The Female Gaze in Documentary Film

The Female Gaze in Documentary Film an International Perspective makes a timely contribution to the recent rise in interest in the status, presence, achievements and issues for women in contemporary screen industries. It examines the works, contributions and participation of female documentary directors globally. The central preoccupation of the book is to consider what might constitute a 'female gaze', an inquiry that has had a long history in filmmaking, film theory and women's art. It fills a gap in the literature which to date has not substantially examined the work of female documentary directors. Moreover, research on sex, gender and the gaze has infrequently been the subject of scholarship on documentary film, particularly in comparison to narrative film or television drama. A distinctive feature of the book is that it is based on interviews with significant female documentarians from Europe, Asia and North America.

Features interviews with leading female documentary directors from the contemporary industry globally Considers whether the films of individual women directors might be interpreted as offering aesthetic approaches that are informed specifically their gender. Examines the documentary form in relation to gender and argues that there is a 'female gaze' in this form

Autorentext

Lisa French is Dean of RMIT University's School of Media and Communication and Professor of Screen and Media. She has published extensively on women in film, produced documentaries, is co-chair of a UNESCO 19 global university research network on media, gender and ICTs, and is a member of Screen Australia's Gender Matters Taskforce.

Klappentext

The Female Gaze in Documentary Film an International Perspective makes a timely contribution to the recent rise in interest in the status, presence, achievements and issues for women in contemporary screen industries. It examines the works, contributions and participation of female documentary directors globally. The central preoccupation of the book is to consider what might constitute a female gaze , an inquiry that has had a long history in filmmaking, film theory and women s art. It fills a gap in the literature which to date has not substantially examined the work of female documentary directors. Moreover, research on sex, gender and the gaze has infrequently been the subject of scholarship on documentary film, particularly in comparison to narrative film or television drama. A distinctive feature of the book is that it is based on interviews with significant female documentarians from Europe, Asia and North America.

Inhalt

Introduction.-PART 1.-Chapter 1.- Women and documentary.- Chapter 2.-The 'Female Gaze'.-Chapter 3 Aesthetics and the influence of gender.- Chapter 4 Feminisms, Feminist Theory and Documentary Practice.- Part 2 Case Studies: female documentary directors in focus.- Chapter 5.- Documentary as Artform: Pirjo Honkasalo's Cinematic Poetics.- Chapter 6.-Transnational Feminism in the Cinema of Kim Longinotto.- Chapter 7.-Nishtha Jain: An Auto-ethnographic and a Postcolonial Feminist Gaze.- Chapter 8.- Marie Mandy: Female Subjectivity and Aesthetics.- Chapter 9.- A View from the Margins: the films of Nancy D Kates.- Chapter 10.- Armstrong.