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Special thanks for production assistance to: Orlando Adaio,
Cynthia Carr, Nancy Crompton, Abigail Esman, Nina Fonoroff,
Pete Friedrich, Carole Gregory, Beth Halpern, Sue Heinemann,
Tish Rosen, Amy Sillman, Carol Sun, Leslie Thornton, Stephanie
Vevers, Tom Zummer. Thanks to former collective members:
Carole Glasser, Vanalyne Green, Lyn Hughes, Flama Ocampo,
Cecilia Vicuña. Thanks for photo research assistance: Association
of Independent Video and Filmmakers, Black Filmmaker Foundation, Museum of the American Indian, Third World Newsreel.
Photos top to bottom: Alile Sharon Larkin, photo by Michael Harris;
Anne MacArthur, photo by Joan Jubela; J. T. Takagi, Juliana Wang,
and Christine Choy, photo by Joe Ratke; Susan Stoltz, photo by Keith
Rodan; Pat Ivers, photo by Joan Jubela.

ejAl©

HERESIES COLLECTIVE
present the

N0
1983

INTERNATIONAL

LINA

September 8-11
at the 8th Street Playhouse

Keda aAa ae
BORN IN FLAMES
by Lizzie Borden
HOMA Ane innein
Second Decade Films

BON e)

This issue was typeset by Myrna Zimmerman, photostats by Frey Photostats and Carol Sun, headlines by Nina Fonoroff and Scarlett Letters, print-

ed by Capital City Press, Montpelier, Vermont.
Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art & Politics is published Winter,
Spring, Summer, and Fall by Heresies Collective, Inc., 611 Broadway,
Room 609, New York, NY 10012. Subscription rates: $15 for four issues,
$24 for institutions. Outside the U.S. and Canada add $2 postage. Single
copies: $5 each. Address all correspondence to: Heresies, PO Box 766,
Canal Street Station, New York, NY 10013.
Heresies, ISSN 0146-3411. Vol. 4, No. 4. Issue 16.

©1983, Heresies Collective, Inc. All rights reserved.
This publication is made possible, in part, with public funds from the New
York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Heresies is indexed by the Alternative Press Centre, Box 7229, Baltimore,
MD 21218. It is a member of COSMEP (Committee of Small Magazine
Editors and Publishers), Box 703, San Francisco, CA 94101.

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The focus of Heresies #16 is on the work women have done,
and are doing, in film, video, and the media. In choosing this
focus, we hope to create a sense of community for other feminists

for the issue, and these differences were implicit in our discussions.
For instance, is there a correct way to present women’s images?
Can we infiltrate the mass media, or should we leave it alone? Is it

who feel information is lacking in these areas. Much of the con-

possible to present radical content in a conventional form? At

tent in this issue would have little chance of being published else-

times, positions taken by collective members on such issues were

where—and #16 provides some deserved publicity for these works.

mutually exclusive. The wide range of material in the issue reflects

The recent surge in technology has changed the way we commu-

these disparate visions. Many of our discussions about articles

nicate, and women have an increasing opportunity to use differ-

forced us to define as well as to defend our own ideas and beliefs

ent forms of media. Our interest in technology is not to suggest
that women join the ranks of the technocrats, but rather to en-

about media work. We were each strongly committed to our own
forms, but we did come to realize that other women could be as

courage women to overcome a conditioned fear of technology,

committed to different forms. In the long run, however, some of us

and to begin to use it as an organizing tool and a source of personal expression.

grew apart because those differences could not be overcome.

Putting out a Heresies issue takes a long time, and although all
of us had had some experience working on collectives and doing
political work, only one of us was familiar with the entire production process. None of us found it easy, but on reflection, we have
managed to isolate some of the difficulties.
Like most nonhierarchical groups, one of the problems we

Only one woman on the #16 collective is Black, indicating a
lack of outreach to Third World and Black communities. Heresies
has a poor reputation for dealing with the concerns of women of
color, and not enough distributors in Third World communities
sell the magazine. The content of many of the previous issues has
not reflected the needs of Third World women, and no adequate
mechanism has yet been put into place to address these problems.

failed to face was the distribution of work at each stage. We never

What Heresies needs is more visibility in Third World communi-

discussed what working on a collective meant to each of us, what

ties. The Heresies collective should more actively solicit Third
World women for the main collective and the issue collectives. Per-

our personal commitments could be, or what a reasonable amount
_of responsibility should be. The haphazard organization led to an
unequal distribution of work. Some members took on more work
than others, and resentments grew. Because most of us could not
suspend all non-Heresies work, we all faced a decision in how we

haps then women of color would be more interested in submitting
material and suggesting topics for future issues, thus broadening
Heresies’ horizons.

divided our time. These decisions were not clear-cut. Work outside

The difficulties of #16 arose mostly because we lacked foresight. Future collectives could approach these problems by taking

Heresies can be motivated by a desire for personal gain, but it can

the time early in the process to investigate the differences among

also have political intent. These choices can also be paralleled
within the collective. One works for Heresies to experience collec-

members, and use this knowledge to establish their own working
structure. Lulls in the development of the magazine—for instance,

tive process, to contribute to a magazine committed to change, or

after the call for submissions and before material begins to arrive

to network with other feminists; but it is also possible that one

—could provide this time. The main collective could help further

might participate to gain recognition in the artworld. Ultimately,
these choices determined how much work we did for this issue.

by giving a realistic chart of how an issue develops, indicating the

The problem of workload was compounded by unrealistic
deadlines: for submissions, for rewrites, for editing, and for production. The collective felt further confusion because of the lack of
a clear definition of #16’s theme. The initial grant proposal was for
a film and TV issue, but by the time our collective was meeting
regularly, the main collective had expanded the theme to include

time period required for each of the various phases of producing a
magazine.
As with most issues of Heresies, #16’s topic was too broad to be
covered by one issue. One thing that we agreed about was the need
for a new journal in which to continue a dialogue about, and develop networks within, the vital feminist film/video/media arts community. At this time, the more activist feminist press devotes little

all communication media. Early debates about whether to empha-

space to such work. The few journals which address women and

size commercial or artistic work were then further clouded by dis-

film/video concern themselves far more with the male media por-

cussions of all forms of media. All these problems forced us to

trayal of women than with the growing body of work produced by
women. The feminist academic journals limit themselves to oc-

hurry through crucial early stages of the collective’s formation.
Under pressure, we never adequately examined the aesthetic,
political, racial, and sexual differences among us. Disputes about
the materials—their style, their content, and their feminist politic

casional articles on feminist theory and criticism. As women’s
studies becomes co-opted by the university system, outspoken feminist academics are fired, and feminism becomes more threatened,

—were frequently taken on a purely personal level, outside of their

such a journal becomes crucial to continue the dialogue about

political context. Feminism, like every movement for change, faces

feminist media. Now is the time to expand our audience to include

conflict about strategy. Issue 16’s subject matter—the very infor-

a wider base of women. We see this issue as part of this dialogue.

mation channels through which we try to effect change—pguaranteed us plenty of conflict. Although we were united in our desire to
challenge the male-dominated media system, our personal choices
about the forms of media we worked in outside of Heresies differed

Editorial Collective: Diana Agosta, Edith Becker, Loretta Camp-

greatly. These other experiences affected how we chose material

Nicky Lindeman, Barbara Osborn.

bell, Lisa Cartwright, Su Friedrich, Annie Goldson, Joan Jubela,

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Victoria Schultz

Deciding to make an independent documentary film with a left and/or feminist
perspective is asking for trouble. Primarily
money kind of trouble, since getting funding for such projects these days is like pulling teeth from a Bengali tiger. The filmmaker must be prepared to spend as much
time and energy on raising funds as on
shooting, editing, and writing the film.
When finally the film is finished, you face
the hurdle of distribution. Few distributors
are interested in films with an explicit political focus, so you’re on your own. The
distribution work will keep you busy for
years, if you want the film to be shown a
lot. This doesn’t necessarily mean you'll
make money, unless you're lucky and get
sales instead of rentals. But often groups
that want to show political films have very
little money and can barely afford a rental.
In other words, making an independent,
politically oriented film takes tremendous
commitment and enthusiasm, at times to
the point of obsession and fanaticism. You
also have to believe very strongly that this
particular film just has to be made.
I discovered my need to make Women
in Arms little by little. First I was fascinated by the newspaper reports of the presence of a young woman, Comandante Dos,
in the bold takeover of the National Assembly building in Nicaragua by a group
of Sandinistas. Then I heard more and
more about the very active role of women

3

in the military as well as political aspects
of the Sandinist resistance. On a visit to
Panama a friend showed me a letter writ-

side with the men in a very dangerous situ-

revolutionary process that led to the over-

ten by a Nicaraguan woman, Idania, to her

ation and this, I was told, was nothing

throw of the Somoza regime on July 19,

six-year-old daughter, explaining that she

unique. (It was on trying to enter this same

1979, and my problems quickly diminished

had to return to Nicaragua and risk death

liberated area that ABC correspondent Bill

to a manageable size.

so that the children of their country would

Stewart was killed in cold blood by the

I believe that as documentary filmmak-

be able to have a better future. Shortly

National Guard.) The visceral experience

ers we should to some extent live through

after writing the letter, Idania was in fact

of fear I describe in my journal fueled me

killed by the Nicaraguan National Guard.

with an intense sense of the reality of these

what the people we are filming go through.
It tests our will and determination to de-

Once I was in Nicaragua I heard more
stories and met with several women from

women’s lives; my admiration for the wom-

vote a chunk of our own lives to document

en was no longer an abstraction. All this

their reality, and also forms a basis of trust

the resistance, but it wasn’t until I visited

helped me in the making of my film. At

between us and the subjects. Obviously we

the liberated zone of Managua that I

times when the money had run out and I

understood the enormity of what was hap-

was desperate, I thought of the women and

But these attempts must be made to dis-

pening. Here women were fighting side by

men who had lived through the arduous

cover our common humanity.

2

are not they, and our lives are not theirs.

©1983 Victoria Schultz

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Managua, June 18, 1979
Scared. I don’t think I’ve ever been as scared in my life as I
have been today, at least not for a very long time.
After a lot of disorganized organizing I’m off with Alan, Alain,
and Alma to the liberated zone of the city to interview the Sandinist

is going to be very dangerous. I am sweaty and tired, my heart is
beating fast. I am ready to give up. I can’t look around too much
since I have to concentrate all my strength on just dealing with
my fear.

leaders. My co-worker Mikko finally showed up this morning; he

Alain mentions that fear lodges in different parts of the body.

had arranged for us to have a press conference with them this

Suddenly I feel my left breast most vulnerable and hold my Guate-

morning at 11, at a place called Puente Eden. The directions for

malan bag toit, thinking how odd because that’s not the side where

finding it: Just ask around.

the heart lodges. But of course it is. I can’t tell left from right. Fear

I’m eager to go and see the blockades and.the muchachos. We
drive only a short way around the hill where Somoza’s bunker is,
then leave the car by the road and start heading for one of the side

starts making me shaky, and that seems dangerous. I try to breathe
deep, but can’t for more than a few seconds at a time. We move on
and on. Finally we come to a kind of central gathering place. A

streets. We ask for the Puente Eden. A man with a thin, drawn

slight rest. I think I won’t be able to continue any further. A young

face, Mario Solorzano, offers to take us there with his six-year-old

woman in olive green uniform and black beret is scanning the sky

son Jesus, saying he was headed in that direction because he had

to see what a push-pull bomber is doing. “No, it’s too high to

relatives living there. We turn a corner and hear pretty heavy

bomb us right now,” she says. “When it returns to where we are it
will have run out of bombs,” she assures us.

shooting nearby. We rush back and start contemplating whether
the effort is worthwhile. Alan favors leaving; Alain and Alma want

It seems we are waiting for something. Alma calms me by tell-

' to go ahead, block by block if necessary. “You mean just the way

ing me that the more nervous I become the more dangerous it will

you live, day by day,” comments Alan. I remain neutral, somewhat

be because I won’t be able to think straight or act clearly. She is

siding with Alan, but wanting to go, though I started feeling scared.
Alain carries our makeshift truce flag, a Hotel Intercontinental

right. I feel better. Surprise, surprise, Margarita shows up! She is

towel attached to a stick. We sprint from corner to corner, staying

someone I know, though it is no protection against the bullets. We

close to the walls of the mostly abandoned buildings. A lot of fallen

follow her, and for some unexplainable reason stop at a barricade.
A few muchachos are around. I talk with them about the basics,

branches on the streets, probably shot down during heavy bursts of

in charge of taking us to the leaders. I feel relieved that there’s

and also about fear. They mention their slogan, Patria libre o morir

fire.

We come to our first barricade, built out of adoquines, those

(“Homeland free or die”), and explain that even the muchachos,

cement bricks used to pave the country’s highways. Ideal for con-

the most irregular of the fighting forces, have had some political as

structing barricades. The entire intersection is a maze of trenches,

well as military training. They’re no longer afraid, or maybe they're

with little coves fenced by a board, providing a place to burrow

just used to it. But going in cold, without the experience of military

into in case of an aerial attack. Ten young muchachos and mucha-

service or other battlegrounds, you react the way I do. The others

chas, boys and girls, are guarding the place. A blondish young

are afraid too, but they don’t express it as openly as I do.

Sandinista (they are all young) takes a lot of time deciding if he'll

On the move again. Some people are still living in this area. An

give us permission to go to the Puente Eden or not. He looks at our

old man peeks out a window. A young woman is crocheting a yel-

credentials and is glad none of us is American. He argues about

low tablecloth on the footsteps of her house. Other people keep

our safety and worries about who should accompany us—an armed

their front doors open and are sitting inside in their rocking chairs

or an unarmed person. That’s when Mario identifies himself and

as if nothing much out of the ordinary were going on outside. But

says he’d be willing to lead us there. A very young guy is also as-

long stretches of the streets are totally deserted.

signed to accompany us, at least some of the way.
I see the first Sandinista with something resembling a uniform,

We run, stop, and peer around a corner. The muchacho guide
told us, at one point, that if we heard a hissing sound we should

namely an olive green jacket. Most of the people we meet at the

throw ourselves on the ground and keep our mouths open so our

dozen or so barricades we pass wear very little to identify them-

eardrums won’t burst. A mortar explodes very close to us. I am flat

selves as Sandinistas. I see a black beret with a piece of narrow red

on my stomach in a split-second.

ribbon, or some kind of red insignia. Many young women, most of

Running, trying to look around, my heart pounding, feet get-

them armed with pistols. They are very friendly, as are the boys,

ting tired, and fear making me pant and almost panic. I think I

once we tell them we’re journalists and have permission to pass

may die just because right now I am very happy, a happiness I feel

through. Nobody once searched us; they trusted us even though

I don’t deserve. All kinds of little images going through my head. I

someone tells me the Guardia sends in women with bags containing bombs.
At each barricade we are told that the strip ahead might be ex-

admire the muchachos who have spent days and weeks working on
this liberated zone.
Finally we have arrived where the leaders are. I can’t believe it.

tremely dangerous. Franco-tiradores, sharpshooters. Sometimes

But yes, we are at the safehouse. Someone gives me a pill to take,

bullets whizz very close by. A push-pull plane circles in the sky,

seeing that I am very shaken. A woman gives me a glass of water

mortaring the area. At one point Alan tells us a bomb is coming

and someone tells her to give me a few drops of valerian too. I

because he has seen it fall. All those details piling up in quick

remember as a child taking that bitter-tasting drug for my nervous

succession scare me very much—also the constant running from

upset stomach. She rummages through her first aid kit, a flowered

one block to the next, this whole idea that we must keep moving.

picnic bag, but she doesn’t have any.

Even crossing the street seems very dangerous. Everything is start-

The press conference. We sit on metal beds without mattresses.

ing to seem very dangerous to me. Alma comments that it is sur-

After a while the pill starts working and I’m in a good mood. Three

prising so many people do come out alive, considering the number

people introduce themselves. I recognize one man from pictures.
He has a clean look about him, a neat moustache and light tan

of bullets flying in the air. Small comfort.
We get to a Red Cross post. They warn us that the next stretch

army jacket; he holds an Uzi, no it must be a Gallil. Next to me is a
3

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Victoria Schultz.

youngish man with bright eyes and curly short hair, and a pistol

should show. I think I’d like to stay; it’s comfortable, and I would

lying next to him. Then I see Moises Hassan, sitting with legs

not have to face the mad dash to get back to the world with their

crossed on the floor. He looks grubby with his untrimmed beard

messages. They indeed invite us to stay. Alan says he’s sorry he

and thick glasses, but cheerful. Colorful swirls pattern his blue shirt.

can’t stay since there’s no telex or telephone. Alma makes a crack

I have a hard time focusing on what they're talking about. First
come rounds of rhetoric, the definition of the structures of the
struggle. Then we’re told about this liberated zone and how hard

about Alan needing his well-ironed clothes and creature comforts.
Alain is game, though he’s been as afraid as me.
Although we’re all set to go, to avoid the heavy shooting that

the work was that went into building it. They are very proud of this

starts after lunch, we’re told there will be another little meeting.

liberated zone. It is vast, not quite half of Managua, maybe onefourth, and what used to be a very densely populated area. The

Two guys arrive. One is a very young man, big and dark-skinned,
dressed in full olive uniform. He cradles an Uzi in his arms and

zone is concrete proof of the insurrection and the people’s partici-

tries to find a way of holding it so he won’t be impolitely pointing it

pation in it. They talk about the Somoza regime’s atrocities—facts
we already know well.
I look at the house and try to focus on observing things to calm
my fear and anxiety about the return trip ahead of us. Hassan, who
is now a member of the Sandinist junta, says the leadership moves

at us. At his waist he has tucked a pistol. The other one is Joaquin.
He sits across from me, a slight man with a small-featured face. He
has two deep furrows in his forehead. His greenish eyes seem distant; he is somewhere else.
The two men talk mostly about the military aspects of what’s

from house to house; this is their base for only a very brief moment.

been happening. The darker man details the facts and figures.

It is a small one-room house, 15x15. Seems newly built from the

Joaquin talks about other things. He is optimistic, but his face tells

inside, or at least reinforced. From the outside it doesn’t differ

another story. It is full of pain and profound sadness. I’d like to

much from the modest wooden houses in the area. All around is a

kiss him and hug him. What’s the drug they've given me anyhow?

four-foot high wall made of thick cinder blocks; above that a pan-

I feel good about meeting the leadership and seeing that they are

eling of thick slabs of wood looks very fresh. A few chairs, beds;

people who seem to have their shit together. I feel these two are

the windows are opaque glass. On one wall a framed picture of a

pointing out that the struggle can’t be won overnight. Are they

cherub’s face against a star-studded pink background. Another

then part of the other factions, the GPP and the Jnsurrectionistas?

picture, some remote cityscape, Paris perhaps. A baby’s cot. Sev-

Despite all the talk of unity, I get the feeling it isn’t terribly solid.

eral kids running around. Hassan says they belong to the people

It’s finally time to go—1:30, time for the shooting to begin

who live in the house. He shows me the bomb shelter they’ve dug in

again. Many details I don’t understand in Spanish, some of the

the backyard, some ten feet deep, covered with boards and a layer

directions and such. My survival instinct, however, makes me

of cinder blocks. A little girl is sitting on a mattress at the bottom
of the shelter. I tell Hassan all this reminds me of the war in Fin-

to do with potential dangers. I give Hassan and José Antonio the

land when Helsinki was being bombed. I remember the night sky

message about the airport being pretty lightly guarded, ammuni-

lighting up from the flares.

tions and arms having arrived by land via Honduras, and two

They all smoke cigarettes constantly, except for Hassan. A

understand perfectly all the signs and even rapid phrases having

planeloads of military stuff. They appreciate the information and

young woman guards the door. She cannot yet be 20. She has a

say we should denounce this flow of arms to Somoza. I would like

pistol next to her on the floor. Smiles are returned, the atmosphere

to ask them how they cope with fear. I don’t. I leave them a pack of

is very relaxed, though throughout the hour and a half we spend in

cigarettes, Rubios. They laugh and say it has become the brand of

the house we constantly hear the sounds of shooting, mortars ex-

the war. I don’t quite understand why. I feel silly asking them if I

ploding, and push-pull planes circling above us.

can come back to the liberated zone to talk with the women fight-

We talk about the provisional government which has just been
formed. They sound basically like Social Democrats. They feel
everyone should participate in the transitional phase of reconstruc-

ers. I admit to them that I don’t know how I’d make it, because
already this time I have been very very scared.
At the outset, the trek back isn’t quite as bad as before. I’m

tion, even the bourgeoisie. I ask what the role of the Guerra Popular Prolongara and the Insurrectionistas will be.* Hassan is quick
to point out that they'll have to wait for the elections. If the people
want them, then that’s how it will be, he says.
We cover a lot of ground. After an hour we take a break to take
pictures. I, too, pose with the three, smiling so none of my fear

*The three factions of the Sandinist National Liberation Front (FSLN) during the 1979 insurrection were the GPP, or Prolonged Popular War, which
favored a long struggle based in the rural areas; the Insurrectionistas, who
believed the time was ripe for an immediate insurrection; and the Proľetari-

an Tendency, which concentrated on organizing the masses in the cities.

4

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tired, I run out of breath and want to pause often. Now I know

the same direction we are. I’m beginning to feel much safer—we

more or less where we’re heading. I have no sense of the distances.

have made it alive. We pass a movie theater, the Select. I wonder

We see a long line of people waiting for the food rations of the day.

when a movie was last shown there. Approaching an intersection

We hear the sound of airplanes. Someone tells the people in line to

we stop short. Across the street we see a Sandinist guerrilla. We

move close to the houses, into the shade of trees. They are still

holler to him, and he waves for us to cross the street. As we do we

living here, and they keep their doors open. It seems weird to be

see flimsy barricades made of tree branches on both sides. Behind

jogging in this doubled-up fashion, panting and afraid, and then

one, quite a few people. I hope they’re Sandinistas and won’t shoot.

to catch glimpses of the calm interiors of people’s houses. The

We cross safely.

usual neat, simple interiors, tile floors and rattan furniture. Wom-

Further on, we come to a fence and behind it a barracks-like

en, children, and old men look out their windows at the insurrec-

building. Little Jesus tells me it is his school. We must be close to

tion passing by.
Now we move faster than before because the muchachos at the

the car. At least now we’re out of the zone. My mouth is dry, I feel
an intense heat radiating from me. I ask Alma if we should give

barricades know us and let us through with no trouble. At many

Mario some money and I wonder why he took us. He never even

posts it is lunchtime. Plates of rice and beans. At the Puente Leon
we take a different road from the one we came. We have to cross a

tried to visit the relatives he said he wanted to see. Alma says he is
either a real patriot or an oreja, a spy. She has several dollars to

wide open stretch of grassy land. Alma runs sort of zigzag. I just

give him. I want to give him 100 pesos. Alain also wants to con-

run. We’re along the highway now, with very few people around.

tribute.

For blocks, only abandoned houses and angry dogs—the least

Finally I spot the three colored circles on the wall of the house

thing to be afraid of here. I’m actually too exhausted to even think

where we left the car. I am ready to cry, grateful we have made it. I

about fear anymore. I’m too tired to bend my head low. Several

take a picture of Jesus and his father. We leave them the Inter-

times we hear fire very close by. At one barricade there’s some
hassle, they don’t want us to go on. We’re told they can’t guarantee

continental flag. Alan doesn’t make a contribution.
Alma says we should cool down before going to the hotel. I

our safety beyond this point. The guide Mario and his little boy
Jesus are still with us. Mario says he’ll take us out.
At the next barricade young militias sit and eat lunch in the

to the Estrella. A lot of people are sitting in the lobby. They see
that something has happened to me. Lenora asks if I’ve been

shade of a tree. They are all very skinny. One wears a wide-

beaten. No, I say, I’ve just been running a little bit. Richard has

brimmed hat with the rim turned up and FSLN in black letters on

left for Rivas, leaving a note saying he’ll probably stay all night. I

it. To see a human face shining fills me with joy. I say hello, they

need him to hold me in his arms. I drink glasses of water, take two

say adios. Yes, a dios, to God, that’s the appropriate greeting in a

Valiums, and fall asleep.

‚ time and place such as this.

But I have to start working on the material we risked so much

On our own again, we take out a Hotel Intercontinental towel.

to get. It calls for all the strength I have to concentrate on writing.

Mario holds it in one hand and holds his little boy’s hand with the
other. We run in a kind of no-man’s land. A Sandinist medic

I look at my red face in the mirror. The terror of the experience.
The worst part of it was not knowing where we were going and

comes over and informs us that the road ahead is bad. Mario says

where the lines of fire were. I didn’t know who was shooting whom

he knows a roundabout way of getting there by crossing a narrow

and from what direction to expect the bullets. They were every-

bridge to get to the other side of the road.
I am the first one to cross. I jump over a chasm to get to the
` bridge because a large part of it is missing. I

not myself. The situation was so new.
Richard arrives just before curfew. He had been close to Rivas,

feel like a moving target for a sniper. I run for

but had turned around at the post where the old Guardia had

the houses, to find shelter in their shade. The

helped me and Mikko get to Rivas last week. A post where the

medic and a Sandinist fighter argue which way

soldiers played cards and lay sleeping in hammocks in the noonday

to go. The barrio is totally deserted, except for

heat with chickens pacing around. A scene to be filmed, a scene

a man playing baseball alone in a yard, throw-

that couldn’t be reproduced.

ing or, rather, batting the ball against the wall.

I’m exhausted, shaken. Revolution is a hell of a thing. Only a

Thump, thump, thump, the only sound hetre be-

long process can make people face what I faced today. I saw every-

sides the gunfire in the distance and the sound

thing as simply horrible and frightening. The young woman peer-

of the airplanes in the sky.

ing into the sky and making rational calculations about the flight

After a while we meet three women going in

patterns of the bombers exists in a different world from me.
Mario with his six-year-old son Jesus. Photo by Victoria Schultz.

Victoria Schultz worked as a radio and TV correspondent for 10
years in New York and Latin America. Her first independent pro-

duction was Women in Arms (1980). She has recently finished La
Frontera, a fiim about the U.S.-Mexican border.

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W

sense of fascination. . .

Rock video is the new darling of the

and distribution. When the stirrings of

the corporate rock video screen.
Video artists have continued to produce

technological “revolution.” It has a bright

rock video began, things were very differ-

future, so bright that it could well make

ent. The punk/new wave movement was

tapes independently, often working with

stereo systems obsolete within the next few

radicalizing rock music in such a way that

bands with whom they share aesthetic and

years. All the signs are there: Rock groups

a significant number of women were play-

conceptual concerns. Most independent

are aiming for the simultaneous release of

ing rock instruments for the first time. In

products, however, have been eclipsed by

albums anđd rock clips, video jukeboxes are

1975, two women—Pat Ivers and Emily

record company promos. Even if an inde-

poised ready to fill the clubs, and the price

Armstrong—started a New York-based

of TV/stereo hook-ups is almost within

production company called Advanced Tel-

(difficult when the standards are set by

evision. For five years, they documented

record industry promo budgets of $35,000

the performances of many of the bands

to $100,000), it rarely receives much ex-

that were shaping the new rock movement
in the U.S. Said Ivers:

posure because of the limited and carefully
controlled distribution.

reach of the average rock consumer.
The majority of rock videos (or ‘“promos”) are developed and given away by
record companies to boost record sales.
They come in two different styles. One is

The early days of rock video coincided

straightforward, basically a documenta-

with a time when people in music were

tion of a song, performed either on stage or

trying to distance themselves from their

in a studio. Effects are limited to dry ice
and flashing lights. The other is a three- to
five-minute “narrative,” a mini-Hollywood
that follows the storyline of the song. The
first narrative promo, produced in 1977 by
the Warner/Electric/Atlantic “coalition,”
set the scene for what was to come. “Tonight’s the Night” featured Rod Stewart’s
seduction of a blonde bombshell by a fireplace. She remains the faceless mystery
woman throughout the tape, existing for
the viewer only as a froth of tiny ribbons,
frills, and pieces of bare flesh.
Unlike albums, commercial promos, as
giveaways, are still not products in their

[traditional sex] roles. Even Richard
Hell was conscious of it. It made it
much easier for us to work. No one
would have dared come up to me and
say, “Hey, li'l girl, what you doin’ with
that big old camera?”
Rock clubs were also the sites of an experimental approach to rock video. At Hurrah
and Danceteria in New York, a DJ and a
video-jockey would often work together,
mixing sound and image. As Maureen
Nappi, ex-VJ from Hurrah and Peppermint Lounge, described it:
The connections would sometimes be

own right. They remain advertisements—

haphazard; other times we would try to

pendent tape is of “commercial quality”

Rock videos are shown in clubs, a few
galleries, and on cable TV. The most influential outlet is the cable station Music Television (MTV), which has gathered 12 million subscribers throughout the U.S. since
it was set up in August 1981. MTV is a
joint investment of Warner Communications and American Express—the Warner/
Amex Satellite Entertainment Company,
to be precise. The initial investment was
$20 million (although confirming this
amount was difficult).
MTV’s national broadcast features
continuous promos, liberally sprinkled
with advertisements and self-promotion,
including ‘stars’ such as Paul MacCartney
and Boy George speaking out in support of
the station. It has a weekly playlist of about
50 videotapes, chosen from a library that

and thus are spared the identity problems

make the music and image relate in

of rock music, which has always teetered

some thematic way— springing twists

between being an “art” and a ‘commercial

on the audience in the hope of involv-

fuses to show tapes by Black and independ-

product.” The producers who create pro-

ing them in the long wait to hear the

ent artists, giving exclusive showing to the

mos determine a visual style and a personality that will sell the song. Their policy of
“hits only” has evened out the diversity
that exists in rock music. Whatever the
setting of the narrative, from the jungles of
Sri Lanka and oceangoing yachts in Rio, to
the grimy urban wastes of London—the

headlining band play at 2 a.m. Clubs
can be so boring....
Nappi would intercut all kinds of material

currently holds 1,000 tapes. Its selection
is racist and conservative; it virtually re-

advertising promos of the major record
labels.! The station’s intended purpose is

—“found footage” (Eisenstein’s films,

to “break” bands, escalating them to number 1 on the charts. It is successful—both

documentation of JFK’s assassination),

the Stray Cats and Musical Youth received

synthesized and animated images, and

little attention until their promos were

taped performances of live bands.

played on MTV. More and more tapes are

In the clubs and basements, a new art

now being produced that adhere to MTV’s

theme is tiringly similar: romance. Rock
video’s obsession with True Love, which

movement was created, but its aesthetic

production styles, and as a virtual monop-

idealizes sex roles defining men as active

discoveries were rapidly co-opted by record

and women as passive, is reintroducing
values from the 50s.

company interests to develop their new

oly, it has clearly defined the parameters of
rock video as a medium.

promotional tool. Exactly how innovative

MTV programs according to demo-

The conservatism of rock video is not

these early artists were is only becoming

graphics—aiming to satisfy the tastes of

the fault of the fusion itself, but rather of

apparent in retrospect—as more and more

white mid-America. Its prime target is the

the corporate control over its production

of their ideas and techniques are seen on

family, and as MTV spokesman Roy Tray-

6

©1983 Annie Goldson

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Yet many of the new women perform-

kin said, especially those with a ‘“three-

drums with the British band Honey and

minute attention span.” Defenders of MTV

the Honeycombs, alongside her brother.

ers did not identify as feminists. Although

maintain that it acts as a visual radio, pro-

As a session musician, Carol Kaye received

by raising the expectations of women in

viding a mere backdrop to normal house-

less acclaim, but she played guitar and

every field, including rock, feminism had

hold activities. Even a vague understand-

bass in some of the top U.S. line-ups.

ing, however, of the different meanings of
television and radio in Western culture in-

indirectly encouraged the presence of the
women rock artists, the worlds of feminism

the Gingerbreads, Megan Davies of the

and rock culture had diverged considerably

validates this defense. For those who have

Applejacks, and Terry Garthwaite and

by this time. The women’s movement, in

been exposed to alternative images—of

Toni Brown, instrumentalists with Joy of

rejecting the sexual double-standard of the

rock culture and of sex-role stereotyping—

Cooking.

“sex, drugs and rock ’n roll” generation,

the power of MTV can at least be tem-

Others include Genya Ravan of Goldy and

The first women, however, to assume

had given rock music, the manifestation of

pered. But for the huge suburban following

creative control over widely popular bands

male sexuality, the boot as well. By the

of this cable station, exposure to the racist
and sexist fantasies is undiluted.

came out of the psychedelic movement of

time the punk movement arrived, many

the late 60s. Janis Joplin and Grace Slick

feminists had lost interest in rock, concen-

Rock video will also go beyond the U.S.
suburbs. The transmission of American

possessed tremendous talent and power,

trating instead on developing their own

Joplin reaching almost mythological status

particular sound from the influences of

(mass) culture has always been most suc-

in the counterculture. But they, too, were

protest, country, blues, and jazz.

cessfully carried out by Hollywood, TV,

forced to face the demands of the image.

and popular music, and by combining as-

Although Joplin tried, she could never

“feminists,” but they were often strongly

pects of all three, rock video has a potential

quite break free from her audience’s ex-

anti-sexist. Not only did their presence on

influence that is quite staggering. It will be

pectations. As Ellen Willis, New York fem-

stage contradict the passive stereotype of

able to prescribe its romantic formula—an

inist writer and critic, describes: ‘“Joplin’s

women in rock, but so did their expressed

affirmation of the nuclear family, that

revolt against conventional femininity was

politic. In the U.S. Patti Smith, artist/poet/

basic unit of consumer culture—to many

brave and imaginative but it also dovetailed

minimalist, was developing an androgy-

countries, including the Third World and
the Eastern bloc.

with the stereotype— the ballsy one-of-the-

nous image that the mainstream media

guys chick, who is a needy cream-puff

found difficult to take. She gained com-

underneath—cherished by her legions of

mercial attention with hits like ‘“Gloria,”

hip male fans.” ?

while still producing subversive songs such

Preoccupation with romance and sexism is hardly new—such fantasies have
been the basis of rock cultùre, passed down

More women were playing in bands by

The punk women may not have been

as “Rock ’n Roll Nigger.” Tina Weymouth,
bassist with the influential band Talking

to three generations of adolescents, through

the early ’70s—Fanny, Suzi Soul and the

Elvis, the Beatles, psychedelia, and punk.

