January 11, 2016January 11, 2016 by JENDEAN

Bite-sized blog post: Elaine May

Known for her comedy, ELAINE MAY was one of very few women in Hollywood to direct films in the 1970s. An actor and director she has helmed now classic films such as Neil Simon’s The Heartbreak Kid (1972).

After the financial and critical disaster of Ishtar May has acted in several films but hasn’t directed since (arguably a fate that would not have befallen an equally skilled male director). She is slated to direct a documentary on her comedian partner Mike Nichols who passed away in November 2014.

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Where to watch her films:

FANDOR

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Bite-sized blog post: Maggie Greenwald

Unlike many up -and-coming filmmakers in the 1980s who went the film school route MAGGIE GREENWALD learned the ropes of filmmaking directly through working on sets, driving vans, editing and exposing herself to the ins-and-outs of the industry before making her first feature Home Remedy (1987).

Her film noir The Kill-Off (1989) based on the novel by Jim Thompson is listed as one of the top 100 American Independent Films by the British Film Institute. Greenwald went on to direct The Ballad of Little Joe (1993) taking over the traditionally male-genre of the Western and putting a woman at the center of it and she continues to direct films and for television.

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Where to watch her films:

NETFLIX

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Bite-sized blog post: Julie Dash

The first film directed by an African-American woman to be released theatrically didn’t happen until 1991 with Daughters of the Dust directed by JULIE DASH.

Dash was first exposed to cinematography in an after-school program at the Studio Museum in Harlem where she and a friend believed they were enrolling in a class on still photography, not knowing what cinematography was. She went on to study at AFI with cinema legends such as Ingmar Bergman and UCLA at the tail end of the movement that became known as the LA Rebellion. Keep an eye out for Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl coming soon!

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Where to watch her films:

AMAZON (DVDs/BluRays for PURCHASE)

WOMEN MAKE MOVIES FILM CATALOG

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Bite-sized blog post: Dorothy Arzner

After returning home from the first World War where she worked in the ambulance corps DOROTHY ARZNER decided against medical studies and chose to pursue a career in film directing. She began her career as a writer and editor at Paramount Pictures and eventually leveraged her success in those arenas by telling the powers that be at Paramount if they didn’t give her a directing opportunity she would move to rival studio Columbia.

Paramount gave her Fashions for Women (1927) to direct which was a financial success and led to her being the only woman working as a director in the studio system at the time.

Tying a microphone to a pole during a scene in an attempt to get better sound she invented what is now known as the boom!

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Where to watch her films:

FANDOR

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Read more about her:
BOOKS
Directed by Dorothy Arzner by Judith Mayne

ONLINE
Columbia University Women Film Pioneers Project
Dorothy Arzner is the focus of a retrospective by UCLA Film and Television Archive
UCLA
Sense of Cinema
Sophisticated: The Hollywood Story of Miss Dorothy Arzner
Wikipedia

FILMOGRAPHY (from imdb):

1943First Comes Courage

1940Dance, Girl, Dance

1937The Bride Wore Red

1937The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (uncredited)

1936Craig’s Wife

1934Nana

1933Christopher Strong

1932Merrily We Go to Hell

1931Working Girls

1931Honor Among Lovers

1930Galas de la Paramount (sequence director)

1930Anybody’s Woman

1930Paramount on Parade

1930Sarah and Son

1930Behind the Make-Up (uncredited)

1929The Wild Party

1928Manhattan Cocktail

1927Get Your Man

1927Ten Modern Commandments

1927Fashions for Women

1922Blood and Sand (additional footage, uncredited)

January 6, 2016January 7, 2016 by JENDEAN

Bite-sized blog post: Jessica Yu

The 1996 documentary short Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O’Brien won JESSICA YU an Oscar for Best Documentary Short where she quipped, “You know you’ve entered new territory when you realize that your outfit cost more than your film.”

Yu never attended film school but has gone on to direct for television, as well as documentary and fiction features and experimental films – including the 2008 film Ping Pong Playa.

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Where to watch her films:

NETFLIX

FANDOR

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VIMEO

Bite-sized blog post: Ava DuVernay

Bite-sized Blog
Affrm, African American, Array, Ava Duvernay, film, Hollywood, Indie Film, Publicist, social media, Studio Films, Sundance, Women, women directors, women in film, women producers
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After being told, “African Americans don’t go to indie films so we can’t fund your indie film with an African American cast,” AVA DUVERNAY made Middle of Nowhere (2012) without industry support and it screened at Sundance where she became the first African American woman to win Best Director at the festival. Using her experience as a publicist she formed a distribution company AFFRM to distribute her own films and those of other African American filmmakers.

Her next feature film Selma (2013) was nominated for an Academy Award and she re-branded her distribution company AFFRM to ARRAY to encompass female filmmakers as well as people of color.

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Where to watch her films:

NETFLIX

AMAZON (PRIME-STREAMING)

AMAZON (DVDs/BluRays for PURCHASE)

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THE 2ND SEX & THE 7TH ART: WOMEN DIRECTORS IN FILM

Female filmmakers: Investigating their works, history and advocacy in the U.S. from 1896-present.

Tag / Hollywood

Bite-sized blog post: Elaine May

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FILMOGRAPHY (from imdb):

Bite-sized blog post: Maggie Greenwald

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FILMOGRAPHY (from imdb):

Bite-sized blog post: Julie Dash

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FILMOGRAPHY (from imdb):

Bite-sized blog post: Dorothy Arzner

Where to watch her films:

FILMOGRAPHY (from imdb):

Bite-sized blog post: Jessica Yu

Where to watch her films:

Read more about her:

FILMOGRAPHY (from imdb):