How significant is the gender of a filmmaker? Do women make films differently? What are the barriers and constraints that women face, and how do they differ from place to place? Which critical perspectives and scholarly strategies enhance our understanding and analysis of women`s filmmaking? This module explores the different types of films that women filmmakers make, from the avant-garde and experimental to the mainstream.
We will look at the roles of women in the film industry internationally, past and present, and how women filmmakers have attempted to reinvent cinematic form or worked within existing conventions and industry structures. On the one hand, our concerns will be theoretical: we will investigate the intersections between feminist film theory and women's filmmaking practice, raising questions of the cinematic gaze, voice and touch, the articulation of female subjectivity and resistance against conventional ways of making films.
On the other hand, we will be considering the practical conditions and implications for women in the industry, including sources of support, circuits and forums in which films by women are shown and debated, and the institutional means through which women's creative achievements are acknowledged and remembered.
By the end of the module, students will have
1. Gained a detailed understanding of the barriers and constraints that women filmmakers face in different parts of the world, from production and distribution through to recognition of their achievements.
2. Expanded their knowledge of women's contributions to film history, including the different types of films that women filmmakers make, from the experimental to the mainstream.
3. Acquired knowledge of theoretical frameworks relevant to women's filmmaking and the ability to engage with those frameworks in detailed film analysis.
4. Developed advanced skills for researching aspects of women filmmaking and presenting the findings in the format of a scholarly article.
Indicative films:
Germaine Dulac, The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928)
Maya Deren, Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
Agnes Varda, Cleo from 5 to 7 (1961)
Vera Chytilova, Daisies (1966)
Chantal Akerman, Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Deepa Mehta, Fire (1996)
Marzieh Meshkini The Day I Became A Woman (2000)
Shirin Neshat, Turbulent (2002)
Andrea Arnold, Red Road (2006)
Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Larissa Sansour, Nation Estate (2013)
Leila Bouzid, As I Open My Eyes (2015)
Reference
Acker, Ally. Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema, 1896 to the Present (London: B.T. Batsford, 1991)
Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary. (Greenwood Press, 1995)
Kuhn, Annette, and Susannah Radstone. The Women's Companion to International Film. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994)
Lowe, Denise. An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Women in Early American films, 1895-1930. (New York: Haworth Press, 2005)
Redding, Judith M., and Victoria A. Brownworth. Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors. (New York: Seal Press, 1997)
Unterburger, Amy L., ed. The St. James Women Filmmakers Encyclopaedia: Women on the Other Side of the Camera. (Visible Ink Press, 1999)
Indicative Bibliography:
Butler, Alison, Women`s Cinema: The Contested Screen. London: Wallflower Press, 2002.
Chaudhuri, Shohini, Feminist Film Theorists: Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman, Teresa de Lauretis, Barbara Creed. Abingdon: Routledge, 2006.
Kaplan, E. Ann ed. Feminism and Film. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Levitin, Jacqueline, Judith Plessis, and Valerie Raoul, eds. Women Filmmakers: Refocusing, London and New York: Routledge, 2003.
Meyer, Sophie. Political Animals: the New Feminist Cinema. London: I.B. Tauris.
Ramanathan, Geeta. Feminist Auteurs: Reading Women`s Films. London: Wallflower, 2006.
Thornham, Sue. What If I Had Been the Hero?: Investigating Women`s Cinema. London: BFI, 2012.
White, Patricia. Women`s Cinema, World Cinema: Projecting Contemporary Feminisms. Duke University Press, 2015.
For the full week-by-week reading list, see Moodle.