Features
Guest Post: How Can We Get More Women In Power As Directors?
This is an expansion of the piece written for the NY Times forum: How Can Women Gain More Influence in Hollywood. Most directors work intermittently as free-lance employees and are far from rich or...
Cross Post: La Femme Telluride
William Blake once wrote that exuberance is beauty. Despite the success of Ben Affleck’s Argo here, this fest seems to be driven by women filmmakers. This is most surprising, since we just came...
Guest Post: A Fan Speaks — Kristen Stewart and Our Miserable Failure
The media stoning of Kristen Stewart, of Twilight fame, has been going on for about four weeks now. About a month ago, she was pictured having a fling, which she called a “momentary...
Piling on Kristen Stewart
It’s been a couple of weeks (in fact almost a month) since the world learned that Kristen Stewart made out with her Snow White and the Huntsman director and caused a total gigantic meltdown in the...
Guest Post: Nurture vs. Nuke
Four years ago, when Sarah Palin was nominated to the Republican ticket, columnist Sally Quinn famously asked, “When the phone rings at three in the morning and one of her children is really sick,...
Note to Janice Min — Hey Pot, It’s the Kettle, You’re Black
This past Sunday the NY Times Style section featured a piece about the how hard the culture is on celebrity moms. The piece started out with a personal story by its author, Janice Min, (the...
Phyllis Diller: A Comedy Legend
Groundbreaking comic, Phyllis Diller died yesterday at the age of 95. Diller was truly one of a kind and paved the way for the female comedians we know now. She was unafraid to be brazen and...
Win a Copy of Feminist Ryan Gosling
I love Feminist Ryan Gosling. Gender studies student Danielle Henderson is so frickin smart taking a dude we all think of as sensitive with feminist tendencies and throwing some great feminist...
Cross-Post: Heroines of Cinema: Muriel Heslop
As widely reported earlier this month, the new Sight and Sound poll of the 50 Greatest Films of All Time featured only one film by a female director. It was hardly a surprise to those versed in the...
The Summers of Meryl Streep
Meryl Streep can’t do much wrong in our book. Her newest film, Hope Springs, opened this past weekend on over 2,000 screens. A film that cost $30 million to make has now made over $20 million...
Our Unyielding Obsession with Jennifer Aniston
If you’ve been under a rock for the last couple of days I am here to inform you that we can all calm down now because Jennifer Aniston has finally gotten engaged. If you haven’t been under a...
Remembering Helen Gurley Brown: A Complicated Legacy
Like many feminists, I have some problems with Cosmopolitan. Growing up, it was always a kind of aspirational magazine to me. It seemed adult with its sexy headlines about sex with actresses and...
A Conversation with Livia Bloom and Macarena Aguiló, director of The Chilean Building
For the men and women in The Chilean Building, patriotic duty took an unusual form: childcare rather than warfare. While their parents battled the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, a group of 60...
Sexism Watch: Emma Stone Calls Out Sexism
Love this. You can check out the full version here. Cross posted with permission from Upworthy (a site you should check out.) The Adeventures of Emma in Hollywoodland (Upworthy)
Interview with Nicole Karsin — Director of We Women Warriors
We Women Warriors director Nicole Karsin answered some questions (by email) about her documentary that follows three native Colombian women who are using nonviolent resistance to defend their people...
Vulture’s Meryl Streep Matrix
Couldn’t pass up sharing this. Created by the folks at Vulture. Don’t forget to go out and support Hope Springs this weekend. Read the Definitive Meryl Streep Matrix (Vulture)
Remembering Judith Crist
Groundbreaking film critic Judith Crist died at her home on August 7 at the age of 90 after a long illness. Crist was truly a trailblazer, as she was the first full-time female critic at any major...
The Director of the “Greatest” Film of All Time Was A Sexual Harasser
Last week as the film world was celebrating the elevation of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to the top of the once a decade Sight and Sound list of “Greatest Films of All Time”, the leading...
