I just joined the site and wanted to raise my hand as a female filmmaker here (and a Latina one at that).

My name is Aje' (short for Adriana - long story) and I'm currently attending Wellesley College. Yes, "Mona Lisa Smile" Wellesley - I was a production assistant on the set and got to hang out with Julia Stiles, Julia Roberts, etc. I was accepted into NYU-Tisch's film program as an undergraduate but couldn't afford the place (they lost my FAFSA somehow), so I'm studying Cinema and Media Studies at Wellesley before I head off to get my MFA in film production from FSU. I'll also be studying film abroad in England at the University of East Anglia this fall.

Film has been my life all along, and I'm also a big fan of animation - everything from Disney to Squaresoft. Obviously I love video games as well. I write, I act, I direct, and anything else I need to do to get the job done. Being at Wellesley has been more film-related than I thought it would be. My first year I got to have a long talk with Nancy Hardin, producer of "Frida" and a Wellesley alum, about women in the film industry, and this past spring I journeyed into Boston to see "Made-Up" and got the opportunity to chat with the film's director, the amazing Tony Shalhoub (from "Monk," etc.). I'll also be interning at Revolution Studios or a similar place this coming summer, as part of Wellesley's LA Film Internship Program (I'll be a junior this year).

As for the female film student topic, this was something I talked to Nancy Hardin about. She recommended that I make a few "male-oriented" films, until I earned enough creative control to cast female and minority characters. She may have a point, in that overly feminist films don't sell in Hollywood, but my stories aren't overly feminist, so I don't think I'll have a problem. Obviously I'm a very mainstream filmmaker, and I'm proud of that. I love experimental films, but I also love the way mainstream films reach into every part of society, so I'll try to take what I like from the two and make some decent films out of it.

I think that's enough for now. I have a tendency to ramble a bit. :-P

welcome. i agree that there aren't a lot of smart female films (except for "how to loose a guy in ten days" ), but there are a few. I really enjoyed "real women have curves." I think it's feminist and latino oriented which is why I thought of bringing it up in this thread. And it received a good amount of mainstream success considering the lack of budget, star power, marketing, etc.

So, what are some of your favorite feminist films? Recommend a few.

I have to agree - "Real Women Have Curves" is an *excellent* movie. Thanks for bringing it up. As for my favorite feminist films, let's see...

Two "old school" female "feminist" filmmakers who come to mind are Dorothy Arzner ("Dance, Girl, Dance") and Chantal Akerman ("Je, Tu, Il, Elle"). Arzner's film was interesting because of the way the main character "looked back" at the audience during her dance number, instead of just being the object to look at. Akerman's film is more experimental, and really gave the actress (Akerman herself) more control - again, making her more than just an object to be looked at, as women usually were/are in films.

Another film that comes to mind is "Sans toit ni loi" (also known as "Vagabond"), directed by Agnès Varda. It begins with the death of a young woman and traces back her life and the events leading up to her demise. It's beautiful, and i think it's feminist because it shows her resisting everyone's attempts to shape her into something she's not.

As for more mainstream fare, things aren't as bright. ("Catwoman," anyone?) I *could* bring up Quentin Tarantino here. He was raised by a single mother, and grew up not seeing any boundaries for women, because his mother did so much. "Reservoir Dogs" made be devoid of women entirely, but I love Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace in "Pulp Fiction," and of course Uma and the rest of the cast of the "Kill Bill" series. ^__^*

I'll have to think about more mainstream examples, mainly of feminist characters, since feminist movies are hard to come by. Jessica Rabbit is a pretty decent femme fatale for the first half of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", but as soon as it's established that she is *not* the villain, she becomes your stereotypical housewife. Which reminds me of "Bound," the first Wachowski brothers film, which is basically lesbian film noir, and awesome as well. Although I wonder if femme fatales are really "feminist," since they usually represent the male fear of women, and usually end up either killed or "converted"... (The "Bound" girls aren't, though.)

A friend sent me an interesting article discussing female heroines versus female villains: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/22/LV253966.DTL

I must agree here. It seems women in cinema are turned into an object. The moer booty and skin they show, the more they sell there bodies to hollywood.

They teach the young of the nation that if you don't dress skimpy, no guy's will pay attention. (I personally find it more attractive when girls are fully clothed, then I don't feel like they are trying to sell me something).

(That and they don't look like a hore).

Anyways, I'm sidetracking. Most women in cinema are treated as sexual objects that convince the younger audience that that is how they must act and dress in order for them to be appreciated. Disgusting, hollywood can be a very twisted place.

On that same note, the way most men treat women in films is disgusting. It teaches the younger male audience to act just like that. (I'm talking action, name the last 15 year old guy who went to go see a romance movie, c'mon).

I appreciate films where women and men act how they should. While in Kill Bill I don't think running around and killing people was a proper course of action, it did show that men and women can be both bad and good, or mediocre.

that's my two cents.

I think recently, Saved! has had the best female characters I can remember seeing in the theatre.