Celluloid Ceiling

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.

Table of Contents

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

Beti Ellerson is founder and director of the Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema, which features the African Women in Cinema Blog. She was the executive producer and host of Reels of Colour, and director of Sisters of the Screen: African Women in the Cinema (2002). Her publications include the book, Sisters of the Screen: Women of Africa on Film, Video and Television (Africa World Press, 2000) and articles in Journal of African Cinemas and Feminist Africa, among others. In addition to serving as president of the Diaspora Jury at the 2013 FESPACO, she was keynote speaker at the 2012 Paris Symposium on forty years of African women francophone filmmakers. Dr Ellerson teaches courses in visual culture, African cinema, women's studies and Africana studies, most recently at Denison University (USA) for the 2013-14 academic year. Contact: africanwomenincinema@africanwomenincinema.org

Dr Karen Oughton lectures in Media Communications at Regent's University London. Specialising in film studies, Oughton has contributed to Intensities: The Journal of Cult Media and has presented papers at conferences including Cine-Excess and for IAFOR. She is currently preparing research on the depiction of gender in the characters of Robert Downey Jr. and on representations of serial killers in film. Oughton is also a broadcaster and film journalist and has contributed commentary packages to home distributors including Lionsgate and articles to publications including Sight & Sound, Little White Lies and Ain't It Cool News. She has also served on England's judging panel for the Melies D'Argent award amongst other film industry duties.

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. www.gabriellekelly.com

Cheryl Robson is an award-winning filmmaker. Her documentary Rock n Roll Island aired on BBC4 and won several awards at film festivals including a Gold remi. 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 which has published over 200 writers andwas shortlisted for the ipg Diversity award in 2019. 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. Cheryl was shortlisted for the itv National Diversity awards 2019 for Lifetime Achievement. www.cherylrobson.net