The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

This film does a really good job at voicing several real concerns of teenage girls entering their womanhood. While this film does partially focus on romance as well as opposite sex flirtation and discussions, that is not the main point. It focuses on four girls whom are best friends and the various challenges in life that they encounter. Most importantly it is about the feminist ideal of "womanhood" and how together they are able to help each other overcome several situations. I most found interesting that all these women are different in personality, interests, taste, style and body types but yet they are united by a pair of jeans that fits them all perfectly. I feel the jeans represent their bond, their friendship, hope in life and most importantly their unity.The fact that the jeans fit them all regardless of their different body types can be a symbolism of how their "sisterhood" and unity is so strong regardless of their differences. I feel that this is something that should be seen more in today's society. If women were able to set aside their differences and unit for the simple fact that we are women and all face very similar challenges in life we can overcome a lot together.

All the girl in the film have situations at home that they deal with and help one another with. As well as dream careers that they aspire to reach, extracurricular activities that they enjoy such as soccer, directing, filming and acting. They also share their wishes and hopes for college. This is a real input into what a typical teenager goes through at that stage and yes we do spend time talking about boys as well but I like that this film doesn't only focuses on that. For example Carmen goes through the difficulty of having her father remarry a women who already has two kids of her own. She is also a girl who is proud to be half Puerto Rican and curvy but when she spends the summer with her Dad's new family who are all white and blond she finds herself questioning her body and identity. I love Carmen because I can most definitely relate to her story everything from being in a predominately white environment and being the only Latina who was always proud of her image and culture and now finding herself alone and questioning why she feels so outcasted. Down to the fact that my parents when through a divorce and my father remarried. This is what I would like to see more of.

Another interesting fact I found as I began to do research on who were the auteurs was that although the director was a male, majority of the cast were females, the writers were all females, the author of the book is a female, and there were 11 producers for this film only 3 were male. Films that portray what real teenage girls go through and not a bunch of chick flicks about boys and mean girls trying to sabotage one another is important in today society. A group of girls helping each other and the antagonist being life's challenges is more of what we need to see. The world is slowly shifting but if we can see women helping one another we will want to be apart of that therefore helping the pace of media to movie quicker and into the direction we'd like to see it in.

Born Kenyan, Raised British, But really from India

That's Gurinder Chadha, who was born in Nairobi, Kenya, then moved to Southall (a district in West London). Meanwhile her family is of Indian descent. She started off as a news reporter for BBC, and eventually grew into an established filmmaker of her own. Her works are most often either multicultural or display ideas of feminism (for example: majority of people in the film being woman, main character(s) as woman, etc.), one of her first awards she's ever won was a documentary of young British Asian people.

This is a refreshing change from the patriarchal media basis that Bell Hooks talks notifies so frequently in her "Will to Change". If you compare movies such as The Incredible Hulk to one of Chadha's films, in the first you see "a man always on the run, unable to develop lasting ties or intimacy... when he experiences anger, he turns into a creature of color and commits violent acts. After committing violence he changes back to his normal white-man rational self.".

Understandably that is a bit too obvious of a patriarchal film, however an incredibly large amount of major films exhibit male-dominance and I just picked one specific one of the lot.
Now for Chadha's films, If you take for example Bhaji on the Beach (1993), which was Chadha's first film, the film is focused on a group of British woman of Indian descent traveling to a beach resort in England. The main character is woman and of the main characters, the majority are woman. You can also look to something more contemporary in Bend it Like Beckham (2002) which depicts an Indian woman with strict family being independent and playing soccer against her families wishes. The top two characters in the film are both woman.

This woman is definitely one of a kind and her works prove it. She now has her own production company and hopefully will continue making unique pieces of work like she's always done. She also won many awards, and even won woman of the year in India, even though she wasn't born there and does not even live there

Citations:
A little info and list of works from IMDb
A few awards to go along with that
And just one more

Women Rule Our Tribe

Women Rule Our Tribe 

Rachel Dupuy, London

I remember the first time I came across matriarchal societies, I questioned if they really existed; it was like I was being told the tooth fairy really does come around at night to collect children's teeth. I was flabbergasted and excited, at 16, I was sitting at the edge of my chair going nuts that we actually have societies where women are superior- I thought it was all a fantasy! Of course there aren't many, and the societies that do have women in the ranks, are ones that are gradually being corrupted by outside cultures and tourism that insist their way of life is wrong, and they have to modify it. The fact that they're even considered a tourist attraction due to their cultural ways is almost offensive. It's so out of the ordinary to see a non-contemporary society where women are the ones who choose whether or not they want to marry, and where men follow their wives' family. However, it's not like they have horns on their heads- it's just their society's way of life- and for people to think they can come in, take pictures and point out that this is very odd- well, it makes it even more of a spectacle than it should be.

