Course Description

In its January/February 2010 issue, Film Comment declared male directors “so last year.” Indeed, recent work by female directors like Kathryn Bigelow, Jane Campion, Claire Denis, Nora Ephron and Lucrecia Martel has appeared on critics’ best-of-year lists and garnered award nominations. Moreover, Bigelow became the first woman to win a Directors Guild of America award and an Academy Award for directing. Despite the surge in female-directed films, contemporary women filmmakers represent a minority in their industry. Amy Taubin—while joking about passé male directors—asks, “Has some critical mass been reached where female directors . . . will no longer hit a wall after making one film, or is this year merely a statistical anomaly?”

To address Taubin’s question, we will examine the work of female directors from around the globe, beginning with silent-era director Alice Guy Blachè and concluding with films from the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival. A study of women directors’ work not only allows us to analyze cinematic narrative and style, but also provides a unique perspective on film history. Furthermore, course films raise questions about the relationship between an individual filmmaker’s work and concurrent cinematic traditions, critical discussions and cultural contexts. Throughout the term, we will address the following questions:

  • What, if anything, distinguishes the work of women directors?

  • How does an investigation of women directors change our conception of film history, genre, national cinema or film movements?

  • How does feminist film criticism help us to interpret films made by women? What challenges do particular directors pose to critics?

  • How do historical, cultural, and industrial factors shape the work of women directors?

  • How do films made by women engage local ideologies of gender, race, class, and sexuality?

The first part of the course investigates how women directors rework “the woman’s film.” The second focuses on cinematic portrayals of politics, history, and war, and the third examines films that explore identity in the postmodern era.

Goals and Methology

Students in the course work toward several goals: learning how to read film formally, contextually and ideologically and developing as critical thinkers and writers. By the end of the course, students should be able to:

  1. Identify films’ narrative, visual, and sound techniques, using vocabulary specific to cinema studies.
  2. Analyze how women filmmakers use artistic strategies to achieve a range of effects.
  3. Evaluate how films made by women respond to and shape existing cultural contexts and cinematic conventions.
  4. Develop complex written arguments and support those arguments with sufficient and appropriate evidence.
  5. Engage the work of film scholars, critically responding to their ideas in discussion and writing.

Course activities promote active learning, with most class sessions including a mix of mini-lectures, discussion, and group work. My role is to provide the tools and resources you need to advance your own thinking and writing. I will pose questions, design activities to help you think through these questions, and respond to your ideas. Your role is to do the hard work—the critical reading, discussion, and writing. You will analyze films, generate ideas in electronic and face-to-face discussions, analyze film clips, and construct written arguments.