Pleasure Seekers (Suzi Quatro), Ramatan,

Heads, also chose androgyny, tending to

How rock video compounds their impact,

and Bertha among them. Times were more
liberal—the counterculture had at least

trast, Debbie Harry of Blondie was a self-

use of the female image, has to be understood in the context of broader rock culture.

freed women from the restraints of ’50s

conscious sex siren, sliding back and forth

femininity. But the ‘sexual equality” of

More than any form of popular media,

this period was a guise. Rock songs were

from irony to being a real sex-kitten. Weymouth is one of the few women from that

rock’s primary message is about sex.

still mostly about love; men remained the

period who has managed to produce a com-

Threatening as this has always been to
parents, conjuring up fears of teenage sex-

sexual consumers, women the objects to be
consumed. It took another musical move-

video) without compromising her style. Yet

and-drug orgies, in reality rock has rein-

ment—punk—along with the example of

Harry soon lost her subversive edge—to

forced the traditional ordering of the sexes.
Women have been cast as “dumb chicks,”

Patti Smith to inspire an entire wave of
women rock artists and instrumentalists,

emblazon the cover of Playboy and, more

groupies, and obliging wives/girlfriends,

who demanded the stage.

by its narrow commercial interests and its

while ironically providing the “inspiration”

The punk movement? sprang up partly

downplay her image completely. By con-

mercially successful solo album (and rock

recently, to star in the movie Videodrome.
The British punk movement fused the
minimalist sounds of Patti Smith and her
contemporaries with Reggae and Northern
soul. Punk’s arrival in the U.K. was an un-

for most rock lyrics. In their only tolerated

as an anti-consumerist revolt against sexual

role, as singers, women have been con-

stereotypes in both the U.S. and the U.K.

strained by the demand that they conform
to the image of the day, and their presenta-

Its message—a rejection of romance as
constructed in Western industrialized soci-

tion of sexuality, although encouraged to

ety—released women from their peripheral

be “provocative,” has remained passive.

position as romantic (sex) objects within
rock culture. For the first time it became

record industry, and for a while this seemed

conceivable that rock could be against

energy of the movement were the English

sexism.

“girl-punks,” often still in their teens. They

There have been a few brave exceptions
to this rule of the “brotherhood.” In the

z , =-

early 60s, Ann “Honey” Lantree played

leashing—angrier and more directly political than its U.S. counterpart. One of its
avowed intentions was to overthrow the
possible. Playing an important part in the

z

GOD. wHO'D
ÈY EVER GVESS

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used irony and outrageousness to subvert

the original meaning of punk (rebellion),

the traditional images of femininity. Cover-

spreading it through mainstream culture.

men, and in most of these cases the women
were the lead vocalists. In the narrative

ing themselves with sex-shop parapher-

By the time the bondage costumes of the

videos, women were generally peripheral,

nalia and wearing torn fish-nets, they
flaunted the commercialization of sexuali-

punk women reached the windows of
Bloomingdale’s (via exposure on MTV) as

Sometimes they were represented only as

ty. Their lyrics parodied sex roles:

“punkette” fashion, they were just another

body parts (lips, etc.).

glimpsed at intervals through the song.

I'm so happy
You're so nice

the anger and the irony, had been dis-

The most popular female stereotype is
the ‘cold bitch”— the beautiful woman re-

Kiss kiss kiss

placed by another—being cute.

jecting or ignoring the superstar’s plea.

“safe” product. The subversive meaning,

Fun fun life
Oh oh oh

Sweet love and romance
[The Slits]

I could stay home and play houses
Love my man and press his trousers
It would be so easy...
[The Bodysnatchers]

Although the commercialization of

One promo showed a woman preparing to

punk affected both male and female art-

go on a date. As she dresses and puts on

ists, rock video left the new women per-

her makeup, she has to keep stepping

formers particularly vulnerable. Rock

around the male singer, who insists on

video has many of the same ingredients of

cluttering up her bedroom. Although he is

Hollywood—heroes, heroines, and love—

singing about her, neither of them ac-

and a critique of Hollywood developed by

knowledges the other—he sings to the

feminist film theorists can be adapted for

camera, she ignores him completely. Final-

an analysis of rock video. Using psycho-

ly, she finishes dressing and walks out of
the house. The singer is there to open her

thought you were a man
but I was Tinkerbelle

analytic theory, this critique describes how
women’s images are constructed by Holly-

car door and she slides in, leaving him
behind.

and you were Peter Pan

ence—needs that arise during the formation of desire in the human unconscious.

are depicted as “adoring,” as “man-eating

I thought I was a woman,

[Poly Styrene from X-Ray Spex]
Punk could not last. For those unin-

woođd to satisfy certain “needs” in an audi-

In addition to the ‘cold bitch,” women

Women are positioned outside “language”

vamps,” and as “victims.” Women are also

volved in rock culture, the punk movement

and any real expression of their subjectivity

used less specifically, dotted around as

was seen as pointlessly nihilistic, violent

is denied due to their “lack” of the phallus,

decoration, eating (grapes and figs), sleep-

and ugly. The increasing exploitation by

and therefore of power and authority. This

the mass media (which loved the mini-

notion of women as “lacking” provokes

skirts and ripped stockings) sexualized the

fear of castration in the hero, and in the

ber of the rock videos. “Nice Day for a

anti-romantic meaning of punk costume,
and the rawness of the sound obscured its

flip-side response, fascination or “love.”

White Wedding” is a chronicle of disillu-

Women as beautiful objects are used as

sionment by Billy Idol, one of the scene’s

political thrust to all except the initiated.

phallic substitutes; they have no real im-

most voguish stars. His use of marriage as

Especially in the U.S., punk was rapidly

portance in themselves.

assimilated into fashion, while in England

An infatuation with the ’S0s and early

various neo-fascist and violent gangs- (Nazi

60s followed the demise of punk. The new
interest in romance and the use of “retro”

punks) assumed the distinctive image—a
blow for a movement that had developed
as a fusion of Black and white influences.
The dispersion of punk was largely the
responsibility of the record industry. Punk’s
musical innovation had developed outside

ing, dressing and undressing.
Brides and weddings figure in a num-

a solution to his unhappiness is not unusual (when all else fails, at least your wife
will look after you). The bridal scene is
held in a cemetery, with smoky-eyed brides-

style are especially evident in rock video.

maids in black offsetting the beautiful

Yet there is a difference: Many of the

bride, decked out in white frills. During

“stars” in the tapes display a certain self-

the ceremony Idol forces the ring onto the

consciousness, as if they remained aware

finger of the bride, making it bleed. As

of the alternative ideologies they grew up

with the eating of figs and grapes, this

with (such as the counterculture, femi-

clumsy piece of symbolism needs little ex-

mance and some independent distribution.

nism, and punk). Neither parody nor irony,

planation.

When its ideas proved sufficiently popular

this self-consciousness appears to be used

to be lucrative, the industry used its financial clout to take them over and turn them

to justify the choice to extol the “old val-

“documents” a bridal ceremony and in a

ues,” a choice that becomes part of a back-

subsequent scene shows Jeffries chasing
his wife around the kitchen `as she tries to

the corporate domain, through perfor-

into ‘“safe’” products. For the women in-

lash against radical elements in this cul-

volved, their radical image was turned into

ture. Along with the New Right, rock has

just another glamorous style. Although

“El Salvador” by Garland Jeffries also

prepare dinner. Intercut into both scenes

begun to wax sentimental about the past,

are shots of wide-eyed children. If, in some

their presence on stage had brought up

idealizing marriage and the family, as if

way, these children are meant to refer to

new questions about convention and sexu-

to suggest that such traditional “solutions”

the war that is destroying their country,

will clear up contemporary problems of a

the tape is hardly making a political state-

ality, in the end they could not survive unless they were “beautiful.” Some, such as
Patti Smith, Poly Styrene, and Lora Logic

far more complex nature.
Whether the self-consciousness is used

(sax player with X-Ray Spex), stopped per-

to justify the artist’s choice or not, the dis-

ment. It seems more likely that Jeffries and
MTV have used the visibility of the war for
their mutual commercial benefit.

forming. Those who continued in the spirit

play of romance is being appropriated by

of punk were forced into art rock rather
than commercial rock circles—and their

youth culture today, as it was by the teen-

to provide romantic interest, or whether

agers of the ’50s. Romance describes love

visibility decreased. They were further

and marriage in a way that means different

they themselves become the stars,” their
visual treatment varies little. Video tech-

Whether women are used as adjuncts

eclipsed by the “liberated” women— those
musicians who conformed to the demands

things to boys and girls. For boys, the cock-

nology lends itself to “romantic” imagery;

rockers, from Elvis to Adam Ant, become
a confirmation of their dominance and

the tapes are full of slow-motion shots—

of the record industry.
Accelerating the commercialization of
punk was rock video—the ideal medium

power. For girls, however, these same
superstars become symbols of the Boy Next

women with long hair blowing around
them, women rising in a cascade of silk
and ribbon from a bed, women appearing

for defusing any threat. Its success lay in

Door, the necessary “goal” to fulfill their

in a pink cloud puff cornerscreen. Even

its immediacy: Now the rock consumer

life’s work—marriage.

the women who manage to escape the

could “see” the superstars (always a strong

The new preoccupation with romance

cute-as-pie treatment stay well within the

urge), as well as hear them. Placed in the

is clearly evident in a brief survey of rock

consumerist spirit of rock culture, these

video. Of the MTV clips sampled, 80%

images were highly marketable—every last
kiss-curl and mohawk could be mimicked

were love songs and 84% performed by allmale bands. The ‘“mixed” bands were all

been traditionally in rock— they are toler-

and sold. This commercialization dispersed

comprised of one woman and three or four

ated as visual sex symbols to front an all-

bounds of “femininity.”
In general, the position of women in
rock video is no different from what it has

8

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male band. But some have an added sophistication. MTV, careful to stay in tune
with market demands, has responded to
the ‘woman question” by providing an im-

[7

age of the “new, liberated woman.” The
women performers are not only beautiful

. COW

(hence still gratifying as images to be consumed), “liberated” (sexually assertive in

BITCHES

their approach to men), but also capable

S

(having a woman play an instrument counters the criticism that they are being used
purely for decoration). Not that these characteristics are negative in themselves, but
they are frequently used to mask the real
oppression and violence that women face.
“I Know What Boys Like,” a hit by the
Waitresses, sung by a woman and written
by a marn, typifies the old cliché that it is
“women that really call the shots.” The
song acknowledges that women are in a
position of relative powerlessness, yet it
implies a bemused acceptance, even an enjoyment of this position. This more know-

1S

ing woman imay appear more exciting
than her passive precursor, but in her acceptance of the existing power structure,
she is still containable, affirming rather
than threatening established sex roles.
Such images recuperate the impact of feminism, and the beautiful “liberated” woman becomes an impossible ideal.
The “heavy-metal” stereotype is a variation of the “new, liberated woman” with

ZZZ

the added dimension of ‘“tough-girl naughtiness.” There seems to be more room for
female expression in this stereotype (for
example, in Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation”
and “I Love Rock and Roll”). But as
“leather girls” their sexual appeal seems
constructed according to male expectations
—a sexy toughness, turned cute (Joan Jett’s
“Crimson and Clover”).

3

In the tapes I looked at, only Grace
Slick from Jefferson Starship and Chrissie
Hynde from the Pretenders appeared to

MANEATERS
FEMALE STEREOTYPES
IN THE
LOVE SONGS

LLLE

o

3

VICTIMS

HIII o o

©0000 W

Graphic by Tom Zummer and Annie Goldson.

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have creative control over their images. In-

other power structures. For women, too,

terest. But to an opposing group, which

rock can provide a source of sexual expres-

sees finding positive expressions of sexuali-

that did not focus on “love” as a major

sion and power, which can be used to wrest

ty for women as a way of challenging the

theme. Slick and Hynde came out of dif-

the female image away from being defined

current imbalance of power between men

ferent musical eras—the psychedelic and

in purely male terms. Although penetrat-

punk movements respectively. Both have,

ing the inner male circle of rock has not

attempt to censor and control male sexuali-

terestingly, their tapes were two of the five

and women, rock holds possibilities. Any

to some degree, retained the concerns of

been easy, women musicians and video art-

ty, they believe, will further inhibit female

those periods in rock, although any real

ists Jave used rock’s sexual language to

sexual freedomÝ They argue, too, that sex-

radical expression has been toned down

explore feminist concerns. Ivers and Arm-

uality is no more ‘naturally’ aggressive
and violent than female sexuality is ‘“natu-

and cleaned up. Neither woman has the

strong, in collaboration with Robin Schaz-

creative influence in shaping rock she once

enbach, produced a tape called “Girl Porn:

rally” gentle and passive. Although this

had.

Boys’ Backs,” a short satirical piece that

view may correspond with the experience

My point is not to criticize rock culture

shows 18 men stripping for the camera.

in itself, but rather its direction, showing

They are currently working on an installa-

how rock video, in undermining the power

tion piece about ‘“seduction.” Nappi, too,

of recent rock movements, has driven

has used her image-processed and animat-

women’s visible, powerful presence out of

ed tapes to “reclaim the female body back

rock culture. Serious critiques of rock are

from voyeurism.”

only just emerging.^ There has been a general refusal to acknowledge rock on the

of many people, to see these characteristics
as inherent is to reinforce traditional notions of female passivity.
Within the framework of the second
argument, rock can be described as a
medium that is not ‘“naturally” male, but

Ironically, it is this sexual characteristic

one that can provide women with a rare

of rock culture that many feminists have

opportunity for finding sexual expression.

rejected. Despite widespread acknowledg-

Not that this is easy—but feminist disap-

feminists—a surprising omission, consid-

ment that ‘sexual freedom” is a goal for

proval of rock can only act as a further

ering its overwhelming importance in de-

women, how to achieve it has led to consid-

prohibition against participation. I do not

veloping sexuality within Western culture.

erable conflict.5 The arguments that lie at
the root of this current conflict about sexu-

mean that every woman should grab for the

ality also explain the attitude many feminists hold toward rock music. For those

videos. The products, and the industry that

er, an energy and enthusiasm that have at

who reject sexual liberalism, suggesting

dismiss rock altogether is to cut out possi-

certain times crossed the barriers of race,

that all male sexuality is an uncontrollable

bilities of expression for women, and to

part of both traditional academics and

But, even apart from this influence, rock
should command our attention.
Rock has a potentially subversive pow-

nearest bass guitar or start producing rock
controls them, have serious flaws. But to

class, and sex, challenging the authority

and constant source of violence, to be

deny them one way of changing sexual atti-

and control of the record industry and

curbed at all cost, rock can hold little in-

tudes. And as rock culture, led by rock
video, takes a conservative turn, it becomes
more essential than ever for independent
women artists and musicians to force the
market to expand to include alternative
images to those that are currently flooding
the TV screen.

maé

1. Initially even Diana Ross was banned from
MTV, but now as criticism of its racism is in-

creasing, MTV has conceded a little, airing
those Black tapes that are acceptable to a white
audience.

2. Ellen Willis, “Janis Joplin,” in Beginning to
See the Light (New York: Wideview Books,
1982).
3. I have used the term “punk” in a somewhat
blanket way to describe a movement that developed into other movements such as “new wave”
and ‘“no wave.” As I wish to concentrate on the

position of women during this period, rather
than analyze the musical variations within the
genre, I use ‘‘punk” to refer to all the music that
rejected the romantic notions that had previously reigned in rock culture.

4. See, for example, the excellent analysis by
Simon Frith in Sound Effects (New York: Pantheon, 1981). It is interesting that feminist filmmakers and theorists have tended to use women
punk musicians (or at least their lyrics) in work
that has examined issues of identity and identification.
S. I have drawn much of my analysis from Ellen

Willis, “Towards a Female Liberation,” Social!
Text, no. 6 (Fall 1982), pp. 3-15.
6. They argue for a need tò assure free and avail-

able abortions and birth control (rather than
emphasizing the control of male sexuality), as a

way of allowing women to develop a positive
sense of sexuality without fear of pregnancy.

Annie Goldson is an ex-journalist from New
Zealand now living in New York. She works in
film, occasionally in video, and plays in a rock
shoplifting and white-collar (computer) crime.

band.

10

© 1983 Sherry Millner

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3 Parkerson
licity still,

From

e

Mills.

z

Dorothy Dandridge beyond a rare 8x10

rector Otto Preminger) made her contro-

gave Dandridge billing above the film title,
and she became the first international

glossy or yellowed pages in vintage Ebony

versial. She was deeply scarred by family

Black star in the history of film.

magazines, although her screen brilliance

relationships, love, and lovemaking, and

surfaces occasionally on late TV in Bright

she juggled both devastation and Holly-

Road (1953) or Porgy and Bess (1960). Hol-

wood glamour. Her death made good myth.

lywood’s first movie queen of color committed suicide in 1965. Barbiturate over-

Beneath the packaging was a Black
woman intensely committed to social

mous with Marilyn Monroe, but Dorothy

dose and few explanations. She was 42.

change. At the height of her singing career

Dandridge was my first serious crush.

Little remains of the phenomenon of

Dorothy Dandridge was a diva under

white men (particularly an affair with di-

I am just fully realizing the impact of
Dandridge on my life. As a chubby, Black

in the 1950s, Dorothy Dandridge was

Some twenty years later, I have become an

among the first Black entertainers to break

independent film- and videomaker, pro-

the color barrier at hotels and nightclubs.

ducing documentaries on jazz vocalist

the miscegenation mold; her star quality

Scarce editions of her autobiography,

Betty Carter and a cappella activists “Sweet

was based on her fair skin. Dark enough to

Everything and Nothing, reveal Dan-

Honey in the Rock”—Black women who

embody The Exotic, light enough to be

dridge’s political awareness and her relent-

Negro Object of Desire, her fate always

less fight for racial equality and civil rights.

have clearly taken their talents and lives
into their own hands.

glass: her beauty and travesty marketed to
millions. Hollywood processed her through

hinged on the leading (Black or white) man

From a Black feminist perspective, the

There is a correlation. The career of

— Harry Belafonte in IJsland in the Sun or

circumstances of Dorothy Dandridge’s life

Dorothy Dandridge taught me that women

Curt Jergens in Tamango, for instance.
The few books on Blacks in film view her

are yet to be told. Born in Cleveland’s

must control the making of their images.

Black ghetto in 1922, she grew up around
women and show business. Her mother,

with victimization, at the cost of her life.

as The Tragic Mulatto. In Toms, Coons,
Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks, author
Donald Bogle states:
Before her, Nina Mae McKinney had
displayed uncontrolled raunchiness,
Fredi Washington had symbolized intellectualized despair, and Lena Horne
had acquired a large following through
her reserve and middle-class aloofness.
On occasion, Dorothy Dandridge exhibited all the characteristics of her
screen predecessors, but most important to her appeal was her fragility and
her desperate determination to survive.
Dandridge was surrounded with awe
and voyeurism by the white media. She was
the first Black on the cover of Life—as the
leading lady in Carmen Jones. But Dandridge was often at odds with the Black
press. Her screen image and romances with
©1983 Michelle Parkerson

comedienne Ruby Dandridge, reared Dorothy and her older sister Vivien with the
help of an “aunt”—a close family friend

On and off screen, Dandridge contended
As Blacks, as women, we must begin to
master the medium that has killed us for
so long. Exploitation, misrepresentation

who doubled as pianist for their vaudeville

on screen, union discrimination, and limit-

act, “The Wonder Kids.” Later, “The

ed production opportunities in the larger

Dandridge Sisters” gained success on the
Black theater circuit.

industry are still struggles to be won...at

Dorothy Dandridge’s marriage in the
1940s to dancer Harold Nicholas was brief

Michelle Parkerson, a poet and documentary
filmmaker from Washington, D.C., has just

least for the next generation of daughters.

and disillusioning. She gave birth to a

published Waiting Rooms, her first book of

daughter, Harolyn, who suffered severe

poetry.

brain damage. As a single parent, she be-

REFERENCES

gan a solo career that eventually led to
stardom. In 1955 she was nominated for
“Best Actress” for her role in the 20th
Century-Fox production Carmen Jones: a
first for a Black woman. A three-year contract with the studio followed—the first
and most ambitious ever offered to a Black
performer. In that contract, Darryl Zanuck

Bogle, Donald. Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks. New York: Viking Press,
1973.

Dandridge, Dorothy & Earl Conrad. Everything
and Nothing: The Dorothy Dandridge Tragedy. New York: Abelard-Shulman, 1970.
Mills, Earl. Dorothy Dandridge. Los Angeles:
Holloway House, 1970.
11

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The film begins with a TV spot about the Revolution while the official revolutionary song (“We are born in flames. . .”’) plays. Titles
appear over the TV image: “New York City, ten years after the
Social-Democratic War of Liberation’:
This week of celebration, commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the War of Liberation, is a time when all New Yorkers
take pride in remembering the most peaceful revolution the
world has known. It is time to consider the progress of the
past ten years, and to look forward to the future.
The music continues over shots of Manhattan, titles, and Isabel
(Adele Bertei) speaking from her radio station:
Hi there. This is Isabel from Radio Regazza, bringing you a
little tune that you'll be hearing an awful lot these days, from
the makers of our “Revolution.” You might not be hearing
it here, but you'll be hearing it everywhere else you go. Happy
Anniversary!
Dem

lames 7s set in the future—ten years after a SocialTC c` cultural “revolution” in America. The film is not trally “science fiction”: There is no attempt to create a futurc fook because it is as much about today's world as it is about

the future—posing the question of whether oppression against
women will be elimina er any kind of social system.
The film opens during c a period of disenchantment, when political ideals fave ‘been sacrificed to pragmatic realities. The Social` Democratic Party that women had supported has not fulfilled its

The music continues over tracking shots of women workers, including Adelaide Morris (Jeanne Sattersfield), a construction worker. FBI voiceover begins with this image and continues through
slides of Norris:
Adelaide Norris, 24. She seems to be the founder of the
Women’s Army.
Her background?
Ordinary. Typical of a lot of Blacks. Mother a domestic. Her

. The women in the film are not anti-socialist. In fact,

father died when she was a teenager. Eight kids in the family.

society have been destroyed. T hey are opposed to the bu-

jock, good in track and basketball. Goes to school nights,

Adelaide’s the oldest. She helped raise the others. Always a
racy of the; traditi onal Left, whose governing structure inevibly reproduces white male dominance within the culture;,to a
SO

works construction jobs during the day.
Homosexual?
Yes. The Women’s Army seems to be dominated by Blacks

1 where any temporary economic advancement for women
“only reflects: the opportunism of the government rather than a true
desire. 2 for egalitarianism. These women are not satisfied by relative
` “progress” in a society where rape, prostitution, and harassment
È still exist, where homosexuality is punished, and where ' ‘women’s
issues” such as daycare are seen as secondary concerns.
` Born in Flames is fantasy in i: :
confronted with the very “ordi

and lesbians. Norris started it as a radical-separatist vigilante
group three or four years ago. Now it seems to be looking for
a base of support by instigating various community uprisings
involving women.
Adelaide conducts a community meeting about daycare cutbacks:
T’d like to know if anyone has any ideas or any suggestions
as to how we can keep this center open, because for those of
you who are working, what this means is that you're going to
have to stop working and stay home and take care of your
kids.

pression against won is not eliminated m with “so-

Woman at Meeting: No, it's going to be impossible for me to

cialism”—not only do political values have to change, cultural

stop working. We have to figure out some way we can keep

values must change and become embedded in practice.

the center open independently.

` The narrative of the film is disjunctive, cutting ‘between various
` groups of Women which represent various con

Honey (playing herself), speaking from her radio station:
Good evening, this is Honey, coming directly to you from

cultural positions within the women's comm

Phoenix Radio, a free radio station, a station not only for the

the script were developed by collaborating wit

liberation of women, but for the liberation of all through the
freedom of life which is found in music. We are all here be-

film who, to various degrees, play themselves.
is meant to suggest that even though an armed

cause we have fought in the War of Liberation, and we all
bear witness to what has happened since the war. We see the

ment may be nposstbie to sust; [i
he language, even for a
ihat woren will be able

oppression that still exists, both day and night. For we are
the children of the light, and we will continue to fight, not
against the flesh and blood, but against the system that
names itself falsely. For we have stood on the promises far
too long now, that we can all be equal, under the cover of a
social democracy, where the rich get richer and the poor just
wait on their dreams.
©1983 Lizzie Borden

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Lizzie Borden

Hillary Hurst (playing herself), a leader of the Women’s Army,

The Bicycle Brigade: two men accost and attempt to rape a wom-

is harassed as she walks past a group of men sitting around a truck.

an. Behind her screams, the sound of whistles can be heard ap-

Cut to TV spot:

proaching from all directions—bicyclists from the Women’s Army

Setting aside for a while the growing pressure of economic

surround the rapists and drive them away. A TV news report be-

crisis, organized labor joined forces in a parade of 150 thou-

gins over this image:

sand up Fifth Avenue to commemorate the overwhelming

Police have been puzzled in the past week by what they de-

victory by the Social Labor Party ten years ago. Labor’s

scribe as well-organized bands of 15 to 20 women on bicycles
attacking men on the street. While the victims say that these

abandonment of the old Democratic Party is considered by

incidents were unprovoked, eyewitness reports suggest that

many the cornerstone of today’s liberation.

these men may themselves have been attempting to assault
Isabel and her band (The Bloods) sing “Undercover Nation” in a

women. However, officials have condemned the lawlessness

recording studio:

of such vigilante groups and ask for information leading to
the atrest of the women involved. Maybe even their telephone

Headlines screaming as she watches the race/ reading back

numbers!

the Constitution/ Leather-legged or a dancer in space/ talking ’bout evolution/ She’s got a black suit and a red dress/
She’s got a chest full of the poet’s mess/ A hangover and her

Isabel and a woman from Radio Regazza debate this incident:
Isabel: ...….lesbianism, faggotism, Niggerism, honkeyism...

mother’s on the phone...

You know, really that could have been the Women’s Army

Wake up, wake up ’cause she isn’t alone...

that did that.

Wake up, wake up, could this be you?

No, they’re not aggressive enough.

Hillary conducts an induction meeting for women joining the

They're not aggressive enough? What are you talking about?

Army. One woman questions the use of the word “army” as too

I told you, Jules. They're a service to the community, they

masculine for a women’s group. FBI voiceover begins with this

deal in childcare and daycare centers and stuff like that.

image and continues through other images of Hillary:

That's not all they do; they're vigilantes; they'd use violence;

Hillary Hurst, 26. We figure her to be the current leader of

they could have done this easily.

the Women’s Army. No official political record, but she’s

No. They're not aggressive enough. They’re not terrorists.

been instrumental in bringing the Army to large numbers of
women through induction meetings she holds around the

Adelaide and another woman from the Army confront a man har-

city. It’s impossible to say if Hurst is in command. We'’re not

assing a woman on the subway. FBI voiceover:

even sure how the organization is structured. All we know is

Well, I wouldn’t exactly call them terrorists, although we do

that they’re starting to appeal to women who would have

know that they're responsible for those bicycle incidents.

written them off as lunatics a few years ago.

That’s no big deal. What is the problem is the vigilante sensibility. We’ve got to watch ’em. Put some pressure on them

Adelaide and Zella Wylie (Flo Kennedy) watch Mayor Zubrinsky

at their jobs.

on TV:

As chief executive officer of the city, I am pleased, proud,
and grateful to you all for affording this city the opportunity

TV news:

Violence flared today in Lower Manhattan as youths threw

to share in the anniversary which heralds our society as being

Molotov cocktails outside City Hall. The demonstration be-

the first true socialist democracy the world has ever known.

gan as a protest against what the young men call meaning-

Ours has been the greatest cultural revolution of all time,

less jobs given to them through the Workfare program. They

through which we have wed democracy, with its respect for
freedom and individualism, and its abhorrence of all forms

treatment in the real job market. However, human services

of communism and fascism, with the moral and ethical hu-

officials deny that this is true.

manism of American socialism.

claim that women and other minorities receive preferential

Angry young men roamed the downtown area, indiscrim13

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inately destroying storefronts and cars and attacking passers-

The SYR editors, told that Adelaide’s death was a mistake, be-

by. Police spokesmen denied accusations that they overreact-

come disenchanted with the Party. Voiceover of their editorial is

ed, citing the sympathy many officers feel for the demonstra-

heard as Honey walks by a newsstand and sees Adelaide’s photo on

tors’ cause. They claim that they handled an explosive and

the front of the paper.

dangerous situation as well as could be expected.
Adelaide at construction site as the foreman hands out paychecks.
She receives a pink slip: laid off for no apparent reason. The song
“Born in Flames” begins and continues over a series of images of
women’s hands at conventional women’s work as mother, secretary, dental hygienist, prostitute, etc. Adelaide leads a job demonstration in front of City Hall. Voiceover of the editors of the Socialist Youth Review (SYR) in their office (Pat Murphy, Kathy Bigelow,
and Becky Johnston):
As the editors of the Socialist Youth Review, we regret that
many of the construction and steel workers laid off in the
past few weeks have been the women hired only last year.
The industries have been overburdened recently by the enor-

As editors of the Socialist Youth Review, we have been troubled by the official reports on the death of Adelaide Norris,
the founder of the Women’s Army. Grave inconsistencies in
the police records and in the coroner’s report have led us to
believe that Norris did not commit suicide but was murdered
—assassinated, if you will, for political reasons. It is alleged
by the government that Norris was involved in arms dealings
with the Polisarian rebels sympathetic to her cause. If so,
why wasn’t she allowed a fair trial? When Norris returned
to New York she had no weapons on her person, nor was
there any proof that she was successful in her negotiations.
Did the Party so fear that she could rally an armed group of
women that an assassination was necessary?

mous number of minority workers who are applying for a
limited number of jobs. Only a small percentage of each
group can be accommodated in these trades. The rest will
receive alternative placement in the Workfare program. We
feel that women who immediately cry ‘“sexism’” are being
selfish and irresponsible. Any move toward separatism, the
demand for equal rights for one group alone, hurts our
struggle for the equal advancement of all parts of society.
Zella, speaking to Adelaide:
I’m going to tell you something. We have a right to violence.
All oppressed people have a right to violence. And I want to
tell you something. It’s like the right to pee. You’ve got to
have the right place, you've got to have the right time, you’ve
got to have the appropriate situation, and I’m absolutely
convinced that this is it.

SYNOPSIS OF MIDDLE OF FILM
Tensions build between sectors of the workforce. The Women’s
Army tries to broaden its constituency by involving the women’s
radio and press. Regazza is unfriendly and the women from SYR
refuse to help. Phoenix, however, is receptive and a friendship develops between Adelaide and Honey. As Adelaide becomes more

Zella speaks at an emergency meeting of the Women’s Army:

and more frustrated with the lack of government response to their

We've got to make it clear that she’s been murdered. And

demonstrations and protests, she begins to feel that the only way

we’ve got to cut through this cover-up, because they'll bury it

the Army will be heard is through violence. Her decision to pick up

if they can. This is supposed to be an army! We need media.

arms is encouraged by Zella, but opposed by the rest of the Army.
While her moves are monitored by the FBI, Adelaide arranges a

We've got to get a message on television that will be seen
everywhere.

trip to the Western Sahara to work with a revolutionary group that
agrees to help the Army. When she returns, she is seized at the airport and incarcerated. She dies in jail. The Social-Democratic Party calls it a suicide.

Honey, speaking from Phoenix Radio:
Greetings. This broadcast has been dedicated to Adelaide
Norris. Every woman under attack has the right to defend
herself whenever we are unjustly attacked. Freedom? You
talk about freedom? Freedom—it’s yours, it’s right here,
and it’s your right. They may label you, try to classify you,
and even call you a crazy bitch, but don’t flinch, just let
them. Continue, just as Adelaide Norris. Exercise your rights,
and your freedom is yours.
Black women such as Adelaide Norris may be among a
minority and be insignificant to many. But just like the fuse
that ignites the whole bomb, we are important. Black women, be ready. White women, get ready. Red women, stay
ready, for this is our time and all must realize it.
Montage of groups of women preparing for action: looking through
blueprints, training physically, casing out CBS. Cut to SYR editors
discussing whether printing photos of Adelaide would sensationalize a dead body or serve to mobilize. Next, a shot of Honey singing as she shaves her head in the bathtub:
To fulfill the need to be/ who I am in this world/ is all I ask./
I cannot pretend to be/ someone that I’m not/ and I can’t
wear a mask./ There’s this need to be true to myself and
make my own mistakes./ And I don’t want to lean too hard
on someone else...

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_ work.