Guest Post: Hello, Norma Jeane
* “Please don’t make me a joke.” — Marilyn Monroe Most surprising about Norma Jeane Baker’s grave is this: it does not exist. No tombstone, mausoleum or urn marks her final resting...
What Are the Greatest Movies Directed by Women?
Fueled by the anger of another best of list sorely lacking in women, I would like to put forward the following films (which came from people all over the world through twitter and facebook) for the...
Guest Post: Dreams in New York
As the producer of British filmmaker Carol Morley’s films to date and an ex-New Yorker now based in London, I’m thrilled Dreams of a Life is getting a hometown viewing. Dreams of a Life is a...
Guest Post: Should the Emmy Statue Get a Sex-Change?
Women are still going backwards and in high heels, but not in a good way. According to recent stats — women TV writers are losing ground. I just perused the Emmy website and counted only...
Cross Post: Sisters in Cinema: Where are the Black Women Film Directors?
Last week, the Twitterverse was gifted a priceless nugget when film director Ava DuVernay and her guild, AFFRM, released the second trailer for her anticipated movie, Middle of Nowhere. The...
Interview with Aurora Guerrero — Writer/Director of Mosquita y Mari
Mosquita y Mari writer and director Aurora Guerrero answered some questions (by email) fresh from the film recently winning Best Actress (Fenessa Pineda) and the Audience Award for Outstanding First...
Interview with Aurora Guerrero–Writer/Director of Mosquita y Mari
Mosquita y Mari writer and director Aurora Guerrero answered some questions (by email) fresh from the film recently winning Best Actress (Fenessa Pineda) and the Audience Award for Outstanding First...
In Appreciation: Lupe Ontiveros
Latina actress Lupe Ontiveros lost her battle with liver cancer last week at 69. She had a long a varied career in Hollywood beginning in 1976 when she appeared in an episode of Charlie’s...
Cross Post: Late-Night TV Stand-Up Demographic Scorecard: First Half, 2012
Remember when The New York Times profiled Eddie Brill into a corner and caused an uproar both within CBS and Late Show with David Letterman — which took away Brill’s power to book stand-up...
Interview with Anne Emond and Catherine de Lean — Writer/Director and Star of Nuit #1
I met Anne last spring in Cologne, Germany at the International Women’s Film Festival where her film played. We were able to reconnect when she came to town to promote her provocative film,...
Interview with Anne Emond and Catherine de Lean – Writer/Director and Star of Nuit #1
I met Anne last spring in Cologne, Germany at the International Women's Film Festival where her film played. We were able to reconnect when she came to town to promote her provocative...
Guest Post: Until the Fat Girl Swims
Many filmmakers talk about how their vocation is a “labor of love.” For most of us, the “labor” can frequently exceed the “love.” However, when we release our films out into the world it...
Feminist Dad of the Day: Christian Bale
I was reading the Batman cover story in EW and I wanted to shaare this quote from the interview with Christian Bale. What was the last great kids’ film you saw? I have a daughter, so it becomes...
Guest Post: Why Catwoman is the Best Part of The Dark Knight Rises
I owe Christopher Nolan and Anne Hathaway an apology. Four years ago, I left The Dark Knight fuming at the death of Rachel Dawes and its utter predictability from Nolan, who likes to kill off his...
Interview with Lauren Greenfield, Director of Queen of Versailles
In some ways this movie’s subtitle is revenge of the 99%. The film gives you a behind the scenes look of an absurdly wealthy couple — David and Jackie Siegel — who are building the...
Cross Post: Women Attend Comic-Con But Don’t Run the Show
This year, 40 percent of the attendees at the just completed annual Comic-Con were women. If only that percentage was reflected in the event’s programming. Instead, the majority of programming...
Cross Post: A Feminist Defense of Louis CK
This week, comedian Louis CK (of Louie fame) appeared on The Daily Show. I was actually watching The Daily Show for a change, and was excited to see Louis CK interviewed — he’s always funny...
