'Women's Style' and American Independent Cinema: Gender Politics and Women Film Directors

“女性风格”与美国独立电影：性别政治与女性电影导演

• 批准号: 2097453
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Leicester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2018 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2097453
• 关键词: Women; Style; American; Independent; Cinema

American cinema is often highly gendered for women directors, yet de-gendered for male directors. The gender of male directors is rarely referenced in either academic or popular writing, yet is frequently evoked when discussing women directors. By highlighting the gender of women directors or suggesting that women directors make 'women's films', there is an argument that can be made that these films have an audience and set of formal expectations that are gender specific. This research aims to assess how this gendered discourse effects the opportunities for women directors in American independent cinema as well as the reception of their films. Scholars such as King (2005) and Levy (1999) suggest that American independent cinema offers greater accessibility to filmmaking than mainstream cinema, yet according to the Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, just 29% of the top 100 American independent features of 2016-17 were directed by women, compared with just 17% for the top 100 mainstream features. This suggest that the obstacles that women directors face are still based on their gender, even in the more accessible sphere of American independent cinema. My thesis will use a combination of reception studies techniques, first-person interviews and textual analysis to assess how being categorised as a 'woman director' impacts the opportunities for women in American independent cinema. Focusing on what is considered by scholars such as Rona Murray (2014) to be the boom years of the industry (the early 1980s to the early 2000s), I will analyse scholarly essays, articles in the trade press, and reviews and interviews in the popular press to examine how frequently women directors are categorised by their gender within film culture and what effect this gendered discourse has on the reception of their films. I will also undertake first-person interviews with directors such as Lizzie Borden, Sofia Coppola and Kelly Reichardt to ascertain the extent that gender informs their filmmaking and what effect their gender has on their ability to secure film funding. I will combine these interviews with textual analysis of key films by women directors working in contemporary American independent cinema such Born in Flames (1983), The Virgin Suicides (1999), and Old Joy (2006) to examine the validity of arguments by scholars such as Geetha Ramanathan (2006) that suggest that women make films that are formally different from those made by men. Through this my thesis will examine the effect of highlighting the gender of women directors. By examining the impact of gendered discourse on the opportunities for women in American independent cinema, my research aims to better inform how we speak about gender and aid the furthering of gender equality. Through case studies of Kelly Reichardt, Julie Dash, Sofia Coppola and others, this thesis will explore how essentialist divisions have affected the reception of these films, and how this relates to these directs' perception of their work. Through my ties with Phoenix, an independent cinema in Leicester, I will also use my research to inform a series of films, lectures and discussions on the industrial position of women within American independent cinema, allowing me to promote the findings of my work to a public audience through educational events.

美国电影院通常对女导演高度性别，但对男性导演的性别不佳。男性导演的性别在学术或流行写作中很少被引用，但在讨论女导演时经常被唤起。通过强调女性导演的性别或暗示女导演制作“女性电影”，有一个论点可以说这些电影具有特定于性别的观众和一系列正式期望。这项研究旨在评估这种性别话语如何影响美国独立电影中女性导演的机会以及对电影的接待。 King（2005）和Levy（1999）等学者认为，与主流电影院相比，美国独立电影提供了更大的电影制作能力，但根据圣地亚哥州立大学电视和电影研究中心的说法，在2016-17的美国独立100个独立功能中，只有17％的女性，仅17％的美国独立特色，而仅是17％的美国独立功能，而仅是17％的顶级100％。这表明，即使在美国独立电影院更容易获得的领域，女导演面临的障碍仍然基于她们的性别。我的论文将结合接待研究技术，第一人称访谈和文本分析，以评估被归类为“女董事”如何影响美国独立电影中女性的机会。重点关注Rona Murray（2014年）等学者所考虑的事物（1980年代初到2000年代初期），我将分析学术论文，贸易出版社中的文章，以及受欢迎的新闻界的评论和访谈，以检查女性导演在电影文化和电影效果中的性别频繁地对其性别效果的效果进行分类，而这些效果是在这种性别效果上的效果，他们的电影效果上的效果是在其上的效果。我还将对Lizzie Borden，Sofia Coppola和Kelly Reichardt等导演进行第一人称访谈，以确定性别能够告知他们的电影制作的程度，以及他们的性别对获得电影资金的能力有什么影响。我将这些访谈与在《当代美国独立电影》中工作的女性导演的关键电影的文本分析相结合，例如《 Flames（1983）》（1983年），《维珍自杀》（1999年）和《老Joy》（2006年），以研究吉特·拉马纳瑟（Geetha Ramanathan）（2006年）等学者的有效性，这表明女性与男人制作的电影正式不同。通过这一论文，我的论文将研究强调女性导演的性别的效果。通过研究性别论述对美国独立电影中妇女机会的影响，我的研究旨在更好地告知我们如何谈论性别并帮助进一步的性别平等。通过对凯利·赖卡特（Kelly Reichardt），朱莉·达什（Julie Dash），索非亚·科波拉（Sofia Coppola）等的案例研究，本论文将探讨本质主义分裂如何影响这些电影的接收，以及这与这些直接直接对其作品的看法有关。通过与莱斯特独立电影院凤凰城的联系，我还将利用我的研究为一系列电影，讲座和讨论，讨论妇女在美国独立电影中的工业地位，使我能够通过教育活动向公众观众推广我的作品发现。