My fellow Americans, good evening. I am speaking with you
this evening to ask your support for a program which this
Administration believes is a critical step forward toward
greater justice, equality, and freedom for all our citizens. .….

. . .in every aspect of our social and economic life. Tonight,
I am asking your support for a critical part of that program
which will affect the lives of 40 million of our citizens. American women...

. . that for the first time in our history will provide women
with Wages for Housework. Women who would rather devote
themselves to their families will be freed from the double
burden of work outside and inside the home.

Zella Wylie here, and we interrupt this broadcast to talk to
you about the murder of Adelaide Norris by federal agents.
They called it suicide but a lot of people don’t buy that lie.
She was murdered because she stood up against the betrayal
of women. We're being sold down the river—at home, at
work, and in the media. And now the President wants to
pacify us with Wages for Housework. Wages for Housework
is a dupe...

The aim of the Revolution was the equality of all men and all
women and all people. Insofar as these women struggle for
selfish ends, for ends that are against the aims of all the people, which are embodied in this revolutionary government,
those aims must be stamped out by any means necessary.
The means that are at hand for us are the means of the criminal law. What these women have done is utterly self-interested. They are not concerned with the progress of all of us...

You can do all that can be done. The most important thing

nomic and social position of women. Our government, which

of all is media, our media—communication. You've got a

has prided itself on being the first successful socialist democ-

radio station. Your job is to see that it can’t be quieted, that

racy, is neither democratic nor socialist. In forming an alli-

it can’t be bullshitted out, and that we make the connec-

ance with male Labor, the government has reinforced the

tions...

caste system that has always existed in this country. Women
fought the War of Liberation with certain expectations in
mind: that the government would work, beyond reform,

Psychoanalyst: If I may say so, this has been a very satisfying

toward a truly egalitarian society. But unless we struggle now

thing because it has proved an ancient theory of Freud’s,

for our rights, we will always be oppressed.

that there is a primary female masochism, a deep-rooted,
rock-bottom sort of thing. Of course we don’t see that; what
you see is the secondary manifestation, the reversal of that—
the secondary female sadism.
Belle Gayle: The secondary female sadism?
Yes. All these so-called pranks.
You mean their deeper impulse is masochistic but they fear
to express it in that fashion?
That’s right. There’s a terror of their own masochism...

You’ve made it impossible for the Party to keep you on as
editors. You’ve taken a position of considerable power and
you've thrown it away. And you've also taken a woman,
Adelaide Norris—probably a malcontent—and made her
into a hero.

Kathy: It's not just Adelaide Norris.
Pat: She’s right. It’s a lot of other issues as well. We can no
longer compromise our position by continuing to work for
this newspaper.

As the editors of the Socialist Youth Review, we would like
to comment on the CBS break-in last week by the Women’s
Army. In a videotape by Zella Wylie, the Women’s Army
exposed government duplicity not only in the cover-up of
Adelaide Norris’s death, but in the repression of active feminism with Wages for Housework. We extend our support to
the Army as a legitimate revolutionary group, because we,

Wake up! We're being murdered out there in the streets.
Andđd if you're going to sit by and watch it happen, sister, all
your babies, and yourselves, you’re going to be cleaned out—
we ain’t going to be around no more! Now get it together. It’s
time to fight! This is for all the dead heroes out there. Yeah!
(continued)

15

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It’s time to work some voodoo on these motherfuckers, sis-

tions in the home? The media, the tool of the government,

ters. This is a message to the Women’s Army and to women

reinforces their position by promoting images of women as

everywhere. Wake up! This is station 2016 on your dial. If

wives and mothers. We are surrounded by the very images

you can’t find it then you’re in trouble, sister.

our mothers fought to destroy. Decades of women’s work for

Pat, one of the SYR editors, meets with the Women’s Army:
One of the things we have to realize is that each one of us is
public, that they have a file on each one of us. The idea that
each one is working privately is just a false one—they can
pick up each one of us anytime. So what we have to keep
aiming for is to have control over the language, over our own
image—so that we have control over describing ourselves.
TV news:

socialism, for freedom of choice, equality of opportunity, are
being swept away. Once again we are being placed outside
politics. It’s not only women who will suffer. You know the
pattern. Blacks, Latins, all ethnic and social groups will suffer, as the old sex, race, and class divisions reemerge. There
can be no true socialism until we are all represented in government. We demand a quota system which is truly expressive of our numbers, and we will not stop fighting until we
get proportional representation in government.

Police were called in today to investigate blazes that gutted
two female-operated unlicensed radio stations, Phoenix Radio and Radio Regazza. Citing the recent backlash against
women extremists, officials say that the suspicious and possibly related fires may have been the work of vandals.

Phoenix and Regazza broadcast from their new mobile stations:
Good evening, this is Honey, coming directly to you from the
new Phoenix and Regazza radio station, a station not only
dedicated to the liberation of women, but a station dedicated
to deconstruct and reconstruct all the laws that suppress and

In a meeting initiated by Isabel, the women from Phoenix and

oppress all of us. Now if you should lose our broadcast, you

Regazza decide to steal trucks and equipment in order to make

may have to search your dial, for Phoenix and Regazza are
now on the move.

two mobile radio stations. Honey participates, on the condition
that they work with the Women’s Army.
The women from SYR become involved with the Army. When
the Army interrupts another TV program, it is Pat who delivers the
message. Some of her speech is heard over images of Phoenix and
Regazza stealing U-Haul trucks:
We are interrupting this program to bring you a special message from the Women’s Army, and we will continue to make
this kind of direct action until everyone understands and is
prepared to do something about the way the government has
betrayed women. Look at the reality of your lives. The government thinks that socialism was instituted ten years ago,
after the War of Liberation, but it denies the very basis of
-true socialism, which is constant struggle and change. Wasn’t
the War of Liberation fought to create an egalitarian
state? Why, then, does the government attack
women, putting them out of their jobs and
relegating them to secondary posi-

Meanwhile, the ultimate action is planned by the Army: A bomb is
made; blueprints of the World Trade Center transmitter locations
consulted; a woman enters the WTC with the bomb in her purse.
Good morning. This is Isabel, broadcasting from the new
Phoenix-Regazza radio station. I’d like to open up by making a statement on behalf of Adelaide Norris and the Women’s Army. Her murder serves as a warning for women everywhere of the struggle we face, and the truth will be heard as
the story must and shall be told. It is not only the story of
women’s oppression; it is the story of sexism, racism, bigotry,
nationalism, false religion, and the blasphemy of the statecontrolled Church; the story of environmental poisoning and
nuclear warfare, of the powerful over the powerless for the
sake of sick and depraved manipulations that abuse and
corner the human soul like a rat in a cage. It is all of our responsibility as individuals to examine and reexamine everything, leaving no stones unturned. Every word that we utter,
every action and every thought, we are all, women and men,
the prophets of this new age, and for those of us who would
be safer in the sensibilities of racism, separatism, and martyrdom, if you can’t help us toward building this living
church, then step out of the way! The scope and capability of
human love are as wide and encompassing as this vast universe that we all swirl in, one for all and all for oneness. This
fight will not end in terrorism and violence. It will not end in
a nuclear holocaust. It begins in a celebration of the rights of
alchemy, the transformation of shit into gold, the illumination of dark chaotic night into light. This is the time of sweet,
sweet change for us all. This is Isabel for Phoenix-Regazza
Radio, signing off until tomorrow.
A male TV announcer is seen standing outside, in lower Manhattan, in front of the World Trade Center:
But have we gone too far? It is time to ask if the programs of
yesterday’s liberation have become the stagnation of today.
We cannot ignore the monumental inflation with which we
are burdened, nor can we condone the widespread abuse
rampant in our social system. At home we are becoming
trapped in bureaucracy, and throughout the rest of the world
our influence wanes. The management of this. station fears
that oversocialization has transformed our democracy into a
welfare state. If we are to survive our ideals, we must careful-

i FBI presentation:
The entire organization, which is represented by the circle, is

ly consider their implications. This, in the midst of our cele-

bration, isthe opinión of WNYC... ....... -u
BOOM!

about 1000 women. It's subdivided into small cells, each of
which selects its own leader on a rotating basis. After each of

Suddenly, his voice is interrupted by a deafening explosion, as the

these small cells has selected a leader, about every three or

WTC transmission tower blows up.

four months a leader for the entire organization is selected
from those leaders, and this is the problem: We don't know
at any given time who is in charge.

Lizzie Borden is a filmmaker and art critic living and working in New
York City. This is her first narrative feature.

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ei
, t

tions

. and

three men wer
”

ire Briga inh basic logic!

armist, alluding 10 an
used to justify extensive

©1983 W

immin’s Fire Brigade #

Ea

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t

‘People sell themselves every day. It

just depends on your occupation. You sell

R e R N

In the stat room I’m enlarging a chrome of her.
. All these girl sets are beginning to look the
| same. It’s frightening how when I go to crop

the image the art director’s designs are >
becoming automatic, “We don’t care about
the furniture just don’t crop her pubes.”
Very often I feel like her—like I’m selling
myself. How can I be a feminist and work on a

skin magazine? Not that Vogue would be .
that different. But I’m trying to get by—

get skills—ġet out of here ...
It’s lunch,
I go downstairs with a friend from work.

She looks shorter
than l’d imagined,
she looks like a
tourist. We catch the light
and run across the street.

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This panel discussion was conducted by Diana Agosta and Edith Becker from the Heresies #16 Collective (HC) in November 1982 with four women filmmakers and activists: Janice Blood (JB), Director of Public I nformation for 9 to 5, the national
organization of women office workers which inspired the movie 9 to 5 and the TV series; Cara DeVito (CD), who has worked
on documentaries for the past 10 years, most recently on What Could You Do with a Nickel? about a domestic workers’
union in the South Bronx; Christine Noschese (CN), who has shown films and tapes to working-class women as an organizer
for the National Congress of Neighborhood Women and is currently working on a film about community leaders in Brooklyn;
and Brenda Singleton (BS), a social worker who has been active on the Women's Issue Committee of the National Association of Social Workers and uses film as an organizing and educational tool.

HC What doyou think about the images
of working women since the mid-

end. Lots of films, however, are more optimistic in the end than in reality. I’m not

Still, our members tended to feel happy

1960s?

sure that they have to be. For example,

and proud that an actual commercial movje was made about women office workers

Wilmar 8 doesn’t have a truly optimistic

and not an obscure documentary. They are

CN A lot of working-class women object
to films showing only their oppres-

ending, but women seem to like it. They

so starved for some depiction of themselves

don’t feel it’s a movie of oppression be-

that it was okay when the only thing that

cause it shows women as real people taking

emerged was a movie saying office workers

as much control over their lives as they can
against odds they just couldn't beat. The

have some problems. Never mind if they
solve them and, of course, it was a comedy.

women in Wilmar 8 are not passively talk-

But some of the issues portrayed are part

ing about how they lost. That would be de-

of working life: a person who doesn’t get

‚sion and not showing their joy, their laughter, their love. Successful feminist films in
this country have been upbeat; they've
talked about the leadership women have
provided and discussed the problems within that context. This way, there is more of
an interrelationship and women feel the
films represent them. After all, who wants
to be told what might be wrong with them?

pressing. We see them demonstrate. A story

promoted, no job training, people treated

just about failure wouldn't be a great

without respect. It is worth seeing this
movie, but not in the same way as Uzion

movie.

Maids or Rosie the Riveter. The real people

The dilemma is that you don’t want
to show that everything is wonderful

We found a bit of hopelessness

in the movie made a difference and they

among our membership when it was

impart a sense that “We could do that,
too.” The commercial movie lacks any

and these women have life easy, because

first shown. That has changed over the last

that’s the lie traditional media shows. It

year as office workers and their rights be-

doesn’t show working-class women because we don’t fit into the situation come-

come a topical issue. There were no unions
in existence at the time the Wilmar 8 went

dies or Madison Avenue hype. Therefore,
white middle-class America doesn’t want

out on strike, but now unions are interest-

to see or hear about it. I want to show peo-

ization. For uses of organizing, there

ple struggling for their dignity, their eco-

should be a feeling after the movie that

nomic rights, and controlling their destiny,

there’s a way to get a hold of the oppressive

ed in clerical workers, even our own organ-

and show it in a positive light. The danger

situation, whether it’s documentary or fic-

is making it too superficial or upbeat be-

tional film.

cause then it’s just another fable about

Based on what the members of 9 to 5
have experienced, there seems to be a big

workers.

BS In terms of using films to organize,
it’s very important to include those
women whom the film’s about in the filmmaking process. Only those people can say
what the situation actually is. Others can
look into it and talk about it, but you know
when someone is telling her own story.
With any organizing, people need to
feel they have some ability to change
things. It’s very hard to use film that does
not give the sense that, even though people
struggle, they can achieve something in the

Facing page: Both photographs are of the same
woman. The photo in the foreground appeared

division between documentary and fictionalized story telling, commercial TV and
PBS. Union Maids is shown by our members all across the nation, even though
those women were not office workers, their
struggles go back a long time, and they
show heavy union involvement; and 9 to 5
is in a sense a preunion organization. But
we feel its continued popularity is because
of its spirit—how women describe themselves, what they've gone through and how
they’ve met it. There is hope in their struggle for justice in the workplace. I compare
that feeling with our experiences with the
movie 9 žo 5. There is so much lacking
there that should be said. But there are

in a newspaper interview with the model.

unbelievable obstacles in commercial

Graphic by Nicky Lindeman, an artist who lives

media that prevent anything that seems

and works in New York City.

real from getting made.

sense of encouragement. It’s a glorification
of office work and workers.
BS rd like to see more films offering
role models. We know what the
problems are. We need to see some solutions of how women deal with certain
things successfully on a realistic basis. For
instance, there’s a million types of families
these days, not a ‘typical’ two-parent
family with a car and house, which is what
we see on the screen. More movies should
include working women and day-to-day
involvement with daycare, and how to survive, the basics. This is what viewers are
starving for. That’s why Awake from
Mourning inspires such a reaction. It’s a
film about a self-help movement among
South African women. It’s very subtle, on
a day-to-day routine rather than on something major like a riot or a strike. There’s
nothing wrong with strikes but it’s also important to show what goes on in an organized women’s community on a day-to-day
basis. This is helpful for organizing. Even
the social workers I showed it to were very
impressed.
CN Movies are one place where the
women’s movement should applaud
itself. It’s from the movement that these
films about working-class women got
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made. The women’s movement is accused

certain things but then when I viewed the

where you see a problem on the screen that

of not being concerned about class and mi-

same film with others, the majority of

is similar to your own, suddenly you begin

nority issues but in the independent film

whom, in this case, were white middle-

to see these things don’t have to do only

community it’s been women who've been

class with several Black women, something

with yourself. It puts it in perspective and

very concerned about those issues and
active in them.

very different happened. Part of the put-

makes it ‘“tackleable.” That’s why the

pose of this particular screening was to
raise consciousness about women of color

through. As organizers we need to see that

and to introduce some ideas about what’s

truth in a film. We can say to a woman

going on in South Africa, and to show

that what she experiences is institutional

some of the parallels with our own lives. It

discrimination; but it’s much better to see

CD The process for making these films
is also very important. For What
Could You Do with a Nickel?, three of us
went into the South Bronx looking like a
network with all this equipment. The women didn’t know the money came out of our
own pockets. They thought we were going
to make a sensational story and show the
poor people. What we did was to get involved with the actual organizing. We picketed, leafletted, attended meetings, and
encouraged leadership among the women
—the community group the women were
involved in was headed by a very good
man, who just didn’t make the leap to try
to cultivate leadership among the women.
That’s one way to get involved aside from
the editing process.

was incredible because there were so many
different levels coming out of the film. For
example, the film addresses many issues of
self-help movements; the women in the
film make their own clothes and grow their
own food and do not depend on factory
work. That has a lot of implications.
The film negated a lot of racial issues
because it showed very articulate Black
women from South Africa. The audience
was saying, “Ah, uh, I didn’t know they
could talk or express what they need.”
Most people can express what they need.
You ask them what they need, they'll tell
you.

HC What was the use of the film for the
women in the South Bronx?

Some women who are making decisions
for other people and organizing are so far

point of view of the people must come

on screen another woman experience it
and see how she is capable of dealing with
it.

CN Asa feminist organizer, I think it’s
much easier to use the types of films
we’ve been talking about where we show
the empowerment of women. It’s consciousness raising to have women feel they
can control their own lives in some way. I
consider CR an organizing issue, so then
it’s very easy to use films for women’s organizing. I’ve used Cara’s videotape on her
grandmother who was a battered woman. I
don’t think Cara knew that tape would
have such a use. It was a persoñal tape. I
used it in a working-class neighborhood in

CD They felt good that they were the
subject of a film. They were feeling

removed from what’s going on. We’ve got-

Brooklyn to discuss battered women. It’s
more difficult to use other kinds of film

ten very professional with all the jargon,

than women’s films with women. I don’t

completely fucked over by everyone. They

and sometimes lose sight of the real issues.

were doing traditional women’s work, low-

I think film helps explore these issues. It’s

est paid on the social ladder. They wanted
to communicate to others that they’d gone

a consciousness-raising tool. The issues
don’t have to be resolved in the movie.

this far and other people should learn from

Film shows it on the screen and allows peo-

what they did.

ple to take it in, sift it around and then

I had a community advisory board
before anything was shot for my film
Women of the Northside Fight Back. At

react to it. In fact it was the next day when

I saw some of these women that most of
the discussion took place.

know if it’s because women’s films are better, but I have some prejudices in this area,
or because they have a personal quality
and are in touch with an everyday politic.
Another way to use films for organizing is to use study guides. 9 to 5
developed a study guide to go along with
Wilmar 8. California Newsreel distributes

one minute I was saying, “Ha, ha, I have
all these women from the community on
my board and I’m gonna make a politically correct movie,” and at other times I
felt, “Oh no, all these people are telling me
what to do and I’m not going to be able to
say what I want to say with the film.” It’s
very frightening. None of the 20 women
agreed with one another anyway. They
were all from different ethnic groups and
were all leaders. As soon as they saw I was
in their corner and understood the issues
they wanted to communicate, I had their
trust. It was only my own fear. People trusted me. That was nice.
What about showing contradictory
opinions in a film? How does the

v

Beverly Benkowitz

complexity of the issue get conveyed to the
viewer?

CN We have to start talking about form
then. Not form that is not entertaining or that is boring or so way-out that peo-

JB Something Brenda just said rang a
bell. We found that the biggest benefit of all the films we’ve worked with and
were part of was that the fact that it’s on
film suddenly made it more concrete. It’s

Annette Moy

the film and got a grant which allowed
them to turn money over to us to produce
the study guide. Our labor education
organizer put together a guide that is applicable to any group of people, though it’s

ple can’t relate to it. Form in terms of what

like knowing something in the back of

primarily for working women. She put it

is a style that can represent women’s is-

your mind without being able to verbalize

together so that a group meeting regularly

sues. One of the problems is that the dra-

it; then seeing it on screen makes it legiti-

would use it differently from a group meet-

matic forms we know now do not represent
the holistic view of women’s lives and the
way women see them. Now the forms limit
us and the way we can portray women and
these issues, and that’s the reason for some
of the ambivalences.
BS I found that when I saw Awake from
Mourning by myself I reacted to

mate. For women this is incredibly impor-

ing only to view the film. In all instances she

tant because we’re so used to internalizing

drew together many different forms of in-

our experiences. We don’t seem to have an

volvement. For example, one issue that the

outer reality. The most negative extreme is

film deals with is pay equity. In order to

to blame oneself for things that are objec-

explain that issue, part of the manual asks

tively not your own fault: institutionalized

people to guess the salaries for a steelwork-

discrimination, not dressing for success, or

er and an executive secretary and a whole

“I don’t have enough education.” But

range of jobs that fall into the predomi-

20

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nantly female or male categories. That’s

funny, but that’s who’s writing for tele-

how people found out about pay inequal-

vision.

ity. The manual was designed to add ap-

But that’s how organizations can
help.

Last Tuesday some young white guy

proximately 45 minutes to the film. It

from NBC called and said, “We’re think-

suggests giving a brief introduction and

ing of making a TV movie and we’re think-

CN It's also depressing from the filmmaker’s point of view that here they
are living on crumbs to make these films

having the audience note particular things

ing of an office worker who gets black-

during viewing. It’s just now being printed
so we don’t know how well it will work or

mailed by her boss and we want to talk to

lucky, some people in colleges or universi-

some women who this might have hap-

ties will see them, but the filmmaker is in-

what people’s experiences will be with it.

pened to.” Before I could help myself, I

But that may be one more way to make

terested in reaching people in the streets.

said, “How do you guys think this stuff

films applicable to groups that you might
otherwise think would not find a film of

To reach a group you almost have to have

that I can’t believe any boss would be stu-

organization. But if people don’t know

pid enough to blackmail his secretary because secretaries across the board in the

there is such a thing as independent film,

interest.

HC Talking about appealing to a broader audience seems to relate back to
the question of commercial media. How do
you deal with the damaging images of
working women shown on TV and in the
news?

CN That’s partially why we want other
mythical images of ourselves on
screen. It’s partially a reaction to all this

up?” He said, “Pardon me.” And I said

USA are earning a little below $11,000 a

to work? Do you expect the people to storm
the barricades after seeing a film? How do

don’t even know how to respond to that.

you use anything in your work? Each film

CD This brings up an interesting point.
Do you stay completely separate
from mainstream commercial media or do

is going to do different things for people.

you try to infiltrate somehow? You’re up
against a power structure that’s so big that
the effect you can have working on the in-

pendent films are positive in terms of how
we see ourselves as women. We need that

side is so small. Yet if you don’t start making small inroads like Norma Rae, which

image to counteract the terrible way we’re

gets people wanting something more dar-

That’s one reason we pounced on
Norma Rae with such glee and gratitude. [Agreement.] It’s not as if that was

an organized effort. You do it through your

that’s a problem. How do you expect films

year. And you’re gonna blackmail her? I

negativity we feel in our lives. The inde-

made to feel by current media.

and then who gets to see them? If they're

ing, is it ever going to make an impact?
CN But look who gets to make Norma
Rae. Martin Ritt had a lot of success
before he got to make Norma Rae.

a totally accurate portrayal of what organ-

It’s important to make films that

izing is. She just did it in two hours flat.

come out of the grassroots, that are

The people are always different and there’s
no particular rule to say how you can use a
film.

BS It takes the person or group to sort
those things out. You should know
the audience as well as the film. If I show a
film to a professional group the issues that
they should be dealing with are different
from those of a community group. Somebody’s got to do that work. The more I use
film the more I know this is true.
All these films we’re talking about
are self-distributed or distributed
through small nonprofit distributors. This

[Laughter.] But to actually see a woman as
the hero was so wonderful that we could

not doctored up for the networks and

means that the only reason they are getting

which tell the story just as it is. On the

hardly stand it. Especially as a commercial

seen at all is that these people are putting

other hand, we need to try to chip away at

in labor and capital to get their films to the

them. Sometimes it happens in a big way,

groups. Forget about commercial access.

at other times, it’s just the cumulative ef-

Most distributors don’t do anything for

fect of a chip here and a chip there.

these films. So that’s a joke. First you have

film.

A big problem is the whole area of

CD Fd never worked for a network, but
I was so broke after my last tape, I
got a job in NBC’s news department. I
have all sọrts of torments over whether to
leave and starve or stay and argue with the
producer for my points of view, and try to
get in there and do the documentaries even
though they’re gonna keep pushing me
down. It’s a real conflict for me.
BS It's important to stay in touch with
the mainstream because it, too, is a
reality. If you can deal with the politics
and bureaucracy, I’d rather someone be a
part of the decision-making process who is
informed than someone who is totally reKv11) uuo (q 0310y

moved from women’s grassroots organiz-

to make the film, then self-distribute, then
make an organization to make people
aware of the films....
But as feminist workers, is there a
use to trying to get the films on TV,
where every woman is isolated from other
women?
CD The value of screening in the commercial world is that our own images are fighting the images that we see as
socially acceptable. The work is seen not
just as a project of a lunatic fringe group
that feels women are human beings and
deserve rights. Everyday you turn on TV or
go to the movies and it’s ludicrous. You
don’t have to be in a group to begin to feel

entertainment, where networks and stu-

ing. The producer of Awake from Mourn-

dios feel they can’t simply tell the truth
when telling a story—they’ve got to enter-

ing got her money from her father, a businessman in South Africa. She took her in-

tain. The politics of this is that they say

heritance and put it back into the commu-

CN Put a film on TV and millions of
people will see it. If you're self-dis-

the power of these images.

“entertain” but they really mean a million

nity from which it was taken. It’s a fantas-

tributing it, to get those millions of people

dollars gross at the box office or good rat-

tic film made by the privileged. So it’s im-

will take you the rest of your life. TV, even

ings. With the exception of Jane Fonda’s

portant to work on both levels. My feeling,

without the proper publicity, is very impor-

production company, our experience with

too, is that distribution is a big problem

tant. Although I don’t think that commu-

networks and Hollywood has been terrible.
There’s a noticeable lack of minorities and

for these films. How many people who

nity people who see a film in a room with

need to see them even know they exist?

the projector think that it’s only a fringe

women in important positiońs. People are

Women who are already organized should

group. I prefer seeing something on a big
screen to seeing it in a little box. Seeing

paid so much and peak so young that no

use the films, but more basically most of

one believes these people could portray my

these films should be seen by the commu-

something on a big screen does something

reality. How could a white 28-year-old

nity people who are not organized. The

to you in the gut. It has a more mythical

male earning $170,000 a year presume to

real problem is to use those human resources that we have.

life. The bigger the screen, the bigger the

know what my life is about? This sounds

quality. It makes us heroes, bigger than

21

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truth. The writers were the most scared.
The producer gets day-to-day total control
over who’s hired and fired, even casting.
Jane’s role as Executive Producer usually
is an inactive one, but she wanted to be
involved. But she also understood that she
would have to come up against the producer, 20th Century-Fox, the production
facility, and ABC TV. There was very little
she could do.
HC Other than inviting you to LA for
three weeks, were any other secretaries invited or any other research done?
We've encouraged our members
through leafletting to write about
what they like and hate about the show
and to write their own experiences. We
don’t have that kind of impact at the network. All we can do is jump up and down
if things get really bad. But then it’s just
for one instance. They don’t learn anything
cumulatively about working women in general—a very discouraging process. We've
come to the point now where we don’t
think a commercial TV show about secretaries is worth it if the women are not porWilmar 8 is a terrible indictment of

woman hero. And you can’t get these films
in a commercial theater or on the networks
anyway.

There should be a way to infiltrate
standard images. It shouldn't always be this polarized thing: the alternative image out there and then the stuff
everybody accepts as real. We should start
fighting to get that known.
BS Its unrealistic to expect documentaries or real struggle films to come
on TV or to the theaters on a big scale. It’s
a grand idea but on a smaller scale, can we
even be effective with the films we have

the trade union movement in certain

trayed the way we know office workers
have to live day by day. Our members express a lot of disappointment in the series

ways. You see this man from the UAW say-

so far. But the networks get their rewards

ing, “Gee, gee, we couldn’t help the girls.”

by ratings, not political motivations. It’s a

He was awful and yet unions are very interested in the movie now because a lot of

dollar and cents game. If they get ratings

them want to start organizing clericals. Af-

they get more revenue, and the ratings of
“9 to 5” have been terrific. But we don’t

ter three years, they don’t feel as ashamed

think politically the show has any meritori-

as they did and Wilmar 8 is quite the dar-

ous impact.

ling of the unions.
CN When something becomes history, it
becomes less threatening than when
it’s right then and there.

and the means we have to distribute them

What would you like to do with it if
you had your choice?
T'd like to hire at least three of the
writing team as women over 40, have

But are we going to have to wait

a much heavier female writing crew, and

three, five or ten years until it’s not

Y’d like to see the stars of the show, the reg-

to people we know in decision-making and

a hot potato in order to get it distributed

ular cast, have much more meaty parts.

leadership roles? I think that is a powerful

properly?

Particularly for the minority women. If you

use of film. It is not a bad idea to show film

What about the role of 9 to 5 as the

changed those two things we’d be on our

to people who could make a difference.

consultants for the TV series “9 to

way to making it a meaningful show. Now

You can’t always deal with people who are
totally on the bottom. I’m not saying I
wouldn’t reach out, too, but sometimes
you have to talk to people who are in a position to affect many other people. I’m
thinking of distribution realistically.
But professional groups are usually

5”? What kind of effect do you hope to

it lacks an understanding of what it is to be
a woman over 40, which is after all two of

have?

Such a topic that is! I was in LA for
three months when they did the first
four episodes. Our role is to be a conduit
between our members and these producers
who know nothing about real work, mak-

not the people you want to reach
and I’m not sure how useful it is to use this

ing $145 a week and being a woman. We

strategy when you really want to reach of-

into a story or that might be vignettes in

fice workers and people on the street.

part of the episode: to add some reality

CD These people in leadership positions
have a vested interest in zot seeing

and to be a check against their mistakes.
We had high hopes and so did Jane Fonda.

these films and their points of view. None
of the unions will use our film because it’s

We were thinking the series would be a
cross between “Hill Street Blues” and

have to provide incidents they can develop

the central characters: Roz and Rita. The
writers simply don’t know how to write for
these characters. I think it would drive me
completely mad if I were Black, particularly seeing how Blacks are portrayed on TV.
BS Absolutely!
N PBS is supposed to be our public
access, but they’re not representing
women well.
CD The public television stations have
just as much a vested interest in
the ratings as commercial TV. The money
they’re getting comes from corporations

critical of the bureaucracy of unions. It’s

“M*A*S*H.” Unfortunately, the way the

for rank-and-file union members to push

network world works today, a show doesn’t

the unions to be responsive to the needs of
the women. The white male leaders aban-

get a full season to see if it makes it. They

doned the Black and Latina domestic

would come—if the ratings are good. Or,

women workers when the going got tough

since we had the movie, they gave us four

have the opera and “Great Performances”

and every other union organizing domestic

episodes to make it. Everybody got scared

—because we do shows for special groups

workers followed. Well, the film’s critical

doing the four probationary episodes. We

of that.

understood ratings was the game and not

of people interested in public television.
We’re not broadcasters like national com-

may give you a pilot from which a series

underwriting these programs. It’s free
publicity for Mobil, Exxon.
But their rhetoric is that we believe
in narrowcasting. That’s why we

22

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mercial networks. Within their logic, it

working women we want to see and use in

really relate to each other. The value of

seems that they wouldn’t have as high a re-

organizing?

that community is underestimated. There

gard for ratings as for networks.
JB It took over a year’s effort to get
Wilmar 8 on public TV.
There is not as much feminist pressure on public TV as there was five
or six years ago when we had “Woman
Alive” on.

B Feminists are not organized enough

BS We need to see women of color, single parents, women struggling with
the feminization of poverty, coming with
the cuts in food stamps, Medicaid and daycare. It’s crucial for a lot of women. As the
address that variety. We also should try to

that women make films but that women

get these films to the communities. I hear

get a view of how we can live our lives in a

about good films through professional or-

positive and supportive way. We live with
so much stress, we need to learn from each

This brings us back to the commu-

en. These films are not reaching the communities.

port the films, the filmmakers, and do the
work of distribution and exhibition. Christine, you conducted a survey with working
women. How did they find their work in
the community and in the homes portrayed
on film and TV?

C It is beneficial to have multiethnic
and racial film crews so that there is
feedback within the crew and with the

on white ethnic working-class women.
Other studies were conducted with other
minority women. We had a conference
using all the results of these surveys. Every
ethnic and racial group put together a
package that presented what those women
felt to be their needs that were not being
met in their community. Every group included media—film and television—as

other and to get support.
JB Personally, I want to see less on
commercial TV of the woman lawyer, doctor, private eye, the witch or superwoman, and see more of a mixture—both
fictional and documentary—of women in

community.
More women should get the opportunity to make films. That’s still an
issue. That’s specifically one reason we

CN I did that study a long time ago for
the National Institute of Education

ing ourselves is the only way we’re going to
make these films accessible.

definition of family changes, we need to

ganizations, never from community wom-

nity. It’s the communities for which

unless people know about them. Organiz-

BS It's important that there be a light
at the end of the tunnel. Not only

to lobby for this.

the films are made who also have to sup-

is no way these films are going to be shown

don’t see a lot of the images that we want
to see. We see from the independent film
community that when women get to make
film, they do a good job. If more women
made more films and had more positions

different environments, different walks of
life, rural Black women in Black communities and women grappling with all the
things we cope with every day. It’s wondetful to see women heroines, but we’d be
better served to see women coping successfully—if not winning the big battles, making changes on a daily level.

of power, then we’d see those results. The

We would like to thank Roberta Taseley and

industry is still oppressive to women. Also
I think we have to start defining a clear

Joyce Thompson of the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Department for providing the

alternative community both in making

phone conferencing hook-up, and Marc Weiss

films and in distribution. And they have to

for suggesting the topic for this panel.

part of their package along with college,
job training, high school. No group of
women felt their media needs were being
met. They analyzed how they were being
presented, if at all. In Mean Streets you
don’t even see women, Scorcese just had a
plate there. In the Godfather I and II, well
how many Italian women do you know who
are that passive in the home? The Irish
women were always praying for their hoodlum son. A lot of white ethnic women are
portrayed as if any family pathology were
the woman’s fault. In the films women are
crazy, overly religious and repressive elements.