Rachel Dupuy, a self shooting free lance artist from the United Kingdom and is proficient in French, Spanish, and Mandarin. She has shot many videos abroad, Women Rule Our Tribe was filmed in a five part documentary series about contemporary China. As an aeteur, she created most of her pieces to reveal and dissect different cultures for others to learn. Her language proficiency certainly aids her ability to be open minded when writing and shooting her pieces. To know a language, is to understand a culture, and accept their way of life.

In the piece, she chooses to edit together the presumptions the village people know outsiders have about their culture. They address the comments straight forwardly and make sure to emphasize that they're not going to change their way of life, despite the fact that tourists are flocking the small village to observe their unique society. However, by the end of the clip there's a tension- despite the fact that the main two speakers both said they won't change their traditions, things have already changed. The dances women used to do to pick a mate, is now for tourists. Change is gradually occurring and a loss of culture is very likely to result, especially since they're now dependent on tourism for economic and technological improvements. Dupuy did a fantastic job in sharing this small village's customs with the audience, however, it doesn't seem like she has confidence that the culture will remain either since she spent much time discussing the issue of tourism. 

Mosuo Project

"fight your battles and face all your demons." - Nayla Al Khaja

Nayla Al Khaja, 31, is the first women filmmaker of Emirate. She graduated form Dubai Women’s College with a degree in Mass Communication in 1999, and continued her at Ryerson University in Toronto and majored in film directing with a minor in film producing. On 2004 she made her first film Unveiling Dubai. For which she won the Best Emirati Filmmaker at the festival.The film went on to premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF). She also won the British Council’s International Young Screen Entrepreneur Award in 2010.

When asked by Doha Film Institute how she felt about the attention that she was reciving she replied, “it’s because I am a woman. There’s a whole notion about female empowerment going on, especially in the Middle East, where a lot of countries are being poked at because women are not getting much” She also said this is a bigger challenge because she is a women, “and I have to take it seriously. We can use this attention in order to create beautiful films that can have an impact in our society, and in other people’s as well.” Nayla, has also become a inspiring figure for young Emarati women, she says that she receives emails from young women who ask for advice on “how and where to start.” Continue reading the interview.

Nayla is the CEO of her production company D-SEVEN Motion Pictures. She also won a few awards for her film Malal, which is based on a true life story. It won the Best Script Award in the Gulf Film Festival in 2010, and first place in the Muhr Emirati category. It’s a film about a couple in their honeymoon and the inspiration that the women found on the last day of their honeymoon.

A interview about the film Malal (‘Boredom’)
http://vimeo.com/13131374

Arabana (2006)
Is a short film of a young girl who due to lack of attention from family members found attention from another stranger.
http://vimeo.com/14136112

BLOOM! Cine Startups - Canon & D-SEVEN Press Conference
http://vimeo.com/20424752


Nayla is currently working on a reality show called Nayla’s 100. That will deal with different nationalities in Emirates.










Work Cited:

http://www.naylaalkhaja.com/

http://vimeo.com/user4208487

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-02-04/world/uae.female.filmmaker_1_united-arab-emirates-middle-east-pedophilia?_s=PM:WORLD

Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki is a prominent Japanese animator. Although an animator I also view Miyazaki as an auteur as well, he shares his feminist view through his movies, which to me are pure works of art. He is a wonderfully imaginative cinematic genius who creates masterpieces and frames them around the tales that often focus on the adventures of a female protagonist. I believe his genius stems from being able to tell his stories in such an unconventionally feminist friendly form while remaining artistically stunning and true the ideals of the story. In contrast to the majority of films, where the female role is primarily only made important as the romantic interest of the male hero, in Miyazaki’s films the romantic aspect of the movie plays relatively minor aspect of his stories, leaving only room for other more important themes to fill the role of the female lead.

