Women and Film: A summary of good resources

In my first blog post, almost a year ago, I mentioned that much of my recent research in the area of Spanish-language films has been in the area of contemporary female film directors and their films. Two summers worth of reading literature, blogs and other publications on the subject, and viewing many films, have lead to a quite a collection of information, not only about Spanish-language films, but about the global film and television industries as well. I would like to share what I have discovered with others (there must be others interested in this topic!) in hopes that they can continue the research. I do not claim this compilation of resources to be exhaustive and I hope that others will share their knowledge with me and tell me what I have missed!


Blogs, Twitter, Popular Press, etc.

• The topic of female directors, producers, and films with strong female leads in the global film industry- and the lack of recognition that they receive -  made headlines this year with Jane CAMPION's remarks at Cannes.

• A great general resource is Melissa Silverstein who is the founder and editor of Women and Hollywood. I follow her on Twitter (@melsil) and she is a treasure trove of information about women in the industry world wide. I also follow Girls on Film (@Girls_on_Film) the European Women's Audiovisual Network (@ewawomen) and CIMA: Asociación de Mujeres Cineastas y de Medios Audiovisuales (in Spanish) (@CIMAcineastas) onTwitter. They are all excellent sources of information. 
• The Geena Davis Institute on Gender and Media is fabulous and can be followed on Twitter (@GDIGM) and Facebook. 

• Niamh Thorton has a very informative blog post on Latin American Film Makers. 

• In Argentina the organization La mujer y el cine, is an organization dedicated to promoting the work of women in the film industry. There webpage has recently been taken down, but I am hopeful that this is temporary. (Lamujeryelcine.com.ar)

• In Chile, Femcine is a "Festival Cine de Mujeres." 
• And 2013 article in the newspaper El País reports on the inequality in the Spanish film industry, stating that 9 of every 10 films that are filmed in Spain are directed by a man, and that the casts of these films directed by men are also disproportionately male. In this same article, the Spanish directora Isabel de Ocampo blames this imbalance on the exclusive decision making power of older males when it comes to film financing.

• In a 2013 forum, Colección Espejo, organized by the Asociación de Mujeres Cineastas y de Medios Audiovisuales (CIMA) in Madrid, several Spanish film directors spoke about the sexism that exists in the film industry, which is summarized here. 

• Newsweek has taken notice of some of the more recent films by Mexican directoras. In her piece, Alexis Okeowo highlights several directors and their recent films, including the documentary filmmakers Eva Aridis, as well as Mariana Chenillo and Andrea Martinez (both mentioned later in this piece), Eva Lopez Sanchez, Maria Novaro, and Patricia Riggen.

Books
There are a handful of books on female filmmakers from various Spanish-speaking countries.

Spain:
Barbara Zecchi's (UMASS) most recent book is entitled Desenfocadas: Cineastas españolas y discursos de género* and offers a comprehensive study of women in the Spanish film industry since its inception. She is the Director of the Digital Humanities project from UMASS on the History of Spanish Women´s Cinema. 

*Zecchi, Barbara. "Desenfocadas. Cineastas españolas y discursos de género (introducción)." Introducció del llibre: Desenfocadas. Cineastas españolas y discursos de género, Barbara Zecchi, Icaria 2014, ISBN: 9788498885682, 248 p. (2014).

Argentina:

Rangil, Viviana. Otro punto de vista: mujer y cine en la Argentina. 1st edition. Rosario: Beatriz Viterbo, 2005. Print.

Mexico:

Rashkin, Elissa J. Women Filmmakers in Mexico: The Country of Which We Dream. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.

Other Academic Resources

Ayala Rojas, Laura Lucinda (2012) Miradas de mujeres mexicanas en las artes visuales y en el cine. IMAGINARIO VISUAL (3). pp. 1-8.

Castro Ricalde, M. (2008). Género y estudios cinematográficos en México. CIENCIA ergo sum, 16-1(marzo-junio 2009), 64-70.

Monterde, José Enrique. “El largo camino hacia la dirección.” La Mitad del cielo: Directoras españolas de los años 90.  Ed. Carlos F. Heredero. Ayuntamiento de Málaga ministerio de Educación y Cultura, 1998. 15-24. Print.

There are a good number of academic publications on individual films by contemporary female directors including Te doy mis ojos (Icíar Bollían, 2003), La Misma Luna (Patricia Riggin, 2007), among others. I have not begun to explore the scholarly journal publications which study the specific films by early female pioneers of film in Spanish-speaking countries. 

Latin America Film History: a blog by my students

Another academic interest of mine, besides film in the Spanish classroom, is education technology. I am constantly trying out a new tool or piloting a new app, and encouraging my students to do the same. One of my more recent projects has been student blogging, and last semester I incorporated two different blogging projects into one of my advanced Spanish classes.

This course's focus was Latin American history and culture, from pre-Colombian indigenous cultures to present day and, with so much information to include in just one semester, how to include both breadth and depth in the course was indeed a challenge. My solution was blogging. Each student was involved in two blogging projects: one individual project focused on one specific country in Latin America and a group project focused on a particular cultural project. Students had a number of cultural topics to choose from, including sports, gastronomy, holidays, literature, cinema, etc. Based on both my observations and student evaluations, the blogs were overall a great tool to allow students to dive deeply into two particular topics (their specific country and their cultural aspect) while the rest of the coursework focused on broader themes.

I am talking about this project here in my film blog because the group of 3 students who hosted the cultural blog on Latin American Cinema produced a great resource that deserves to be shared with other students and with educators. These three students (one senior, one junior, and one sophomore) presented their blog at our university's research day, and have given their permission for me to share their blog with my readers. Here it is.