BS That’s one reason, as a Black woman, I can respect Cecily Tyson and
the roles she’ll portray in movies. She will
not take a part that portrays Black women
as very negative or just as a sexual object
or as the maid. She takes very strong, positive roles. It’s important to have that kind
of image, even with Black men. You always
see the negative, so it’s important to focus
on people’s strengths.
JB But then how often do you see Cecily
Tyson?

BS Exactly, that’s because she’s taken
a side. We all have to find that balonto your own values and sense of who you

NSA

WILL GET EXCITED OVER.

ance between the mainstream and hanging

< enis.NO T

are. It doesn’t matter where you work. It is

ea ae

“i FOUGHT PORNOGRAPHY

a challenge at all levels to keep to what you
believe is right and to deal with bureaucracies. Movies can show that struggle.
HC To end with, can you reflect on what
we need to see in terms of alternatives in distribution and what images of

Graphic by
Erika Rothenberg,
an artist
whose
appeared
in the
Village Voice as well as in several
galleries,
including Ronald
Feldman
anddrawings
the Newhave
Museum
in New
York.

©1983 Erika Rothenberg

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This content downloaded from
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MAUREEN NAPPI

was going to say that I have enjoyed fucking, but I, that feels, I
mean, I don't know what that means anymore really, and in fact

The following is a dialogue that occurred during one of the taping

the more conscious I became around sexuality, the less I liked

sessions, when I was in the room with the woman. During the

fucking 'cause I always knew that I wasn't going to get what I

others, the women were alone with the camera.

wanted, although if I knew the man then I could feel free to ask or
he knew me enough to know what I really liked, you know, but

Maureen:

God, men [sigh of pensive riddance], I haven't slept with a man in

Everybody’s lips are so different.

almost a year.

Woman:
I never masturbated until I was 28. I can always make myself

The first time these tapes were shown was at the Grey Art Gal-

come. I've never not come when masturbating. ...It won't be my

lery at New York University in May 1976. It took us two days to set

face, right?

up the show and it was to open on the third day at 11 a.m. I arrived.
at 10 and was greeted at the door with the news that the tapes were

Right.

not going to be permitted to be shown. News had filtered to the

Do you think that lesbians masturbate differently than heterosexual women?

Dean and se Head of the Department that there were THESE
FING TAPES among the installations. Their reacWas furious; they hadn’t even seen the tapes.

Yeah! They have to!

Directors of the Gallery (a man and a woman)

But maybe it's a function of how repressed you are sexua

; F invited them to view the tapes. They accepted. I

than—

Ve TVs, they took one glance and yanked me to the
the MEDIA,” they said, “got hold of this, the Gal-

Yeah, but that has to do with the ex

èd down.” Oh, they UNDERSTOOD what I was

and women, which are qu

tapes, but I just had to understand their posiCENSORSHIP. They then told me of a show
de
ere:was»a painting of

st closed them
istration that

Oh right. Yeah.

y didn’t allow me

bians, I don’t th

e the whole

Who knows wh
given population 0
as there—

Oh gi

Anyway, the ta; shown—interesting reactions. Women
e to me saying that they had never seen another woman’s genibefore, or that they didn’t know that other women mastured, or how did I get the courage?
The five TVs were set up in a straight line (bird’s eye view) as a
hypotenuse, with the two adjacent sides being the walls. The tapes
people come, you know

what I mean? I m man, a guy has to put his
penis—
Right, right.

into a woman’s vagina for the purposes of coming and that doesn’t
mean that his pelvic bone is going to hit against her clitoris—
Right.

at the magic hour.
Not to mention how many women still think that they need a penis
in order to come.
Right. I know and that’s incredible.
You know, before I really understood what was going on, in terms
of—this was way way back—the first man that I ever slept with
was an incredible lover in the sense that he turned me onto my
clitoris. I mean, not through fucking, but other—tongues, hands—
and it was, like, the most incredible, absolutely incredible experience and I almost didn't know what it was. And fucking felt, sort
of, I mean, it was interesting but it felt, like, second-rate because
you never have that total orgasm where you just feel that your

were started simultaneously. People had to come in to see the tapes
and sit on the floor (there were small pillows and a rug) next to
other people.
It was clear on walking in that the mood of the tapes was serious and lively. And after each viewing there usually was a spontaneous discussion; a lot of people had something to say or ask. I
felt alive and really happy to share the tapes.

REPRESSION
GREY GALLERY FORBIDS
SHOWING OF STVDENT &
WORK ON WOMEN AND
SEXVALITY /
—0N THE GROVNDS THAT 1T5 "PORNOGRAPHIC" GREY REFUSES
TD ALLOW A STUDENT To SHOW HER WORK — AND YET

TREY HAVENT EVEN JEBN THE PIECE THEMJSELVBS!

TWE ONLY “ART” THEY ALLOW

HERE 15 “SAFE ART" Í

whole body was shot through with this incredible feeling or energy,
you know, and then you just feel like [sigh of total pleasure] and,

Maureen Nappi currently does work using computer animation, combining

you know, I personally have never experienced that in fucking

abstract imagery and more explicit sexual material, accompanied by music.

[laughter] although I guess I know how to say it [more laughter]. I

The Clit Tapes was her first public video installation.

©1983 Maureen Nappi

25

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Dee Dee Halleck

} The so-called “communications revolution” has promised
` something for every constituency: perpetual up-to-the-minute re` ports for the news junkies; indoor and outdoor soccer for the jocks;
| late-night rock for the Woodstock descendants; quotations on request for stockholders; push-button consumption from commodity
channels; Mexican soaps for the barrios of New York and LA. For
women, there will be emancipation in the form of entire channels
full of information and entertainment. The cable feast offers a dish
for every palate—every palate that can pay, that is. This menu is
strictly for those that still have jobs and surplus enough to pay the
monthly cable bills. The “revolution” is in fact an electronic era of
“supply-side” information that turns the very word communication into a euphemism. The main effect of the new technologies is
a growing information gap—between the information /aves and
the Žave nots. Which side are women on?

The JGndustry
Most of the information we get comes from the networks, major
newspapers, weekly and monthly magazines, book publishers, and
record and movie companies that are wholly owned or subsidiaries
of the “information giants.” The tremendous growth of this sector has pushed the communications trans-national corporations
into the forefront of the expansion of capital. With this expansion,
more and more of the culture of the world has come under a system
of domination by these media industries that is more subtle and
insidious than the British Empire. Indeed, the sun never sets on
ET or Charlie's Angels. Like the empires of old, the media corporations have felt the need to expand or die. This tendency, coupled
with the world economic crisis, has led them to exact ever greater
tolls from the population at home. The essence of cable is that it is
a way to charge for media programming. Audiences have always
paid for the largest share of the media empire—the equipment to
receive the signals. They also have paid for programming through
increased prices on the commodities advertised.2 With the advent
of cable, they will pay yet again. Cable is not broadcast. It comes
into the home through a wire, and as such can be metered and
charged for. Of course, the glowing predictions of electronic diversity never mention the price tag. (The third of the U.S. population
now receiving cable is also receiving monthly izformation bills—
soon to be as common as electric or gas statements.) Nor is there
mention of the fact that this information comes into our homes on
one wire. However many channels or services, it is owned and provided by one source. This fact is obscured by the predictions of a
70- to 100-channel capacity for the new systems. The “range of
Drawing by Carole Glasser. Photos top to
bottom: Helen Gurley Brown and Hugh
Hefner, Phil Donahue, Gloria Steinem, on

choice” is often cited as the reason there is no longer a need for airwave regulation. A close look at the reality of the new cable pro-

“A Conversation With... on Daytime.

gramming should quickly dispel any lingering hopes about the

Photos courtesy Hearst/ABC.

emancipatory potential of the cable industry.
©1983 DeeDee Halleck

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mostly male executives wedged between them and the system heads

The P. TOGgrams
USA is a cable programming service that reaches 1600 cable
systems. Their USA Daytime is described as “women’s entertainment and family service programming.” Anticipating flack, their
brochure opens defensively with a disclaimer: “No, it’s not a soap
opera.” That much is true: This is not The Young and the Restless. The average soap opera is a lot more expensive than the shows
on this schedule. These formats are talk shows: studio hostesses

(mostly male to begin with). Women in acquisition departments,
who had in the early days of cable been able to pursue some innovative programming ideas, found their decisions reviewed by
whole echelons of vice-presidents.

The Statistics
Cable executives are proud of what they consider to be a glow-

with either a guest or a new kitchen appliance, a classic form of

ing record of affirmative action in the new industry. They like to

cheap TV pioneered by Betty Furness. The guests are mostly ‘“ex-

bring out long lists of all their women managers and programming

perts” and, more often than not, males. They offer technological

officials. Gracie Nettingham has her own list of statistics—ones

solutions to such perplexing problems as. removing dog hair on

that give a different picture. She is a researcher with the Office of
Communications of the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the

carpets and turning a corner when placing a zipper in do-it-yourself
upholstery. More intimate problems are handled by Sonya Friedman, a psychologist billed as someone who is searching for ‘“emotions behind behavior.”
Since celebrities are too expensive for this schedule, the after-

founder of Minorities in Cable, a nationwide organization dedicated to increasing the participation of minorities in the developing industry. “The patterns here are the same as those in regular
broadcasting,” she points out. “Women and minorities have made

noon settles for the next best thing: their wives. Called “Are You

very few inroads into technical and managerial positions.” Netting-

Anybody?” this program reveals “what a woman’s life is like when

ham cites statistics from reports that cable operators must file with
the FCC.

her husband is a superstar.” Guests slated to appear include Mrs.
Norman Mailer and Mrs. Howard Cosell.
Similar in content and identical in name is Daytime, produced
by Hearst/ABC. The format is four hours of hostesses on the set
introducing preproduced segments with male experts. Jerry Baker
offers advice on plants. Dr. Salk gives insight into teenagers. Mr.
Rogers reassures parents that “You Are Special.” This Daytime
promises to deliver what was requested by the women who filled

Currently, white males hold 57% of all positions and 75% of all
decision-making posts in cable. While cable employment shot up
by 14% between 1980 and 1981, minority jobholders increased
their ranks by only 2%. Women do slightly better in cable than
they do in broadcast TV or radio, holding 33% of cable jobs in
1981 compared with 31% of TV and 32% of radio positions. But
women’s placement within cable companies is another story. Sev-

out research questionnaires: shows of ‘substance and depth.”

enty-four percent of all women working in the industry hold cleri-

Thus, Daytime producers have included a new show called “News-

cal and office positions. And women hold only 15.5% of positions

week for Women,” which covers public affairs in the same depth

in the top four job categories, compared with 21%in broadcast TV
and 22% in radio.

as the magazine. They even tilt at controversy, albeit neatly and
carefully packaged as “Outrageous Opinions Updated” with
Helen Gurley Brown. However, while the Newsweek segment gets
75 minutes of a sample week, food and cooking advice tops the list
with a total of 92 minutes, and sewing has near parity with 70
minutes a week.
The only new elements on these schedules are the chintz sofa
cover on the set, the hanging macramé planter for the studio fern,
and the occasional hint of punk in a hostess’ overhennaed hairdo.
Most of these programs amble along the well-worn paths that
women’s magazines have been trudging for 50 years. Not all that
surprising, since many of the shows on cable are being co-produced
by these very same magazines: Women’s Day, Better Homes and
Gardens, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, etc.
Even Ms. has had its cable debut with a program called “She’s
Nobody’s Baby, a History of American Women in the 20th Century.” Conceived by Suzanne Levine, managing editor of Ms., and

Minority women are in last place in cable hiring. They hold
only 5% of cable jobs and less than 2% of the high-level positions.
Most—76 %—do office or clerical work. Minority men don’t fare
much better. They hold 9% of cable jobs, and their 10% of the
high-level positions is more likely to be in sales or technical fields
than in managerial or professional (read—decision-making) areas.
(See tables for details.)
“We may have a hard time just getting at these statistics in the
future,” Nettingham warns. “Moves to deregulate at the FCC
would eliminate the requirement to collect this information.” Indeed, groups with media reform offices like UCC? and the National Organization for Women face an uphill battle in attempting to
halt deregulation proceedings in communications at the national
level. They are also working in many local areas to assist citizens’
groups in the cable franchising process. This has meant creating
regulations that will make the local cable contracts accountable to

funded to the tune of $200,000 by Home Box Office, this hour of

democratic input.

collage history won the George Foster Peabody Award for Excellence in Journalism in 1982. It was the first time that this award

the New York NOW Chapter. Active in media reform groups for

was given to something produced specifically for cable. However,
the success of this program has not engendered a series, or even
more individual programs like it. Critical acclaim and social usefulness are not ingredients in the program selection process.
The heavy promotion that surrounded the Ms. HBO show,
coupled with the fact that there have been some highly visible
women program executives in the cable arena, generated high
hopes among women in the creative community. “It was a new
industry. There were a lot of talented women who had been ready
to go for a long time,” says John Shigekawa, director of New Medium, a consulting agency that helps independent producers work
out co-production arrangements with the new technologies. “Some
of them were refugees from public television or had graduated
from public television training programs of the sixties and early

Barbara Rochman, a lawyer, is the legislative vice-president of
many years, she is currently working to develop good Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) clauses in the franchise agreements
being negotiated between New York City and the cable companies
that are waiting to wire the lucrative boroughs of the metropolitan
area. “We would like to see the franchises carry monitoring requirements and follow-through procedures in case EEO goals
aren’t met,” she explains. “We are working for substantial representation by women and minorities in decision-making positions
and technical areas.” Rochman is also working to generate interest
in public access: “In the future, the need for access channels will
grow in importance, especially as active constituents become involved. in programming. Much of the research, organization, and
outreach work already being done by local women’s groups is easily
translated into access programming.”

seventies. They were smart women who wanted to work, and they
were willing to accept salaries that were lower than what men with
the same experience would accept.”
For a while there were a number of women in key program-

The Alternatives
As an exploration into possible uses of access, the New York

ming positions. However, as the big dollars moved in, and smaller

NOW office has undertaken a series of programs on access in

entrepreneurial cable groups were swallowed by the multinationals,

Manhattan. “Women don’t need programs on how to sew,” asserts

many of these women found their authority eroded as new layers of

Rochman. “They need information on how to organize a daycare
27

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center, how to file a discrimination complaint, how to protect their
rights in divorce proceedings, and how to take political action to
insure abortion rights. Our NOW office is constantly getting calls
about these kinds of questions. This is the kind of information
we’d like to see cable programming for women provide.”
The NOW chapter in Madison, Wisconsin, was one of the first
to latch onto cable access as a forum for their activities. Carol
Sundstrom produces a regular series, which began in January
1981. ‘““The Madison project has two goals: to train and encourage
women to participate in the media and to regularly produce and
air programs on women’s issues.” The programs have ranged from
politics to dance. Their most popular show is a documentary on
house-husbands in the Madison area. Sundstrom’s success has inspired other Wisconsin NOW chapters, and they are forming three
other producing entities at access centers in the state. The four
cities will exchange programs and hold joint training workshops.
What might an ideal schedule for women be? Two examples of
series that were directed to and produced by women are: Woman
Alive and Womanvision. Both used large amounts of independently produced segments. Woman Alive, a public television series, was
produced by Joan Shigekawa from 1974 to 1978. The variety of
topics is evident from the contents of a typical show (#5 in the first
series): (1) Charlotte Zwerwin’s film Wormen of McCaysville Industries, about a group of Georgia women who have set up their own
sewing factory; (2) Holly Near, singing three of her own songs;
(3) Eleanor Holmes Norton, NYC Commissioner of Human Rights,
looking at women and the recession.
The series was dropped when Shigekawa found it impossible to

TIME E

garner corporate support—then, as now, a prerequisite for the so-

O

called public airwaves. “American business has huge investments
in the old way of viewing women,” explains Shigekawa. “Images of

s 1980 N3 Minori! potal* |

MMA Minori! Female? |

wite Males a666 N
white Femalé? a0 10) 103

mp

of Males aofo 208 af A9) 1,538 \
see
FOIS -a 1,621
243) (158) g7 (929) 47o (6B)

10% C z 59) A fo (7 8) p 8,298

women cooking and spending are acceptable. The active, creative,
independent women who peopled Woman Alive were another matter.” When one corporation did offer money, PBS rejected the
offer on the grounds that there was a conflict of interest. The corporation was Ortho, of birth control pill fame. (PBS doesn’t have
any problem with the major oil companies sponsoring the
“MacNeil-Lehrer Report.”)

23% (370

Such questions of propriety are absent from the cable world,
where Bristol Myers, for instance, not only advertises on but is also
co-producer of the USA Daytime health show “Alive and Well.”
Shigekawa’s difficult search for corporate sponsors doesn’t bode
well for the possibility of finding funds either as co-production
money or advertising revenue for programs that challenge the
dominant stereotyped media images of women. Advertisers stay
away from controversy. The Woman Alive experience suggests that
positive images per se are controversial.
Controversy is something that many indepenđent producers
thrive on. Thousands of productions have been generated by the
independent film and video community in the past 10 years. This is
one area in which women have been central—both in front and
behind the camera. From Barbara Kopple’s Harlan County to Julia
5

Y g9 9,536
VOA

Reichert’s Union Maids to Connie Fields’ Rosie the Riveter, the
body of independent work for and by women is a neglected source
of programming. Kitty Morgan, director of Independent Cinema
Artists and Producers (ICAP), has worked at marketing independent work to cable for years. In 1978 she curated a series for Manhattan Cable called Womanvision. Programs included a film on
four folk artists from the Deep South, a vérité portrait of a suburban wedding by Debra Franco, and Claudia Weil’s early film on
China. The programs were well received, but Morgan was disap-

Service
Workers
Total

pointed when other systems didn’t pick up the series. Critical acclaim and even veiwer enthusiasm have no effect on the bottom
line.

Other models come from the access realm. Civil rights activist
Annemarie Huste of ‘Cooking With Annemarie” on Daytime. Photo courtesy Hearst/
ABC.

PDPN NVVN HM VVVVVMN NNNMNN

*Row percentages do not always sum to 100% because of rounding error.
(——) Less than 0.5%
Sources: Data for TV and radio have been estimated from the 1980 Equal Employ| ment Opportunity Trend Report released by the FCC. Data for cable are from 1980
computer tape prepared by the FCC. Numbers in the cable row are based on 3830
cable systems which had readable data.

Flo Kennedy understood early on about the opportunity that public access provided. She has produced a weekly show on Manhattan
Cable for over five years, and has a loyal and committed constituency. Her shows are occasionally shown on other access systems in
other inner-cities.
Another series enjoying local popularity is Nancy Cain’s “Night
Owl Show” on the community access channel in Woodstock, New

28

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revolution. Certainly the burgeoning of the cable industry has created rising expectations. Cable has excited the ambitions and
hopes of thousands of talented and active women all over the country. Suzanne Levine was enthusiastic about the community of
women working in cable that she encountered while touring with
her production of “Century of Women,” the Ms. special. Levine
made many presentations to groups affiliated with a national organization called Women in Cable. (Most big cities have a chapter;
the New York chapter has over 700 women.) “I’d go to a meeting
in Iowa,” Levine comments, “and there would be 50 energetic and
sophisticated women. Those women are ready for action. They
want to do meaningful work, and they think that cable is where
they can do it.”

What the future holds for these hopeful women will depend on
where they and their organization go. So far, many of the chapters
have become the ladies’ auxiliaries to the industry: hostessing lavish banquets for the mostly male corporate officers and industry
Shirley Robson, host of “From Washington: Citizen Alert,” on Daytime.
Photo courtesy Hearst/ABC.

biggies. Will women in cable be willing to challenge the status quo

York. The show consistently provides innovative programming by

women in the U.S. need a “New Information Order,” similar to

and for women. Though not promoted as “women’s program-

that being demanded by many Third World countries—whose

ming,” Cain uses a lot of material that could be categorized as

leaders realize that information is power and that communication

such because of her sensibility to and consciousness of women’s

issues are central to the struggle to overcome domination.

and forge structures within this still-forming industry that can give
real power and support to women on both ends of the wire? Or do

issues. Selections from a recent program include a docu-drama
exploring the Cinderella myth that was staged in the ladies’ room
of a local restaurant; performing artist Linda Montano, dressed as
a nun, giving instructions on teeth brushing; and biker/feminist/
poet Teresa Costa belting out her punk poetry to the accompaniment of shattering glass.

1. See Herbert Schiller’s The Mind Managers (Boston: Beacon Press, 1973)
for a prescient description of the current phenomenon.

2. Dallas Smythe has documented the formation of audiences as commodities. His most recent book is: Dependency Road: Class, Culture and Communication in Canada (Norwood, N.J.: Ablex, 1982).
3. The UCC has published the best book about cable: a short primer by

The Struggle

Jennifer Stearns called A Short Course in Cable (UCC Office of Communi-

cations, 105 Madison Ave., NY, NY 10016).

Public access becomes increasingly important as we recognize
in the cable “revolution” the same old stereotypes long perpetrated

DeeDee Halleck is a media activist and an independent film- and video-

by soaps, sitcoms, and commercials. But access is constantly

maker in New York City. She produces a weekly public access cable TV

threatened by deregulation efforts that would obviate local agree-

show about communications called “Paper Tiger TV.”

ments. Before women can make new programming, they will need
to become media activists committed to a real communications

Carole Glasser is a Brooklyn poet, recently published in the Centennial
Review, North Dakota Review, and Partisan Review.

Horror Movie
A few recent clichés are all the props needed
to shoot the scene and at the slightest stimulation
there is the automatic response of the body.
As to mild electric shocks the thighs twitch
like frogs’ legs in the obligatory rhythm

ç

lifesize, lifelike, the bodies flash an embrace
across the screen, squeaking they rub
against each other and bounce off
again like taut balloons.
A brush of the actor’s hand across
the actress’ cheek uncovers a remnant
smile buried in her hair but her
voice lifts and with a stock phrase
adjusts it to the proper grimace.
They have grown the fangs and claws
deemed necessary for the performance
of Lust and Lycanthropy.
The better to howl with, my dear.

Poem by Erika Miliziano, who has published in literary
magazines and anthologies and is currently translating a
contemporary American poet into German.
©1983 Erika Miliziano

Cartoon by Su Friedrich

29

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p

Am

MIRIAM HANSEN
German women filmmakers find them-

The search for a feminist language in

selves in a peculiar bind when it comes to

film, a language that would transcend the

defining their work against dominant

patriarchal terms of sexual difference, is

modes of patriarchal cinema. Like all in-

not exactly facilitated by the existence of a
more or less established male avant-garde.

dependent filmmakers, they are confront-

sydv18030yg 21n yO :u81sap 1940)

up with Verlag Roter Stern in Frankfurt,
which will publish FuF on a biannual basis.
I will not go into the Berlin/Frankfurt split

ing Goliath—the hegemony of Hollywood
and its Common Market subsidiaries. Be-

The peculiar history of German cinema
complicates the oedipal scenario of avant-

which bears only remote resemblance to

yond the domain of commercial control,

garde protest which feminist film theory

however, in the precarious enclave of fed-

and practice seek to displace. The Cinema

the separation of the Camera Obscura collective from Women and Film in 1974.

eral subsidies and TV co-productions,

of the Fathers, representing commercial

women filmmakers encounter the competi-

interests, is one of Stepfathers and Grand-

of FuF, feminist film culture has salvaged

tion of a whole troop of Davids, already

fathers at best; the Cinema of the Sons, at

a centerpiece of its organizational sub-

firmly entrenched in the field. It has be-

least in some of its representatives, is less

structure, a vital platform not only for

come commonplace in discussions on con-

concerned with conquering the interna-

temporary German cinema to cite its

tional domain of Art than with applying its

issues of strategy, exchange of information,
and critical discussion but also for the

Suffice it to say that, with the continuation

articulation and revision of feminist theo-

unique legal and economic substructure as

artistic efforts to the political transforma-

one of the keys to its artistic success and

tion of the West German public sphere. As

international visibility. It is equally com-

German women filmmakers are learning

mon, though much less acknowledged,

“to speak in [their] own name,” they too

(1975), lists two major objectives: (a) “to

that women filmmakers are conspicuously

are engaged in building an oppositional

analyze the workings of patriarchal culture

absent from the pantheon of New German

public sphere, linking the women’s move-

in cinema”; (b) ‘to recognize and name

auteurs. The American-styled New Ger-

ment to female theatergoers and TV audi-

feminist starting points in film and develop

man Cinema canonizes names like Wer-

ences across the country. Like their male

them further.” The first objective requires

ner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder,

colleagues, women filmmakers confront

a critical analysis of existing cinema in all

Wim Wenders, and Volker Schlöndorff,

the key contradiction in store for all coun-

its aspects: film politics and economics,

but rarely extends to Ula Stöckl, Helke
Sander, Jutta Brückner, or Ulrike Ottinger. In New York the Museum of Modern
Art’s 1982-83 series of “Recent Films from
West Germany,” which prides itself on

STEMS

The second complex includes the relation-

ens your focus.

Yet German women filmmakers are primarily involved in a struggle on the domestic front. Competing with both commercial
cinema and the established male avant-

discourse of its products—in short, a comprehensive critique of patriarchal cinema.

include a single film directed by a woman

tions in recent years.

film theory and criticism, as well as the

und Film is almost never
quite right, but it sharp-

the enormous increase of women’s produc-

The program of FuF, as outlined in #6

What you read in Frauen

featuring lesser-known directors, did not
—a glaring omission even if judged only by

ries of film.

ESERE

— Gertrude Koch

ship between women’s cinema and the
women’s movement, the rediscovery of
earlier women filmmakers, the current
situation of women working in film and
other media, textual analyses, and the
question of a feminine/feminist aesthetics.

terhegemonic film practice: how to develop
an autonomous discourse while, at the

FuF’s critique of patriarchal structures
in New German Cinema can be traced on

same time, establishing, maintaining, and

three different levels. On the level of the

increasing rapport with an audience.

garde, women filmmakers face tremendous

In both the work of “naming” and the

problems financing their films and often

construction of a public sphere essential to

incur considerable personal debts; only

a feminist film culture, the journal Frauen

gradually have they succeeded in tapping

und Film (FuF—Women and Film) has

the same system of federal grants and sub-

played and, I hope, will continue to play a

sidies that advanced their male colleagues.

crucial role. Founded by filmmaker Helke

institutional framework, FuF calls attention to the inequities of the subsidy system
which extends privileges to already successful directors rather than individual
projects. Women are grossly underrepresented in the committees that decide on
grants and awards—hence the political

Meanwhile, a large number of films direct-

Sander (REDUPERS; The Subjective Fac-

stress on the demand for equal representa-

ed by women are being co-produced by
German television stations—a form of

tor) in 1974, FuF stands as the first and
only European feminist film journal. Pub-

tion. The standards of professionalism by
which these committees tend to rationalize

subsidy that guarantees access yet also

lished by Rotbuch Verlag in Berlin as a

their decisions also discourage collective

tends to impose artistic and political re-

quarterly (beginning with #7), the journal

and nonhierarchic modes of production,

strictions via production guidelines and

is into its 34th issue. Sander signed as

thus pitting women filmmakers not only

program committees.

FuF’s sole editor up to #27 (February

against male directors but also against

The effect of not-naming is censorship,

1981); with that issue, editorial responsi-

each other. Financial support from TV

whether caused by the imperialism of

bility shifted to collectives in Berlin, Frank-

stations, a primary source for women’s

patriarchal language or the underdevel-

furt, Cologne, and Paris. Last July, the
Berlin collective decided to discontinue the

films, is tied to production codes that restrict the critical treatment of issues cru-

need to begin analyzing our own films,

journal, thus causing the publisher to with-

cial to a feminist film practice—abortion,

but first it is necessary to learn to speak
in our own name.!

draw. Meanwhile, the Frarikfurt collective

female sexuality, marriage. The mechan-

formed a new editorial board and linked

isms of public reception further ensure

opment of a feminist language. We

30

©1983 Miriam Hansen

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Њаќ раігіагсһа! ітЬа!Іапсе регѕіѕіѕ еуеп іп
а ргоќесііопіѕі Іт сшиге: Беѕііуа!, ргеѕѕ

опѕ гапріпр гот ѕеуеге роіетісѕ іо теаѕигей атЫіуаІепсе.
Іп Ње ѕеагсһ Ғог а Ётіпіѕві 0іѕсоцгѕе іп

сопѓегепсеѕ, геуіеүѕ араіп апа араіп соп-

йгт Киз сопіепііоп аі таіІе агЫііегѕ

Іт, Ғог тодеѕ оѓ регсерііоп апі ргодис-

ѕ сопіго! е гергеѕепіаііоп оғ мотеп іп
Сегтап сіпета. Тһіѕ сопіго іпсІидеѕ Ње

оп оіһег ЮФап іЊҺоѕе сігсштѕсгіБей Бу

{оКеп ассіІаіт ргапіей Бу таіе сгііісѕ іо

епсоипіегѕ Ње Фі сиНіеѕ оё Чейпіќіоп, ої

ѕоте отеп їттакегѕ Биі пої їо оегѕ

аѕ уеП аѕ Ње ШЊегаІ епдогѕетепі оё Ње

пем “отап Ят.”

раігіагсһаІ содеѕ, ҒиҒ араіп апд араіп
арргоргіаќіпр иѕеѓші Ғогтѕ ої геѕіѕіапсе

Һе аѕѕегііпр аіѓегепсе араіпѕі сооріаоп. Сопѕідег, Ғог ехатріе, Ње Іопр-

Оп уеї апоег Іеуе! оѓ сгіќіаие, Ғєті-

ѕіапаіпр аіѕсиѕѕіоп оп Ње ргіпсіріе ої соі-

піѕі апаІуѕіѕ Ғосиѕеѕ оп Фе пойіоп ої “іп-

Іесііуііу, ѕГагіїпр уіһ а ѕресіаІ Ғосиѕ оп

үіѕіЫІе ІаБог.” ҒиҒ ргортаттаќісаПу деүоіеѕ ііѕеІЁ їо Ње мог ої отеп іп Ње

соПесіїуе ргодисііоп іп #8 (1976). Оп Фе

тедіа ућоѕе патеѕ біѕарреаг Беһіпі Фе
пате оѓ е та!Іе аиіеиг. А сһіеѓ ойепдег

воа! аќ ҒпеІей е уютен’ тоуетепі, а

опе һапд, соПесііуііу гетаіпѕ а піоріап
үеароп араіпѕі Фе һіегагсһу, сотреіійоп,

қуапавојоц | этапу ц) ги8іѕәр әл07)

іп іһіѕ геѕресі ів ппаоиЬіейІу УГегпег Нег-

апа іѕоІайоп ітроѕеі Ьу раігіагсһа!

іпѕсгібе отеп’ѕ ехрегіепсе оғіеіг Бойіеѕ

70р, "һо тау ріуе риЫіс сгейіі їо һіѕ сат-

тодеѕ оѓ ргодисќіоп. Оп е оіћег һапд,

апа ѕехиаШу іп а іопЫе ѕігисіцге оі ге-

егатеп Ыиі пеуег їо Веаіе Маіпка-ЈеШпр-

Ње поќйоп оѓ соПесійїуіїу тау ііѕеіЁ ішгп

ргеѕѕіоп апа ѕиБуегѕіоп.

һаиѕ, ргобБаЫу іе Әеѕі едйіког Фаі Сегтап сіпета һаѕ еуег һад.2 Риз ейогів

айеќапііѕт, ҒаІке һагтопу, апа іе ех-

ргітагіІу Бу Неке Ѕапдег апд Сегігис
Косһ, Ғи ѕһагеѕ Ње ѕКеріісівт уоісед іп

{о гепаег іпуіѕіЫе ІаБог уіѕіЫе гапре оп

іпіо ап ідеоІору уеп іі іѕ иѕед іо јиѕйѓу

Іп іі Феогеііса!І роѕіќіопѕ, агіісшаїей

ідепііѓуіпр едііогѕ апа ргодисегз {о ѕсгірі-

рІойаїіоп оѓ аШерейІу роогіу даиаПйед
ІаБог. Ғагіћегтоге, Ше ідеа ої соПаБога-

мгїіегз апа соПаЫБогаіогѕ (ѕее Фе іпіег-

Юіүе Ят ргојесіѕ һаѕ Бееп тагкеіед Бу а

ѕсһеп апа Шгіке Ргокорі—адйатапііу

үіеү5 її М. үоп Тгоіќа, СіѕеІа Тисһіеп-

ргоир оѓ таІе ЯтштакКегѕ (іпсІцдіпр Ғаѕѕ-

орроѕед {о Ғетіпіпе еѕѕепііаїѕт, уек тоге

һареп, апа ОапіеПе НиШеф).

Біпдег, КІшре, апа $сһІбпдогіў, тоѕіу іо

иќоріап апд аі Фе ѕате те тоге ісопо-

ѕріспоиѕ ІеуеІ—ҒиҒ сгійісітеѕ раігіагсһа!]