The protagonists face both trivially minor and significantly major trials, from the a sort of coming of age, where they discover the true meaning of becoming an adult and the responsibilities that make them into mature individuals, to one's relationship to nature, to coping with the sickness of a beloved family member. The heroines often experience challenges in their problematic ordeals as a process that they approach with a naïvely genuine curiosity and joy in the world. The beauty of Miyazaki's art is that it gracefully awes its viewers in wonderment. It is evident that Miyazaki carries an attraction with flight, as it is often a reoccurring theme in many of his films that often depict magnificent aerial sequences. Additionally his love for nature provokes him to depict breathtaking cinematic views of nature, which shows the harmony and conflict between humans and the environment, nevertheless Miyazaki never forgets that the story is of upmost importance, this notion of miyazakis work is represented well in many of his animated films, but the one I chose to analyze was his film Spirited Away.

Spirited Away is a movie about the adventure of Chihiro, a young child irritated by her parents decision to move to a new place. While on their way to the new home, her parents take a wrong turn, the family finds what seems to be an abandoned theme park. But all is not as it seems, her parents supernaturally change from their human form after eating food meant for the parks ghostlike occupants. Chihiro, out of horror and confusion runs away. She quickly returns to the spirit world and tries to rescue her parents but is confronted the devious antagonist Yu baba, who runs a bathhouse for spirits and promises to return her parents in exchange for her labor in the bathhouse. As a follower of Miyazaki’ films, I realized that Chihiro is different from most of Miyazaki’ female protagonists as she is initially timid and outwardly incapable of taking care of herself, however her bravery and ingenuity matures as she faces many trials. Eventually, she is reunited with her parents, but the important part of the film was not merely that she reunited with her parents but rather the process of personal growth and making mature decisions that allowed her to get her parents back.

These films certainly promote feminist ideals with their portrayal of females as multifaceted, captivating individuals rather than merely proposing distracting unrealistic romantic illusions. His movies provoke the audience in such a way where you find yourself so emotionally attached to the characters. It would not be a surprise to me if one may catch themselves at the edge of their seat while applauding for their victories while remaining sympathetic with their setbacks. Although it is only recently that his work is being noticed, mainly because his approach is different (e.g. female protagonist) he is still a widely well-respected Auteur. Many regard him as a Japanese Walt Disney; yet to me he is on a completely different level as his films, although animated, cater largely to a more mature audience.

Works cited

1)"Hayao Miyazaki." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. .

2) Spirited Away. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli, 2001. DVD.

3)"Styles and Themes of Hayao Miyazaki." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. .

Hayao Miyazaki: Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

When we were in class, someone brought up Hayao Miyazaki. I was thrilled to hear you say that we can use his films for this post because Miyazaki has been my inspirations in many things, such as animation and art. I watched all his films that he directed or filmss that were produced from his company Studio Ghibli. Although Hayao Miyazaki is not a female director, a lot of his films are based on female heroines.

Hayao Miyazaki was born in Tokyo on January 5, 1941. He started his career in 1963 as an animator at the studio Toei Douga, and was subsequently involved in many classics of Japanese animation. He was known for his incredible ability to draw, and the seemingly endless stream of movie ideas he proposed. In 1971, he moved to A Pro with Isao Takahata, then to Nippon Animation in 1973, where he was heavily involved in the World Masterpieces Theatre TV animation series for the next five years. In 1978, he directed his first TV series, Conan, The Boy in Future, then moved to Tokyo Movie Shinsha in 1979 to direct his first movie, the classic Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro. In 1984, he released Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, based on the manga (comic) of the same title he had started two years before. The success of the film led to the establishment of a new animation studio, Studio Ghibli, and which Miyazaki has since directed, written, and produced many other films with Takahata. All of these film were critical and box office successes. In particular, Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke reeived the Japan Academy Award for Best Film and was the highest-grossing (about US $150 million) domestic film in Japan's history until it was taking over by another Miyazaki's work, Spirited Away.

