Images of Women – US-style Consciousness-Raising

The Women's Film. Third World Newsreel. USA, 1971.
Antonia. Jill Godmillow. USA, 1974.

Sharon Smith, “The Image of Women in Film: Some Suggestions for Future Research” (Women and Film No. 1, 1972), Feminist Film Theory: a Reader (FFT), ed. Sue Thornham (New York: New York University Press, 1999): 14-19.
Julia Lesage, "The Political Aesthetics of the Feminist Documentary Film" (Quarterly Review of Film Studies, 1978), IFFC: 216-237.

Positive Images

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Any More/ Tank Girl/Thelma & Louise/Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The Blue Light. Leni Riefenstahl. Germany, 1921.
Great Grandmother. Anne Wheeler, Lorna Rasmussen.NFB, 1975 (29 min)
Some American Feminists. Luce Guilbeault, Nicole Brossard. NFB, 1977 (55 min)
Patricia’s Moving Picture. Bonnie Sher Klein. NFB, 1978 (26 min)

Diane Waldman, "There's More to a Positive Image Than Meets the Eye" (Jump Cut, 1978), IFFC, 13-18.
Annette Kuhn, "Textual Politics" (Women’s Pictures, 1982), IFFC, 250-267.
Richard Dyer, “Introduction,” The Matter of Images: Essays on Representation (London: Routledge, 1993): 1-5.

Supplementary Reading: Helen W. Kennedy, “Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo? On the Limits of Textual Analysis,” Game Studies Vol. 2 No. 2 (Dec. 2002). http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/kennedy/?PDA=1?category=films&profile=mobilefilmsuseraverage&subject=177857

Counter-Cinema

She Done Him Wrong. Mae West. USA, 1932.

Claire Johnston, "Women's Cinema as Counter-Cinema" (Notes on Women’s Cinema, 1973), FFT: 31-40.
Pamela Robertson, excerpts from Guilty Pleasures: Feminist Camp from Mae West to Madonna

Apparatus Theory – the French Connection

Excerpts: Deux Fois. Jackie Raynal. France, 1968.

Editors, Camera Obscura Collective, “Feminism and Film: Critical Approaches,” “An Interrogation of the Cinematic Sign: Woman as Sexual Signifier in Jackie Raynal’s Deux Fois,” “Deux Fois: shot commentary, shot chart, photogrammes,” Camera Obscura Vol. 1 No.1 (1974): 3-51.
Jean-Louis Baudry, “Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus” (Cinéthique, 1970), Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology, ed. Philip Rosen (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986): 286-298.
Jean-Louis Baudry, “The Apparatus: Metapsychological Approaches to the Impression of Reality in Cinema” (Communications, 1975), ibid: 299- 318.
Jean-Louis Comolli, “Technique and Ideology: Camera, Perspective, Depth of Field” (Cahiers du cinéma, 1971), ibid: 421-443.

Rediscovering Women Filmmakers

Dance Girl Dance. Dorothy Arzner. USA, 1940

Claire Johnston, "Dorothy Arzner: Critical Strategies" (The Works of Dorothy Arzner, BFI 1975), Feminism and Film Theory, ed. Constance Penley (New York: Routledge, 1988): 36-45.
Pam Cook, "Approaching the Work of Dorothy Arzner" (The Works of Dorothy Arzner, BFI 1975), Feminism and Film Theory: 46-56.
Judith Mayne, "Lesbian Looks: Dorothy Arzner and Female Authorship", How Do I Look, ed. Bad Object-Choices (Seattle: Bay Press, 1991), 103-144.

Supplementary Viewing: Christopher Strong.

Rediscovering Women Filmmakers

Maedchen in Uniform. Leontine Sagan. Germany, 1931.

