Links

This page includes links to information on course films and directors, databases for film research, sites on film terminology and theory, guidelines on writing about film, resources for women in the film industry, and highlights of the Seattle film scene.

Course Films and Directors

Arzner :: Bigelow :: Campion :: Coppola :: Denis :: Dunye :: Friedrich :: Guy Blache :: Law :: Novaro :: Peirce :: Varda :: von Trotta :: Weber

Dorothy Arzner
  • Christopher Strong
    Short analysis of Cynthia's character written for a Wellesley course on strong women
  • Directed by Dorthy Arzner
    Program for UCLA homage to Arzner features descriptions and stills from twelve of her films.
  • Dorothy Arzner
    Arzner profile from the GLBTQ encyclopedia.
  • Film Reference: Dorothy Arzner
    Brief biography and filmography; page also contains useful list of books and article about Arzner, some written during her directing career.
  • Dorothy Arzner's Trousers
    From Jump Cut, Jane Gaines reviews feminist and queer approaches to Arzner's films before turning to a discussion of the director's image and the way she collaborated with gay male costume designers to shape her female stars' performance of gender.
  • MovieDiva: Christopher Strong
    Discussion of the film and Arzner as director and object of feminist film criticism.
  • New York Times: Dorothy Arzner
    Short dicussion of Arzner's career, with links to New York Times reviews of her films, including Christopher Strong, as well as recent articles about the director. Note that you may have to register with the site.
  • Queen of Hollywood
    Sight and Sound article on Arzner's career explores signature themes like the repressiveness of marriage and the "detailed, complex and affectionate studies of female companionship, often rich in homoerotic overtones."
  • Senses of Cinema Dorothy Arzner Page
    Part of Senses of Cinema Great Director Database, Theresa Geller's entry offers an analysis of Arzner, her films, and feminist assessment of her work.  The entry also includes a filmography, bibliography, and links to additional resources.
  • Wild Girls
    Film scholar Molly Haskell discusses the "provocatively strong women" in Arzner's films and examines the director's suversion of "the woman's film."

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Kathryn Bigelow

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Jane Campion
  • A Strange Heritage: From Colonization to Transformation?
    Harriet Margolies's introduction to the book, Jane Campion's The Piano, provides background on Campion's education, examines The Piano in the context of the director's earlier work, New Zealand cinema, and the history of depicting the Maori on film.
  • Senses of Cinema Jane Campion Page
    From the Senses of Cinema Great Director Database, Fincina Hopgood's entry discusses the reception of Campion's films, most of which receive the label "controversial." She also analyzes the director's films in terms of overriding themes of ambiguity, the dangerous consequences of romance, and female characters' rebellion against the patriarchal order, a rebellion that frequently earns them the label "mad." The page includes an extensive bibliography, filmography, and links to additional resources.
  • Women's Studies Database: The Piano Review
    Writer Linda McAllister notes that the quasi-Gothic film "plumb[s] the underside of the human psyche just as it reflects, in the background, the underside of colonialism and the commodification of women by the men who have the power to decide their fates."

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Sofia Coppola

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Claire Denis

  • Desire is Violence
    Sight and Sound interview with Denis includes a brief analysis of her films, including Beau Travail. Denis talks about Beau Travail and being a female diector in France.

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Cheryl Dunye

  • Cheryl Dunye Biography
    From the Black Cultural Studies web site, a brief discussion of Dunye's work.
  • Cheryl Dunye Interview
    From the Black Cultural Studies web site, an interview with Dunye about making The Watermelon Woman, the controversy over the film, and the issue of building a visual culture based on black lesbian subjectivity.
  • Janine and She Don't Fade
    Dunye's article in Felix about making films and developing a black lesbian cinematic voice.

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Su Friedrich
  • The Films of Su Friedrich
    Friedrich's own web site contains synopsis and reviews of her films--including Sink or Swim--scripts from selected films, a page of links to film and video funding agencies and distributors, and several biographies--from a "wee blurb" to "a really long one."