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind is about a young princess of a small nation, who live in a world devastated by a holocaust called the "Seven Days of Fire." She gets involved in a struggle with Tolmekia, a kingdom who tries to use an ancient weapon to fend off the Ohms. She must stop the Tolmekians from killing these insects and stop the other warring nations from destroying themselves and from destroying the any means by which their world can be saved from the spread of polluted wastelands.

In the movie, Nausicaä is a very strong girl. After her father passed away, she took on the role as the sole leader for her nation. She is not your every day princess. She even have her own laboratory under her palace where she conduct her own research on poisonous plants and spores that she collected on her own. She found a solution as to how to save these plants. She was very strong willed, doing whatever it takes to save the Ohms, even if it is to sacrifice herself.

Miyazaki uses many style and themes for his movies, including environmentalism and feminism, among others. Miyazaki often emphasizes Earth's fragility, especially in the context of critiquing development and pollution. It is shown through almost all of his movies, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke, being the two main ones. In each film, the conflict between the natural way of life and the military destruction of culture, land and resources is central to the plight of the protagonists. When battle scenes are shown in each, the militaristic music and ecological destruction is paramount to the endangerment of the inhabitants of the villages. In an interview with The New Yorker, Miyazaki claimed that must of the modern culture is "thin and shallow and fake", and "not entirely jokingly" looked forward to an apocalyptic age in which "wild green grasses" take over.

All of Miyazaki's films are populated by strong female protagonists that go against gender roles common in Japanese animation and fiction. Miyazaki has been called a feminist by Studio Ghibli President Toshio Suzuki. He said, "[Miyazaki] have this conviction that to be successful, companies have to make it possible for their female employees to succeed too. You can see this attitude in Princess Mononoke. All characters working the bellows in the iron works are women. Then there's Porco Rosso. Porco's plane is rebuilt entirely by women."

Bell Hooks said that she realized that her students "learned more about race, sex, and class from movies than from all the theoretical literature [she] was urging them to read" (2) was very true. Miyazaki gave the same notion stating that he is very worried about kids consuming too much media. He also said that he hates the idea that children watch his films repeatedly.

My painting that was inspired by Hayao Miyazaki. This painting did show up on my first post.

Sources:

Hayao Miyazaki Biography

The New Yorker Interview

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Toshio Suzuki's notion is from Birth of Studio Ghibli on Nausicaä DVD

Bell Hook's Making Movie Magic

Nancy Oliver: Writer

Lars and The Real Girl

Nominated for the 2008 Oscar Best Original Screenplay

I’m always kind of surprised that Lars and The Real Girl doesn’t come up more often when people talk about their favorite gynocentric movie. And, then, I’m also not surprised. Nancy Oliver’s story of a socially inept man who lapses into an elaborate delusion about a sex doll’s realness isn’t exactly funny, not entirely comfortable and not precisely feminist. It is a story about connection, unconditional love and acceptance for men, their fantasies and the women who love them. There are plenty of opportunities for a feminist and patriarchs alike to squirm in their seats a bit and we do.

Nancy Oliver is a writer for hits HBO Six Feet Under and True Blood. Out of collage and long before these successes she worked on a video game and wrote web content. Her experience with techie men in these jobs, some of whom she saw as being extremely lonely, inspired her to write Lars and The Real Girl, “The specific real doll thing -- I had a weird job that brought me in contact with a lot of young guys and a lot of weird websites….At the same time, I can completely understand how it could happen and why people have them. So that stayed with me for a while. I wanted to make a fairy tale and give it that twist.” (Walsh, 2007). The completed Lars screenplay languished for years among her personal projects until her career caught up with her i.e. she had an agent and connections to people who could produce a film. The screenplay morphed during the making of the movie; a fact of writing for TV and film Oliver is somewhat pragmatic about (Walsh, 2007).

Oliver’s subjects and projects often deal with overt and typical male models of female sexuality in somewhat subtle and sometimes conflicting ways. Riana Rouge is the ubiquitous mostly naked female video game heroine whose saga begins with a failed attempt to save another women from being raped. Six Feet Under displays the full range of Madonna to Whore female charicatures. True Blood expresses the classic innocent/good vs. evil/bad tropes within the vampire/human relationship.