Feminist Genre Studies: Film Noir

Gilda/Mildred Pierce/Double Indemnity/Lady from Shanghai/Postman Always Rings Twice

Apparatus Theory and the Psychoanalytic Paradigm

Vertigo. Alfred Hitchcock. USA, 1958

Laura Mulvey, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (Screen, 1975), IFFC: 28-40.
John Berger, “Chapter 3,” Ways of Seeing (London: BBC & Penguin Books, 1972): 45-64.
Mary Ann Doane, “Caught and Rebecca: The Inscription of Femininity as Absence” (Enclitic, 1981), FFT: 70-82.
Teresa de Lauretis, “Oedipus Interruptus” (Alice Doesn’t, 1984), FFT: 83-96.

Supplementary viewing: Rebecca, Marnie, Rear Window, Morocco, Dishonoured

In-Class Mid-Term Test

Laura Mulvey, "Afterthoughts on 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' inspired by Duel in the Sun" (Framework, 1981), FFT: 122-130.

Feminism and the Avant-Garde

The Smiling Mme. Beudet. Germaine Dulac. France, 1924.
The Seashell and the Clergyman. Germaine Dulac. France, 1928.
Meshes of the Afternoon. Maya Deren. USA, 1943.
At Land. Maya Deren. USA, 1944.

Laura Mulvey, "Feminism, Film and the Avant-Garde" (Women Writing and Writing About Women, 1980), Visual and Other Pleasures (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989): 111-126
Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, "Germaine Dulac: First Feminist of the Avant-Garde," To Desire Differently (Urbana: University of Chicago Press, 1990): 47-77.

Water Sark. Joyce Wieland. Canada, 1964.
Rat Life and Diet in North America. Joyce Wieland. Canada, 1968.
Solidarity. Joyce Wieland. Canada, 1973.

Kass Banning, “The Mummification of Mummy: Joyce Wieland as the AGO’s First Living Other,” C Magazine 13 (1987): 32–38; reprinted in J. Radley and L. Johnstone, ed., Sightlines: Reading Contemporary Canadian Art (Montreal: Artextes, 1994), 153–67; and in Kathryn Elder, ed., The Films of Joyce Wieland, (Toronto: Cinematheque Ontario Monographs, 1999) 29–44.
Kay Armatage, "The Feminine Body: Joyce Wieland's Water Sark" (Dialogue, 1987), reprinted in The Films of Joyce Wieland: 135-146.

Supplementary Viewing: Artist on Fire. Kay Armatage. Canada, 1987. (54 min.)

Feminism and the Avant-Garde

Riddle of the Sphinx. Laura Mulvey/Peter Wollen. Great Britain, 1975.

Thriller. Sally Potter. Great Britain, 1979.

Kaja Silverman, "Dis-Embodying the Female Voice" (Re-Vision, 1984), IFFC, 309-330.
Kaja Silverman, “Lost Objects and Mistaken Subjects” (The Acoustic Mirror, 1988), FFT: 97-105.

Critiques of Psychoanalytic Feminism

I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing. Patricia Rozema, Canada, 1986.

B. Ruby Rich, "In the Name of Feminist Film Criticism" (Jump Cut, 1978), IFFC: 268-287.
M. Citron, J. Lesage, J. Mayne, B.R. Rich, A.M. Taylor, “Women and Film: A Discussion of Feminist Aesthetics” (New German Critique, 1978), FFT: 115-121.
Jane Gaines, "Women and Representation: Can We Enjoy Alternative Pleasure?" IFFC: 75-93.
Judith Mayne, “Review Essay: Feminist Film Theory and Criticism,” Signs Vol. 11 No. 1 (Autumn, 1985): 81-100.

Term Papers Due Today

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Feminist Genre Studies: The Woman’s Film/Melodrama

Letter From an Unknown Woman. Max Ophuls. France, 1948.

Stella Dallas, Possessed, Gaslight, Rebecca.

Supplementary Viewing: A Question of Silence.

Feminist Filmmaking 1980s Style

Marianne and Julianne. Margarethe Von Trotta. Germany, 1982
A Question of Silence. Marleen Gorris. Netherlands, 1982.
Desperately Seeking Susan. Susan Seidelman. USA, 1985.

