme by raising awareness about marital rape. The leading actress won an award for her outstanding raw performance that revived Indian films that try to raise awareness regarding a serious social issue.

France

The cinema of France is one of the strongest countries that form films. It is the birthplace of cinema that contributed both the artistic expression and the film-production process itself. There are three pioneering female filmmakers who left of their heritage and recorded their history in the beginning, middle, and the end. Female director, Alice Guy was existent during the birth of cinema. Germain Dulac was around Avant-Garde cinema during the 1920s. Lastly, Agnés Varda (1954) came along the movement of the New Wave. All three filmmakers came in power along the same routes. Alice Guy was a secretary to Leon Gaumont before the making of her very own first film, which was a year later after the birth of cinema, 1854 to be exact. On the other hand, Germain Dulac had studied music first then became a film logician and a journalist. She focused closely on still photography just before the making of her very own first film in the year 1926. While, Agnés Varda fascinated with art history at first, but then went towards film and photography in 1954. All there premature backgrounds have made them powerful later on in time, through practise and hard work they are able to distinguish different and creative film techniques. They all have the same belief of cinematic language, in which cinema belongs to the hands of a woman and that cinema is their own technological tool to space things in whichever way they wish.

Since Alice Guy was working for Gaumont, she was responsible in the production side of the company for being the director, the filmmaker, and set manger. From being a secretary to a  head she had created 406 films during this period of time. Most of her films were between 20 to 90 minutes, for a film to be created for this long during this time would be considered to be a short film, but knowing the fact that it was made earlier before is exceptional during the early years. Alice Guy had the chance to shoot some of her films in a different way than Gaumont’s forerunner the Lumiere Brothers. The brothers were mostly interested in shooting films of showing what the cameras can capture and not what they express. For example, having shots of trains or the military marching repeatedly. Guy was not so interested in repetitiveness in films, although she was slightly influenced by them, she had decided to think of something better and comedic. Here she gave in a bunch of short comedic films to Gaumont and approved of her films. This was the first step for being a pioneer. It had let her experience the futuristic side of cinema. Within a year of her submission of short films, they have become a complete success. Her film of La Passion or so called La Vie du Christ was a work of art in which she has worked on for years. This has included twenty-five sets along with a number if exterior areas and  around or over three hundred crowd scenes.

At the time of where Germain Dulac was shooting to make her first film in 1916, the film industry in France was in a unusual state because of the early booming that has happened in 1901-04. During 1910, around sixty to seventy percent of films were sent out worldwide from Paris, however, during 1914 the industry started to decline these films because it lacked investment and production tools for practices. Later on over the years in 1920, the new cinema in France began because of avant-garde filmmaking and the first movement of film theory, in which Dulac was interested in. Dulac started off as a journalist for feminism journals that are called La Fraciase and La Fronde, in which she later on combined it with her interest in still photography that has made her think and make connections between the camera lens and feminism. She had a strong belief towards cinema, she knew that cinema can demonstrate so much significance through a lens. Using cinematography was one way of expressing rhythmic structures and meanings in film. She was highly influenced by music in her early life, in which she incorporated in films to visually see the movement of music. She had made her films sound poetic to show and express emotion and even had the thought to represent females from her inspiration of being a feminist journalist. Dulac’s work had made her establish the idea of cinema writing to be able to mark female subjectivity. She was also very inspired by Guy and took one of her techniques of motion photography and gave it a voice of females. One of the films she is famous for is called La Souriante Madame Beudet (The Smiling Madame Beudet) created in 1923. This film is established to be one of the best feminist films out there. It revolves around the idea of having a hard-working female in an unwanted relationship.

Agnes Verada’s work focuses on relating her films to life, she makes her fictional and non-fictional facts shown through film. She shows the life of a person internally and outside the world to be able to prove the reality of life. Verada structured one of her films by having side to side narrations, meaning having two narrations at once. The first structural attribute she used to film was objectivity, which was showing detachment from the actual story. Without objectivity there would be subjectivity in her films, which would later make the objectivity look arranged and unrealistic. Some of her films do not show depth because she herself is detached from the characters. Most of the characters shown are not as central than any other characters in a film that the viewer will see, she dramatizes the narration already than it is dramatized. In her film, La Pointe Courte she decided to make it feel different to make the audience evaluate her film effectively.

Article Evaluation Notes

History of art criticism

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The Oxford History of World Cinema

The book Oxford History of World Cinema written by Geoffrey Nowell - Smith mainly discusses the transition of cinema throughout history in different parts of the world. It also covers the diverse thematic cinema genre in various parts of the world since the beginning of silent films.

Article Selection

The Nude Women (1926 film)

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