Lars and The Real Girl objectifies women through Bianca’s, the doll's, object status (O’Neil), desexualizes and Madonnafies her, and makes her a Pygmalion kind of character via a man's wish and work. Conversely, Lars' longing for and struggle to connection with women, the emotional disability of men (Hooks, 27), the outsider position of men who do not fit the social normative male role, the difficulty in growing into manhood without examples of whole personhood and the loving support of community can be read as rallying cries for the more multi-faceted manhood Hook’s describes in her book The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity and Love (Hooks, 2003). Ms. Oliver says, “It’s about exploring the geography of kindness and compassion.” (O’Neil) Lars and the Real Girl can be read as part of an effort to address male pain (Hooks, 110).

Hooks, Bell. The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity and Love. New York: Atria, 2004. Print.

"Nancy Oliver." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 19 Nov. 2011.

O'Neill, Kate E. "Female Effigies and Performances of Desire: A Consideration of Identity Performance in Lars and the Real Girl." Forum Journal. Google. Web. 19 Nov. 2011.

Patricia Cordero Revolutionizes Female Representation in Film with "Real Women Have Curves"

The mainstream film industry has long dictated what audiences believe is culture. In the setting of a dark theater, any preconceived notions of what is real and what isn't literally go out the window and are replaced by directors' own ideas of such. As Bell Hooks states in her book "Reel to Real", "The fact that some folks may attend films as 'resisting spectators' does not really change the reality that most of us... are usually seduced, at least for a time, by the images we see on the screen. They have power over us and we have no power over them," (3). These constructed realities become ingrained in viewers' brains so that notions of gender identification and roles are suddenly dictated by cinema.

Unfortunately, a mainly male-dominated cinema industry means that the messages fed to the public regarding females are constructed through a male point of view and influenced by the male gaze. Sexualized images of women are what become "reality" to audiences rather than the actual cultural and societal female experience. Difficulty in selling films that offer a real world look at feminine life and culture are too often rejected by an industry looking to marginalize profits. As Debra Zimmerman states in her book, "Women Make Movies", "A major problem, even today, is convincing men that films by and about women are important," (265). Female directors aiming to show the public an actual realistic depiction of the struggles, triumphs, and overall condition of women in society through their films are stomped out by popular cultural trends of sexuality in mainstream films.

It is the female population's duty therefore, as Maggie Humm mentions in her book "Feminism and Film", to create a "collective social construction of reality" (95) and create "groups where peer support and a shared political perspective enable women to construct a women's epistemology," (95). One such director who has attempted to do such through her films is Patricia Cardoso. In many of her works, particularly her film Real Women Have Curves, Cardoso attempts to deconstruct the popular and false image of the Latina woman created from the minds of male directors and repeatedly presented in films. In this particular film, she presents the real condition of Mexican women both in their own Latino culture as well as American culture. Told through the story of character Ana and her struggles with conflicting messages from her own family and community, the film depicts what many Latinas experience in growing up and entering adulthood.

As Kristen Holm and Katherine Daniels state in their review "Eat the Flan: Real Women Have Curves", the movie "confronts ideas about what women are valued for, including societal messages about education, serving men, and sexuality, "(95-96). Ana is made to believe by her mother that learning to cook and serve men is far more valuable then getting a higher education. She is also consistently called fat by her mother and pushed to lose weight, as many Latina girls are in their own families. As Holm and Daniels state, in Real Women Have Curves "women are keenly aware of cultural and gender norms and women hold other women accountable to these norms...to instill gender socialization in the next generation," (96). Furthermore, as Jillian M. Baez states in "Towards a Latinidad Feminista: The Multiplicities of Latinidad and Feminism in Contemporary Cinema", the scenes in the film show how females are "exploited in the global economy by performing low-paying, gendered work," (120). In the end, Ana breaks free from the restraints that many of the societal and cultural norms of her culture had on her and chooses her own path by opting to further her education away from home.

Cardoso is considered a pioneer in feminist film directing. She creates works of "gynocriticism" that Humm mentions and, as Bell Hooks mentions, creates films that are "free from all limitations of which teh most dangerous is the imitation of life," (1). Cardoso's films generally reflect the social reality of females in the Latino culture and is, in her own rights, an auteur in that she is creating works about restrictive and often harmful cultural values directed towards females. Her films generally receive positive critiques and are supported by a handful of feminist theorists and, not surprisingly, the Latino population. Directors like Cardoso may be able to bring the feminine reality into mainstream films and break the preset ideologies of gender in popular cinema.

