ALL POSTS
The Status of Women’s Film Festivals
One of the reasons I went to Colgone to the International Frauen Film Festival was to be a part of a dialogue on the status of women’s films festivals. The festival invited Skadi Loist a...
The Guthrie Theatre Announces Its 50th Anniversary Season With No Female Playwrights on the Program
The Guthrie Theatre is one of the most prestigious regional theatres in America. Next year it will be celebrating it’s 50th anniversary season. Joe Dowling, the 7th Artistic director of the...
Elles directed by Malgoska Szumowska
Here are my impressions of the film from the Toronto Film Festival. The film opens in NY and LA today with a nationwide release it follow. Elles written by Tine Byrckel and Malgoska Szumowska and...
Trailer Watch: The Perfect Family Directed by Anne Renton
Film Opens May 4 Yahoo! Video Player
Belma Bas Wins Top Award at International Frauen Film Festival for Zephyr
I just am back from Germany where I attended the International Frauen Film Festival, a truly wonderful environment where you can hang out with women working in the film business that you otherwise...
Trailer Watch: Hope Springs Starring Meryl Streep
What do you think about this one. It opens in the slot in August where movies targeted at women like Julie & Julia and The Help have been quite successful. It’s directed by the same guy who did...
A Big Week for Women and Hollywood
Just wanted to make sure that you saw the pieces that I wrote this week for The Washington Post and the NY Times’ website Room For Debate. Tonight at 6pm, in conjunction with the Tribeca Film...
Trailer Watch: Romeo & Juliet in Yiddish Directed by Eve Annenberg
Synopsis: Eve Annenberg’s gritty, funny new feature stars predominantly non-actor twenty somethings who grew up speaking Yiddish as a first language in Brooklyn. This is possibly the first...
Female Reviewer Gets Attacked for Avengers Review
While I am not usually that interested in boycentric blockbusters, I am very into seeing The Avengers. I want to see how an open feminist man like Joss Whedon makes a big budget Hollywood film. Will...
Trailer Watch: Brave
Looks like this will be Pixar’s one shot at a film about a girl because they released the list of the next couple of movies and NONE are about women and NONE are directed by women. We’ve got the...
Happy Birthday Barbra
Today is Barbra Streisand’s 70th birthday. Even if you are not a fan — and I don’t know how you could not be — this woman has had an extremely impressive career. Singer, songwriter,...
Guest Post: Filming Elephant Landmine Survivors Walk on Prostheses is No Small Feat
“The Eyes of Thailand” documentary tells the true story of Soraida Salwala’s quest to help two elephant landmine survivors, Motala and Baby Mosha, walk again on their own four legs by building...
Hey Nina Jacobson — How About Picking a Woman for Catching Fire!
According to reports in EW, the Playlist and the Hollywood Reporter, the search for a director for Catching Fire is down to two dudes — Bennett Miller and Francis Lawrence. Now I think that...
What Women Directed Films Should Have Been Considered for Cannes?
I am over the anger of this morning’s Cannes lineup and on to the next step — action. A tweet from Katey Rich asked me what films I thought should have been included in the lineup and I have...
Trailer Watch: Virginia
Opens May 18.
Four Steps Back — NO Women Directors in Competition at Cannes
I’m sitting in my hotel room in Cologne, Germany having arrived yesterday at International Frauen Film Festival for the second year in a row. I came back this year because I had such a great time...
Interview with Mary Harron — Director of The Moth Diaries
Mary Harron’s The Moth Diaries hits theatres this week. It is also available on demand. Women and Hollywood: What drew you to this project? Mary Harron: It was the intense focus on young girls...
Guest Post: I Hate Romantic Comedies: Why I Made a Romantic Comedy
Yes, I am a woman and I hate romantic comedies. I have only seen a handful in my life that I didn’t feel like took place in some parallel universe, and fewer than that that didn’t seemed like...
Guest Post: The Woman Who Wasn’t There — A True Story
Almost everyone has a 9/11 story. They can describe where they were when the planes hit, when the towers collapsed, the days following. I have one. I was there. I watched the second tower collapse...
Must Watch Video: Funny or Die Dudes Go All Feminist
https://medium.com/media/a6273705bdf8a1cc59284e6b14f33baa/href Facebook h/t Anna Vanvalin
Blog Advisory
Hi folks. I’m traveling this week and trying to get a little R&R. Later this week I will be at the International Women’s Film Festival in Cologne Germany where there will be a conversation...
