Women's Cinema

Back in old ages, maybe women are not talented and powerful as men did. Women are taught and told to be stay home and cook. Nowadays, women educate themselves and most of them have as high as men’s achievement. More and more women get involve in media’s industry, not only they are being portrayed or shoot, but they are now also picking up the cameras and making movies. The word 'women’s cinema' usually refers films that made by women.

In “Feminist and Film – Chapter 4” by Author/Auteur, I agree with her idea of “Gynocriticism”, especial the one relates to cinema. First, Author/Auteur defines as “is a way of assessing works of art specifically in relation to the interest and desires of women.” (Author/Auteur, 95) The media market now needs huge amount of women models, but do they need women photography and videography? I am not sure. But I agree on Donovan’s idea, which Author/Auteur mentions in the reading, “’Gynocriticism’ is part of the process, of the praxis, through which the voices of the silenced are becoming heard (Donovan 1987,p.107).” (Author/Auteur, 95) Even the film industry does not need women filmmakers, or not accepting women filmmakers at this point, but their hard works, talents, and good works will be seen one day. Donovan calls cinema in the concept of ‘gynocriticism’ a “collective social construction of reality (Donovan 1987, p.101).” This means that the society only accepts, supports, or shares things that they have same interest on. In other words, women should spread and support women filmmakers to gain better reputation and encourage more women to do so. 

I found few interesting and strong points in bell hook’s “Reel to Real”. She first starts with “Movies make magic. They change things. They take the real and make it into something else right before our very eyes.” (bell hooks, 1) I love her words, she can easily bring out the points and transfer her ideas to mine, and it stays there.  In many of her speech or readings,  she uses useful examples to show us how women now are being portrayed and how are we seeing these images. If we change the ways we see things, I believe there will be lots of differents, “Changing how we see the images is clearly one way to change the world.” (bell hook, 4) Those images and movies are totally changing women’s lives, “They have power over us and we have no power over them.” (bell hooks, 4) bell hooks believe making a movie is not only base on skills, but a interesting topic is needed, and it should base on the society needs. She declares that there are over 400 hundreds films or videotapes that made by women to rent or purchase, but there are lot more than that are made by man.

"Female journalists in Bihar bemoan the fact that Media remains a male-dominated space. Varsha, our Community Correspondent in Bihar, has herself been exposed to gender violence. This made her particularly sensitive to gender discrimination, and inspired her to fight for women's rights."

          The video above descries a bunch of women's idea on women media in Bihar, especially focus on news reporting. Bihar is a city in India, which it is a developing city. They indicate the media use of women's beauty instead of  their talents. It is a very interesting video, it also encourage women to step forward and stand up fight for their rights.

           I have done research on female filmmakers, and to be honestly, I was surprised and shocked that there are not many of them. As I was finding sources, I found this interesting news, which talked about women fimmakers. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jan/31/female-film-makers) The title is “Why are there so few female filmmakers?”, and the subtitle is “No woman has ever won an Oscar for directing.” Zimmerman once points out a problem of movies make by women, even they struggled, overcame all the difficulties during the process, the movies are not well received by general public. As a result,  it discourages many woman to be a filmmaker. According to the news, there are only 9% of female directors in Hollywood in the year of 2008. The reading has concluded few reasons for fewer amounts of women filmmakers. First,  overt sexism. It happens anywhere and anytime in women’s lives. Usually, women cannot have same position as men, because the majority of the society believe that women are not as smart, strong and powerful as men do. Secondly, lack of budgets, “A lack of female film-makers also seems to have made it difficult for studios to imagine women in charge.” This occurs due to the first outcome. It is hard for women filmmakers to find sponsors, because women do not have nice reputation on making movies, therefore, not much budgets are given. Last but not least, motherhood. Making a movie takes up 16 – 18 hours of a day, at least one is rich, otherwise, she cannot take care of her child and make movie at the same time. However, here is the new era, many of women filmmakers are making all the possibilities to success. They are fighting, and we should keep supporting!

Madonna presents the 2011 Gucci Award for Women in Cinema at the 68th Venice International Film Festival, during a ceremony hosted by Creative Director Frida Giannini.