From: James Kreul (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Feb 16 2004 - 17:06:31 PST
>I don't know why James thought of the query as "bait." It comes out of a
>conversation I was having once, to the effect of something like "Why the
>hell can't we think of more than a handful of great women
>filmmakers? Isn't it depressing?"
Because the question misses so many points.
First, think about why you don't know more women filmmakers. Among the
many reasons, the fact that women have not always had the same opportunties
in the field (thus a smaller number overall during a significant part of
film history), and the fact that history has not done a very good job of
telling you about the ones who have had substantial careers surely plays
into it.
Second, if we want to play the numbers game, a much better question would
be "Can you name just one woman who would have been qualified to be on the
5 member selection committee?" Of course you can. And whomever you want
to pick, she likely would have done a better job than you or I would do
coming up with a list of 15 or more women to at least nominate. Shirley
Clarke was a judge at the 1967 Knokke-Le-Zoute, I'm not sure why she
wouldn't have been qualified to serve on the Essential Cinema selection
committee.
Third, responding to the 15+ question would lead to other questions that
would also miss the point. Okay, should the following women have been in
the Essential Cinema?
Shirley Clarke
Mary Ellen Bute
Katherine Arledge
Yoko Ono
Joyce Wieland
Gunvor Nelson
Agnes Varda
Storm De Hirsh
Chick Strand
Carolee Schneeman
Barbara Rubin
Madeline Tourtelot (haven't seen her films, but she was distributed by
Cinema 16 and in the 1958 Knokke-Le-Zoute)
Lotte Reiniger
Vera Chytilova
Germaine Dulac
Where does that get us? Do I think all of these would/should have made
it? All I know that most of them could replace at least a few on the
initial list. But bickering about that in this context misses the point
(we'd have the same bickering about 15 additional men for the list). If
Shelly would have responded with a list, several people would have
responded only with "She shouldn't be on the list..." etc..., thus my term
"bait" for the question.
James Kreul
UW-Madison
email suppressed
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