№їһ а деүаѕіайпр геүіеү оғ Сегтапу іп

сІаѕіс іһап рѕусһоапаІуќіс-ѕетіоіоріса!]
дігесіопѕ оѓ сіпеѓетіпієт. УУШе е

сіпета’ѕ ргойисіѕ. Тһе апаіуѕіѕ оѓ таіе-

Аиѓитп, ҒиЁ ргіпіѕ ап ореп Іеііег ѕірпей

“Рагіѕвіап регѕресііуе,” іо иѕе КиЫБу Кісһ”ѕ

Оп а ігі— апд асіцаПу е Іеаѕі соп-

е ехсІиѕіоп оё отеп дігесіогѕ. Тореег

Сегтап Ғетіпіѕі Феогу Бу $іуіа Воуеп-

Фігесіей іт сопсепігаіеѕ оп іе пем

Ъу Ғетіпіві Ят могкегѕ апд асііуівів, соп-

сһагтіпе рһгаѕе, һаѕ шаде іїѕ уау іпіо

аетпіпе е тоѕі ѕауіпе сІаіт ої е Ят

КиК іп Ње ѕһаре оѓ ігапзіІаќіопѕ апі соп-

сотштегсіа! геѕропѕе їо е отеп’ тоуе-

— ії соПесіїуе іпіегуепііоп аї а те ої

Ғегепсе герогіѕ, іїѕ гесерііоп іѕ сошпіег-

тепѓ. Іл із сопіехі, уге пд геуіемѕ ої

роїіќіса1 сгівів—аѕ ап аггорапі апі һуро-

ЪаІапсед Бу а поќіоп оѓ гадіса! ѕибјесііүіќу

үауе оѓ ѕо-саПед “отеп’ Ят8” аѕ Ње

сгіісаІ реѕішге уісһ ейесііуеІу депіеѕ

Њаѓ сІеагіу Беігауѕ Фе іппепсе оѓ Фе

Ке’з Тһе Гејі-Напаеа У/отап аІопрзіде

ѕітіІаг еогіѕ оп е рагі ої тштаКегѕ ої

геүіеугѕ ої Ғогеірп тз Ёеаішгіпе Фе аПер-

ҒаѕѕЫіпдег’ѕ Еў? Втіезі апа Реіег Напд-

Теѕѕег теапѕ апа гериіайопѕ. Іп Ње ѕате

ЕгапКҒигі $сһооі. ЕоПоміпр іѕ ітадіќіоп,
е Шеогейіса1 ѕеагсһї Ғог Ше аеѕФейіс 4і-

еб Меуг ҮЎотап. Тһе ѕіагѕ оѓ Мем Сег-

іѕѕце оғ Ки (#16), һоугеуег, Ѕапдег, іп ап

тепѕіоп оѓ Ётіпіѕї т ргасіісе іпеуііаЫу

тап Сіпета, һомеүег, гетаіп ргедісіаЫу

еѕѕау оп “Ғіїшт Роќісѕ аѕ РоІіќісѕ ої Рго-

тагріпаі іо Ғи”ѕ йіѕсиѕѕіопѕ: Неггор іѕ

йисќіоп,” геѓегѕ іо Сегтапу іп Аиіштп аѕ

гергеѕепіед опіу уі а геуіеуг оѓ Мозјёга-

а үіаЫе тоде! Ғог соПаБогайуе ргојесіѕ оп
а Ғетіпіѕі Баѕіѕ.

іи; ҮҮепдегѕ, ехсері Ғог а гесепі іпіегүіеу

ҮЙһеп ҒиҒ адуосаїеѕ а “роіісѕ ої рго-

сопсегпіпр Гіеіпіпр оуег УЙаіег, іѕ ҒеаЊипгед міі а ѕіпріе диоїе їют Кіпр оў ће

йаисііоп” ог йіѕсиѕѕеѕ “Когтѕ оѓ ргодйис-

Коаа, “Ње ѕїогу аБоиї е аБѕепсе ої от-

оп” гот а Ғетіпіѕї регѕресііуе, Фе іегт

еп м Һісһ ів аќ Ње ѕате те Ње ѕќогу оѓ

“ргодисііоп” һаѕ їо Бе ипаегѕіоод іп Ње

Ше деѕіге аі угапіѕ ет іо Бе ргеѕепі.”

үійеѕі роѕѕіЫІе ѕепѕе. Аѕ іпдісаіей, ҒиҒ

Тһе рһоќоргарһ һеадіпр іФеѕе пеѕ ѕһоугѕ

һаѕ ргоргаттаќћісаПу ргеѕепіей Ње уогК

е аероршаѓей агепа оѓ Фе Сегтап
Випдеѕќае (рагіатепф). Тһе опу та!е

оѓ отеп ейііогѕ, сіпетаіоргарһегѕ, апа

Сгіќісіѕт,” Негезіез, по. 9 (1980), р. 78.

саѕіоп оп мКһісһ, Ғог опсе, һе 4і4: “Му едііог,
Веаѓе МаіпКа-ЈеШпрһаиз, іѕ уегу ітрогіапі {о
те, апі І мошід ѕау Фаќї уііћоиі һег І мошід Бе

опіу а ѕһадоуг оѓ туѕе!Ё. Виі еге’ аІмауѕ ап
епогтоиѕ ѕігиреіе роіпр оп Беімееп Ње уго ої

ѕрасе іп ҒиКҒ іѕ АІехапдег КІипре, а йігес{ог үһоѕе ргоѓеѕѕей сопсегп уііһ “уопт-

ог оѓ патіпе—0Ё таКіпр риЫіс—іп-

еп’з ќорісѕ” һаѕ ргоуоКкед Ғетіпіѕі геас-

сІшдеѕ е сгеаќіоп оѓ а сошпіегітадіііоп оё

отеп йігесіогѕ, гапріпе гот Геопііпе
\

1. В. ВиЂу КВісһ, “Іп һе Мате оѓ Еетіпіѕві Ейт

2. ТһапКѕ ќо КиЬу Кісһ Ғог гететЬегіпр, ап ос-

ргодйисегѕ—еасһ Ше Ғосиѕ оѓ ап іпдіуідиа!
іѕѕце. ЅітшІагіу, іє деүоіей а ѕресіаІ іѕѕие
іо Ше “үівіЫе” уотап—Ше асігеѕѕ. Тһе

ПттакКег ріуеп тоге ехіепзіуе 4іѕсиѕѕіоп

епіайѕ а сгіќісаІ іпіегасііоп уі раігіагсһа1 Ят сииге іп іі тоѕї сотріех
іпѕіапсеѕ—іп е роіісаІ апа аеѕЊеќйіс
аүапі-рагае оѓ таІе сіпета.

Ѕарап, Мауа Оегеп, Магриегііе Оиџгаз,
апа Уега Сһуйоуа ѓо ЯтштаКегѕ оѓ а
уошпрег еепегаќіоп ѕисһ аѕ Уае Ехрогі,
Ей Мікеѕсһ, Маграгеі Каѕрё, апд Роіа
Вешһ. Веуопа еѕе ігадіќіопа1 Бгапсһеѕ

иѕ, апд іі’ѕ уегу ѕігапре һоуг ѕһе Беһауеѕ дигіпр

Њіѕ ргосеѕѕ. Ѕһе’ѕ уегу гиде уіїћ те, апа ѕһе
ехргеѕѕеѕ һег оріпіопѕ іп а таппег аі іѕ Шке
Ше тоѕі тедіосге һоиѕеугіѓе” (“Ітареѕ аі Фе
Ногігоп,” могкКѕһор аї Ғасеї Мишітедіа СепТег, Сһісаро, Аргі 17, 1979).

3. Тһе опіу еѕѕауѕ ігапѕіаіед ѕо Ғаг аге Ѕапдег’$
“Еетіпіѕт апа Ейт” апа Косһ”ѕ “УУһу УЎотеп Со ѓо е Моуіеѕ,”’ іп Јитр Си, по. 27
(1982), рр. 49-53.

оѓ Ят ргодисііоп, һомеуег, ҒиР”ѕ 0іѕсиѕ-

4. Ғог Воуепѕсһеп, ѕее, “І Тһеге а Ғетіпіпе

ѕіоп оѓ Ғогтѕ оѓ ргодисііоп епсотраѕѕеѕ

Аеѕіһейіс?” Мею Сегтап Стійідие, по. 10

Ше ргодисііоп ої е үегу ехрегіепсе Њаі

(1977), рр. 111-137, апа “Тһе Сопіетрогагу
ҮМіісһ, Ње НіѕіогісаІ Ұ/іісһ апа Юе УМіксһ

гедшгеѕз а ѓетіпіѕ{ біт ргасіісег Ње
вепдег-ѕресійс тедіаїіоп оѓ аП регсер{іол. Іп іһіѕ уеіп, а ѕресіа! іѕѕзце оп отеп
ѕресіѓаіогѕ Бураѕѕеѕ рѕусһоапаіІуќіс еогіеѕ оѓ гесерііоп іп Ғауог оё іоситепііпр
ігасеѕ оѓ апіһепііс ехрегіепсе үіһіп апі

Муіһ,” МСС, по. 15 (1978), рр. 83-119. МОС
по. 13 (1978), ап іѕѕце оп е Сегтап отеп’
тоүуетепі, сопѓаіпѕ а ігапзІаќіоп гот РгоКор’х
БооК ИРеѓБісһег Г.еБепзгиѕаттепћапр (ЕтапкКҒигі: Ѕиһгкатр, 1976).

араіпѕі е ргаіп ої раігіагсһаі сопаіќіопѕ

Мігіат Напѕеп {еасһеѕ Піт ѕішдіеѕ аі Киірегѕ

оѓ ѕресіаќогѕһір.3 Ѕітіагіу, іѕѕиеѕ оп Іеѕ-

Юпіуегѕііу, һаѕ риЫіѕһед агіісІеѕ оп Ғетіпіѕі
Іт еогу, апд һаѕ сопігіБиіед уогк їо Ктаиеп
ипа Ейт.

Біап сіпета, рогпорегарһу, апі егоіісіѕт
іпуеѕііеаіе Ње ргойисііоп оё ітареѕ аі

ииюштпцэс̧ парс ги81вәр ләлој)

31

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LOOSE
Micki McGee
At the four-second point in this particular Calvin Klein jeans com-

tion is the name of the company that contracted with Calvin Klein

mercial, if you were playing the tape in slow motion, you would see

to manufacture the designer’s jeans. “The company used to limp

a loose thread dangling from the hem of the jeans Brooke Shields

along making low and moderate priced dresses for what Seventh
Avenue calls ‘the masses with fat asses.’ That all changed in 1977.”

wears as she swings her leg down across the frame. If you were
viewing at the normal 30 frames per second you would miss the

Puritan’s president Carl Rosen said, “God caused his countenance

loose thread and be taken in by the apparent perfection of the shot

to shine upon me to do a license with Calvin Klein” (Forbes, Feb-

as the camera pans up Brooke’s legs. I imagine it would be possible

ruary 15, 1982, p. 34).

to produce an.article not unlike this commercial—a seamless essay

“Independent retailers and Klein’s own boutiques in London,

carefully woven to conceal any confusion. You should be more suspicious reading such writing than I am hesitant to impose a linear

Tokyo and Milan will sell $750 million worth of his products in
1982. . . . While much of the country struggled through economic

analysis on this overdetermined image. Let’s proceed in a somewhat nonlinear fashion—after the fashion of the tailor taking apart

doldrums in 1981, Calvin Klein had a personal income of $8.5 mil-

a garment—pulling at loose threads and laying out the pieces to

lion.” —People Magazine (January 18, 1982, p. 94)

reveal the pattern that gives form to the garment.
“, . . etymology, as it is used in daily life, is to be considered not so
much as scientific fact as a rhetorical form, the illicit use of historical causality to support the drawing of logical consequences.”
—Frederic Jameson, The Prison-House of Language (p. 6)
When Jameson wrote this in 1972, it’s doubtful that he could have

imagined the advent of designer jeans, let alone a commercial re-

sexual exchange value as the woman-child you'll never have or

volving around an invented etymology of a designer’s name. Keep-

never be. Think of each desiring or covetous gaze as currency.

ing in mind the rhetorical nature of etymology, let’s consider what

Scavullo on Shields: “The camera loves her and she loves the cam-

else it might mean to be ‘“Calvinized.” Calvin could just as easily
be derived from the Latin ca/or for “heat” and the Latin venire for
“to come”—a pun not likely to have been overlooked in the art
director’s drawing room. But even more interesting than the sexual
double-entendre, particularly when evoking historical causality,

era—vwhether it’s a still or a movie. The magic, the mystique—it
dòesn’t happen by training. Some people can work for a million
years and never get it.”
—“Brooke’s Own Beauty Book,” Bazaar (August 1981, p. 185)

is to consider what it would actually mean to be Calvinized. From

While the Protestant merchant class amassed capital on the site

the Oxford English Dictionary: ‘“Calvinize. To follow Calvin, to
teach Calvinism. Hence Calvinized. Calvinizing.”

of production, Shields amasses capital at the site of consumption.
As the sexual equivalent of the parsimonious Protestant merchant,

Calvinism, according to Max Weber’s often-disputed thesis The

she accumulates a libidinal fortune while the world of supermarket

Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, supplies the “moral

weeklies waits for her to expend some small portion of her wealth.

energy and drive of the capitalist entrepreneur. . . . The element of
ascetic self-control in worldly affairs is certainly there in other
Puritan sects also; but they lack the dynamism of Calvinism.”
Their impact, Weber suggests, is mainly upon the formation of a
moral outlook “enhancing labour discipline within the lower and
middle levels of capitalist economic organization.” For Weber, the

FIVE MEN FIGHT FOR BROOKEF’S LOVE....
—National Examiner (August 31, 1982)

BLUSHING BROOKE SAYS SHE’LL STRIP—IF THE RIGHT
ROLE COMES ALONG
— Weekly World (September 21, 1982)

essence of the spirit of modern capitalism lies in the desire to “accumulate wealth for its own sake rather than for the material re-

In the spectacle world of eroticized products and commodified sex,

wards that it can serve to bring. ..….The entrepreneurs associated

appearance in the Calvin Klein commercials paid her half a million dollars as the 1981 sales of Calvins leveled off at $245 million.

with the development of rational capitalism combine the impulse
to accumulate with a positively frugal lifestyle.”
Abandon the idea of coincidence. The Puritan Fashion Corpora32

Brooke’s desirability is readily transformed in legal tender. Her

*We can’t presume to know anything about Brooke Shields as a person,
since she exists for most people only as an image.

©1982 Micki McGee

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When Brooke entered junior high school, she was already earning

“The marks made by the branding iron, about three inches in

$30,000 a year and for tax purposes her mother had formed a

height and half that in width, had been burned into the flesh as

paper company in her name. She was no longer just a child, nor

though by a gouging tool and were almost half an inch deep. The

even just a child actress. She was Brooke Shields, Inc.—and the

lightest stroke of a finger revealed them.”

only thing still private about her life was the list of stockholders in
this unusual firm that packaged and distributed only one product:
Brooke Shields.
“The commercials themselves—combined with all the press coverage the morality war generated—brought sixty-five million dollars
to Puritan Fashions, a sales increase of three hundred percent.”
—Jason Bonderoff, Brooke, An Unauthorized Biography
If you were anything like me you were one of those alienated kids

—Pauline Reage, The Story of O (p. 163)
Brooke isn’t bound with leather—her restraint is the denim of
skin-tight jeans. She doesn’t receive the branded “S” of Sir Stephen
that O receives, she has instead the label with Calvin’s name on her
right buttock.
“On a network talk show Calvin revealed the thread that really
holds his jeans empire together. ‘The tighter they are, the better
they sell.’

who read compulsively. You would read anything from historical

“When they [Brooke and her mother Teri] moved to New Jersey

fiction to chemistry manuals. Once in a while, though surprisingly

both of them began attending a nearby Catholic church every

seldom, you'd come across a word that you didn't know and

Sunday.”

couldn't figure out from the sentence. Barely looking up from the
page, you might ask your mother, “Hey Mom, what does ‘ravaged’
mean?” “What?” “What does ‘ravaged’ mean?” And she'd say,
“Ask your father.” So you'd go into the other room where your
father was watching television and you'd say, “Hey Dad, what does
‘ravaged’ mean?” And he'd look up from his newspaper and say,
“Why don't you look it up—that’s what we have that dictionary
for.” So you'd walk over to the bookcase that held the two-volume
dictionary and the Great Books of the Western World and you'd

—Jason Bonderoff, Brooke, An Unauthorized Biography
Not long after Richard Avedon directed the Calvin Klein jeans
commercials he went on to photograph a nude Nastassia Kinski
intertwined with a boa constrictor, with the serpent’s tongue adjacent to her ear. The imagery of Eden is ushered back and Nastassia and Brooke are brunette and blonde flip sides of a coin: Brooke
with a dictionary between her legs and Nastassia with the snake.
Avedon has capitalized on dangerous knowledge/dangerous sex.

remove the second volume of the dictionary. “Ravage: devastate,
plunder, make havoc, n. destructive force of.” You have the definition, but it still doesn't make any sense because you are reading

Photos taken from TV by Micki McGee.
-one of those cheap historical novels that your mother worries might

said to transform matter. Transubstantiation: A statement be-

be a bit beyond your years. This one’s set in Biblical times. Ravage:

comes a physical truth via the voice of authority. To wish, desire,

devastate, plunder, make havoc. You are puzzled. How does this

or covet is as sinful as to act from desire or covetousness. Catholi-

apply to Mary Magdalene? You're not sure, but you know it's not

cism: A religion in which the distinction between representation

good.

and reality, thought and action, is continually obscured.

So when you see Brooke with her dictionary—if you're at all like

The written word allows for the split between mind and body on

me— what is invoked is that confusion, powerlessness, and de-

which Christian religions base their theology. You can be present

sire to have access to knowledge and power which at each thumb

(via a note, a letter, or in the 20th century the answering machine)

index seem to evade your grasp. The words are there, the defini-

yet physically absent. Reading allows you to experience someone

tions are adjacent, but somehow there is an inexorable gap between

else's thoughts, ideas, and personal history in their absence. What

definition and use.

do Calvins allow you to experience?

A prepubescent beauty squatting over a dictionary with her pos-

“READING IS TO THE MIND WHAT CALVINS ARE TO

terior at eye level murmurs, “I’ve been Calvinized,” registering
sequential expressions of discovery, pleasure, and that wide-eyed

THE BODY.” — Calvin Klein ad

look most often associated with terror. Given her cant, ‘“sodom-

So if reading is submission to the order and authority of language,

ized” might be a more appropriate word for her research. Domina-

albeit an often pleasurable submission, then wearing Calvins is

tion via the authority of the dictionary (submission to the imposi-

submission to another signifying system wherein the commodity

tion of linguistic order) is overlaid with an all but stated sexual

stands for sexuality in the absence of another. Like the Catholic’s

domination. The girl-woman at the moment of pleasure in discov-

obfuscation of reality and representation, the latter-day Calvinist

ery, power via knowledge, announces with an ambiguous expres-

obscures the distinction between sexuality and the spectacle of

sion that she’s been conquered. The pleasure of discovery is im-

sexuality.

mediately transformed into the pleasure of submission.
In each of the Calvin Klein commercials Brooke is tightly enclosed

Micki McGee is an artist and critic whose work has appeared in Fuse,

in the frame—girl in a cathode cage.

Afterimage, and Jumpcut.
33

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START
STOP

4 a A

..
Q

Jo Vaughn Brown wants to make $100 an hout working in the
industry. So do I, ideally, putting in about eight to 16. hours per
week. Brown is an 18-year-old Black woman, studying video at
Downtown Community TV and the Satellite Academy, an alternative public high school on the Lower East Side. She likes making
documentaries that deal with prisons, junkies, prostitutes, and
businessmen. As yet she is not sure whether she wants to operate
camera, edit, or produce. The suggestion of working with computers makes her a little nervous. Her financial/parameters, however,
have been clearly established.
The class outline for Satellite’s video progtam\ reads like a
production schedule. Along with developing camera skills, they
plan to discuss “ideas for getting our documentary shown on cable,
ABC—what the networks are interested in,” They haye the con.
tacts. They’ve made the connections.
Two hours northwest of Scranton in the Pennsylvania colihity-

JOAN JUBELA

side, Mimi Martin, a 53-year-old video artist, supports herself
As former National Sales Director for United Attists), Liv
imagery deals with what she considers the narrative dream, That
imagery is constructed on an estimated $20,000 %⁄-inch post-pro-

Wright negotiated the licensing of feature films/to pay television
exhibitors. She was a ‘little girl from Harlem doing Beverly Hills.”

duction system, partially built by hand in collaboration with David

Her basic model of the marketplace, of capitalism, of selling wares,

Jones of the Experimental TV Center in Oswego, New York, Work-

falls'into two/categories:/vendors'or suppliers—the Bloomingdale’s

ing one day a week for two years, they constructed a sequencer,

analogy. In the retail business, vendors | have names like Calvin

interface, and colorizer.

major studios, they/are callèd suppliers. It’s/a finite universe, like

approach she takes in her artmaking process: “I lived in New York
a total of six or seven years. The intensity was too much for me. I
can barely cope with the excitement of the sticks. .….thinking about
the reviewer or meeting the right person puts a strain on my aesthetic sensibility. I don’t want to hustle my art because I want my
tapes to have power and feeling, using my intuition and following
what’s most meaningful to me.”
Pennsylvania is where the concept of cable TV was first applied, in 1948, enabling farm communities to receive broadcast
signals from Philadelphia TV stations. Now, one of Martin’s high

$500 million apiece—but ‘distribution is not equal. “The first thing
you want to make sure you get is $500 million and one dollar,”
states Wright. “One SIG more tn iS next t guy, that’s a s

D DEFINITION OF : CHERRY-PIĠKING i
USING BLOOMINGDALE’S ANALOGY
Bloomingdale’s becomes an exhibitor like Home Box Offis. If
a studio produces 10 feature films in one year and offers the entire

school students has developed his own device to unscramble sub-

package to HBO, it’s like Calvin Klein offering Bloomingdale’s his

scription cable services:

entire line of wares. If Bloomingdale’s wants to carry only one
item, that’s cherry-picking. “So if a studio like Paramount has one

PLAY A GAME: DRAW A CIRCLE AROUND

successful blockbuster and nine turkeys, it doesn’t matter,” ex-

THE TOOLS YOU’VE HAD ACCESS TO, A BOX

plains Wright. “That package has to be sold at X amount of
dollars.”

AROUND THE TECHNOLOGY YOU’VE HEARD
OF OR AT LEAST KNOW TO EXIST, UNDERLINE THE WORDS OR FRAGMENTS OF WORDS

SUGGESTING OTHER MEANINGS. IF YOU
DON’T. HAVE A PENCIL, UTILIZE YOUR
GRAPHICS TABLET,. PUNCH ESCAPE/SAFE ON
YOUR TOUCH SCREEN.
MICROCHIP — DRIFT — UPLINK — DOWNSTREAM—MAINFRAME—LOW NOISE— HIGH

Western. What was once a product-oriented environment has
evolved into a market-oriented environment. Quality is not the
primary factor for success in the competitive marketplace. “The
expectation of the number X is now a function that comes from a
very distant place. It does not come from the bottom up,” notes
Wright.

My secret fantasy is to turn old in the desert, grow a little herb

BAND — TYPE C — TBC — DVE — LSI — PAL —

garden, and operate a satellite channel telecasting nothing but TV

ASCACA/SHIBASOKU — CHYRON — QUANTEL

snow. I'll call it ZNTV. Maybe no one will ever receive the tele-

— CHALNICON — PLASMA PANEL — FRAME

casts. Maybe the channel will be on a distant planet. Every once in

GRABBER—FLYING SPOT SCANNER — DISH —

a while I'll roll a Brooke Shields ad selling Calvin Klein jeans at

SOFTWARE— VIDEO FURNITURE
34

Entertainment subsidiaries follow specific formulas to ensure a
predetermined profit margin for parent corporations, like Gulf+

Bloomingdale's. Ä

©1983 Joan Jubela

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The reality of cable and satellite technology has suggested the

tion, taking just two shots from “Laverne and Shirley.” Other

possibility of turning TV from a finite universe into an infinite
universe by diversifying the marketplace. Since December 1982,

deconstructions followed, using images from “Kojak” and ‘“Won-

HBO, the largest pay-TV exhibitor, has been producing its own

air, Birnbaum has challenged not only the nature of television, but

movies. Bloomingdale’s is supplying itself with its own wares. It is

also ownership of image.

no longer dependent on Calvin Klein. In response to HBO’s recent
move, major studios and other pay exhibitors are pooling their

der Woman.” Because her material was recorded directly off the

HOME TAPING CASE
BEFORE HIGH COURT

forces. “Hollywood is also cranking up to take another shot at

JUST A COIN TOSS

getting a bigger slice of the pay TV pie. Warner Amex Satellite
Entertainments Movie Channel just signed a deal with MCA Para-

[Variety, January 18, 1983]

mount and Warner Bros.. ..$20 million... $4 million..….$10 million. ..$4 million. .….$3.3 million..….$11 million” (Millimeter, January 1983).
The numbers, those rolling. numbers, and I'm not talking

about the I Ching. <==
At present Wright is working outside of what she considers the

Copyright infringement is a hotly debated issue in the industry.
Producers of films, television, and records claim sales losses due to
“illegal” dubbing. In the near future, hardware manufacturers
like Sony might be required to pay royalties from the sale of their
products, both VCRs and blank tape, to cover the pirating of

paternal castle of the\corporate world, conducting media consul-

movies, albums, and TV programs. By the time this article is in

tancy work as well as producing cable programming. Using her

print the Supreme Court may have ruled sales of home VCRs ille-

marketing experience, she has undertaken such projects as attempt-

gal. That will not necessarily end the debate between Universal

ing to procure television rights for the distribution of Black feature

and Sony. Nor is it likely that home video equipment will be taken

films. “Because I was very political during the ’60s, I might be able

off the market. But a Supreme Court decision could create an

to bring more to market analysis than just numbers, like knowing

interesting precedent in terms of Birnbaum’s use of the medium.

that the median age of Blacks is 25 and the median age of His-

Questioning ‘“high art practices,” Birnbaum has shied away

panics is 18,” she comments. “Madison Avenue doesn’t need to

from gallery owners who haye offered to commission her graphics.

know that to accomplish their objectives. I do because I want to be
a little more creative.”

TV. Now that she is constructing rather than deconstructing tele-

From the producing angle, Wright and a partner have com-

vision formulas, her perspective on ownership of image has altered

Her work is about'television and her current strategy is to produce

pleted a pilot for a fashion series: “We were looking for borderline

slightly. Following her accountant’s advice, she intends to avoid

Soho types who were maybe getting a couple of pieces into Bendels

royalties because payments are difficult to collect. “Go for the flat

and were about ready to cross over into a mainstream kind of thing.”

rate,” she suggests.

When asked how she raised capital, Wright explained two me-

Maxi Cohen can be placed in the first wave of video artists,

thods: Find people in a similar business who need the product and

having worked in the medium for 13 years. Through the operation

are prepared to offer financing in exchange for some form of dis-

of her own feature film distribution company, First-Run Features,
Cohen has honed a keen business acumen. She credits herself with

tribution rights, or seek out venture capitalists who are willing to
collect their investment downstream. “Go to 25 dentists and say,
‘Listen, give me 50 grand,’ or whatever, depending on what their
investment package looks like. For tax reasons, they may need to

lose money that year.” <4—

My mind drifts to my mouth and all the work I had done at the

a creative sense about how to put money together and how to market, but she’d rather concentrate her creativity on her product:
“Marketing and sales are about conquest. I’d rather have someone
else do the conquering for me.”
Her experience with the world of real TV has been a succession

New York University dental clinic last year. A place crawling with

of near-hits. In 1975, soon after completing Joe and Maxi, a fea-

budding young dentists, budding young investors. Ten years down-

ture-length film about the relationship between herself and her

stream, 250 dentists at 50 grand apiece equals a million and a

dying father, Cohen approached NBC, ABC, and HBO with the

quarter. With that amount of money I could make my own version

idea of a documentary about child-star Brooke Shields. “Somehow
it was the quintessential story about mothers, daughters, and Hol-

of Girlfriends.

lywood. HBO told me Brooke wasn’t big enough and I said, “Lis-

PLAY A GAME: AS YOU READ DETERMINE
THE MOOD OF THIS ARTICLE. OVERLY OPTIMISTIC, CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC, SKEPTICAL, REALISTIC, CYNICAL, PESSIMISTIC,

ten, by the time this thing is done, Brooke is going to be the biggest
thing in this country.”

ABSURD.
“With television and popular music, there’s a lot of junk
around,” comments video artist Dara Birnbaum. “I can’t watch
most of what’s on TV and I probably find it offensive, yet I know I

u

= r

=

h

i=- =i

di o

have it like a sugar habit.”
Two years ago Birnbaum received a Nielson survey in the mail
asking her to record her viewing habits. Programs receive points
based on the amount of time a single channel is left unchanged. “I

D P

began realizing how many programs stay on in my house more
than ten minutes because I’m so tired I don’t want to get up to
switch the channel. ‘Laverne and Shirley’ probably made it another
year because I’m just as tired as everyone else.”
During the late "60s and early ’70s Birnbaum lived in Berkeley.
She didn’t own a TV. She considered herself political. “It came
down to finding out you might not own a TV but it wasn’t stopping
the majority of people who were watching more than seven hours a
day. I felt I had to know a little more of why that was happening. I
didn’t want to be isolated or ghettoized in any sense.”
While Birnbaum was watching TV, she was also viewing video
in art galleries. There she noticed the institution of television was
being ignored and its reflection of the popular idiom denied.
Birnbaum’s first video piece, made in 1978, was a deconstruc-

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ALLAL AA LA

LE M E
At the Leo Castelli Gallery, video art has remained a “stepchild” since the early ’70s, when it was fostered by painters and
sculptors, whose work was already represented by the gallery.
Whereas a Robert Rauschenberg painting might carry a $450,000
price tag or a Mia Westerlund-Roosen sculpture could cost approximately $35,000, a 3⁄4-inch videotape sells for an average of $250 to
$500. Annual sales reached about 50 tapes last year. Rentals, at
approximately $50 per tape, fluctuate according to the school year,
but average about two to three each week.
“We function more as a gallery than a record store,” explained
Patti Brondage, director at the Castelli Gallery and curator of Castelli/Sonnabend Films and Tapes. She emphasizes that the videotapes they sell are treated as works of art. No copy guards are
applied to the tapes, but contracts with buyers and renters forbid

going out of business.

duplication.
In about 10 years, as technology develops, Brondage sees a

PLAY A GAME: DRAW UP A CONTRACT.

»
>

vague possibility of a future market for video art. A device to hang
on the wall like a painting could display the same image over and

IDEA? (good question)
GETS TO DO IT? (produce/direct)

over and over again. “But I’m not selling hardware; we’re not Sony
dealers,” she adds.
With the development and marketing of flat-screen, high-resolution TVs and laser disc drives, video paintings are inevitable. In
some respects, they could resemble kinetic beer ads in bars, in
which simulated running water ripples over beer cans in mid-

>

stream. The same technology will be used for point-of-purchase
displays at Bloomingdale’s cosmetic counters.

>
"S

Twin Art Productions is a business. Its business is art and its
sion, decide who gets to keep the idea.)
WHEN DO YOU GET PAID?

art is “purely television.” Twin Art is Lynda and Ellen Kahn, identical twins in their early thirties who have combined their artistic
ability and marketing skills in the production of video art. They
cite their influences as Pop/Warhol and their inspiration as daytime TV. Their work is fast-paced, with a strong graphic sensibility
edited to new wave music.
Twin Art began as a jewelry business, an endeavor the Kahns
contend turned more of a profit than current sales from their

earned income for 1982 increased 60% over 1981.

videotapes. Video, however, is their future. “It’s a big risk,” admits Ellen, outlining the increasing stakes. Their first project,
“Instant This Instant That” (1978), was shot on Betamax. The
budget for the four-minute tape was about $500, including stock,
editing, dubs, and miscellaneous expenses. They used their own
camera and deck. Most services were donated.

thing that can be reproduced so easily and so democratically.”

“It didn’t matter it was shot on Beta,” says Lynda. “It didn’t
matter that it didn’t have effects. It didn’t matter that technically
it did not hold up, because people were interested in new ideas.”
But now the twins find themselves competing with video art that
has a much more commercial look, loaded with effects and of a
high technical quality. They point to the work of Kit Fitzgerald
and John Sanborn as an example.
The Kahns perceive the current video art market as public sec-

mercial TV and people need money to continue working.”

tor funding. Grants bestow legitimacy and prestige—factors related to the eventual value placed on an object. Declining public
sector support, however, cannot compete with commercial budgets
in terms of hard dollars. A typical budget for a four-minute rock
video promo produced by a major label for MTV (Music Televi-

exploring different ways of getting it seen.”

sion) is $40,000. The twins doubt any granting body will allocate so
much money for a short video work. On their current projects they
rent BVU 110 decks and Ikegami HL79Ds, state-of-the-art equipment. They intend to use sophisticated post-production techniques.
“What we’re trying to do as artists is make something better than
MTV with no budget,” explains Ellen.
Both women work professionally as producers in the industry,

avenue is still open in New York.

where they can trade services and gain access to necessary tools.
Yet within the business they often carefully refrain from referring
to themselves as “video artists.” “Artists mean trouble because
they are independent thinkers and they want to redo the system,”
Ellen points out. When an executive producer at MTV viewed her
reel, containing Twin Art material as well as her freelance commercial work, he told her “artists shouldn’t have jobs in television.”
Ironically, MTV exploits the term ‘“video artist” -in their promotional material.

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= F:

l

The Kahns find themselves leaning closer and closer to the
label of independent producers, yet their strategies for distribution
encompass both the art world and television. Theit most successful
commercial venue thus far was inclusion of their work into the
“Video Artist” series of “Night Flight,” a late-night youth-oriented
variety program aired on the USA Cable Network. Sixteen artists
were included in a package deal co-produced by EAI. Each artist
received $750 for a 15-minute slot, with any number of repeated
showings over a nine-month period. EAI took a 30% cut. Overall,
the twins estimate their share at approximately $2 per minute and,
while they were glad to get the work out, they would like future
projects to be more lucrative.

