Chick Flicks : Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement

by Rich, B. Ruby

• ISBN13: 9780822321217
• ISBN10: 0822321211
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780822377580
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-10-01
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr
• More Book Details

Summary

If there was a moment during the sixties, seventies, or eighties that changed the history of the women's film movement, B. Ruby Rich was there. Part journalistic chronicle, part memoir, and 100% pure cultural historical odyssey, Chick Flicks -with its definitive, the-way-it-was collection of essays-captures the birth and growth of feminist film as no other book has done. For over three decades Rich has been one of the most important voices in feminist film criticism. Her presence at film festivals (such as Sundance, where she is a member of the selection committee), her film reviews in the Village Voice, Elle, Out, and the Advocate, and her commentaries on the public radio program The World have secured her a place as a central figure in the remarkable history of what she deems "cinefeminism." In the hope that a new generation of feminist film culture might be revitalised by reclaiming its own history, Rich introduces each essay with an autobiographical prologue that describes the intellectual, political, and personal moments from which the work arose. Travel, softball, sex, and voodoo all somehow fit into a book that includes classic Rich articles covering such topics as the antiporn movement, the films of Yvonne Rainer, a Julie Christie visit to Washington, and the historically evocative film Maedchen in Uniform. The result is a volume that traces the development not only of women's involvement in cinema but of one of its key players as well. The first book-length work from Rich-whose stature and influence in the world of film criticism and theory continue to grow, Chick Flicks exposes unexplored routes and forgotten byways of a past that's recent enough to be remembered and far away enough to be memorable.

Table of Contents

Preface: Jews without Books Introduction Prologue. I found it at the movies Film in the sixties Prologue. Hippie Chick in the Art World Carolee Schneemann's Fuses Prologue. Angst and Joy on the Women's Film Festival Circuit Leni Riefenstahl: The Deceptive Myth Prologue. Life, Death and Tragic Homecoming 4. Voodoo Verité: Maya Deren's Divine Horsemen Prologue. An Iguana, Some Wolves, and the Dawn of Theory In the Name of Feminist Film Criticism Prologue. O Brave New World One Way or Another: Sara Gomez and the Cuban Experience Prologue. A Woman's Declaration of Secession from the Avant-Garde Sex and Cinema Prologue. Love's Labour Lost Misconception: Labouring under No Illusions Prologue. Cows and Hero Worship The Films of Yvonne Rainer Prologue. Knokke-Heist and the Fury that was Edinburgh Designing Desire: Chantal Akerman Prologue. Euphoria Reclaims History From Repressive Tolerance to Erotic Liberation: Maedchen in Uniform Prologue. Softball, the Goddess and Lesbian Film Culture The Right of Re-Vision: Michelle Citron's Daughter Rite Prologue. The Allure of Alchemy Femicide Investigation: Thriller Prologue. Sour Grapes She Says, He Says: The Power of the Narrator in Modernist Film Politics Prologue. Sex, Gender, and the Consumer Culture Antiporn: Soft Issue, Hard World (Not a Love Story) Prologue. Unguided Tours The Feminist Avant-Garde Prologue. Attacking the Sisters, or the Limits of Disagreement Cinefeminism and its Discontents Prologue. Libel Threats and Exile Tactics Truth, Faith and the Individual: Thought on U.S. Documentary Film Practice Prologue. Disempowerment and the Politics of Rage Lady Killers: A Question of Silence Prologue. Film Stars as Outstanding Human Beings Julie Christie Goes to Washington Prologue. Banning the Victim 21. Good Girls, Bad Girls: Joyce Chopra's Smooth Talk Prologue. The Berks and the Sex Wars Feminisims and Sexulality on the Eighties Epilogue: Charting the Eighties