Category: Film/TV
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What Really Makes a Film Feminist?
Originally published by The Atlantic Last week, Swedish movie theaters created a media foofaraw when they announced that they would begin providing a rating based on the Bechdel test for the films they screen. The test, created by comic artist Alison Bechdel in 1985, asks whether a film has at least two female characters…
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A Feminist Guide to Horror Movies, Part Five: The Blood of Carrie
Originally published by Ms., Sociological Images, and The Huffington Post Carrie is largely about how women find their own channels of power, but also what men fear about women and women’s sexuality. Writing the book in 1973 and only three years out of college, I was fully aware of what Women’s Liberation implied for me…
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Ripley: Believe it or Not, It’s About All That
Originally published by Women and Hollywood When Women and Hollywood asked me if I wanted to do a couple of guest posts on horror movies, I jumped at the chance. Like Kerensa Cadenas mentioned in her introduction to the series, I have an abiding fascination with horror movies and the way they manage to articulate…
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The LA Femme Film Festival: By Women, For Everyone
Originally published by Women and Hollywood Leslie LaPage launched the LA Femme Film Festival in 2005 after a dispiriting trip to the Sundance Film Festival, where she saw precious few films directed or written by women. The first LA Femme festival featured 40 films and two seminars; this year’s festival screened over 100 films, hosted…
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Overcoming Trauma of the Home: Women Gaining Strength in Light of Abuse
Originally posted at Women and Hollywood Much has been made by media critics of the propensity of horror movies to fetishize the murder of women – to make them victims, suffering at the hands of brutal forces for their sexual sins. The slasher films of the ’70s and ’80s as well as their ’90s sequels…
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Attacking Rape Culture with Gallows Humor
Originally published by Ms. TRIGGER WARNING: Discussion of rape and rape culture … When Jessie Kahnweiler started talking about making a comedic short film called Meet My Rapist about her personal experience with rape, everyone from friends and family to Hollywood insiders to feminists wary of offending victims urged her to rethink the idea. A P.R.…
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A Feminist Guide to Horror Movies, Part Four: New Beginnings
Cross Posted at Ms. When the film industry finds an idea that works, they tend to use it again and again. And again. And again and again. In the realm of horror, once a franchise has spawned seven or so sequels, filmmakers continue to capitalize on name recognition by simply going back to the beginning…
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In a World Where Everyone Has Vocal Training
Originally posted at HowlRound. Actor Lake Bell has been making the press rounds promoting her new indie movie, In a World …, about a female voice over actor whose gender (and father) have kept her from achieving the same level of success as her male peers. Bell plays Carol, a goodhearted vocal coach that finally…
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Gender Flipping in Hollywood
Originally posted at Ms. It’s no secret that this summer’s movies suck for women. It’s been mentioned on Vulture. NPR did a story about it. The New York Times covered it. Even Fox News ran a piece about it. Yet Jodie Foster has a leading role in the new action movie Elysium. How’d she score…
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Who Should Play the New Lara Croft?
In the midst of a dark summer for geek girls (sorry USA Today, one lady per movie does not constitute a good summer for women), a ray of light has finally broken through. MGM has announced it plans to reboot The Tomb Raider film franchise, and they’ve hired a female screenwriter: none other than Marti…
Holly L. Derr 