Celluloid Ceiling
Women Film Directors Breaking Through
Published on 20. April 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
384 pages
978-0-9566329-0-6 (ISBN)
Description
Now Kathryn Bigelow has made history as the first woman to win an Oscar for directing, is this a new era for women filmmakers? The figures suggest otherwise. Seeking to redress the imbalance between male and female film directors, Celluloid Ceiling explores inspiring new work appearing in the USA, the UK and globally. Highlighting emerging women directors alongside ground-breaking pioneers, this is a one-stop guide to the leading women film directors in the 21st century and those who inspired them. From Oscar-winning action director Kathryn Bigelow to emerging strong voices from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Laos, particular attention is paid to women making films in traditionally male-dominated areas such as action, sci-fi and fantasy and to works with a new take on the violence and pornography of the horror genre. This book shows that the changes overturning current business and artistic processes are opening up new opportunities for women film directors who are determined make the most of these. The contributors represent women making film Africa, Latin America, Europe, USA, Asia and India, with new voices in Japanese and Middle Eastern cinema, the women directors working in TV, as well as the first woman director Alice Guy Blache, the rise of the independent and the horror aficionados the Soska Sisters, Celluloid Ceiling includes numerous interviews and b/w photographs.
Reviews / Votes
"The level of public consciousness about the barriers faced by female filmmakers is higher than it has ever been. Despite this, the discussion more often than not centres around North America and to a lesser extent, Europe, Australia and New Zealand (and I am guilty as charged). This is perfectly understandable, but clearly women do make films outside of these countries, and it can be illuminating to consider how their experiences reflect or differ from those with which we are more familiar. To this end, the arrival of a new book, "Celluloid Ceiling," could not be more timely. Edited by Gabrielle Kelly and Cheryl Robson, it takes a purposefully global overview of the status quo and in doing so provides some fascinating stories and insights, reminding us of what is lost when we limit the discussion to Anglophone directors." - Matthew Hammett Knott - indiewireMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Twickenham
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Aurora Metro Publications
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
455 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-9566329-0-6 (9780956632906)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Editors
GABRIELLE KELLY, screenwriter and producer, is also a media educator and story expert. She has worked in Hollywood
on both studio and indie films and on productions from Russia, Brazil, China and Europe. Her films include: All the Queen's Men, Stag, D.A.R.Y.L. for Paramount/Columbia, and her script of indie feature All Ages Night is set in the music scene of LA. She developed and edited the industry bible, The Movie Business; a Legal Guide with entertainment lawyer Kelly Crabb and was given the Female Maverick Tribute by Female Eye Film Festival in 2014.
CHERYL ROBSON is a producer of several short independent films, most recently Rock n Roll Island. She worked at the BBC
for several years and then taught filmmaking at the University of Westminster, before setting up a theatre company. She also
created a publishing company where she has edited over fifty books and published over 150 international writers. As a writer,
she has won the Croydon Warehouse International Playwriting Competition and as an editor, received a Special Jury Prize for
Peace with author Robin Soans, for The Arab-Israeli Cookbook.
GABRIELLE KELLY, screenwriter and producer, is also a media educator and story expert. She has worked in Hollywood
on both studio and indie films and on productions from Russia, Brazil, China and Europe. Her films include: All the Queen's Men, Stag, D.A.R.Y.L. for Paramount/Columbia, and her script of indie feature All Ages Night is set in the music scene of LA. She developed and edited the industry bible, The Movie Business; a Legal Guide with entertainment lawyer Kelly Crabb and was given the Female Maverick Tribute by Female Eye Film Festival in 2014.
CHERYL ROBSON is a producer of several short independent films, most recently Rock n Roll Island. She worked at the BBC
for several years and then taught filmmaking at the University of Westminster, before setting up a theatre company. She also
created a publishing company where she has edited over fifty books and published over 150 international writers. As a writer,
she has won the Croydon Warehouse International Playwriting Competition and as an editor, received a Special Jury Prize for
Peace with author Robin Soans, for The Arab-Israeli Cookbook.