Will Catwoman Be a Breakout Feminist Character?
As The Dark Knight Rises hits fever peak I’ve been wondering about Anne Hathaway’s character of Catwoman. Will she be like Michelle Pfeiffer’s in Batman Returns who as I recall was a bit...
Cross-Post: Dear Aaron Sorkin: Someone Please Fix You
I have now been caught in the ninth circle of Hell. When the bad reviews came out about The Newsroom I couldn’t believe how harsh the critics, especially The New Yorker’s Emily Nussbaum, had...
Guest Post: Women, Science and Film
Women and Hollywood readers are well aware of the appallingly low number of female directors working in Hollywood. Well, this disparity exists in the sciences and other industries as well....
Remembering Nora Ephron: Talking About Women Directors
This is from an interview circa 1988 that Hollywood Reporter journalist Tim Appelo did for Savvy Magazine about the troubles Nora Ephron had in trying to get the film Cookie made. Fox put Susan...
Cartoon of the Day: A Couple Leaves The Movie Theatre…
To see more cartoons by the great Liza Donnelly check out her Forbes site.
Interview with Nancy Savoca — Co-writer and Director of Union Square
Women and Hollywood: This movie was born out of frustration of not being able to get financing for films, and then you made a movie that needed very little financing. Talk a little about the...
Guest Post: Take This Waltz and Female-Centric Love Triangles
On the heels of Lynn Shelton’s Your Sister’s Sister comes another indie dramedy about a love triangle, writer-director Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz. Waltz is Polley’s follow-up to her...
Quote of the Day: If a Man Writes About a Family, It’s Like, Oh, He’s Really Writing About America. If a Woman Writes About a Family, It’s Just Assumed That She’s Writing About Herself.
So says Jennifer Weiner who is now on her book tour for her 10th book The Next Best Thing. All of Weiner’s previous nine novels have been incredibly popular and best sellers. She’s sold 11...
Cross Post: In Mainstream Films, Dead Moms Don’t Count…
I had originally planned to do a spoiler-filled discussion of the various things that vexed me about The Amazing Spider-Man, but frankly my heart just isn’t in it. The film is obviously a victim...
Quote of the Day: If a Man Writes About a Family, It’s Like, Oh, He’s Really Writing About America. If a Woman Writes About a Family, It’s Just Assumed That She’s Writing About Herself.
So says Jennifer Weiner who is now on her book tour for her 10th book The Next Best Thing. All of Weiner's previous nine novels have been incredibly popular and best sellers. ...
Guest Post: Pondering Nora Ephron, You’ve Got Mail: The Film That Made Me Love Film
“When I was a boy, I saw the first Star Wars in theaters and it changed my life,” our film professor told us. “I sat there in the dark theater and the sounds and images consumed me; it was the...
Cross-Post: Oscar Flashback — Nora Ephron
“It is true that you are wiser when you are older. That is true. The wisdom arrives at the same moment your mind is a blank. It’s a very ironic confluence of things. It’s kind of...
Interview with Amy Ziering — Producer of The Invisible War
The Invisible War continues its roll out this weekend. It should be on your must see list. Producer Amy Ziering who made this film with director Kirby Dick talked about the film with Women and...
What’s Up With Magic Mike?
Magic Mike opens tomorrow. I didn’t get an invite to a screening (maybe someone at WB thought I wouldn’t be interested but I am) so I can’t say anything about the content but I have to take...
The Princess Archetype in the Movies
What kind of “princess” is better off in the woods than at home? A princess who is more like the archetype of Artemis than of Aphrodite. In three recent films, we’ve seen a shift in the...
Personal Reflections on Nora Ephron
When I heard that Nora Ephron passed away I sent an email out to a bunch of people in the business asking them to send me their thoughts. Some knew her, most didn’t, but still loved her. Here...