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.
Author(s): Lisa French
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 292
City: Cham
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
About the Author
Chapter 1: Introduction
Part I
Part II
References
Filmography
Part I: Women’s Documentary Practice, Theory and Histories
Chapter 2: Women and Documentary
Introduction
Women and Documentary: Historical Highlights
Female Participation and Access
Female Subjectivity
Politics
The Woman Filmmaker
References
Filmography
Female Documentary Filmmakers to Win Academy Awards for ‘Documentary Feature’ (with Winning Year: 1948–020)
Chapter 3: The ‘Female Gaze’
Foregrounding Female Subjectivity
A Woman’s Look
Markers of the Female Gaze
A Women’s Poetics and the Female Gaze5
Feminisms and Representation
Resonant Themes
Conclusion
References
Filmography
Chapter 4: Aesthetics and the Influence of Gender
Introduction
A ‘Female Aesthetic’
A Feminist Aesthetic
A Feminine Aesthetic
Female Experience
A Female Perspective
Identification
Circularity and a Lack of Closure
Emotion and Feeling
Detail
Conclusion
References
Filmography
Chapter 5: Feminisms, Feminist Theory and Documentary Practice
Introduction
Feminist Documentary
Feminist Documentary Practices
Women Documentary Filmmakers as Change Agents
Feminist Documentary and Film Studies
Theory and Practice: The Debate About Realism
Female Authorship
Conclusion
References
Filmography
Part II: Case Studies: Female Documentary Directors in Focus
Chapter 6: Documentary as Artform: Pirjo Honkasalo’s Cinematic Poetics
Introduction: Pirjo Honkasalo
Style, Approach and Poetics1
Women in Finnish and Transnational Filmmaking Contexts
Interview with Pirjo Honkasalo
Conclusion
References
Filmography
Chapter 7: Transnational Feminism in the Cinema of Kim Longinotto
Introduction: Kim Longinotto
British and Transnational Contexts
Feminisms, Transnational Feminism and Longinotto’s Films
A Female Gaze and Aesthetic
Interview with Kim Longinotto
Conclusion: Longinotto and the Female Gaze
References
Filmography
Chapter 8: Nishtha Jain: An Auto-ethnographic and a Postcolonial Feminist Gaze
Auto-ethnography
Activism
Women Documentarians in India
Postcolonial Feminism and What It Means to Be a Feminist
Interview with Nishtha Jain
Conclusion: Jain and the Female Gaze
References
Filmography
Chapter 9: Marie Mandy: Female Subjectivity and Aesthetics
National and Production Contexts
Filming Desire: A Journey Through Women’s Film
The Body in Representation and Image
A Colonised Gaze
Interview with Marie Mandy
Conclusion
Female Agency and the Possibility of a Women’s Cinematic Language
References
Filmography
Chapter 10: A View from the Margins: The Films of Nancy D Kates
Marginalised by Sexual Identity
Queer Voices2
A Female World View
Writing and Books
Documentary and Women in the United States
Interview with Nancy D Kates
Conclusion: Kates, Power and the Female Gaze
References
Filmography
Chapter 11: Gillian Armstrong: The Line Between Fact and Fiction
Introduction
‘A Gillian Armstrong Film’
Being Typecast
A Girl’s Eye View
Critical Reception
Docudrama
Armstrong’s Dramatised Documentaries
Women and Documentary in Australia
Interview with Gillian Armstrong
French: Armstrong
Conclusion
References
Filmography
Chapter 12: Conclusion: Rendering Female Reality
References
Filmography
Glossary
References
Film Index
Name Index
Subject Index