--------------------------------------
Bibliography

1) Baez, J.M. "Towards a Latinidad Feminista: The Multiplicities of Latinidad and Feminism in

Contemporary Cinema." Popular Communication 5.2 (2007): 109-128. Web.

2) Holm, K. and Katherine Daniels. "Eat the Flan: Real Women Have Curves." Journal of

Feminist Family Therapy 15.4 (2003): 95-98. Web.

A new approach on auteurs

When thinking about female auteurs, and directors, the first person who popped in my head was Drew Barrymore and her debut as a director for the movie Whip It. I have seen this movie and Drew Barrymore was the first women director I was exposed to (or at least the only one I was aware of). As I was thinking back into the film I thought about the tropes that feminist frequency spoke about, and it seems to pass the test she suggested for screenwriters and directors. I was still not sure on whether I should write about Barrymore or not, because she is a well know Hollywood actress. I looked over the question, and I feel as if I am more comfortable in focusing on Barrymore as a director and auteur, and not as an actress. The reason as to why I felt the need to be cautious with my decision was so i knew that I am not just choosing someone who has been seen as and has been in movies where females fall into the stereotypes. I wanted to choose someone who is going to be a positive influence on other women who want to direct. This is why the theory of the auteur is significant. 'Auteurism' developed in the 1950s from the critical ideas of the French journal Cahiers du cinéma and its main contributors, Godard, Truffaut, and Rohmer (Humm 96).



Sarris edited translations of Cahiers du cinéma, and in The American cinema describes the history of that cinema as the self expressive signatures of Hollywood directors rather than a collection of ideas to which these signatures were signed (Humm 96). It is very evident that Hollywood's directors tend to make a film in their way, or in their vision and when this is the case people learn things from films and this is why it is important to recognize who is the person who wrote the screenplay, who is the person who is directing this film. It may not be the intent of a filmmaker to teach audiences anything, but that does not mean that lessons are not learned (Hooks 2). When we go to the movies we, or at least I don't think of what it is I am going to watch, and what it is I will get from this movie. This is a very important issue because If we learn things unconsciously than we can definitely start to learn great things through film. Filmmaking is the most efficient, creative and satisfying form of activism (Saalfield 66). It may seem curious why I choose to write about Barrymore. When I first thought about it Whip it was not an activist movies, and Barrymore was not trying to fight against something, or was she?



Whip it is a movie about a young women who's mother is the stereotypical mom who want their daughter to compete and win beauty pageants. Bliss (the young woman) does not want to and instead wants to become part of a roller derby team instead. Throughout this movie the father and her best friend support her and in the end the mom supports her love for the rough sport. Now Barrymore is trying to send the message that girls should follow their dream of doing what they want, whether it is trying out for a sport that no girl would think of trying out for (which girls have done). Although this is a very inspirational film, there were some tropes that did show up such as the romance, but it has a different twist at the same time. Although this was Barrymore first directorial debut, I was not satisfied with the fact that she had just directed one film. I felt like there had to be more. As I researched I found on IMDB that she has directed two other films. One in particular caught my attention. She had directed a documentary in junction with MTV for a television series called Choose or Loose. Her episode was called The Best Place to Start. This short Documentary was about young kinds in high school and voting. Barrymore stated "Hi um, my name is Drew,... and I am a repressed voter." she than says "I, I wanna learn about the voting system; I wanna be a voter." (from The Best Place to Start). This is what truly caught my attention and it was one of the reasons that I took a chance in seeing other than an actress in Hollywood.



The unfortunate thing is that, as audience members of films we choose what we want to see and therefore some will not select movies that are documentaries. The real truth is that most people find it very difficult to journey away from familiar and fixed boundaries (Hooks 2). I believe that this is a reason as to why many Directors will not take a chance in directing a film where the cast is all female, and they are all the main character. Don't get me wrong there are films with those qualities, but I am hoping to keep searching for fictional films that are directed by women, and not only women, but women of different cultures, race, ethnicity. I want to read and see more screenplays written by women. A few final thoughts, Barrymore is also a producer, and does have her own production company with her friend. This shows that if she can make it why not other women. It is difficult, but I believe I can see more women as directors, and as auteurs. I want to see another Academy Award Winner that is a women, and I know I will get to see another one.