PLAY A GAME: SELECT A DELIVERY SYSTEM,
DESIGNATE METHODS OF DISTRIBUTION,

À

MOVE A PRODUCT.

DIRECT-BROADCAST SATELLITE, LOWPOWER TV, INTERACTIVE VIDEO DISC,
CABLE TV, VHS/BETAMAX CASSETTES,
MDS, REQUEST TELEVISION, SUBSCRIPTION
TV, PAY PER VIEW, UHF, FOREIGN BROADCAST, FOREIGN CABLE, SATELLITE MASTER
ANTENNA TELEVISION.
In the lobby of the Berkshire Place Hotel on 52nd between

“So much for the dribbles and drabs; you have to really bite for
it,” says Lynda. Their present goal is to make “the best tape that’s

Madison and Fifth, a lot of media deals go down. I observe, I
eavesdrop, I listen, I surveil.

ever been made,” distributing the project to museums as an instal-

On the pay phone in the marble enclave a fat man swings a

lation, then getting it out on cable and network as much as possi-

deal. “Yea, yea, I'm still trying to get the Fonz. I think he'll do it.”

ble. “The art world has been our largest distributor, but I don’t
want to limit myself to the art world—it’s obscure,” Lynda comments.

The twins are undecided about whether home distribution

I keep hearing the words “bottom line” and visualizing those
rolling numbers quantelled all over a TV screen. My TCD5M
audio cassette and Sennheiser binaural microphones unsuspectingly record the nomenclature as I stand casually in the corner. A

should be issueđd as a limited or unlimited edition, yet pirating of

harp playing “Bring Out the Clowns” in the hotel's tearoom can

their video is not a concern. As Ellen emphasizes, “Part of the

be heard in the background.
From a stall in the Ladies’ Room I overhear a conversation be-

work is to get it into every home.”

tween two women discussing the sale of television rights on a children's book. At the sink I strike up a conversation, turning into a
friendly chat. Advice is cheap, sometimes invaluable.

IN USE

Theodora Sklover has an overall understanding of the entire
market spectrum. As a lobbyist for public access in the early 70s,
she established a nonprofit access studio called Open Channel,
where community groups could produce cable programming.
Sklover served as Executive Director of the Governor’s Office for
Motion Picture and Television Development for the State of New
York. She now teaches at New York University and through her own

Unlike Maxi Cohen, Dara Birnbaum, and Lynda and Ellen
Kahn, who all have fine art degrees, Robin Schanzenbach has a de-

firm, TKS Associates, she has done consultancy work for both

gree in mass communications. Two weeks out of Florida, Schan-

public and private sectors on packaging and marketing strategies.
I waited a total of five hours on three different occasions in the

zenbach landed a job at CBS. Within one year she quit, upon real-

lobby of the Berkshire Place Hotel to connect with this woman.
Sklover’s understanding of video art places it more or less in a

izing the time involved before she would be able to achieve her ambition—to be a director at the network. Since 1977 Schanzenbach

gallery context..In contrast, she perceives the current market for

has freelanced as a producer/director/editor. At the same time she

television as narrative. That is what people want, what people

has produced her own wrk by doing what she calls the ‘video hus-

understand, and what she likes, especially well-crafted, emotive,

tle,” trading favors with friends and providing any necessary funding herself. To date, Schanzenbach has not received a grant, but if
she ever does, she wants to produce in a one-inch format.
Most of her past work can be categorized under the heading
“video music,” although the term is an irritant to her now because

Hollywood movies.
If an independent can put a narrative in a can today, one produced for around a million and a half or up, they’d have to be
“deaf, dumb añd blind” not to make a profit on it, according to
Sklover. The film Smithereens, produced by Susan Sidelson, is a

of what she terms “exploitation” by commercial entrepreneurs:

noted example. The budget for that film ran $80,000. In two

“Video music has become so popular and commercial. I don’t

months after its release in November 1982, the film grossed ap-

have the contacts with the record companies and I’m not being
paid to do it.”

proximately $118,000. i
“It used to be there were seven banks where an independent

Schanzenbach’s one major attempt at mass distribution thus

could go,” Sklover adds. “If they didn’t give you the money you

far was the production of a pilot for a video music series called

didn’t make your feature. And there were four television networks.

“Teen Etiquette.” As she explains, “I was upset with program-

If they didn’t giye you the money, you didn’t make your program.

ming for teenagers. They’re vulnerable as an age group and yet

That’s changed.”

they’re so influential. They spend an enormous amount of time in

There has never been so much competition in the marketplace,

front of TV watching violence, so why not give them a little break,

Sklover concludes. While some experts contend the pie is being cut

provide a release from programs about teenage alcoholism.” Her

into smaller pieces, other studies claim the market is growing.

pilot was a subtle parody on etiquette books published during the

People are watching more TV. The investment community is ner-

50s that taught teenagers to stand up, shake hands, and say “how

vous about so many new technologies because of uncertainty relat-

do you do.” “They always gave you a perception of, and a peek

ed to the degree of diversification and questions about when the

into, the adult world.”
HBO was not interested in the project, nor were other commer-

market will eventually level out.
Sklover anticipates some interesting possibilities regarding new

cial outlets. According to Schanzenbach, her name lacked visibil-

technology. She encourages younger artists and independents to

ity. The natural showplace for her work at that point was the club

investigate the areas of interactive video disc, video games, and

scene. Danceteria became her marketplace, offering exposure as

video music—areas she labels as ‘“hot,” some being very experi-

remuneration for playing her tapes.

mental. At present Sony is marketing two- to five-minute audio

At present Schanzenbach has completed a series of video por-

cassettes like 45rpm singles. She expects video will follow suit.

traits designed as a gallery/museum installation, altering her

“Video disc hasn’t been around very long. I don’t care what you've

popular mode to a more “classical” approach. The piece deals

done before, you’re not an expert in it. Everybody has to start

with form, movement, and lyrical image. “It’s nice to be serious,”

thinking differently. I love to look at it almost like a grid. It’s not

she reflects, “but hopefully not too boring.”

just linear with a beginning, middle, and an end. You have to pre-

-— O 000

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AO

TR E ne

package it in 20 different ways.”
Although the ‘great expectations” of cable have not been met

in this country, due to spiraling interest rates and economic recession, the growth of cable is still phenomenal. For example, the
franchise agreement for the City of Boston requires 102 channels,
30 under their own city corporation.
From Sklover’s perspective, “The more information you have,
the more it can serve you. The less information you have, the less it

As a new broädcasting entity (in operation since November
1982), Channel Four offers alternative programming. It receives
government/support as well as commercial revenue from its sister
channel ITV Three. Ratings from Channel Four have not yet
gleaned spectacular support. Its sometimes controversial programming, such as material dealing with gay topics, is known to raise
eyebrows in the more conservative sectors of British society.
Schoolman explained the agreement between the Kitchen and

will serve you and the more it will serve someone else and their

Channel Four regarding the Ashley project: “They will pay us a

market considerations. And the people who get the information

lump sum upon delivery, some of which has been defined as buy-

will be the ones to manipulate it.” Technology, she believes, is a

ing points. It was a straight arithmetic proportion. We defined

tool and tools have to be acted upon to make something happen.

exactly what we thought was required to make the piece and exactly

In her opinion, the movement of the studios and networks into the
new technologies and the cable marketplace is a positive sign because they bring more money to the table, generating more dollars
for smaller productions.

DEFINITION OF PRE-SALE
A producer, usually one with some kind of track record, can sell a
production to one or more distribution systems before it is ever
produced. The producer can then take that guarantee to an investor in an attempt to negotiate financing. A pre-sale is also called
a licensing fee.

how much we thought it was worth on the marketplace. Those
were two different numbers. The points they earned were based on
that proportion of their contribution over and above their straight
license fee.”
She added that the more pre-sales the Kitchen can line up in
other territories, the more production money they can show potential investors, emphasizing that one of the most essential aspects of
the negotiations was the right by the artists involved to exercise
final cut.

“Kid Carlos,” a half-hour documentary being made by Barrat,
deals with kids in the South Bronx involved with boxing as a life-

Sklover notes, “I know a film producer in upstate New York

style. Barrat has worked extensively during the last decade with

who makes features for kids. He pre-sells to German TV and cable.

similar subject matter, but much of the work was shot on half-inch

He doesn’t make millions, but he makes enough to continue the

black and white portapak, technically unsuitable for most broad-

programming he wants to produce.” There are numerous cable

cast situations. “We’re working on a program that is a culmination

outlets for children’s programming, such as Nickelodeon, Calliop,

of the unique relationship she has developed with the kids she’s

and the Disney Channel. Sklover points to public access as an out-

been taping over the last 10 years—but from the point of view of

let for younger producers to establish a track record; it’s a place

television today, not from the point of view of guerrilla television

where programs can be made using any form, any content, one
shot, or in series.

10 years ago,” says Schoolman.
According to Arlene Zeichner, former director of the Media
Bureau at the Kitchen, most video art in the past has lacked production value suitable for broadcast and mass audience appeal.
“We've had projects that were fascinating in terms of art world
language, but someone in the general public would have no interest

Real profit in the television business, how the industry has

in them. We have to figure out what would work for a broader

traditionally maintained itself, is through syndication. A series of

audience if that’s our goal, not to say that we’re going to leave the

programs that gain attention, like “M*A*S*H,” can be sold to

artists who are doing more obscure, esoteric stuff that is interest-

several markets. The industry has always operated on deficit financing. “I know as a producer I will not make money on the first
go around,” explains Sklover, “but if the program continues for

ing intellectually.”
Zeichner perceives a difference in emphasis between younger
artists and the video artists of the last decade: “Those people

two or three years, then goes into syndication I’m going to have

under 30 are doing very commercial work and what’s happening is

money in the backend forever.”

that they’re working 10 hours a day at Digital Effects and the Satel-

PLAY A GAME: FROM WHAT YOU HAVE
READ AND WHAT YOU WILL READ DETERMINE WHAT IS TOTALLY TRUE, WHAT PARTS

ARE ELABORATED FANTASIES, WHAT HAS
BEEN EXAGGERATED FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT, AND WHAT LEANS TOWARD PUBLIC
NAN

RELATIONS.

lite News Network and it drains their artwork. They get on better
equipment and it looks cleaner, but they don’t have the energy to
put into their own work, the hours of thinking and developing,
because they’re punching the buttons on a CMX.”
Through statistical evidence, advertisers and marketing experts
have determined that a commercial must be viewed three times
before the average consumer can make a proper product identification. During the last three days, three girls have talked to me
about Lacan or post-Lacanian film theory and three boys have told

“If you’re feeling optimistic and you’re willing to look forward,

me what personal computers to buy. The New York Post advertises

the market for video art is everywhere and it’s totally wide open,

the Commodore 64 at $369. If I buy a package with peripherals I

but in moments of somber reality I have to ask: What market-

think I can pick up the main computer for around $300. The pack-

place?” comments Carlota Schoolman, associate director in

age will cost considerably more. The three cornerstones of capi-

charge of broadcasting at the Kitchen Center for Video, Music,

talism are men, money, and machines. William Paley, the 82-year-

Dance, and Performance in New York.
According to Schoolman, there are two programs the Kitchen
markets “aggressively” to cable and broadcast television markets
—Robert Ashley’s “The Lessons,” a half-hour highly experimental
video music tape with an underlying narrative premise, and Joan
Logue’s “The Spots,” a series of 30-second “commercials” made
in collaboration with artists like Joan Jonas, Laurie Anderson, Bill
T. Jones, and Arnie Zane. The Kitchen is involved in. television
co-productions with both these artists, as well as with Martine
Barrat, a ‘guerrilla journalist,” and Robert Longo, a new wave
artist. With the Ashley project, “Perfect Lives Private Parts,” a
seven-episode opera, the Kitchen was able to negotiate a contract
with Channel Four in London.

old chairman of the board at CBS, was unavailable for comment
although I attempted to arrange an interview with him more than
three times.

That’s still the bottom line.

FILL IN THE BLANK: PROJECT WHAT YOU
WOULD LIKE THE FUTURE OF VIDEO ART
AND/OR TELEVISION TO BE.

Joan Jubela, a New York video artist, also works commercially in the television industry.

Graphics by Ellen Kahn «== Special thanks to Julie Harrison, Barbara
Mayfield, Karen Singleton, and Richard Concepcion.

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Lois Weber was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, in 1882—
three years after Eadweard Muybridge stimulated international
inventors to develop motion pictures by patenting his method of
taking sequential still photographs of objects in motion. Weber’s
was a strongly Protestant family, and her parents’ intense religiosity would influence the rest of her life. After a short career as a concert pianist, she became a member of the Church Army, an organization similar to the Salvation Army. As a “Church Home Missionary,” she sang hymns at the rescue mission, on street corners,
in industrial slums, and in the red light districts of Pittsburgh
Weber was dedicated to this work, and the impression it made
upon her is visible years later in her choice of subjects for her films
and her vivid depiction of prostitutes, waifs, working girls, and
drunkards.
There is some evidence that Weber next tried a career as an
opera singer in New York City, living on little money and financing
her voice lessons by playing the piano for her instructor’s other
pupils. ” Sometime between 1900 and 1903 Weber’s uncle in Chicago convinced her that she should try the theatrical stage. As she
recalled it:

Uncle overcame my many arguments and finally landed me on

SACRED i

the stage. As I was convinced that the theatrical profession
needed a missionary, he suggested that the best way to reach
them was to become one of them, so I went on the stage filled
with a great desire to convert my fellowmen. 8
The rationale that persuaded her that this work had a higher moral
purpose later became part of Weber’s philosophy about her film

Repentence came too late. The Portals were never again to

work.

open to her. Throughout the years with empty arms and guilty
' conscience she must face her husband's unspoken question,
“Where are my Children?” 1
As the house lights were switched on, the last title card, summarizing the film’s narrative, remained in the minds of the audience. Once again Lois Weber had provided an entertaining photoplay with a serious message. Few of the viewers were surprised,
though, since by 1916 silent picture audiences had come to expect
a Weber film to use cinema’s emotional power to dramatize a social issue. In the early decades of the twentieth century a Weber
film was as recognizable as a Griffith or DeMille; her contemporaries compared her to Griffith, citing her technical innovation
and artistic ability. During her 26-year career Weber made at least
150, and probably as many as 400, films—most of which have been
lost or destroyed.? Some were ‘one-reelers”—quickly produced
and often used as “chasers” between film showings or vaudeville
acts—but many were features and among the biggest box office
attractions of the silent film era. Almost all of Weber’s films were
melodramas dealing with controversial subjects such as capital
punishment, opium use, child labor, marriage, divorce, economic
injustice, and birth control.
Frequently, Weber collaborated with her husband, Phillips
Smalley, in writing, directing, and acting, but by 1915 she had come
to be known as Universal’s top director, and the majority of the
couple’s films credited Weber with the direction. Although some
pictures were ambiguously billed as ‘by the Smalleys,” one journalist reported that “Phillips Smalley came to her for advice upon
every question that presented itself.” 3 In 1917 Lois Weber Productions (Weber’s own company and studio) was created, and she
signed with Paramount to distribute her films for the then incredible sum of $50,000 per film plus half the profits.^ At the time
Weber’s films were both noted and notorious, yet changes in
American society and in the film industry itself contributed significantly to the decline of her career. She died in poverty in 1939 and
today is only rarely mentioned by film historians and critics.
Those who have begun to examine Weber’s life and films tend
to see her either as wholly conservative or as the archetypal “new
woman” promoting modern ideas and working in the public
sphere. $ When one considers Weber’s self-perception and definition, as well as the beliefs she both internalized and questioned,
and her motives for directing films, she is less easy to label. How
Weber became a director and how she was publicly presented as
such reveals the transitional nature of her ideas.
©1983 Lisa L. Rudman

While working as an actress in comedies and melodramas, she
met and married Phillips Smalley. In 1908, when Smalley was out
on tour and Weber was in New York, she began to work in films at
Gaumont. She worked on the early experiments with ‘“sound-oncylinder” talkies, writing the short scenarios and the dialogues
which were recorded on phonograph records and synchronized
with the action. Yet, like other companies at the time, Gaumont
soon abandoned the idea of developing sound pictures in favor of
perfecting the silent movie. Weber’s main task became acting in
the films; Smalley also joined Gaumont, to play leading parts opposite Weber. Given the technological and unfamiliar qualities of
film, most stage performers viewed film acting with disdain, but as
film historian Richard Koszarski has noted, Weber saw something
special in films: She was one of the first to recognize the persuasive
power of narrative cinema and put it to use.? By writing, acting,
and eventually directing. Weber was able to give cinematic sermons to a broad audience.
In a 1915 article entitled “How I Became a Motion Picture
Director,” Weber described how, as she began to work in close collaboration with Herbert Blaché at Gaumont, she ‘discovered little
defects here and there; a chance to improve the action occasionally; a new line to etch in that strengthened a character, and a hundred and one other things that enlarged the scene and gave it
finish.”’10 Although she attributed her separate director status to
the company’s expansion, Weber underlined such “attention to
detail” as one of the director’s highest responsibilities. Indeed,
according to one report, Weber personally went over every inch of
her films, ‘scrutinizing each tiny picture closely, keen to detect a
face obscured or any false trick of the camera or error of the
actor.” !! In addition to stressing women’s valuable attention to
detail? in her public discussions Weber used the Victorian definition of woman as inherently emotional, religious, sensitive, and
morally superior to account for her success as a director. Both she
and her interviewers frequently pointed out her “natural” talent
for depicting emotion and romance, as well as her skillful ‘“mediation” between script and realized film or between the various production team members.!?
Weber’s arguments reflected and affected the public’s perception of her as a woman and as a filmmaker. Motion Picture Magazine’s 1920 article entitled “The Domestic Directress” included a
photo of Weber complete with apron and skillet, reminding the
reader:

Domestic hours are well interspersed in the life of Directress
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For Husbands Only (19718) by Lois Weber.

Where Are My Children? (1916) by Lois Weber.

Weber and her efficiency behind the megaphone in the studio

early life, it is clear how Weber could see herself as a motion pic-

fails to interfere with her efficiency in her well ordered home.”

ture “missionary” whose motivation was neither personal fulfill-

Weber and her publicists wanted to assure the public that although
she was a successful and controversial director, she was still a “real
woman.”!5 In 1917, one reporter commented on the feminine touch
which ran through the new Lois Weber Studios:
Its broad grounds, with rose bushes and shade trees, the swing
in the backyard, the wide hospitable doors, and the long handsomely furnished reception room are all reminiscent of some
Southern manor house. Miss Weber calls it “My ‘Old Homestead.’ 16
A writer for The Ladies Home Journal also remarked about the
“feminine” studio and added that Weber ‘“treats her co-workers as
a family.”
While many writers portrayed Weber as an “ordinary” woman
who happened to be a motion picture director, others felt more
comfortable depicting her as an “exceptional” woman. Trying to

ment nor self-aggrandizement.
Weber’s stated purpose was to promote a moral way of life, yet
her films often contained frank discussions of controversial social
issues. Although traditionalists might agree with her moral stance,
some objected to the “modern” way in which taboo subjects were
openly dealt with in her films. Speaking of the highly controversial
pro-birth control theme in Where Are My Children? (1916), Weber
explained:
The theme should be brought to the attention of every thinking
man and woman, and if others, from prudery, are fearful of
addressing themselves to such a topic, it is no reason why I
should shirk what I regard as a sacred duty.”
In defense of Hypocrites (1914), a film that shocked many by using
a nude girl to represent the figure of truth, Weber told a reporter:
“I merely held up the mirror of truth that humanity might see

reconcile the tension between what a woman was supposed to be

life.” 23 Of her film Scandal (1915) she said: “I trust that this play:

and what Weber was, many commentators suggested she was extra-

will act as a most powerful sermon and will accomplish much last-

ordinary not because of her individual talent, but because she

ing good wherever shown.” 24

possessed “masculine traits” in addition to her feminine nature.
One article, entitled “A Lady General of the Motion Picture Army

Although Weber’s use of film to teach the masses proper moral
behavior can be seen as Victorian, many of her films were criticized

—Lois Weber Smalley, Virile Director,” began by describing “the

and censored. Her frustration with Victorian prudishness and the

handsome woman who works like a man, and who turns out photo-

lack of respect given to films as an art is revealed in her “modern”

plays of supermasculine virility and ‘punch.’”® The author used

and progressive response to censorship:

military, royal, and ‘“masculine” metaphors throughout the, piece

“Don't let the people have what they want,” is as pernicious a

and then completely switched metaphors to reveal how “feminine”

cry as its converse “Give the people what they want.” Both are

she was in her own home. Another article quoted Carl Laemmle,

parrotlike catch-words of limited meaning. “The people’ have

head of Universal:

always been reactionary in their ideas, and have fought progress

Miss Weber has the strength of a man, all the hardness of a
man. She has all the experience of a man, that enables her to

in all its forms consistently. If ‘the people” alone were consulted, we should still be in the patriarchal stage, spinning and

concentrate on her work—and all of the softness of a woman.

weaving our own clothes, and growing and killing our own

She is intensely feminine.’

food. That is the stage to which censorship would like to rele-

This lengthy piece in Liberty: A Weekly for Everybody stated that
“Her figure and her entire manner suggest unusual physical

gate us. The “people” must be educated by example to want
something better. Especially is this true in art?
Censorship of her films highlighted the controversy surround-

strength.” The author added: “Her mind is an admixture of masculine and feminine traits, with a man’s capacity for abstract

ing Weber. Concerned with her marketability as a moral shep-

visioning and the strictly practical, womanly ability to concentrate

herd(-ess), the press, the distributors, and probably Weber herself

on the thing at hand.”2!

wished to show that although her involvement in a career made her
atypical, she still held traditional values and beliefs, particularly

While reviewers and publicists sketched the picture of Weber
as “Domestic Directress’” or “androgynous” genius, Weber herself
contributed much to the perception of her as a woman primarily
carrying out a sacred moral duty, and only secondarily an artist. In

about marriage. True to the Victorian code, which drew a solid
line between love and passion, Weber told a reporter:
We are all too apt to confuse happiness with passion. Love is
constant hunger—friendship alone brings happiness of lasting

this way Weber is similar to other women professionals and re-

satisfaction. Life began to be more beautiful for me when I

formers of the time who used the concepts of a uniquely “feminine”

found friendship in my husband's love and we have developed

sensibility and women’s supposed moral superiority to rationalize

into the most wonderful friends in the world, so close in our

their participation in the public sphere. When one considers her

thoughts and sympathies that words are hardly necessary. The

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touch of the hand, the raised eyebrow carrying a whole volume
of meaning to the other.?7
The Columbus Dispatch cited the Smalleys as ‘one of the most
illuminating examples of marital happiness.” After praising
Weber’s work, the Ohñħio State Journal was sure to mention that
“she and Mr. Smalley have been congenial co-workers,” and the
Motion Picture Story Magazine called Phillips Smalley her
“chum.”?9In an interview published in a syndicated column, which
reached thousands of readers, Weber was asked if she believed in
the possibility of a happy marriage. “She said she most emphatically did believe in the happy American household.” The interviewer then asked what was the one necessity for a happy marriage. “ ‘There is only one,’ she said, ‘Friendship. . ..… The successful marriage should be composed of nine tenths friendship and one
tenth physical attraction. For then when the physical glamour goes
. . (there remains the friendship, firm, unalterable proof against
all batteries of wear and tear. And honor—a sense of honor of
course.””30 While publicists recorded Weber’s “prescription,” they
somehow failed to describe her full ‘“reality”—not until the end of
her career did it become widely known that she and Smalley had

divorced in 1923. |

Marriage was in fact the predominant theme in many of
Weber's films. Like Most Wives (1914), The Hand That Rocks the
Cradle (1917), and What Do Men Want? (1921) are Victorian in
their preoccupation with the themes of marriage and morality, but

1. Title card fror reel 5, Lois Weber (Dir.), Where Are My Children? (Uni-

versal: 1916, approx. 5,500 ft.). Viewed Feb. 16, 1982, Post Collection,
Library of Congress.
2. The discrepancy in the number of films cited is due to several factors:
The majority of her films are no longer in existence; some historians do not
count many of her shorter ‘“one-reeler” productions; others add those films
which she wrote or acted in to those she simply directed.

3. “Seen on the Screen,” Chicago Herald (July 1916), n.p.
4. Richard Koszarski, “The Years Have Not Been Kind to Lois Weber,”
Village Voice (Nov. 10, 1975), p. 140.
5. The “new woman” is a phenomenon historians have only recently begun
to address.
6. Koszarski, p. 140.

7. Gerald D. McDonald, “Lois Weber,” in Notable American Women Vol.
III, ed. Edward T. James (Cambridge: Belknap Press/Harvard University
Press, 1975), p. 554.

8. Alice Carter, “Muse of the Reel,” Motion Picture Magazine, vol. 21,
no. 2 (March 1921), appears to be p. 81, continued from p. 63; also quoted
in Koszarski, p. 140.
9. Koszarski, p. 140.

10. Lois Weber, “How I Became a Motion Picture Director,” Paramount
Magazine, vol. 1, no. 2 (Jan. 1915), pp. 12-13.
11. Ohio State Journal (Sept. 23, 1915), n.p.

12. It is interesting that other industries also tended to hire women for
detail work, either at the beginning or end stages of production. See Judith

they do not idealize marriage. Instead, they acknowledge the inter-

McGaw on the paper-making industries in the 1880s (“ʻA Good Place to
Work’: Industrial Workers and Occupational Choice: The Case of Berk-

play of romantic love, economic factors, and class divisions in the

shire Women,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, vol. 10, no. 2 [Autumn

selection of a spouse and the success or failure of the marriage

1979], p. 244).

itself. In some films, like A Cigarette, That’s All (1915), a flaw in

13. Alice Guy Blaché used a similar argument in “Woman’s Place in

the wife’s morality is the cause of a failed marriage; others, such as

Photoplay Production,” Moving Picture World (July 11, 1914), reprinted in
Karyn Kay and Gerald Peary, Women and the Cinema (New York: Dutton,

Hypocrites, subtly criticize the hypocritical Victorian view of a
woman’s innate morality and passivity (although the woman was

1977), p. 338. Koszarski notes that Ida May Park used this rationale.

seen as morally superior, as a wife her fate was determined by her

14. “The Domestic Directress,” Motion Picture Magazine, vol. 19, no. 6

husband’s immorality). In many of the didactic films of the silent

(July 1920), p.67.

era, “marital incompatibility and maladjustment [were] rarely

15. Carter cites Weber’s use of an analogy to dressmaking to describe in-

hinted at and the unquestioned purpose of wedlock was Progeni-

spiration and idea development.

ture.”3! Yet Weber’s films, although often moralistic, did explore

16. Elizabeth Peltret, “On the Lot with Lois Weber,” Photoplay (Oct.

“incompatibility” and “maladjustment” in marriage: Some por-

1917), p. 89.

tray couples without children and many promote a transitional

17. Henry MacMahon, “Women Directors of Plays and Pictures,” The

(and sometimes paradoxical) blend of Victorian and modern

Ladies Home Journal, vol. 37, no. 12 (Dec. 1920), p. 13.

values. Marriage as cinematic theme and as biographical reality

18. L. H. Johnson, “A Lady General of the Motion Picture Army—Lois

for Weber is one aspect of the tension between who Lois Weber

Weber Smalley,Virile Director,” Photoplay (June 1915), p. 42.

was, what she believed, and how she was projected to the public.

19. Charles S. Dunning, “The Gate Women Don’t Crash,” Liberty: A

Weber’s ideas straddled two worlds, preserving one while illumi-

Weekly for Everybody (May 14, 1927), p. 31.

nating the reality and possibilities of the other. In the process she

20. Similarly, the Chicago Tribune (May 25, 1916) called Weber “an in-

often adapted traditional attitudes to fit new realities.

defatigable worker in picture making.”

During the time of Weber’s career the lives of women and men
were undergoing transformation and redefinition in a modernized

21. Dunning, p. 31. Notice that whereas Laemmle attributes the ability to
concentrate to Weber’s “masculinity,” Dunning considers it part of her
“femininity”!!

American society. Although basic Victorian tenets such as in-

22. “Sensational Film Play Billed,” San Francisco Chronicle (Aug. 20,

equality in marriage remained intact for many, the ideology of

1916), n.p.

Victorian womanhood was challenged by the undeniable appearance of women who did not fit into the Victorian norm—women
who worked outside of the home and pursued new activities during

23. M.L. Larkin, “Price of Success in Movies Is Sacrifice Says Thrill Creator,” Milwaukee Journal (Jan. 2, 1916), n.p.

their leisure time. Rather than a radical break from Victorian per-

24. Koszarski, p. 140. Cf. the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette (July 15,1915),
which stated that ‘when Lois Weber undertook to produce ‘Scandal’ she

ceptions of womanhood, “modern womanhood” can be seen as a

was doing a noble work.”

response to urbanizing and industrializing society, an adaptation

25. Mlle. Chic, ‘The Greatest Woman Director in the World,” The Mov-

of Victorian ideology which permitted it to exist in a new context.

ing Picture Weekly (May 20, 1916).

Embodying both Victorian codes and modern mores, Weber’s

26. Many Victorian novels also made strong divisions between love and

own beliefs about women’s roles, marriage, the family, and the

passion while stressing companionship in marriage.

need for social reform, as well as her view of film as a pulpit and an

27. Carter, p. 81.

art, reflect her era’s ideological continuities as well as its changes.

28. Columbus Dispatch, (March 12, 1916), n.p.

She worked her way up from writing scenarios, making suggestions, attending to detailed work, and adding the finishing touches,
to managing the entire direction of a film. That the role of the
director was more varied and less rigidly defined than it is today
and that codes of behavior for women were changing were just two
of the many factors that facilitated Weber’s success. Perhaps to

29. Ohio State Journal, (Sept. 23, 1915), n.p.; Remont, p. 126.
30. Pearl Malverne, ‘Romance Plus Common Sense,” Motion Picture
Classic, vol. 16 (May 1923), p. 60.

31. Peter John Dyer, “Some Silent Sinners,” Films and Filming, vol. 4,
no. 6 (March 1958), p. 13.

her lasting credit, Weber has never been easily categorized: She
can be seen as Victorian in the apparent meaning of her films and
in her “moral purpose” for directing, but modern insofar as she
was a major and controversial early director.

Lisa L. Rudman lives in Vermont, where she is an independently unwealthy

scholar, filmmaker, and proprietor of “Pluck Productions.”
41

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Wander through large quiet rooms
An old friend says What
are you doing here?

IRENA

worked as slaves tomake these rugs
Think

She shouts Why
do you come here
and SPOIL everything?
This is pure civilization!

Walk into church
eN Aeoj delna yee)
18420 Tef ef

iy erha ela a 1o) y=A Iya oe) b heo) astatel
I start to weep

IaM Nael: nuus ba

SEC.

I see a woman

swimming and diving
11o AeL bhi
T:N eraoo toetst u

sy

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A woman sits on a stage
hunched over in the corner
She calls up a friend from the
audience
Asking her Come and make love to me
She does

Ioonide

Siale eea bhais) ne I CAN'T

can’t hold you
The last time was too
[T3 OTT: e oJen fah eAt

memories

Woman on the bed shivers

IEN

she is angry

smears spermicidal jelly
on my lips
No!

Walk into church
A bloody furry arm is torn
rey ojertad etem olele Ae) t
Fanabierteli

Did it rip its own arm off?
43

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I make a second
VE1sahetal

beside my first one
I look in surprise
Which

is the original?

some man |

Building a model house for
Do it

without getting paid
IDYeN i

wrong

INe h Ntb
1a handar
get excited
mount it

I eTe eide

[ENa n iden oj eetahi

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IITE e Narhi uNa Aae ohud

ioei a

two fetuses dark green and
knotted up

NAN) yeder adete Aolo) o ih
Ai balelefah s)

I can pull one out

but it starts to crumble up

Five women sing a capella

Ea N

jAbbehen ekana eeloj oa

they spell the word truth

eynt

A man says

Their Song Is A Very Clever Pun

Isay Ican'tagree

Iero) e a aee A Eya h

A leopard

A LEOPARD EATS TWO BLUE

two blue hummingbirds
humming

I3 deleet elen
MY TONGUE

ay on my

JoYoJ olj: erh bhai) hearts utter sjal elajn

humming on my 1ToJoNsab ls)

Dedicated with love to the two blue hummingbirds, A.S. and D.L.

