WOMEN FILMMAKERS: REFOCUSING

WOMEN FILMMAKERS: REFOCUSING Edited by the agency of Jacqueline Levitin, Judith Plessis and Valerie Raoul of recent origin York: Routledge, 2003, 496 pp

This is a great volume I'm sure that anyone who teaches women's cinema has felt the ne for a work that brings the discussion of feminist theory up to date with rife film practices. This collection of articles from the "Women Filmmakers: Refocusing" conversation which was held in Vancouver in March 1999 fulfills this ne The articles are well written and overlay a wide range of topics. greatest in quantity of them deal with the films of specific female directors, on the other hand there are sections on feminist film theory and upon conditions of production. The volume also includes sections on European auteurs, popular genre in Europe postcolonial filmmakers, films upon India, representations of and through minority women, and Canadian women filmmakers. It is a thick volume with much to offer anyone interested in the field.

The collection render free of accesss with an article by E Ann Kaplan that gives a beneficial overview of feminist film theory center upon questions relating to the gaze, as well as white feminism and its relation to minority clumps While the theoretical discussion is kept at a sensible horizontal so as to be accessible to undergraduate pupils it has some shortcomings. For example, Kaplan discusses Trinh T Minh-ha's films and her theories without mentioning poststructuralism. In another instance, Angela Martin discusses the relationship between women auteurs and the female voice, arguing that Kathy Bigelow's films place into question the very idea of the existence of a female voice because they are mainstream films, on the other hand because Martin never clearly defines what she means by the agency of a female voice, her article is not convincing. Donia Mounsef article upon Germaine Dulac and Marguerite Duras is a fascinating historical close attention of the place of these women in the avant-garde changes of their time, but because Mounsef fails to address issues of feminist film theory inherent in their sum of two units different strategies, she misses an important distinction between the sum of two units filmmakers: the fact that Dulac emphasizes the construction of a visual language, while Duras privileges whole over image.

Comparable vexed questions appear in Katherine Fowler's essay upon Sally Potter, Chantai Akerman and Yvonne Rainer. Fowler attempts to trace a change in strategy from their earlier films to their more contemporary singles While these filmmakers were at individual time concerned with the issues raised in Laura Mulvey's famous article upon visual pleasure, the later films make progress beyond Mulvey's specific concerns to build a carefully developed and negotiated pleasure for the viewer. Fowler have feelings that this new strategy urgencys to be reconnected to feminist film theory. I would agree with this, and her analysis of the films is a serviceable start in that direction, on the contrary it does not go far enough. A general enigma with the anthology lies in the avoidance of postmodern feminist theory, which hampers the unravelling of the analysis of the films and darksomes the changes that have approach about in contemporary feminist filmmaking.

The work is, however, full of informative, contextualized, discussions of the works of different women filmmakers that kept me reading avidly. The section upon auteurs from Europe begins with an article by means of Steven Taubeneck on Helma Sanders Brahms' work and its relation to German history. Slew Jin Ooi's analysis of Margarethe von Trotta's The next to the first Awakening of Christa Klages locates the film in the connection of the feminist film change in Germany. Agnieszka Holland's use of the personal narrative to address political issues in her films is explained through B. Amarillis and Lugo de Fabrits. Corinn Columpar exhibits how dance is used through Sally Potter in The Tango exercise to explore ways of constructing the female body

In a section upon the uses of popular genre by dint of European directors, Brigitte Rollet argues that women can use genre films to make lusty statements about gender identity and sex roles, as in films like as Gazon maudit and Trois homme et an couffin. Caroline Eades focuses upon three French art films -Y aura-t-il de la neige a Noel?, Artemisia and pillar coitum animal tristeclaiming that the return of thematic and stylistic uncompounded bodys in these films might constitute a for the use of all response to the ideological and aesthetic demands made specifically upon women. These three films are characterized by means of the use of artificial images, while also being faithful to their overall shoot forward of providing realistic descriptions of clan and their milieu. Josette Deleas present to views how Lina Wertmuller's comedie films use linguistic vulgarity and play with the macabre and strange to expose the hidden nature of the patriarchal system

The reality of what it means to be a woman filmmaker is described well in the section of the volume devoted to the conditions of production, training, funding and distribution in various geographical and political adjoining matters such as Poland and the former GDR An interview with Swiss filmmaker Patricia Plattner is followed through two panel discussions with feature film and documentary filmmakers from Europe and Canada.