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Alice Guy Blaché

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Clara Law
  • Clara Law
    Professor Dian Li's analysis of Law's work focuses on her treatment of diaspora. Li finds in Autumn Moon "an imaginative version of a transnational Chinese subject who functions between memory and forgetting and who is always in the process of remaking herself." The article also includes a filmography and links to external resources.
  • Autumn Moon
    Stephen Teo's review discusses Law's treatment of Chinese migration obssession and the issue of identity in the postmodern age.

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María Novaro
  • Culturebase.Net: María Novaro
    Short biography of Novaro and overview of her feature films.
  • Danzón Director Relishes Women's Stories
    Review and interview with Novaro, who explains the history of the danzon.
  • Danzón Glides To a Soft Mexican Rhythm
    New York Times review of the film discusses Novaro's ability to examine contemporary issues with a traditional tone.
  • Film Reference: Mexico
    Two essays on the Mexican film industry, one focusing on silent film and the other the films of the sound era (1930s to the present day).
  • Jouneys and Destinations: The Films of María Novaro
    Romy Sutherland's Senses of Cinema article offers a brief history of women in the Mexican film industry and analyzes themes of ambiguity and travel in Novaro's work. The piece ends with a filmography, bibliography and links to other web sites on Novaro.
  • Maria Novaro on the Making of Lola and Danzon
    From Women's Studies Quarterly, Novaro talks about playing with "the rules of the danzon" and melodrama in Danzon. She also touches on issues of progression in cinematic narrative, working with actors and the lack of female cinematographers in the Mexican film industry.
  • "Nobody's Women" See the Light
    Charles Ramírez Berg's article on a Texas retrospective of Mexican films directed by women includes a brief history of women directors in the Mexican film industry.
  • Women's Studies Database: Danzón Review
    Linda Lopez McAlister finds little feminism in Danzón, arguing that "in an effort to make a political point about Mexican national identity and saving Mexican cultural traditions[,] the film comes perilously close to valorizing the patriarchal values embodied in these traditions."

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Kimberly Peirce

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Agnes Varda

  • Agnes Varda: She Aims to Unsettle
    Annette Insdorf interviews Varda about the making of Vagabond.
  • Agnes Varda's Vagabonde: The Outcast as Mirror
    From the online film journal Kinema, Michal Quigley's article examines Mona's relationships with Madame Landier, Assoun, the goatherd, David and Yolande, focusing on how their assessments of her offer insight into their own desires.
  • Criterion Collection: The Current
    The Criterion Collection's blog features two essays on Vagabond. Sandy Flitterman-Lewis examines the film's ability to prompt self-reflection in viewers and to involve them in the process of constructing meaning. Chris Darke discusses Vagabond's style and Sandrine Bonnaire's charismatic performance as Mona.
  • Discovering Agnes Varda
    Helen Carter's critical review of Varda's work; page includes filmography, bibliography of books and article on Varda, and links to Web resources.
  • Saint Agnes of Montparnasse
    Roger Ebert discusses Varda's filmmaking career in a review of her 2008 documentary, The Beaches of Agnes.
  • Two By Varda
    A review of Vagabond and Cleo from 5 to 7 notes Varda's interest in blurring the line between documentary and fiction. The commentary on Vagabond connects the film to Welles's Citizen Kane and Godard's Weekend.
  • Vagabond
    Holly Willis's Senses of Cinema article explores Varda's implicit presence in the film.
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Margarethe von Trotta
  • Margarethe von Trotta
    Ben Andac's biography and critical assessment of von Trotta's films; page includes filmography, bibliography of books and article on von Trotta, and links to Web resources.
  • New German Cinema
    Discussion of the cultural, political, economic and industrial factors that gave rise to the New German Cinema. In addition to delineating common thematic concerns and stylistic approaches to filmmaking, author Julia Knight presents case studies of three New German films.