There is Hope for the Future: Tavi Gevinson’s TedxTeen Talk
Tavi embraces feminism and is way smarter than most people about pop culture at the rip old age of 15. Her advice- just be Stevie Nicks. Check out her magazine — Rookie for teen girls.
Guest Post: Tribeca Watch- A Happy Accident
For me, the filmmaking process is incredibly personal and I feel that there aren’t necessarily any rules to it. My latest film BILLY BATES will have a private screening at the 2012 Tribeca Film...
Lena Dunham’s Show Girls — Yes, It Is That Good
For those of you who don’t have HBO this might be a good time to check it out. Not only does the new series Girls by Lena Dunham premiere this weekend, but next week we get Julia Louis Dreyfus in...
Ashley Judd Continues the Conversation on the Misogynistic Media
Here’s what she said: I think it’s the objectification of girls and women and the hypersexualization of our society that invites the criticism. We are anesthetized to it. She wants us all to...
Tribeca Trailer Watch: Billy Bates — Directed by Jennifer De Lia
Who Should Direct Catching Fire?
So now it is official and Gary Ross has walked away from directing the sequel of Catching Fire because the production schedule was too tight. Here’s what he said: As a writer and a director, I...
Guest Post: A Feminist Defense of 50 Shades of Grey
50 Shades of Grey is happening, it’s happening big, and it’s happening for women. I jumped on the band wagon after reading that the books were initially created as Twilight fan-fic (Twilight...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Ashley Judd
I can count on one hand — even one finger — an actress with a show up for renewal (btw you should watch Missing it’s great and Eddard Stark is alive on that show) who spoke back...
Daily Rant: I Hate Barbie
I have to say that I am not surprised but am throughly disappointed that the news has come out that Barbie has created a Hunger Games inspired Katniss Everdeen doll. It probably is a good business...
Interview with Vamps Director Amy Heckerling
Amy Heckerling has made some serious classic films in her career namely Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Clueless. She was in NY this past weekend screening Clueless and her new film Vamps at the...
Guest Post: Elza — A Different Kind of Movie with a French Caribbean Twist
When I was in the advertising business I enjoyed producing powerful commercials, but at the same time I felt there was something missing. I yearned to tell my stories — to capture life about...
Sports Diversion — Sexism Watch: The Masters
Here we are again. Nine years after Martha Burk tried to get the August National to allow a woman member we are still at a place where there is still not a female member since the club’s founding...
Disappearing Act IV — European Film Festival in NYC April 11–22
If you don’t go to the large film festivals around the world you really don’t get to see the wealth of films playing the circuit. Sure there are films that break out that get released, but there...
Trailer Watch: First Position — Directed by Bess Kargman
This looks terrific. It will hit theatres on May 4th. Also look for it on demand. First Position
Lena Dunham in Conversation with Nora Ephron
I am very impressed with Lena Dunham. Have been since I saw Tiny Furniture. As the launch of her HBO show Girls approaches on the 15th of April (which I will write about next week), Lena is curating...
The Continuing Conversation About the Marginalization of Female Writers
I opened the NY Times book review this past weekend and lo and behold there was an essay by the divine Meg Wolitzer called The Second Shelf about how books written by men and women are treated...
Tribeca Trailer Watch: Wagner’s Dream Directed By Susan Froemke
The film will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday, April 25, followed by its worldwide theatrical release on May 7 — a one-day ticketed event as part of The Met: Live in...
Hollywood Sexist of the Day: Lee Aronsohn
At first when I read this I thought it was an April fools joke because I had never heard of Lee Aronsohn before and had no idea that he was a co-creator of Two and a Half Men. I’m guessing that...
Guest Post: A Wake Up Call
March may have been Women’s History Month, but we should be working actively all year to have more women’s work on film and on stage. We cannot accept the lowly statistics without activism....
Trailer Watch: Sparkle
Watching this made me sad about Whitney Houston all over again. Opens August 10. Yahoo! Video Player
Guest Post: Why I Started the San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival
The genesis of founding the San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival started when I took a Film History II class in 2004 while earning my film degree at San Francisco State University....