E. Ann Kaplan, "Female Politics in the Symbolic Realm: Von Trotta's Marianne and Julianne (The German Sisters) (1981)" (Social Policy, 1982), Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera (New York: Methuen, 1983): 104-112.
Judith Mayne, ""Female Narration, Women's Cinema: Helke Sanders's The All-Round Reduced Personality," IFFC: 380-394.
Mary C. Gentile, "Feminist or Tendentious? Marleen Gorris's A Question of Silence", IFFC: 395-404.
Jackie Stacey, “Desperately Seeking Difference” (Screen 1987), IFFC: 365-379.

Black Looks

Nice Colored Girls. Tracey Moffatt. Australia, 1987.
Coffee Colored Children. Ngozi Onwurah. Great Britain, 1988.
Night Cries. Tracey Moffatt. Australia, 1990.
The Body Beautiful. Ngozi Onwurah. Great Britain, 1991.

bell hooks, "The Oppositional Gaze: Black Female Spectators,"(Black Looks, 1992), FFT: 307-320.
Tania Modleski, “Cinema and the Dark Continent: Race and Gender in Popular Film” (Feminism Without Women, 1991), FFT: 321-335.

Postmodern Blackness

Daughters of the Dust. Julie Dash. USA, 1991.

Illusions. Julie Dash. USA, 1983.

bell hooks, "Postmodern Blackness," Yearning (Toronto: Between the Lines, 1990), 23-32.
Maggie Humm, “Black Film Theory, Black Feminisms: Daughters of the Dust,” Feminism and Film (Edinburgh University Press, 1997): 113-141.
Judylyn S. Ryan, “Outing the Black Feminist Filmmaker in Julie Dash’s Illusions,” Signs Vol. 30 No. 1 (Autumn 2004): 1319-1344. (jstor online)

Queer Looks/ Gender Performance

Born In Flames. Lizzie Borden. USA, 1983.

Queer Looks/ Gender Performance

The Virgin Machine. Monika Treut. Germany, 1989.

Judith Butler, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory,” Theatre Journal 49/1. December 1988: 519-531. (pdf online)
Caryl Flinn, "The Body in the (Virgin) Machine", Arachne Vol. 3 no. 2 (1996): 48-66.
Judith Mayne, "A Parallax View of Lesbian Authorship", Inside/Out:Lesbian Theories, Gay Theories, ed. Diana Fuss (New York: Routledge, 1991): 173-184.

Feminist Genre Studies: Horror

Alien Resurrection, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, USA 1998

Feminist Historiography: The Women Pioneers Project & Movie-Struck Girls

Matrimony’s Speed Limit. Alice Guy-Blaché. USA, 1913
Too Wise Wives. Lois Weber. USA, 1921
The Perils of Pauline. Pearl White. USA, 1914

Spring Term Papers Due Today.

Something New. Nell Shipman. Canada/USA, 1920

Patrice Petro, “Reflections on Feminist Film Studies, Early and Late,” Signs Vol. 30 No. 1 (Autumn 2004): 1272-1278. (jstor online)
Radha Vatsal, “Reevaluating Footnotes: Women Directors of the Silent Era,” A Feminist Reader in Early Cinema, ed. J. Bean & D.Negra (Durham: Duke University Press, 2002):119-138.
Ben Singer, “Power and Peril in the Serial-Queen Melodrama,” Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and Its Contexts (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001): 221-262.
Miriam Hansen, “Pleasure, Ambivalence, Identification: Valentino and the Female Spectator,” Cinema Journal Vol. 25 No. 4 (Summer 1986): 6-32.

Transnational Feminisms

Fire. Deepa Mehta. Canada/India, 1996

Supplementary Viewing: Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay.

Transnational Feminisms

Gabbeh. Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Iran 1996.
The Apple. Samira Makhmalbaf. Iran 1999.
The Day I Became a Woman (Marzieh Meshkini. Iran, 2000)

Queering Toxic Images

Fatgirl. Catherine Breillat. France, 2001.
Single White Female. Barbet Shroeder. USA, 1992.
In the Cut. Jane Campion. USA, 2003.

Global Feminisms

Yes. Sally Potter. UK, 2005