Angles: Women Working in Film and Video (1993)

Untold stories / her movie, The Ballad of Little Jo, Maggie Greenwald shows us that the traditional Western has an entirely different resonance when told from a woman’s perspective. There is an audience for this point of view and others not normally expressed in commercial, popular culture, she told writer Pat Aufderheide who reviews the movie and interviews the director on page 6. Greenwald’s movie, along with others, such as Nancy Kelly’s.A Thousand Pieces of Gold, Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, and Rea Tajiri’s History and Memory, remind us of the many untold stories of our mothers, grandmothers and great grandmothers. These films inspire us to dig through attics and archives in search of their experiences and truths. Through literature, art, film and video women from diverse backgrounds are re-creating and re-telling their own stories. We agree with Greenwald that audiences want to see this kind of work. In fact, they seem hungry for it. Consider the popularity of Amy Tan’s novel, The Joy Luck Club, and the movie adaptation. In a new Angles column, “‘Postscript,’ Gretchen Elsner-Sommer writes her thoughts about this story of mothers and daughters (page 22). Canadian filmmaker Dorothy Todd Hénaut documented the creative lives of four Canadian women writers in her film “Firewords.” She talks about her work in an interview with Kathryn Presner (page 8). The annual Women in the Director’s Chair Film & Video Festival in Chicago is a good indicator of the volume and variety of works by women available today. Entries for the festival are at a record high—more than 500 for the 1993 event. In-Fin Tuan’s report (page 4) offers a sampling of the many good works screened. The work is out there. Our task is to talk about it, write about it, teach and exhibit it. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Angles will have its first benefit this fall. Great Lakes Film & Video, in conjunction with Women in the Director’s Chair, will present a program of nine short works from WIDC’s 1993 film and video festival. If you live in the area we hope you will attend. The benefit will be at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 19 at the University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee, rine Arts Theater, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd., Milwaukee, Wis. Admission is $7, $4 for students. If you are unable to attend, we would gladly accept a donation. The benefit will help Angles expand its readership and bring you more news and articles about women working in film and video. 2 % ANGLES angles Editor ELFRIEDA M. ABBE Associate Editor GRETCHEN ELSNER-SOMMER Regional Editors: Jill Petzall, St. Louis; Harriet Robbins, Los Angeles. Copy Editor: Dan Sargeant. Editorial Assistant: Tanzy Falck. Contributors: Pat Aufderheide, Peg Masterson, Kathryn Presner, InFin Tuan. Cover Design: Jane Kremsreiter. Advisory Board: Loran Johnson, Third World Newsreel; Jeanne Kracher, Women in the Director’s Chair; Portia Cobb, filmmaker and Community Media Project; Jackie Tshaka, Black Programming Consortium. Support for this issue provided by Great Lakes Film & Video, Milwaukee, Wis. Angles recognizes the innovative and important contribution women have made and continue to make in the field of film and video. We are committed to bringing readers information and news about the diverse body of work being created by women from all ethnic, cultural and socio/economic backgrounds. ANGLES, Volume 2, Number 2. © 1993. Angles is listed in the Film Literature Index. Send subscriptions, news, editorial business or manuscripts (with a self-addressed stamped envelope) to: Angles, P.O. Box 11916, Milwaukee, WI 53211. 414/963-8951. We are glad to look at video tapes, but will return unsolicited materials only when postage is provided.