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Lois Weber

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Film Research

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Film Terminology

  • Film Sound Design
    Site dedicated to film sound includes extensive glossaries of several scholars' descriptions of sound terminology, introductory articles on film sound and the soundtrack, other online articles, and links to sites on film, sound, and film sound.
  • Glossary of Film Terms
    Part of Dartmouth's page on writing about film, the glossary defines key film terms, from "accelerated motion" to "zoom."
  • Reading a Film Sequence
    A short guide on how to to read the text and context of a film.  The page has excellent questions to guide students in their analysis of narrative, staging, cinematography, editing and sound.
  • Sound and Image: Notes for a Glossary
    From the University of Waikato, an online glossary of films terms grouped under the headings "General," "Image," "Sound," "Movement," "Editing," "Ideology," and "Semiotics." The section on images provides screen shots and other graphics to illustrate shot distance, framing, and composition.

Film Theory

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Writing About Film

  • Citing Film, Video, and Online Media
    Information on how to correctly document citations of film, video and online media materials.
  • Dartmouth's Writing About Film Page
    Detailed web site explains expectations for film papers; defines types of papers written for film classes (formal, historical, ideological, cultural studies, auteurist); describes useful strategies for taking film notes, annotating shot sequences, and questioning the film's contexts; provides writing tips; and includes an extensive glossary of film terms. 
  • GMU Writing Center's "Writing About Film" Page
    George Mason's step-by-step guide to writing film analyses.
  • Plagiarism Discussed
    A Purdue Online Writing Lab handout on what can constitute plagiarism, with information on when and when not to cite sources.
  • Judging Quality on the Web
    Authored by UCLA librarian Patti Caravello, this page offers criteria for evaluating web sites.  Writers can use Caravello's list to help them decide whether a particular web source is appropiate for an academic paper.
  • MLA Citation Guide
    This site not only reviews MLA guidelines for formatting papers, composing a works cited list, and citing books, articles, and electronic sources within your text.

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Women in the Film Industry

  • Movies Directed by Women
    This organization began with director Allison Anders 50/50 summit. MDW strives to increase women's representation in the film industry and to build awareness of women's history in the industry. Be sure to view the statistics on women directors.
  • Women in Film
    An organization dedicated to assisting women in the film and television industry.
  • Women Make Movies
    "Women Make Movies is a multicultural, multiracial, non-profit media arts organization which facilitates the production, promotion, distribution and exhibition of independent films and videotapes by and about women." WMM distributes selected films of course directors Jane Campion, Cheryl Dunye, Maya Deren and Su Friedrich.

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Seattle Film Scene

  • IFP Seattle
    IFP/Seattle offers local filmmakers education on the business of filmmaking, connects them with other filmmakers, and exposes their work on a national level.
  • Northwest Film Forum
    An organization that supports local filmmakers with a Start-toFinish Grant program, production facilities, equipment, and workshop, Northwest Film Forum also houses two cinemas featuring unique programs of American and international films.
  • 911 Media Arts Center
    911 helps independent digital media artists to create and distribute their work. The center also offers classes for community members.
  • Seattle Film Institute
    Seattle Film Institute concentrates on film, offering courses in Super 8, 16 mm, sync sound, screenwriting, and the language of film.
  • Seattle International Film Festival
    Complete information on Seattle's annual film festival as well year-round screenings at the SIFF Cinema.
  • Seattle's True Independent Film Festival
    Seattle's answer to Slamdance is "a celebration of off-beat independent film from the Northwest and the rest of the world." STIFF seeks to program innovative films that can be overlooked by festivals that concentrate on higher budget "independent" films starring name actors.
  • TheFilmSchool
    A local school focused on dramatic writing, TheFilmSchool offers intensive classes in screenwriting and directing fundamentals.
  • Three-Dollar Bill Cinema
    Sponsor of the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and other events.

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