Content
INTRODUCTION
Gabrielle Kelly and Cheryl Robson
AFRICA
. African Women Directors:
'Francophone African Women Filmmakers:
40 years of cinema, Paris (1972-2012)'
Beti Ellerson
2. Speak Up! Who's Speaking?: 27
African Female Filmmakers Speak for
Themselves
Maria Williams-Hawkins
AMERICAS
3. The home, the body and otherness: 54
Canadian representations of identity and
feminism in Mary Harron's American Psycho,
Sarah Polley's Away From Her and the Soska
Sisters' American Mary
Karen Oughton
4. Female Filmmakers in Latin America 77
Ana Maria Bahiana
5. USA: Flouting the System: Lois Weber, 92
Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino
Jacqui Miller
6. From Hollywood to Indiewood to Chinawood: 106
Women Film Directors in the US
Gabrielle Kelly
7. US: Women Film Directors of the Indie 127
World
Nathan Shaw
8. Oscar-worthy Women Directors 140
Patricia Di Risio
9. Interview with Kathryn Bigelow 155
Ana Maria Bahiana
ASIA
10. Moving Up: 160
Women Directors and South-east Asian Cinema
Anchalee Chaiworaporn
11. Films from an Unknown Woman: 179
Remediating the absence of gender politics in
the films of women directors in China, Taiwan
and Hong Kong
Pieter Aquilia
12. Women Filmmakers of South Korea 203
Anchalee Chaiworaporn
13. 'Why are you making such a big deal just 210
because I am a woman?' Women Directors of
Popular Indian Cinema
Coonoor Kripalani
14. Cats and Dogs and Wild Berries: 233
New Voices in Japanese Cinema
Adam Bingham
15. To Direct Patriarchy: Women Film Directors 249
in Pakistan
Iram Parveen Bilal
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
16. Brilliant Careers: Three Waves of 255
Australian, New Zealand and Indigenous
Women Film Directors
Pieter Aquilia
EUROPE
17. Alice Guy-Blache, True Pioneer 272
Tania Field
18. A Century of Madchen: Femmes 280
and Frauen in Fascist, New Wave, and
Contemporary European Cinema
Heidi Honeycutt
19. Hidden Histories on Film: 309
Female Directors from South Eastern Europe
Dina Iordanova
20. Iron and Reel: Russian Women Directors 316
Through the Soviet Era and Beyond
Karlanna Lewis
21. Where's Britannia? 329
Melody Bridges
MIDDLE EAST
22. Coming Forth (Day) by Day: Arab Female 349
Filmmakers Making Strides
Ronan Doyle
23. In Their Own Words: Interviews with 355
Contemporary Women Directors from the
Middle East
Elhum Shakerifar
24. Voices of Israeli Women Filmmakers 366
Amy Kronish
SUMMARY 380
Gabrielle Kelly
Gabrielle Kelly and Cheryl Robson
AFRICA
. African Women Directors:
'Francophone African Women Filmmakers:
40 years of cinema, Paris (1972-2012)'
Beti Ellerson
2. Speak Up! Who's Speaking?: 27
African Female Filmmakers Speak for
Themselves
Maria Williams-Hawkins
AMERICAS
3. The home, the body and otherness: 54
Canadian representations of identity and
feminism in Mary Harron's American Psycho,
Sarah Polley's Away From Her and the Soska
Sisters' American Mary
Karen Oughton
4. Female Filmmakers in Latin America 77
Ana Maria Bahiana
5. USA: Flouting the System: Lois Weber, 92
Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino
Jacqui Miller
6. From Hollywood to Indiewood to Chinawood: 106
Women Film Directors in the US
Gabrielle Kelly
7. US: Women Film Directors of the Indie 127
World
Nathan Shaw
8. Oscar-worthy Women Directors 140
Patricia Di Risio
9. Interview with Kathryn Bigelow 155
Ana Maria Bahiana
ASIA
10. Moving Up: 160
Women Directors and South-east Asian Cinema
Anchalee Chaiworaporn
11. Films from an Unknown Woman: 179
Remediating the absence of gender politics in
the films of women directors in China, Taiwan
and Hong Kong
Pieter Aquilia
12. Women Filmmakers of South Korea 203
Anchalee Chaiworaporn
13. 'Why are you making such a big deal just 210
because I am a woman?' Women Directors of
Popular Indian Cinema
Coonoor Kripalani
14. Cats and Dogs and Wild Berries: 233
New Voices in Japanese Cinema
Adam Bingham
15. To Direct Patriarchy: Women Film Directors 249
in Pakistan
Iram Parveen Bilal
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
16. Brilliant Careers: Three Waves of 255
Australian, New Zealand and Indigenous
Women Film Directors
Pieter Aquilia
EUROPE
17. Alice Guy-Blache, True Pioneer 272
Tania Field
18. A Century of Madchen: Femmes 280
and Frauen in Fascist, New Wave, and
Contemporary European Cinema
Heidi Honeycutt
19. Hidden Histories on Film: 309
Female Directors from South Eastern Europe
Dina Iordanova
20. Iron and Reel: Russian Women Directors 316
Through the Soviet Era and Beyond
Karlanna Lewis
21. Where's Britannia? 329
Melody Bridges
MIDDLE EAST
22. Coming Forth (Day) by Day: Arab Female 349
Filmmakers Making Strides
Ronan Doyle
23. In Their Own Words: Interviews with 355
Contemporary Women Directors from the
Middle East
Elhum Shakerifar
24. Voices of Israeli Women Filmmakers 366
Amy Kronish
SUMMARY 380
Gabrielle Kelly