The text and images on these pages are from my film, Gently Down the Stream (1981). Each section
of the text is a separate dream, selected from eight years’ worth of journals, but rewritten for
the film so that they are more condensed and articulate. The words that are scratched on black
in the images were done by hand, etched into the emulsion of the film, so that you read rather
than hear the words of each dream (the film is silent). The images are not meant to illustrate
the dreams, but to suggest certain desires or movements.
Su Friedrich is an experimental filmmaker who sometimes writes film criticism and was a member of the Heresies Collective
for several years.
45

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DNase
tl
ala

NORA DE IZQUE

JOSEFINA JORDAN

Born in Peru, 1934

Documentary filmmaker and
aine a

Four children and three grand-

enillai

I have been making films for over 20
years now, but originally I worked in radio,
television and theater. In the early ’60s, a

Born in Mexico, 1945
In Peru we still cannot lay claim to any

(O) Xde Ce|

time of widespread social conflict and lots

longstanding film tradition. Until 1973,

of activity, I bought a 16mm camera,

when the government finally passed the

taught myself how to use it, and began

Ley de Cine (National Film Law), our out-

filming events in Caracas, newsreel style. I

out of a political experience—a miner’s

put was very meager—a few sporadic fea-

had no specific outlet for the footage I

strike in 1964. I was fascinated by the fact

ture films of very poor quality. There was

shot; I simply wanted to bear witness to

that some of the union members were film-

no industry to speak of—only isolated

the events of that agitated time.

ing the strike, and I began to assist with

companies which would form to finance a

the shooting. The following year I assisted

specific film, and then fold. There was no

That was also the period when political
relations between Cuba and Venezuela be-

in a series of independent films, before
being hired by Mexican television, where I

continuity in film production. Since no
market for short films existed, none were

the guerrilla struggle against Batista, and

directed my first documentary.

produced.

the members of my generation, enthusi-

I began studying filmmaking in 1967,
at a time when there were no women film-

sought to establish closer ties. In 1962 a

My active involvement in film grows

In 1966 Paul Leduc, Rafael Castanedò,
Alexis Grivas, and I organized a filmmaking group which in 1968, before the Tlatelolco massacre, began to issue 16mm‘‘communiqués” from the student movement.
From then on, what living I have made, I
have made as a filmmaker.

gan to open up. Venezuela had supported

astic about the Cuban Revolution, actively

makers in Peru. Since the mid-’70s a few

compañero from the same political party I

other women have entered the field, among
them Marta Esteban and Chiara Varese.

was active in made a trip to Cuba. He took

Though the number of women filmmakers
in Peru is still small, our films seem to be

viewed by the members of the Cuban Film

along a huge reel of my footage, which was
Institute (ICAIC) and by the Dutch docu-

among the most socially conscious. When

mentarist Joris Ivens, who was visiting the

of, the Echeverria regime (1970-1976),

the University of San Marcos decided to

island at the time. Some of my footage was

there was a relatively large independent

organize a film series on peasant issues, for

incorporated into the ICAIC Noticieros

film movement in Mexico, in which I also

example, the only two films available had

participated. I put a lot of energy into

been directed by women.

Just prior to, and during the early years

financing Mexico insurgente (Insurgent

(weekly newsreels), under the direction of
Santiago Alvarez.

(continued on p. 48)

They invited me to Cuba for a two-

Mexico, 1971), which Leduc directed. We

month visit, but I ended up staying for

managed to make the film on a very low

eight. The idea was for me to do a sort of
apprenticeship in every department of

budget.

At the end of Echeverria’s term I was

ICAIC, so that I would be exposed to all

hired by one of the new state production

aspects of the profession. But I was fasci-

companies then being formed. I produced

nated above all by one figure, Santiago

10 features in a little over a year. Production provided a framework in which I, as a
woman, could exercise my creativity; but

Alvarez, soon to become Cuba’s foremost
documentarist.
In 1962 I returned to Venezuela, where

in that framework, creativity is the equiva-

I continued to film in newscast style. I

lent of efficiency and effectiveness. I stood
out in this area because I was a woman; I

served as assistant director on an impottant documentary short by Enrique Guedes,

was recognized and respected as an excel-

La ciudad que nos ve (The City Which

lent producer. This was my entry into film
direction.
Since 1976, when I decided to leave
production in order to direct full-time, I
(continued on p. 48)

46

Sees Us, 1963-64).
In 1966 a very special opportunity arose.
As a result of a theatrical production, my
husband, Jacobo Borges, was approached
(continued on p. 48)

©1983 Julianne Burton and Zuzana Pick

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TIZUKA YAMASAKI

TEn aali Ca
Born in Brazil (third-generation

33N% ONN

Teile ya :

Japanese)

(Oidi te|

I have lived in exile in Finland for the
past five years; my husband and children

Born in Nicaragua, 1954

NNi teea

are Finnish. My film career began in 1968
I first studied at the film school in Bra-

as a student at the film school in Valpa-

silia and later at the federal university

raiso. In 1971 I joined Chile Films, the

which, despite our efforts, was shut down

state film corporation, where I made my

Josefina just finished telling us about

by the government. I had to transfer to a

first documentary, Crónica del salitre (Ni-

her long career of more than 20 years. I

university in Rio, where Nelson Pereira dos

trate Chronicle, 1971). I also worked as

will say very little because I have only one

Santos was one of my teachers.? I got my

year of experience in making films.

first professional experience working as

first phases of the production of La tierra

production assistant on his O Amuleto de

prometida (The Promised Land, 1973).

there was no film tradition to speak of—

Ogum (The Amulet of Ogum, 1974). Soon

Afterwards I joined the Grupo Tercer Año

only newsreels about the Somoza family,
which were more social chronicles than

because I felt I could only get the appren-

ing with them on La batalla de Chile (The

genuine news. There was no laboratory in

ticeship I needed outside the university

Battle of Chile, 1974/76/79) until the coup

the country, so all footage had to be sent to

context. I subsequently worked as assis-

d’état which overthrew the Allende govern-

Mexico to be processed. Feature films were

tant director, production assistant, and

ment in September 1973. From that time, I

invariably foreign, coming mainly from
Mexico and the United States.

scenographer on three or four films. I collaborated with another filmmaker on a

took on only political assignments, which

documentary short and worked for a year

country.

Before the insurrection in Nicaragua

Our national cinema, as Alfredo Guevara? says, was born trailing the odor of
gun powder. The FSLN (Sandinist National Liberation Front) decided to create a
group of war correspondents with motion
picture cameras, in order to record what

afterwards I withdrew from the university

in educational television doing a program

assistant director to Miguel Littín in the

under Patricio Guzmán’s direction, work-

eventually meant that I had to leave the
In Finland, where I have lived since

about Brazilian film. Gaijin: A Brazilian

1975, I have tried to get back into film-

Odyssey (1980) was my first feature-length
fictional film.4

making, but there have been a number of

The concern with women’s issues is

other important things to do in exile. Soon
after arriving in the country, I was able to

was actually happening and to counter the

relatively new for me, since up to last year I

distorted news stories transmitted by the

had always thought of myself simply as a

make a documentary for television about
the lives of Chilean exiles in Finland. I

filmmaker, not as a woman filmmaker. As

then dedicated myself to animation and

Somoza regime. They sent a number of

made a short “spot” about the ‘“disap-

people of various professional back-

I began to participate in international festi-

grounds, but without any prior filmmaking

vals, where women get together to discuss

peared” in Chile using a paper-cutout

experience, to Mexico for training. After

things and organize a movement of their

technique. I attempted a few other projects

three months they were dispatched to vari-

own, I began to confront these issues.

which I wasn’t able to realize before finally

ous war zones, where they worked with volunteers from a number of other countries

Women are very active on the Brazilian
film scene. There must be about 15 women

making Gracias a la vida (Thanks to Life,

to capture the key events in a war for liberation from one of the most infamous dicta-

currently making feature films and 20

tors in Latin American history.

women say that they feel a certain pressure

With one sole exception, none of us
now working for INCINE (the National
(continued on p. 49)

others making shorts. Still, the majority of
from the men. I believe that such pressure
exists but that it is not that pronounced.
Perhaps my own case is an exception.

1980), a 42-minute fictional film. 6
Although it’s true that I am very concerned with women’s issues, my original
intention was not to make a film about a
woman. I was interested in depicting cultural shock in an extreme situation. When
(continued on p. 49)

Though my family has been in Brazil for
three generations now, our family structure
continues to be matriarchal. My grandmother was the one who always gave the
orders, and my mother was widowed quite
early, so there are very few men in the fam-

ily, and we girls were brought up to face
the world on our own. It never entered my
mind that a woman needed a man in order
to survive.

Turning to the question of a feminine
aesthetic, I believe that Brazilian society is
patriarchal, and demonstrates a correspondingly patriarchal aesthetic. It is clear
that films by women have a different vision
and different values. As women and as
militants for social change, we are able to
(continued on p. 49)

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have made six films. In 1978, before Som-

I was most aware of the potential diffi-

to produce a much more ambitious audiovisual project: a history of the city of

oza was overthrown, I filmed Los que harán

culties of being a woman filmmaker when

la libertad (Those Who Will Make Liberty)

I first started out, but once I actually be-

Caracas. Rather than using film as an aux-

in Nicaragua. Afterwards I made Crónica
del olvido (Chronicle of Forgetfulness,

gan working as a director, it didn’t seem to
make a bit of difference—at least not to

integrated, but fundamentally cinematic

1979), which deals with a satellite squat-

colleagues or crew, though perhaps I have a

spectacle. It was to be a kind of “happen-

ters’ city of four million inhabitants on the

different relationship to the people I film. I

ing,” an experiment in spectacle. The

outskirts of the Mexican capital.

sense a closer rapport. Perhaps it’s a fe-

filmed portions, which reconstructed the

I then went back to do more filming in
Nicaragua under extremely difficult and

iliary medium, we decided to produce an

male capacity for empathy, or perhaps it’s

history from the city’s founding through

not a generic but rather a personal trait.

the end of the nineteenth century, con-

group of filmmakers from various Latin

do everywhere in Latin America. Financ-

tained fictional segments as well as historical reconstructions. Jacobo was the artistic

American countries, including the Nica-

ing and distribution arrangements can be

director, supervising a number of film-

raguan filmmakers whom we had trained
in Mexico. We divided into small units and

more difficult because many men are reluctant to do business with a woman. I

makers on individual sequences. I was as-

filmed separately. We had no preestab-

have the advantage of an established repu-

I already had one child at the time, and

lished plan for the film, but simply record-

tation; things are much harder for a wom-

ed what was happening in the struggle.

an who is just starting out.
I was never meant to be a filmmaker. I

sequence I was working on and let some-

came from the upper middle class. I was

two.

dangerous conditions, working with a

The result was Victoria de un pueblo en
armas (Victory of a People in Arms, 1980),
released after Somoza’s overthrow. I don’t

Macho attitudes persist in Peru, as they

signed more sequences than I could direct.
each time he got sick I had to abandon the
one else complete it. I did manage to finish

raised to be a good housewife, period. My

The finished spectacle was divided into

want to seem like a perpetual war corres-

family didn’t even let me attend the uni-

two parts, intended to run separately. We

pondent, but I’m currently involved in film

versity. With my divorce came the desire to

never even got to exhibit the second part,

break out of the closed circle of bourgeois
life. I decided to do what no Peruvian

because barely two months after the open-

political activity in its highest form of ex-

woman had yet done—to become a film

from the public, the government cut off

pression—a war of liberation.
But now I also want to make fictional

director.

films. Documentaries cannot convey what

or commitments, only a vague sense of

support work around El Salvador. It is very
important to me to connect my films with

ing, and despite the enthusiastic response
our funding. Though the show was not in-

Initially I had no definite political views

formed by any “ultra-left” ideology, we did
try to awaken a nationalist consciousness

fictional films can. They can capture the

quest. The most important thing I have

and a desire to discover unknown aspects

external aspects of an event, but only a fic-

gotten out of my experience has been an

of national history. The government did

tional film can convey the experience in

not like the way we emphasized the role of

emotive, personal terms. I would like to

ideological awakening, the product of my
work both as a director and as an official

the popular classes. No matter what the

integrate documentary reportage of the

of SITIC (El Sindicato de Trabajadores de

period, we always dressed the characters in

Nicaraguan experience into a fictional film

la Industria Cinematográfica—the Film
Workers’ Union).

about participants and observers. I’m inventing a woman journalist to serve as the

If at first, predictably, I looked at film
as a personal, individualistic form of ex-

protagonist.
My experience as a woman director has

pression, I now see it as a much more so-

peasant (campesino) dress. The government also objected to the presence of the
common people (pueblo) in the battle
scenes.

Despite its abrupt termination, Imá-

cial mode. I trace the change in my ap-

genes de Caracas (Images of Caracas, 1966)

ence as a woman producer. I won my repu-

proach back to 1970, when I was hired by a

was crucial to the development of Venezu-

tation as a producer in a gradual, incre-

psychiatrist to make a documentary about

elan national cinema, because the majority

been somewhat different from my experi-

mental way; directing was something else

curanderismo (folk healing) in the Peru-

of our filmmakers got their training there.

again. It involved treading on more mascu-

vian Amazon. In our preliminary discussions, the doctor and I concurred in our

We had about 60 people working on the

line territory because, from the other side
of the camera, you have to assume all the

desire to minimize the exoticism which

still actively involved in film. We built all

responsibility. If I had held myself to my

characterized most treatments of the jun-

perfectionist standards, I wouldn’t have

gle region in favor of a more responsible

the sets and props ourselves. Those sets
could have constituted the nucleus of our

been able to do anything. So I’ve learned

presentation of the social problems which

national film studio, but because of the

to take risks. It hasn't been easy.

exist there. We agreed to present curande-

withdrawal of all funding, they had to be

rismo as simply the practice of medicine in

destroyed.

(continued on p. 50)

impoverished conditions.

project and, to this day, every one of us is

We subsequently organized a group

The experience on that documentary
was crucial in formal as well as methodological terms because I learned how to

called Cine Urgente (Urgent Cinema) with
the intention of using film as a form of po-

use the medium to penetrate a complex

litical activity in the marginal and workingclass sectors of Caracas. We made a num-

social situation. Ten years later, I continue

ber of explicitly political films, which we

to be involved with this region and its prob-

exhibited in neighborhood centers, univer-

lems, having just completed my first fea-

sities, union halls, and casas de cultura.

ture there, Æl viento de Ayahuasca (The

For us, cinema was .a pretext for political

Ayahuasca Wind, 1983).

action. We made crude, spontaneous, im-

After that initial experience in the
Amazon, I went to the other geographical

perfect films, often without benefit of edit-

extreme. I spent two years high in the

ing or synchronous sound. We subordinated technical and artistic considerations

Andes, doing research and interviewing for

to questions of immediate political expedi-

a film called Runan Caycu (I Am a Man,

ency. The experience served us well in both

1973) about the life of Saturnino Huillca,

political and cinematic terms. The political

an indigenous peasant leader from Cuzco.

group we were affiliated with was able to

(continued on p. 50)

(continued on p. 50)

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a friend arrived from Chile who had been

Film Institute) had a background in film. I

express a sensibility different from men.

had studied psychology and was working

We live in a society which expects men to

imprisoned there, who was in her sixth

as a secretary. As soon as the Sandinist

suppress feelings which women are allowed

month of pregnancy, who was suffering

forces came to power, we took over Produ-

to show, so we have an inherent advantage.

from all the symptoms of cultural displace-

cine, a film company run by Somoza and a

Brazilian cinema, especially Cinema Novo,

ment that I had also experienced, and who,

Mexican associate, Felipe Hernandez. We

has emphasized ‘“emotions” of the intellect. Brazilian audiences note a much more

in addition, had always wanted to be an

I began as secretary to the Coordinating

immediate sensibility in Gaijin, an intensi-

sprang forth.

Commission. Two weeks later work began

ty of feeling and sentiment, and they associate this with the fact that the film was

woman who played the lead was in fact

replaced Somoza’s personnel with our own.

on the first documentary, a 45-minute

actress, the idea for the film suddenly
The screenplay was open-ended. The

made by a woman.
When Brazilians make films about the

pregnant, and to some degree the film’s

Not Interrupted, 1979). The idea was to

socioeconomic system, we tend to make

show parents that although children had

bitter films which show the people as vic-

happened when she came to term. For a
while it looked like she would have to have

not been able to attend class during the in-

tims. Though Brazil has a long cinematic

surrection, their education had continued

tradition, I think that Cuban and Nica-

they decided at the last minute to let her

even more intensively, because they had

raguan filmmakers are far ahead of us in

give birth naturally, and we were able to

learned a great number of things that they

this particular area. In Brazil our training

film the delivery.

could never learn in a classroom.

is much more European; we make films

On one level, this is a simple, almost

according to the textbooks, believing that

linear story of a woman who has been tot-

for this film and the first three INCINE

the camera movements and the editing

tured and raped while imprisoned in Chile

newsreels. Three months later the Coor-

have to be done just this way or that. Even-

for political reasons. She becomes preg-

dinating Commission made me head of the

tually this becomes a handicap. We also

production department in charge of newsreels and documentaries, and that is still

belong to the Third World, where what is

liberty when her pregnancy is so far ad-

said is more important than how it is said.

vanced that abortion is out of the question.

my job. I have spent the past several

In countries like Brazil, Chile, and Argen-

She is reunited with her husband and fam-

months in Cuba studying film production
at ICAIC.

tina, which have not had successful popu-

ily in Finland, a totally alien environment.

videotape for television entitled La educación no se interrumpió (Education Was

I was asked to act as executive producer

dramatic resolution depended on what

a Caesarean. It was a minor miracle that

nant and only succeeds in securing her

On a second level, the film inquires

lar revolutions, filmmakers are under con-

into the nature of the exile experience in
general—the ever longed-for homecoming,
for example, a phantom which haunts
every exile, both as a kind of ideal and as a
pretext for either avoidance or engagement
in active struggle.
Of course Gracias a la vida is also
meant to denounce the situation of political prisoners in Chile, and particularly of
the women, because torturing a woman is
different from torturing a man. Men as
well as women can show you scars from
cigarette burns and demonstrate the psychological consequences of the barbarous
treatment they have undergone. And male
prisoners can also be raped. But their attackers cannot engender another human
being within them, whereas a woman can
be compelled to carry and bear the child
of her torturer—which is neither his nor
hers, but another, independent human
creature, the product of the two.
I think about the situation of the refu-

Two scenes from Gaijin: A Brazilian Odyssey

stant pressure due to lack of time and

(1980) by Tizuka Yamasaki. Photos courtesy of
Asian Cine-Vision.

funding. These difficult conditions severe-

gees from the Spanish Civil War. Though

ly limit our creativity; aesthetics are the

they held the image of their country in their

practical result of these conditions of production.
I am now convinced that the newsreel

memories, 40 years did not pass in vain,
and today’s Spain is not the Spain of 1939.

is the most efficient kind of filmmaking,

Like the Spanish exiles, some of us Chileans will lose our “child” because we are in-

because it offers technical apprenticeship

capable of relating to it in a real, ongoing

to filmmakers, spreads culture among the

way. Others will return to a child whom

people, and allows filmmakers to contrib-

they do not recognize. Still others will re-

ute directly toward the reconstruction of
their country. The Cuban and Nicaraguan

turn and find acceptance. It all depends on
how you have nourished that relationship,

newsreels are documents of a people re-

on how well you have ‘“mothered” your

constructing their country out of love and

child.

good will. You can sense the energy and
reciprocal good will on the part of the film-

I’m now preparing another project, and
this festival gives me the opportunity to

makers. Clearly, there is no need for an

discuss it with a number of people. My

“aesthetics of hunger” 9 in countries where

work is very directly related to Latin Amer-

popular revolution has triumphed.

(continued on p. 50)

49

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I feel very confident in the group I work

I had the opportunity to do the editing here

make some inroads in factories and popu-

with (in Mexico), but outside that group I

in Cuba, at ICAIC (El Instituto de Arte

lar neighborhoods, and some ofthe footage

am aware of being regarded somewhat

e Industria Cinematográfica—the Cuban

we shot later found its way into more

paternalistically at times. In Nicaragua

Film Institute). I had my first experience

such problems simply do not exist. I went

in a socialist country at a particularly trau-

also sparked several similar projects in

there with a job to do and the skills to do

matic and telling moment: during and

other areas of the country.

“polished” documentaries. Our example

it, and never felt myself the object of the

after the coup d'état which overthrew the

Though many Cine Urgente members

slightest sexual bias.

Allende government in Chile. What I wit-

` I am not the only woman filmmaker in
Mexico. Marcela Volante has made a

nessed was an inspiration.

have begun to branch out into other areas,
I continue to collaborate with some mem-

Back in Peru, I was immediately con-

bers of the original group, along with
Franca Donda, an Italo-Venezuelan wom-

number of highly regarded fictional films.

fronted with the government's decision to

There are other, younger women cineastes,

ban Runan Caycu. Fortunately, the Film

an. From late 1972 through 1978 we worked

also trained at CUEC (University Center

Workers’ Union was being organized at that

together on a 35-minute documentary

for Film Studies), who are just getting
started. There’s also a women’s filmmak-

time, and I became very involved, sitting

called Si podemos (Yes We Can)—a very

on the board of directors until the organi-

rewarding project. The title for the film

ing collective now. One can see women be-

zation folded in 1976. During those three

came from a spontaneous speech by a

coming more assertive, more questioning,
more involved.

years the leadership became increasingly

woman who argued, “If we work together,

class-conscious, moving consistently left-

we poor people can defeat those who want

Mexico is one of the few Latin Ameri-

ward in political orientation. Perhaps,

to exploit us and demonstrate that yes, we

can countries where there is an active fem-

looking back now, this was one of our mis-

can take power and govern ourselves.” This

inist movement. Although I am theoreti-

takes. As a union, we were unique because

speech marked the birth of a political party

cally in agreement with many of the tenets

our membership consisted not only of film-

called MAS (Movement of Socialist Wom-

of feminism (on a number of issues it is

makers and technicians, but also of critics

en), and the phrase became the group’s

impossible zot to be in agreement), I don’t

and film students, businessmen and entre-

slogan. I have also finished another film
with Franca, produced by Cine Urgente,

participate in that movement because it

preneurs, state film workers and projec-

makes me feel marginalized. I identify

tionists. Given the variety of interests rep-

called María de la Cruz, una mujer vene-

much more strongly with the kind of vitali-

resented, it was very difficult to meet such
divérse needs.

zolana (María de la Cruz, a Venezuelan

ty and power of the women of the dispos-

Woman)— the story of one day in the life of

sessed classes, who wage their struggles not

As one of the few professional film-

in isolation but as part of the whole social
fabric, with all its contradictions. I believe

makers in my country, I would say that if I
have succeeded it is because I have dedi-

other compañeras for the Associacion de

very much in the power of these women

cated myself fully to film. When I have had

Autores Cinematográficos (Filmmakers’

because I feel it; it is a living force.

to look elsewhere for means of support,

Association), a group which includes all

The last thing I want to say is that it is

particularly difficult to be a mother and a
filmmaker at the same time. I have one

a woman of the bŢbarrio.

At present I am working with some

I’ve always made sure my work was film-

film-related workers: technical staff, exhi-

related. For the last six years, I directed a

bitors, film archivists, etc. This organiza-

film workshop at the university. This year,

tional work is particularly crucial now,

daughter, now 11. While I was working on

having resigned from teaching to work full-

given the recent on-again off-again involve-

the second Nicaraguan film, she lived with

time on the Ayahuasca feature, I have

ment of the national government with film

my parents for a year and a half. I was only

managed to support myself on the income

production and regulation.

able to see her occasionally. There was a

from my documentaries. The National

two-month period, when the war in Nica-

Film Law requires exhibition of Peruvianmade shorts before the feature films in all

ragua was at its fiercest, when no one had
any news of me. Only after Somoza was
overthrown was I able to call home and let

commercial theaters, thus providing filmmakers with a modest but more or less re-

them know I was safe.

liable revenue. But whether or not one can

My daughter and I have a great rela-

Photo credits: Nora de Izque and Berta Navarro
by Zuzana Pick; Brenda Martinez and Angelina Vasquez by Julianne Burton.

earn one’s living as a filmmaker in Peru is

tionship. She has a special respect for me

still a question that can only be answered

because she sees me doing exactly the same

from year to year.

kind of things her father does. But family

1. It is estimated that at least 400 people were

killed in this plaza in downtown Mexico City
when the government had the army attack stu-

dents, workers, and bystanders during a non-

and even friends lay on quite a load of

violent public meeting.

guilt, which is directed at me for my absences, but never at her father for his. We

2. Founder of the Cuban Film Institute and its

mothers are still seen as the axis around

director from 1959 to 1982.

which the child’s world revolves.

3. One of Brazil’s most respected, influential,
and prolific filmmakers, Pereira dos Santos is
credited with providing the generative impulse
behind the Cinema Novo (New Cinema) movement, which flourished in Brazil from 1962 to

ANGELINA VASQUEZ

1968 and, by some accounts, into the ’70s.

Julianne Burton, who teaches Latin American
ica, immersed in that reality still, and fed
by occasions like this one. For people like
me who live in the “North Pole,” it is essential to participate in encounters like
these in order to renew ties with friends
and colleagues, to leave behind purely individual and geographic considerations

literature and film at the University of Califor-

nia, Santa Cruz, is currently a Latin American
Program Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington,
D.C.

Born in Czechoslovakia, raised in Colombia,
and educated in France, Zuzana Miriam Pick
now teaches at Carleton University in Ottawa

4. First prize at the Second Annual Internation-

al Festival of the New Latin American Cinema,
held in Havana in December 1980.
S. The title and key concept of a 1963 essay by

the late Glauber Rocha (a brilliant and polemical theorist and practitioner of the Cinema Novo
movement), sometimes referred to as the ‘“Aesthetics of Violence.”

and begin to think again about working

and is preparing a book on Chilean cinema in

6. Special mention at the Second Annual International Festival of the New- Latin American

more collectively.

exile.

Cinema.

50

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Ţ ali Cotors
All Lengths
All Textures

SUDIJA 99045) puv jaqdu) 1119107 Áq I1ydv1)

In the reactionary times in which we live, Black women are being socialized into a
conservative mindset. They are identifying with the white power structure (the
oppressor) in politics, fashion, and career orientation. This mindset—imitating
the “boss’”’—changed for a time during the Civil Rights Movement in the ’60s.
However, like the post-Reconstruction era when Blacks were forced to become
subservient to whites again, many Blacks today have gone back to frying their hair

to identify with the white power structure. —Loretta Campbell
©1983 Loretta Campbell and Grace Williams

S1

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Nina Fonoroff and Lisa Cartwright
Over the past several years there has been a growing trend

len is indicative of this trend toward greater accessibility—arnd

toward “new” uses of narrative by avant-garde independent filmmakers. Work toward the development of feminist experimental
film which breaks from a use of narrative altogether is being foreclosed by the currently popular use of narrative in film.
Much feminist study has been devoted to the development of a
discourse that addresses the ways in which narrative functions to
reproduce the patriarchal order.! Processes of identification (with

. . .we see each film we make as potentially reaching a wider
audience than the one before. . . .I don't feel that AMY! breaks
new ground in the way that Riddles [of the Sphinx] did. But at
the same time it's more accessible and consumable, and in that
sense it could appeal to a wider group of people. 3

camera point-of-view, with characters depicted within the film),

The first Mulvey/Wollen feature, Penthesilea (1975), attempts to

temporal continuity, the “kind” of viewing required for narrative

replace the structuring device of narrative with theoretical and

films, these are just a few aspects of narrative cinema that are

historical text. The film is divided into four formally different

called into question. With only a few exceptions,2 however, little

sequences, addressing the Amazon legend and women’s place in

attention has been given to the possibility of a radical feminist

patriarchal language. Their second feature, Riddles of the Sphinx

altogether. :

experimental film—one that breaks from the use of narrative
Writings on narrative films maintain that dominant cinema

must be criticized from within (through further narrative work) in

(1977), again reflects feminist concerns, highlighting the issue of
women’s place in language from the position of the mother. This
film, too, is structured by formally distinct sequences. Each
sequence, however, is a narrative within itself, providing the basic

order to undermine its politically repressive impact. In light of

framework of a diegesis, character development (however limited),

recent work on narrative it is evident that this results in a deeper

temporal continuity, etc. AMY (1980) provides an even less altered

investment in the very principles that are ostensibly being sub-

version of narrative, offering a feminist rendering of the story of

verted. The “new,” “disjunctive,” “deconstructive,” and “oblique”

aviator Amy Johnson. The film’s linearity is broken only intermit-

narrative films employ the same old values of mainstream cinema.

tently by short interludes such as a poetic stop-action bird-in-flight

The belief (i.e., ideology) that there is a direct or natural connection

sequence, or a mapping sequence. Crystal Gazing (1982), their

between an image and what that image represents, between what is

fourth feature, is a narrative film in the strict sense. Its avant-

seen and what is known, is necessarily reinforced in narrative film.

garde function can be read only in the content ‘“side” of the film:

New narrative filmmakers do acknowledge this “obvious” relation

It is about “surviving in London in the 80’s,”^ and deals with the

as an ideological construct. Nevertheless, they fall back on a provi-

issues of Thatcherism and rock-n-roll. Interestingly, this classical

sional acceptance ofthis “reality” in their own films. The confessed

narrative is also the first of their films that does not focus on the

need for the particular pleasure provided by narrative has been

central issue of patriarchy, but instead pictures the present rela-

overemphasized to the point of forcing an equation between narra-

tions of capital in London. With British Film Institute funding of

tive and pleasure, and, by implication, non-narrative and non-

$140,000, its rendering of a desperate political climate brings into

pleasure. This equation fails to acknowledge other less obvious

question their own position within that climate.

possibilities for pleasure in film viewing and making, and reinforces another “natural” connection—that which is understood to

The issue of economic survival is of paramount importance,
and the move to narrative reflects this concern. As funds for film-

exist between film and narrative. As this work on narrative gains

making become scarce, it becomes increasingly difficult and risky

political credence and authority, narrative takes on the appearance

to depend on granting systems for support. Much current work is

of inevitability.

done with a view toward marketing potential: Larger budgets,

The development of feminist experimental work which at-

“better” production values, and more topical themes all signal the

tempts to break from a use of narrative altogether has been sup-

move toward making films that are commercially viable products

pressed by the principles upheld in mainstream cinema, but now

—lifted from obscurity to greater “public acceptance,” from small

the same principles are also being employed within an avant-garde

film-screening spaces to art-movie houses, a step away from com-

that originally set out to oppose the mainstream. Due to the grow-

mercial houses—and, by design or default, a shift from a concern

ing indifference to non-narrative, experimental film, younger film-

for the possibilities of new uses of film to a concern for marketa-

makers barely stand a chance of hearing more than the most

bility and accessibility. These “formally accessible” films require

reduced version of its history, and only the most determined will

the sophisticated tools of mainstream cinema to effect the degree

succeed in producing experimental films in an emerging cultural/

of illusion necessary to be read familiarly. This shift toward a use

political climate that increasingly inhibits the development of such

of expensive, accessible form for political content is apparent in

work.

the Mulvey/Wollen films. One also sees it in Sally Potter’s move
from the relatively low-budget Thriller (1979) to her epic drama

Audience: The Prophet Motive
Proponents of the new narrative argue that if a film departs too

Gold (currently in production), budgeted at $230,000; and in Bette
Gordon’s move from Empty Suitcases (1980), a film (falsely) her-

radically from familiar narrative elements, the audience will

alded as both experimental and feminist, to her currently in prog-

decrease and the film will be consigned to obscurity, limiting its

ress highly-funded production Variety, a disjunctive narrative

potential for large-scale political effectiveness. It is assumed that
the most effective means to undermine mainstream cinema is to

about pornography.

preserve selected narrative elements, within which departures can
be made. The idea is that one elicits a set of accustomed formal
viewing expectations, all the better to shatter them.
Here makers of new narratives find themselves in the perfect
double-bind. A need for a break from narrative is nobly acknowledged by filmmakers but deployment of narrative “form” is justi-

True, one might conclude from this upward mobility of the
“avant-garde” that, finally, new avant-garde filmwork is being
acknowledged with funds. But a more accurate reading might be
that the avant-garde is formulating its own “new” Hollywood
through private and government money. This situation is neither
new nor advanced.
We are not suggesting that the audience should never be con-

fied by a saving grace: political content. That their films depend

sidered in making films. But it is hazardous to endow the audience

on the very principles being questioned is leniently excused—

with a limited understanding or tolerance and to thereby assume a

silenced—by a liberal audience, sympathetic to the filmmakers’

limit of intelligibility within a film, beyond which it will be too

avowed radical intentions, and willing to overlook the discrepancy
between these intentions and the actual films.

obscure to sustain people’s interest. And this fallacy often goes

The work of British filmmakers Laura Mulvey and Peter Wol52

unchallenged—is excused and even justified by an avant-garde
audience sympathetic to the filmmakers’ political intentions. With
©1983 Nina Fonoroff and Lisa Cartwright

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SO WHAT

IS NEW?

such unequivocal trust, the filmmakers assume a position of omni-

its proper, intelligible place in the text and that an ending be-

potence; they are allowed a condescending attitude toward their

fore the text has succeeded in integrating and explaining them

potential audience. The questions most often raised concern “what

all would be an untimely one indeed. The new narrative ignores

they want” and “what they need to know,” in a style resembling

this rule. Opacity, quotations from all sorts of sources without

market research. The fact that filmmakers are playing into a

stating what their relevance might be, and the fluctuating sta-

romantic myth of the artist as prophet/mentor is never stated. And
the vague conjectures about the limit of tolerance within film
remain the dividing line in this hierarchy, implicit in the films and
in discussions about them.
“But the discourse must go on. So one invents obscurities.” °
One strategy in the new films that is supposed to subvert tradi-

tus of sequences as fiction or non-fiction are evidences of this. °
Opacity indicates self-consciousness on the part of the filmmaker,
thus foregrounding his/her presence within the work. It also indicates the presence of critical/theoretical work:
Opacity often leads the viewer to assume the presence of theoretical groundwork and therefore to look for it, and it also

tional narrative is quotation, often taking the form of written or

signals an inexhaustibility to the work, an idea that it needs

spoken text within the film. In an effort to undercut the seductive

repeated screenings to be understood to any degree. But the

power of the image, voiceover narration literally speaks ideas

sense of opacity often remains even after the theory has been

developed out of Marxism, psychoanalysis, and semiotics. Con-

understood. This grows out of a general toleration these films

stance Penley has stated: “Images have very little power in them-

have for loose ends; and the general opposition to the notion

selves; their power of fascination and identification is too strong.

that every element of a text should be accounted for by the text.

