A Bumper Blog Entry

Some people think...

On the 26th April, the legend Poly Styrene died
at the age of 53.
She was true punk rock and an inspiration
to many women and girls.

Sexism is brought to light again, but this time by our not-so-modern, Etonian Leader of the Coalition. Calm down, dear? CALM DOWN, DEAR?! The more these 'episodes', these 'light-hearted banters', come out to play the more debate is roused and the more transparent sexism becomes. Let's not calm down, let's rally against it.
Here's a good article.

WOMAN OF THE DAY: Tehmina Kazi.
Director of British Muslims for Secular Democracy, an organisation that aims to raise awareness of the benefits of democracy, Kazi challenges and combats Islamic extremism and Islamophobia. Here's an interesting article about Muslim women making change.
She writes for The Guardian too: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/tehmina-kazi

Karla Black has been nominated for the 2011 Turner Prize.

What to Ask for Others, 2009

The UK Film Council published a report stating that almost two-thirds of the older women interviewed felt under-represented in films. A report also found that half the population feel that black characters are too often portrayed as drug dealers, two in five say that there are no 'good guy' roles for black characters and two in three say that black characters are overly sexualised. Eastern Europeans are shown as ill-educated and poor; Asian characters experience family conflict; homosexual characters are continually shown as camp, with sexual orientation as their main trait. Films about the working class are seen as too depressing, the middle class too sweet.
Stories exist that show more complex characters and narratives, but the films aren't being made. It's time to start demanding more from our screens. Highlighting these stereotypes and disconnection from society (consumers of cinema) can hopefully start the change. It's a shame that the UK Film Council will cease to exist.

Who's afraid of Elizabeth Taylor?

1932-2011

More than the movies, more than the marriages.

"Elizabeth Taylor was the first great actress to fight on behalf of the AIDS movement and brought the illness from a taboo to a reality. She was the cause's leading advocate and became one of the world's most celebrated activists. She is leaving a great legacy for us all and a new challenge to fight AIDS for this new generation." -Richard Zaldivar, president of The Wall-Las Memorias Project in Los Angeles

Women of the World, unite and take over!

11th - 13th March 2011
Southbank Centre, London

WOW – Women of the World – is a joyous celebration of the formidable strength and inventiveness of women – a pioneering, groundbreaking annual festival, which will present, recognise and celebrate women, and act as a conversation space for issues of all kinds.

If you can get there, it promises to be a great festival with speeches, performances, debates, and more, discussing issues facing women today. Highlights for me include: Bird's Eye View Sounds & Silents, Life Cycle with Mara Carlyle, and the conferences that take place over the three days. Look here for more information.

Jane Russell

1921-2011
Sassy

A Pioneer of Abstract Animation

Synchromy No.2 (1936)

Mary Ellen Bute made 'visual music'. Between 1934 and 1953, she made fourteen short abstract, musical, animated films in collaboration with Joseph Schillinger and, later, with Ted Nemeth, who would become her husband. Many of these films were screened before a feature movie at Radio City Hall in New York. Bute was a founding member of the Women's Independent Film Exchange.
Bute died practically penniless in 1983, sacrificing all for her art.

A short documentary about Mary Ellen Bute

Black Swan Posters

These special, limited edition posters have been put out as a teaser for the new Aronofsky film, Black Swan (to be released in February 2011). I'm not sure how I feel about Aronofsky films, but the posters have made me want to see this film all the more. The posters were commissioned by Twentieth Century Fox and created by LaBoca.

A Portrait of Ga

Unfortunately I cannot embed this lovely short film by Scottish filmmaker Margaret Tait,

but you can see it here:

A Portrait of Ga

Margaret Tait, 1955

4.20min

Colour, 16mm

The way Ga unwraps the sticky barley sugar, trying not to get it on her fingers until it's a little shuttlecock to pop straight into her mouth, is tender and familiar.

I Love Lucy

Come and Go

Samuel Beckett's 1965 short play, Come and Go, is hypnotic in its space.

“[The women] assert a strength through their interdependence which makes this play one of the most perfect theatrical ensembles ever devised.” -Anthony Roche

Made in Dagenham

Suso

Suso Cecchi D'Amico

1914-2010

She suggested that the father tries to steal a bike in The Bicycle Thieves.

She made Audrey Hepburn's character sleep in Gregory Peck's character's bed and wear his pyjamas in Roman Holiday.

Suso saw herself as 'just an artisan, the author is the director', but the stories from Cinecitta (and Hollywood) wouldn't have been the same withoutout her touch.

SALT

Who's with me for a trip to the flicks?!

Apparently, Angelina Jolie was asked to be a Bond Girl and refused, saying that she would rather play Bond. A year later, when Tom Cruise turned down the role of Salt (too close to Mission Impossible), the character's gender switched and Jolie stepped in.

I'm really looking forward to seeing a big action movie that centres around a woman and with a strong leading lady.

Meshes of the Afternoon

Part One

Part Two

In her own words.

The Rule

In her comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, Allison Bechdel laid out a criteria that determined whether women mattered in a film.

'The Rule', Dykes to Watch Out For, 1985, Allison Bechdel

To pass the test a movie has to:

1. Have (at least) two women in it

2. The women talk to each other

3. The women talk about something other than men

Think about the last time a movie satisfied the Bechdel Test.

Perhaps it's time we start demanding more from our scriptwriters and filmmakers.

Thanks to Women & Hollywood for this one!

Shout out against Cannes

Not a single female-directed film is in the competition. Here's your chance to protest...

Sign the petition here!

Ida Lupino

Actress, director, producer, screen-writer, filmmaking pioneer.

Ida Lupino's 'Woman's' films were gritty social tales that somehow made it past the Production Code censors. And when Ida Lupino made Film Noir the femmes were not so fatale. Instead, the male characters were the source of their own social, moral, psychological undoing.

Her films include: Outrage (1950), The Bigamist (1953) and The Hitchicker (1953)

She was the first, and only, woman to direct a Film Noir. You can watch it here!

In Memory of Dede Allen

Dede Allen, 1925-2010

Close-ups

Jump-shots

Overlapping sound

Liberazione per le donne!

I remember watching Italian television with my grandparents and so I was pleased to read about one woman's quest to change the way women are represented in Italian media (which somewhat applies to most national media, dare I say) and to highlight the effect that it's having on Italian feminine culture.

Lorella Zanardo's documentary, Il Corpo delle Donne (The Body of Women) is a protest. Watch the English-subtitled version of the documentary here. Read the BBC article here.

The thing about Whip It is...

Is that it's a film just as much about older women as it is about teenage girls. Iron Maven's speech about it taking her until the age of 31 before she found something that she was good at, Maggie Mayhem's speech about being a mother blended with teenage dreams of escape and a search for identity. And, it's directed by Drew Barrymore. Go see this movie, it's one of the most positive films I've seen in a long time!

2 Days in New York

In development

Julie Delpy wrote, directed, produced, starred, edited, photographed and composed her 2007 film 2 Days in Paris. I'm looking forward to the next installment.