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Women at the Film Board, past and present, always active
be made and why it has been neglected for so long and why it was not followed by many others in the same tradition.
I think that one of the most important and exciting developments of the conjuncture of the new women’s movement, the discovery of the existence of hundreds of forgotten films by women, and the work of developing feminist theories of culture and ideology, has been that women are again changing and transgressing the lines of demarcation between popular and experimental, between commercial and artistic, between political and entertaining films; and we are seeking ways of expressing our ideas which are accessible to the majority of viewers. This has necessitated continual questioning, both theoretical and practical, of assumptions about how to make films, about how films affect people.
Some pitfalls are becoming apparent:
A) In feature films, it is not enough to have women in major roles, or even women who do exciting things. Films, unlike reality, have morals — if a strong woman dies or is raped or punished in any way, a connection is made between her strength and the punishment — i.e., a woman is punished for being strong, as Katherine Hepburn was in Dorothy Arzner’s memorable film Christopher Strong (1933, U.S.). Nelly Kaplan hit that one head-on in A Very Curious Girl. And La fiancée du pirate (1970, France) was a film about a woman’s revenge on an entire village.
B) There is a dominant tradition in feature films that the heroine must be conventionally beautiful and well-dressed,
usually surrounded by expensive trappings. Heroes, on the other hand, can be homely and shabby if they are interesting and strong.
C) Makers of alternative films have often, at their peril, ignored the strength of feature film conventions and failed to pay attention to audience expectations of technical competence, entertainment value, pacing, etc., and to the implications of using conventionally beautiful images of women, conventional narrative forms etc. So, two further points to add to our original five: (see above)
6) We must take into account the history of the representation of women in art and how artistic conventions have been oppressive of women (5) so that
7) Women can figure out how to express progressive attitudes in forms which are both accessible and non-exploitative.
Most people are most exposed to the glut of patriarchal ideology which dominates all the media. To oppose this is to take on enormous odds. The history of women’s filmmaking offers some very positive examples of feature films which present alternatives to conventional narrative and subject matter, for instance: Lois Weber’s The Blot (1921, U.S.) which shows that romance is dependent on economic reality and avoids a fairytale ending of happy couples; Leontine Sagan’s Maedchen in Uniform (1931, Germany), Marie Epstein’s La Maternelle (1933, France) and Astrid Henning
Cinema Canada/33