Works Cited

Almost Unreal. "Career." Drew Barrymore Web at Www.drewbarrymore.org • Drew Barrymore Web at Drewbarrymore.org • Your Ultimate Source for All Things Drew Barrymore. Fansites Network. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. <http://www.drewbarrymore.org/career/>.

Barrymore, Drew. "DrewBarrymore.com - Media Gallery - The Best Place to Start (26879 Views)." DrewBarrymore.com - The Official Drew Barrymore Site. DrewBarrymore.com. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. <http://www.drewbarrymore.com/videoqt-bps.html>.

Brownworth, Victoria A., and Barbra Findlen. "Debra Zimmerman." Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors. By Judith M. Redding. Seattle: Seal, 1997. 261-65. Print.

Brownworth, Victoria A., and Barbra Findlen. "Catherine Saalfield." Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors. By Judith M. Redding. Seattle: Seal, 1997. 66-70. Print.

"DrewBarrymore.com." DrewBarrymore.com - The Official Drew Barrymore Site. DrewBarrymore.com. Web. 19 Nov. 2011. <http://www.drewbarrymore.com/index.html>


Hooks, Bell. "Making Movie Magic." Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies. Great Britain: Routledge, 1996. 1-9. Print.


Humm, Maggie. "Ch. 4 Author/Auteur; Feminist Literary Theory and Feminist Film." Feminism and Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1997. 90-110. Print.


Picture Credit

Lilies keep blooming

When I think about Japanese film directors, some faces and names pop into my head. However, I could not think of any “female” film director. Although it was a long time ago when Barbara Murray Eddings insists in the writing, “Women in Broadcasting,” that jobs which require decision-making skills are taken by men, I strongly believe it still exist especially in Japan. Although Wikipedia is not perfectly accurate, I found only 35 female film directors out of 642 in the page of “List of Japanese film directors”. This shows that only 18.3% of Japanese film directors are females. I was shocked that it was really hard to find Japanese female film directors.

Sachi Hamano is a Japanese film director who was born in 1948. She is the most prolific and written-about female pink film director. Hamano has been directed a lot of films with a theme that “looking into sex subjectively from women’s perspective.” I found her interesting because she also published a book titled “When Women Make Films” and talks about how hard for women to take a position of making something new. As Judith Redding and Victoria A. Brownworth says in the writing “Debra Zimmerman and Women Make Movies,” that few projects by independent women filmmakers will be funded by government, Hamano also talks about how the society hesitate to raise money for women to make films.

I personally got surprised by the fact that there is a female porn filmmaker. I was thinking that movies which consist of sexual scenes are made only by men. Hamano wanted to be a film director, but there was no way but to be a pink film director. All of the film production companies say that required qualifications for application are men who have a college degree. She talks about her past in the interview, “I did anything to be a filmmaker. When I was about to be raped by other staffs because there was no room for women, I slept with a knife held in my bed.” She knew there will be a way to be a filmmaker if she takes advantage of being “female,” but she chose not to. Hamano often faced a situation where she could feel sexual discrimination while making films, but she never gave up.

The reason why Hamano decided to be a filmmaker was because she wanted to insist that women can live without men. In the past, all of the women’s roles was either “mother,” “wife,” or “daughter.” Main characters were always men, and those female characters are supporting the main guy. Hamano researched why there is a big gap between the women’s image in the movies and reality. Then she noticed there were only male filmmakers in Japan. Since males present women based on their “ideal image,” this gap exists.

When Hamano turned 50, she made a movie Lily Festival which is about sex of elderly people. Although it was (is) a taboo to address such subject, but she tried to show the sex of elderly people in a positive way. Talking about the sex of elderly women especially the ones who already reached menopause in the movie was one of her dream. When we see elderly people in movie, they are often senile. Hamano insists that is not real. Elderly people can also live happily and sexually. “Lilies (women) never die, lilies will keep blooming forever,” she concludes.

Works Cited

Tantan-sha. http://www.h3.dion.ne.jp/~tantan-s/

Hamano, Sachi. "When Women Make Films." Heibonsya: 2001. Print.