That is why there must always be a commentary orn the image
simultaneously of and with them.” 6
The work of Jean-Luc Godard has been a source of inspiration
for many filmmakers who employ this strategy. A case in point is
his film Le Gai Savoir (1968), in which media images, acted
sequences, documentary-style sequences, and political theorizing/

The opacity is, in many cases, no more than the impossibility of
accounting for some of its elements.?
The writers go on to imply that the theoretical underpinnings of a
film are often difficult to grasp; and, although opacity is not discussed here in relation to transparency, one assumes that it is
intended to set up an experience whereby there is limited possibil-

poeticizing are intercut and overlapped in a dense intertextual

ity for identification because the relationship between reality and

montage. Spoken/written language is intended as commentary on

what is being represented is called into question. Instead, the

and analysis of the ideology manifested in the images. The inclu-

authors link “opacity” with ‘“unaccountability’” as though certain

sion of a multiplicity of elements purportedly provides a prime

elements of the story were omitted, disrupting the customary

situation for a more dialectical viewing: The greater the amount of

cause-and-effect relation between events, but only to the extent
that leads the viewer to wonder about—and search for—the miss-

elements placed before us, the greater the number of juxtapositions
of meanings can occur. Knowledge of Godard’s intentions for a

ing parts. One wonders whether “opacity” here isn’t being used

more dialectical viewing situation, however, fails to effect that
experience. In watching the film we are provided with a complicat-

synonymously with “obscurity” and “inscrutability”—which would,
in the end, leave the viewer in the same relation to the film as

ed picture or model of dialectics—with a confusion of relations

would a Hollywood noir film wherein some key moments in the

between image and image, image and sound, sound and sound.

drama were arbitrarily omitted. The authors go on to say:

But this presentation never addresses the complex dialectical relation between image and meaning—the actual workings of representation within and through images.
Yvonne Rainer’s Journeys from Berlin (1979) also provides a
dense intertextual construction, and Sigmund Freud's Dora (1979),
although its combination of texts is less dense and more clearly
readable, works in much the same way. Such films, which speak a
criticial, historical, or theoretical tract, compound rather than
subvert the power of fascination and identification exerted by film
images. The use of texts drawn from other areas obfuscates the still

. . . opacity can become a reassuring quality for the viewer, convincing her or him that everything is, after all, in its proper
place, that the artist remains in control by making use of mechanisms that are not fully apparent to the audience. Opacity
gives one the idea that theory is behind the film, clear to the
filmmakers, and that therefore everything in the work is motivated, and that it is worthy of trust. And this, in turn, justifies
the opacity. A neat circle of opacity, motivation, trustworthiness, justification, acceptance, and again opacity.'0

untouched relation between the image and what that image is

It seems ironic that a theory intended originally to prescribe an

intended to represent. A text can go no further than to instruct us

active viewing possibility, directed toward criticism and question-

within its own terms, providing, literally, a reading of the function

ing of motivation and the process of viewing itself, should now be

of images. Further, to assume that discursive language breaks the

called upon to produce a very different effect: trust, unequivocal

hold of images is to assume that the spoken text is without its own

acceptance of what is presented because the filmmaker “knows

powers of seduction. The authority of voice/voice of authority com-

what he/she is doing,” and, ultimately, yet another case of invest-

pounds the authority of image.

ment in the myth of the artist as mentor/prophet. The foreground-

“Quotation” is also used in films in the form of references: to
the films of a particular director; to the filmmakers’ own past

ing of the filmmaker: the cult of personality.
The inscription of theory in many of the new narratives makes

work; and to popular genres of both Hollywood and non-main-

a certain kind of analysis not only possible, but necessary. The

stream narrative film. The work of Amos Poe (Subway Riders, The

confusion between the problems specific to film theory/analysis

Foreigner, Unmade Beds), Beth and Scott B (Vortex), and Manuel

and film practice has led to a use of literary analysis as a primary

de Landa (Raw Nerves) all reflect the current interest in film noir.

mode of film viewing. The success of the film is measured by how

Particularly in the case of Raw Nerves and Subway Riders, Chris-

well it illustrates a particular issue, which can then be subjected to

tine Noll Brinckmann and Grahame Weinbren see a radical depar-

analysis. In turn a particular theoretical take is required to under-

ture from the genre that inspired them, and indeed from narrative

stand the film, and a particular theoretical background is presup-

form itself, through these films’ inclusion (and exclusion) of ele-

posed. Reading a film as an illustration of literary ideas has come

ments that render them opaque. Opacity is distinguished from the

to be regarded not only as a possible means for knowledge of a

principle of transparency that is at work in mainstream films:

certain kind in certain films, but as the means, par excellence, for
certain knowledge in/of all film work.

Traditional narrative is based on the rule that all elements
should combine to form a unity, that each element should have

In this scheme, the filmmaker and the critic/theorist have
entered into a curious symbiotic relationship, in which the film53

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maker buries a bone that the critic, at some later point, can unearth. Many recent narrative films function as setups for critical
analysis: Theoretical discourse becomes the subtext of the film,
which becomes a sitting duck for the critic, whose reading was prepared beforehand. Films that play on such a symbiotic relationship seem to suggest that nothing new can be done in film—that
the best a contemporary filmmaker can do is to repeat endless
variations of old forms. '!
In the absence of characters with whom to identify, the sophisticated avant-garde film spectator now identifies within a body of
knowledge, within theory. The dramaturgy of traditional narrative
has simply been supplanted by a grammaturgy of theoretical principles. The traditional story has been replaced by a larger story—
theory. The “story” becomes even grander when the psyche of the
filmmaker is brought into the picture as a subject to be analyzed
conjointly with the film. The theory of psychoanalysis is used as a
cover, merging the respective narratives of the filmmaker’s psyche
and the film itself into an aggregate ‘case history.”
Shifting Signifier
Another strategy that is supposed to challenge traditional narrative codes is that of thwarting character development. The depiction of human beings with elusive identities allegedly serves to
subvert empathy and identification between the viewer and the
protagonist.
The device of the ‘shifting signifier” is commonly employed in
new narrative films. Yvonne Rainer’s Film About a Woman
Who... (1974) and Kristina Talking Pictures (1976) are two early
films which experiment with this device as a strategy for breaking
the power of character identification. Gordon’s Empty Suitcases is
a later use of this device in which the pronoun ‘“she” is used, in

edge of the theory behind this sequence, it is doubtful whether one
will read it as against seduction. If anything, the “male” nature of
the gaze is reinforced by such a strategy. Analysis, bearing no
relation to the film itself, is what prevents this scene from functioning as it would in any mainstream film.
The interruption or disjunction of the narrative line is yet
another strategy employed to undermine the viewer’s engagement.
This tactic is evident in the fractured narratives of such films as
Empty Suitcases which, rather than breaking with narrative, provides multiple, limited narrative developments in an endless deferral of completion. This process is intended to unfix meaning,
opening up multiple readings and disengaging the viewer from the
drive for completion, yet providing enough narrative satisfaction.
But how long can a story continue before something takes place;
before some specific meaning is produced? This strategy assumes
a calibrated model of narrative, in which the viewer’s engagement
(and subsequent fixing of meaning) occurs only at certain intervals.
The filmmaker functions as manipulator, intermittently leading
on and closing off the viewer. This kind of withdrawal tactic
assumes that the only moment when ‘“something” takes place is at
the instance of climax—a dangerously mistaken assumption. The
comparatively straightforward appeal of mainstream narrative has
taken on a coy seductiveness in these altered versions, veiling the
operations of narrative in a game of hard-to-get. Complication is
simply posing as dialectics.
Diegesis
The term ‘“diegesis” has considerable currency in discussions
about narrative film. “Diegetic” elements within film are defined
as those elements that take place “naturally,” within the world
constructed by the story of the film—i.e., any situation, thought, or

voiceover narration and intertitles, to refer to a number of different

dream that is plausible within the context of the constructed fic-

female protagonists, all of whom appear on the screen at different

tion. “Nondiegetic” elements, on the other hand, are those that
constitute other “information ” that falls outside the realm of the

times and in different settings. Since no cohesive story is built
around a central protagonist, an ambiguity develops in regard to
the identity of “she” at any given point in the film. The female
characters thus become interchangeable with one another.
Instead of the highly developed characters presented by mainstream cinema, we now have an assortment of appearances, semblances and archetypes. What takes place is a “shattering” of
character in which each fragment carries the earmarks of the
whole that engendered it.
The use of the archetype claims to bring about an awareness of
the archetypal nature not only of the characters within the particular film, but also, by implication, of all filmic depiction of
human behavior. As a reducèd model, the archetype supposedly
facilitates the process of analysis and dissection for the viewer.
Identification is no longer elicited through empathy with a character undergoing conflict, but through the vicarious experience of
style. Instead of a real break with unity of character, we are left
with a multiplicity of reduced archetypes, with “whom” we can
still identify, albeit in a more ambiguous way. But ambiguous
processes of identification still remain processes of identification.
From whence the supposition that analysis precludes seduction?
Laura Mulvey’s article “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cine-

film’s fictional world (i.e., Hollywood background music). The
dividing line between diegesis and nondiegesis is growing increasingly blurred, it is said, in new narrative films.
The very concept of diegesis presupposes that a separation can
be made between a kind of para-reality and what are obviously
nonrealistic materials, all within the same experience of watching
the same film. This model fails to account for the fact that a film
establishes its own terms, its own context. What is constructed,
therefore, sets the terms of its own reality as film. Everything that
takes place within a particular film is by definition ‘“diegetic”—it
belongs to a particular framework which may be modeled in the
image of the everyday world but which nonetheless becomes something different, on the level of experience, once it is placed within
the film-viewing context. There is a fundamental misunderstanding about the nature of film in the very designation of diegetic and
nondiegetic elements. “Blurring” a nondistinction seems absurd.
As far as non-narrative filmmakers are concerned, the only nondiegetic moment occurs when the film stops, and the film-viewing
experience is over.
The idea of “blurring distinctions” forms the cornerstone for
discussion of recent developments in narrative film. Diegesis/nondiegesis, fiction/nonfiction, form/content, personal/political,

ma”'!2 advanced feminist film study by proposing a political use of

objective/subjective—how did these elements gain the stability as

psychoanalysis in the study of mainstream narrative cinema. It was

fixed categories to be expressed as pairs of opposites, and then to

not a prescriptive theory for film practice. Her emphasis is on the

be posited as “blurred distinctions”? To accept such distinctions

use of psychoanalysis to reveal and dismantle the workings of

as more than what they are (terms of convenience), one must first

patriarchy within narrative cinema, especially in regard to representations of women in subservience to the male gaze.

tice. We do not accept this precondition: We believe it is necessary

Gordon’s Empty Suitcases and Jackie Raynal’s Deux Fois

to shatter this conceptual framework in order to proceed with film.

accept narrative convention as the very foundation of all film prac-

(1970) have been cited as films that address this problem. In the
case of Raynal, the filmmaker turns the camera on herself, at
times defiantly staring into the camera—at once the object and the

History

The case for narrative film is based on the belief that a film

subject of her own gaze, at once “male” and “female.” This simul-

practice cannot develop “out of the blue”; that one has to start

taneous engagement with and critical/analytical relation to her

somewhere, within the history of film. Yet a history, theory, and

own image is intended to promote the viewer’s awareness of—and

practice of non-narrative feminist experimental film is not only

therefore rupture with—the problematic seductive nature of the

possible, but already exists. From the experimental work of Ger-

image. Yet a picture of a seductive woman “tells” us nothing about

maine Dulac, rarely shown and often overlooked in favor of her

the nature of pictures, seduction, or women. Without prior knowl-

more commercial, narrative films, to current work such as that of

54

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Su Friedrich and Leslie Thornton in the U.S., and that of Lis

the last word—the ultimate strategy—in a long history of attempts

Rhodes in England, it is evident that feminist non-narrative experimental film can be made.
As with any other area, experimental film is not without its own
specific problems, which need to be addressed within the terms of
feminism. A fratriarchy of experimental film has developed with

at anti-illusionist filmmaking. We mistrust the sense of conclusiveness implicit in the very act of assertion. The nature of experimental film belies any attempt at a fixed method or procedure; the
work needs to proceed in a manner that assumes no ultimate end,
no goal for film outside of the real materials and conditions of film

its own standards of “quality” to protect, with an absolute faith in

itself. By proposing a feminist film practice, we are necessarily

certain principles and ideals, which themselves mirror patriarchal

proposing an experimental method—a method that questions the

ideology. The North American structural film movement, for

very grounds of film, assuming nothing as given but the materials

example, took the ideal of a positivist science as its starting point,

of film themselves—not simply film stock, camera, etc., but es-

and the work of Michael Snow, Hollis Frampton, George Landow,

pecially the processes and relations of filmmaking and film-viewing.

and others relies heavily on the aims and methods of that discipline.

This reflects the desire not to reproduce already-existing represen-

In these films it is evident that the answer being sought, the

tations, which have been immeasurably limiting and damaging to

object of the experiment, is inscribed in the very questions asked:

us. The present impossibility for women to represent themselves

The “knowledge” to be gained is determined in advance. The very

properly, accurately, has led to an awareness not only of the inade-

terms of this film practice, the set of rules that govern it, delineate

quacy of the aims and intentions of dominant cinema but also of

and restrict the area of inquiry, and thereby foreclose the possibility

the impossibility of its main task: to represent. We wish to finally

of any result that was not already known from the outset of the

acknowledge this impossibility and to move on to a use of film that

process. The ideal of pure Science, applied to film, provides no

attempts no mastery of meaning, assumes no ultimate knowledge

guarantee of freedom from the ideology inscribed within the very

of reality through film. For film will fail to advance any under-

materials of film. On the contrary, it reflects the patriarchal ideol-

standing of these problems unless it first deals with the complex

ogy from which it originated, and which it continues to serve.

problems within the terms of film:

Another development, the “lyrical” or “visionary” film (i.e.,

Film first of all has to function in cinematographic terms as

Stan Brakhage), posits a world in which an entirely new set of

any art or science must operate in reference to the development

physical and social principles is in operation. In a pseudo-naif

of their particular mode of expression. This does not evacuate

search for a more ‘“pure” vision, a return to an unadulterated

“content” as it assumes it to be a preliminary question what

cinema. :

the making and viewing of films that provide a “kind” of plea-

launched unified theories, positing fixed methods and procedures.

sure that does not depend on the patriarchal narrative mode (nor

mode of seeing, visionary filmmakers exempt themselves from
the responsibility of examining and challenging the very myths and
ideals of an ideology which they buy into in their use of the tools of

film-content could be, and to study, contrive, invent the precise
ways it could be inscribed in film.15
In order to do this it is necessary to open up the possibility for

Men who have sought a break with the cinema of the past have

We are loath to posit an argument that would assert, definitively,

on its inverse in the form of a ‘“neo-feminist” use of film for “dif-

UE;
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ferent” representations of women). A use of film that breaks with
the patriarchal foundation of sexual division is necessary for feminist filmwork to proceed.
The ultimate impossibility of film in its use for patriarchy—the
problematic lack of correspondence between image and meaning,
between the real of film and that of other areas of life—is no longer
a cause for lament, but a source of relief and inspiration for women
working in film.

1. The writings of the Camera Obscura Collective, Claire Johnston, E. Ann

Kaplan, and Mary Anne Doane are just a few instances in a long line of
different approaches to deconstructing/analyzing narrative within an
avant-garde context.

2. Constance Penley, Felicity Sparrow, Lis Rhodes, Nancy Woods, and Su
Friedrich are a few women who have begun a written feminist discourse
addressing the problems and possibilities of experimental filmwork for
women.

3. Interview with Laura Mulvey by Nina Danino and Lucy Moy-Thomas,
Undercut, no.6 (Winter 1982-83), p. 11.
4. Ad copy from film journals.
5. Samuel Beckett, I/I Seen Ill Said (New York: Grove Press, 1974).

6. Constance Penley, ‘The Avant-Garde and Its Imaginary,” Camera Obscura, no. 2 (Fall 1977), p. 25.

7. A film by Claire Pajaczkowska, Jane Weinstock, Andrew Tyndall, and
Anthony McCall.

8. Christine Noll Brinckmann and Grahame Weinbren, ‘“Mutations of
Film Narrative,” Idioľects, no. 12 (Fall 1982), p. 28.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. “Theory films” that function as studies in Marxist, psychoanalytic, and

semiotic analyses make redundant what already exists in dominant cinema.
This redundancy becomes evident when we note that these theories have
been applied with equal success to new avant-garde narratives and to old
Hollywood narratives—particularly those of the 40s and 50s, in which the
operations of seduction are so visible as to have provided perfect case
studies for such analysis.

12. Laura Mulvey, ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Screen (1974).
13. This article has been used as a plan of action not only for feminist film
theorists, but for filmmakers, though it offers no plan of action for the
production of films.

14. Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure.”
15. Rose Lowder, ‘Reflections on Experimental Film” (1982, unpublished).

Nina Fonoroff is a filmmaker living in New York City.
Lisa Cartwright is a filmmaker living in New York City.

Adynata (1983) by Leslie Thornton
56

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Neither Perso

Cathy Joritz
The quiet release of Personal Best last spring stirred intermittent outrage and excitement in the lesbian, gay, and women’s

plagiarize, distort, and destroy our images and films. Lesbian independent filmmakers are in an extremely vulnerable position be-

press. Never before had Hollywood depicted women with such

cause it is usually difficult and often impossible to control admit-

strength and commitment. Never before had lesbianism been con-

tance to film screenings. (Many commercial and independent thea-

sidered a real possibility—without the usual adornments of maso-

tres do not allow “women only” access.) The filmmaker then faces

chism, self-loathing, or suicide. Yet in the same film lesbians were

the predictable spattering of bug-eyed gawkers in her predomi-

sadly trivialized; and as usual the male characters intervened, re-

nantly female audience. At best, these unwelcome men will pay

suming control of the women and their lives.

their money, watch the film, and go home. At worst, they will take

In an unfortunate oversight by these publications, criticism was

pictures (in an effort to sell sex-related scenes), write reviews, and

generally directed at the film’s director, Robert Towne, and the

hassle the women inside. Lesbian filmmakers must also confront

film itself, but never took aim at the mass media’s coverage, which

enormous mass ignorance about lesbian sexuality and all the re-

influenced much of the initial reception and final opinion of the
film. Newspaper and magazine articles, gossip-rag columns, TV

sulting defense mechanisms of the straight world.
Personal Best proved to be far from an ideal film, but its release

previews, and advertisements were all extremely important fore-

was an important warning to women of the kind of media treat-

runners of the audience’s response to Personal Best and, more cru-

ment to expect when we unleash our own visions on an ill-prepared

cially, of their consideration of its lesbian and bisexual characters

public. It also clearly indicates the bitter trials awaiting actresses

and their relationship.

who dare to accept lesbian roles—a lesson deliberately employed

Although the film’s premise assumes the natural presence of
lesbian women, the media focused solely on the sensational. They

to keep women quaking with trepidation at the mere prospect.
With this in mind, an environment must be established where

falsely portrayed Personal Best as a film about lesbians and relent-

creative women are assured VISIBLE support.

lessly exploited the film’s two celluloid emissaries, Patrice Donnelly

It is all too easy to criticize a film (like Personal Best) for in-

and Mariel Hemingway. Moralistic, angry critics leaped onto spu-

cluding a less than perfect feminist/lesbian content; but our anger

rious evidence, attempting to “prove” that the film is pro-lesbian/

at the film must be sustained beyond the point of initial outrage.

anti-male propaganda, while liberal critics were most interested in

Women must aim their sights higher and channel rage into effec-

Personal Best as the story of the maturation of a young woman

tive and enduring action. We must remain alert and defensive

temporarily gone astray.

against the misogynist media and agree to write letters, make

To voyeuristic, gossip-hungry writers, Towne supplied extra-

phone calls, throw eggs, drop bombs, whatever, so that strong and

ordinary, minute details of the women’s considerably pampered

free work is produced. Only through indefatigable rebuttal and an

preparation for the shooting of the “love scene.” (This juicy infor-

uncompromising stance will any change occur. Women must pave

mation was presented as though the “unnatural act” of a very
natural embrace would otherwise have been unthinkable.) Writers

the way for each other.

eagerly collaborated. They probed into Donnelly’s and Hemingway’s personal lives and cornered each into providing evidence of
her heterosexuality. Hemingway complied. She dropped naive and
insulting comments about lesbians and revealed with pride news of
her role in an upcoming Playboy film. Donnelly recited wellrehearsed speeches about how she had to feign an attraction for
“Mariel’s character” while simultaneously denying that her own
character (Tori) was a lesbian. Ironically, off screen, the actresses
undermined the film’s own assumption (that lesbianism is ‘“no big
deal”) and consequently betrayed a potentially sympathetic audience. A basic publicity sham was exposed. The unfortunate truth
is that in every interview with Donnelly, Hemingway, or Towne, the
off-screen sexuality of the women was unnecessarily challenged.
Lesbianism was peered into and poked at like an undesirable, freak
disease.
Personal Best provided an easy target for the sexploitation tactics of the man-handled media. Playboy printed a special two-page
spread of stills from the film and usurped Hemingway’s manfetching film splits by posing her in the same manner but without a
leotard. Rolling Stone followed suit with overhead body shots of
the famous pose. As progressively more twisted reviews and leering
photographs were published, the more screamingly apparent it
became how easily men can control any publicly screened film, or

Photo from BOND/WELD (1982) by Cathy Joritz. Through combining
personal footage and images of notable straight and lesbian women, this
film attempts to create a joyful view of lesbians while humorously shatter-

ing some media misrepresentations.

any public event—and how effortlessly they conclude that the
property was created solely for their base entertainment.
Women filmmakers must be especially concerned about this
dilemma if we want to work freely, without fear that men will
©1983 Cathy Joritz

Chicago filmmaker Cathy Joritz currently lives in West Germany, where
she is working on a new film, playing drums in a women’s band, and riding

daily at an all-woman’s stable.
57

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Loretta Campbell
“, , .those motion pictures made for thea-

day. They are the role models. As for indi-

ter distribution that have a Black produ-

viduals, I respect people like Toni Motrtri-

wanted to show how hard their struggles
are and yet how well they are coping.

cer, director or writer, or Black performers

son, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, James

Alile Sharon Larkin: I have a great deal of

that speak to Black audiences or inciden-

Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, etc.—Black

respect for my mother’s generation of

tally to white audiences possessed of pre-

writers who bring those everyday situations

Black women. They worked and raised us

ternatural curiosity, attentiveness or sensi-

into a deeper focus so that we can relate

—whole families—alone, and had to en-

bility toward racial matters, and that

similar experiences.

dure watching their men made crazy or

emerge from self-conscious intentions,

turned into alcoholics, etc. They seemed to

whether artistic or political, to illuminate

I admire people who have the courage
to bare all—fictional or nonfictional, some-

the Afro-American experience.”

times positive, sometimes painful, some-

can values; today you can see Black people

times joyful and oftentimes private experi-

really assimilating Western sexual mores,

—Thomas Cripps, Black Film as Genre

be able to retain more of our Afro-Ameri-

ences—to the public. There are numerous

and a real division seems to be happening,

The women interviewed for this article

Black writers, men and women—in the

where Black people identify with every

are responsible for part of this definition—

past (Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hur-

other kind of movement as opposed to the

they illuminate the Afro-American experi-

ston, Ralph Ellison) and in the present—

survival of Black people on this planet. I
also look to our historical figures for in-

ence. Ranging in age from early twenties to
late forties, they have worked as indepen-

things in life that become complex when
one is trying to express them to others.

spiration.
lison, the director Vittorio DeSica, and

tion films, or videotapes. Each woman was

They try to make us all aware of being sensitive to others and ourselves. There are

lou and Gordon Parks.

dent filmmakers for two to 10 years, making documentaries, feature films, short ficasked a number of questions (see box). I

role models walking down the street every-

have selected, within each question, the

day, riding on the bus, or at the grocery

answers that seemed most representative.

store. Their spirit or lack of spirit keeps

If several women concurred in their exper-

me moving on in a positive direction. There

iences or opinions, their responses may be

are so many role models and they provide

represented by one or two comments (so as

the inspiration for my films.

to avoid constant repetition).
As artists who remake and create
images in response to the socialization pro-

Ayoka Chenzira: Syvilla Forte (the subject
of my film Syvilla: They Dance to Her
Drum) was a role model, a reinforcement

cess, these filmmakers are pioneers. They

for unsung Black heroines. My mother
also was a role model. Thomas Pinnock,

are essentially retelling history—casting

my husband, the choreographer and danc-

the heroines in our own image. The role
models for their films are all of us.
Melvonna Ballenger: My first role models
were, of course, my mother, grandmother,
and aunts—women who kept going no
matter what the consequences were. Also
my father, grandfathers, my extended
family. I don’t think we give enough credit
to the people who helped us through the

er, is also a role model for me.

Edie Lynch: My role models are Ralph Elmultifaceted artists such as Maya Ange-

Fronza Woods: I don’t have any role models as such, but there are people I admire
and who have influenced my life. Some of
them are close friends, some are public
personalities. If I were to draw up a list
today, it would include my mother, some
close friends, Bill Moyers, Gregory Jackson, Lena Horne (as an older woman), Barbara Jordan, George Steiner, Myles Horton, Malcolm X, and Georgia O’Keefe. We
have more real heroes and heroic people in
this country than we acknowledge.

Kathleen Collins: My father, now deceased,
was my role model. In some ways every-

The films made by these women focus

thing I do in my life is for him. He was an

on women’s stories—teenage unwed moth-

extraordinary man. I was taught I could do

ers, stereotyped images of women in socie-

anything I wanted to do. I just had to do it.

ty, Black women’s hair care, biographies

Mother was a role model also, as was my
sister. I think my mother was my best ally
—both parents were.

of dancers, Black male-Black female relationships, and more. Often these are
themes not depicted in mainstream cinema. By creating and promoting our own

process of growing up in this society,

Cynthia Ealey/Lyn Blum: Without advo-

through the everyday routine living situa-

cating teenage pregnancy, we believe that

images on film, then, these women offer a

tions that brought us to where we are to-

the women in our tape are role models. We

counterimage to the stereotyped Hollywood

Questions in Survey

Yes No NR

. Are you a full-time filmmaker?

2

o Uu A

N

and the filmmaking community?
9. Do you have a networking system?

BEAR Nad A [R A
11. Are you an independent filmmaker?

10

Fronza Woods. Photo by Lona O'Connor.

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image of Black women that Blacks must

There seems to be more of the blood, sweat

eradicate. It is perhaps the ‘fight fire with

and tears of the people on your crew who

fire” theory of reeducation. Kathleen Col-

are interested in what you have to say on

lins and Jacqueline Frazier both com-

film or whatever you do creatively. On the

mented that they use experiences from

other hand, you can run the “experience”

their own lives as subject matter for their

thing into the ground. Anything you do

films. Jean Facey, however, prefers making
documentaries, drama, and children’s

enough times, paid or unpaid, will become

material. Her ideas are “generated from

would be nice to pay talent and crew mem-

news, cultural events, historical informa-

bers a regular salary at least on a minimal

tion, and personal experience.” Other

basis, so that filmmaking doesn’t become

“experience” in some way or another. It

women suggest a similar kind of mix.
Melvonna Ballenger: Personal and impersonal experiences inspire me the most.

a weekend interest, job, or hobby. As an
world view on Black people. So far the
theme of ‘“blind” assimilation of Western

What I mean by that is that I try to utilize

culture and values operates in both Your

certain events in my own life or in the lives

Children Come Back to You (societal val-

of people around me whom I know, or in

ues) and A Different Image (Western sex-

my family, or events from anyone’s life

ism). My latest project, The Kitchen, will

that I might find interesting, and weave

mirror the Black community’s almost total

the story out of that onto film. ‘“Imperson-

acceptance of white beauty standards. I

al” experiences are important, too, in that
I am concerned that our Black lives, our

believe it is important not only to mirror

history, its richness and versatility, seems

will initiate dialogue/analysis and make

to go unnoticed and is not considered im-

people aspire to a different way of life. I

portant enough for a “majority audience.”

feel we must constantly question the Euro-

Therefore, we don’t see many meaningful

centric values that are being imposed on

and positive Black images on TV and film

people of color. Interestingly enough, I

screens today. I try to use certain themes

find this Eurocentric view among the poli-

that in one way or another relate to a reasonable amount of the. Black audience

tical left.

my community but to create images that

Edie Lynch: I am interested in simple human conditions. Seeing an old man and
woman walking down the street, hand in
hand, could make me want to document
“Loneliness” or “Growing Old Together.”
Fronza Woods: I like films about real people. I am inspired by almost everything but
especially by struggle. I am interested in
people who take on a challenge, no matter
how great or small, and come to terms with
it. What inspires me are people who don’t
sit on life’s rump but have the courage,

Ayoka Ghehnzira

energy, and audacity not only to grab it by
the horns, but to steer it as well.

(transcending class, color,
Given that mainstream cinema is inherently exclusive of Third World people

independent filmmaker, it is important to
have your investment returned—but it
takes so long. If your film does well, say in
rental requests, it still might take years to
get your initial investment back. But it also
provides exposure for you and the relief
and achievement of having a film that is
completed.
Jean G. Facey: At this moment I am an
independent filmmaker because I am just
getting started. I do believe, however, that

In so doing I will be free of many of the con-

straints that would be placed on me from
established production companies. If I remain independent I will be afforded greater latitude and flexibility.
Jacqueline Frazier: First I was independent by necessity, and now I am by choice.
Spending my own money on films gives me
freedom to say what I want or what I think
needs to be said about Blacks without having to water it down for producers or an
audience that might get “offended.” Also
the movie industry has a big “who you

know” syndrome and, unless you're
backed by a studio, it’s hard to raise
enough money to make quality Black films.
Alile Sharon Larkin: I am part of the independent Black cinema movement. I believe
it is important for Black people to control
their own image. Black people working in
the established ‘“Western’” film industry
do not have the power that we have. It is

and women, the first decision to be made
their way into this industry or create an alternative cinema. These women chose the
Cynthia Ealey/Lyn Blum: We have made
only one tape (on teenage pregnancy), with

latter option.

Melvonna Ballenger: I am an independent

no intentions of making others. Our in-

filmmaker, and by choice. First of all,

spiration came from the remarkable way

there doesn’t seem to be much demand by

the young women in our group took care of

the major studios or big independent pro-

themselves and their babies, accepting
responsibility, working hard to figure out

duction companies to really invest or take
a chance on even more established direc-

the system, etc. Also, we knew the kinds of

tors and producers, the more established

tapes that were currently available for

Black male directors, producers, writers,

young women (mostly made by adoption

etc., let alone lesser known or unknown

agencies, by white filmmakers and white

Black women directors, producers, writers,

agencies, about young white women). We

and then get behind those people and pro-

wanted to give the women in our group the

mote their product. So I never really put

chance to tell their stories, with the opportunity to do away with some of the myths
and stereotypes.

It is obvious that the fight against exist-

all my energy into trying to become a “Hol-

ing pernicious images requires money for

lywood” director or producer, film or tele-

ammunition. I submit that this money is

vision go’`fer. I think that as an independent

not readily available for Black women
filmmakers. The films they want to create

Alile Sharon Larkin: My art comes out of

producer or director, you have a little more

the African experience historically, and, to

control over the product’s content. Not so

date, it has dealt with the effect of Western

many hard-core salaries, jobs, union regu-

deliberately refute the standard images of

culture. It’s a look at the Eurocentric

lations, etc., are caught up into the film.

Black experience and, in so doing, inval-

are considered counterculture because they

59

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idate the socialization process. Since the

case their talent to an agent, etc., and for

process rewards only those who support it,

the chance to use their craft. Crew mem-

funding sources have little interest in films

bers donate their skills in a specific area—

by and about Black women.
Fundraising for Black women filmmakers carries the double burden of the
indifference of white funding agencies and
the lack of sophistication of Black funding

sound, lighting, etc., for the opportunity to
gain and increase their skills. And the
director or producer—myself? Well, I try
to pool the talent together with the crew
and work out my concepts and the script

agencies. Kathe Sandler, for example,

and hopefully—because I’m learning too

spent two years raising the money for her

—come up with something close to the ori-

film Remembering Thelma—money to

ginal idea. So, yes, it is something learned

complete and publicize her film. She

from experience and of course you have to

approached a Black magazine at one point

have some idea of the techniques and

for funding and was told that there was no

equipment within your access and availa-

audience for a film about a Black woman.

ble resources to do a good job and end up

Funding for these filmmakers, then, is

with a good and creative product.

a combination of money raised from

Ayoka Chenzira: Black women filmmak-

grants, working, and donations. Frequent-

ers are often funded through government

ly a filmmaker uses her own money to
make a presentation film (a part of the in-

grants and women’s organizations—
NYSCA, The Eastman Fund, Astraea

tended work) to show the funding agen-

Foundation, etc. I am presently working at

cies. If they like what they see, they fund

the BFF and am able to support my film-

the rest of the project. It helps if you have a

making comfortably. It is politically very

reputation, of course, so that money will be

dangerous to believe that the only way to

easier to raise—though that doesn't always

make films is to have a huge budget. That

mean much. Carol Lawrence found that

kind of thinking is pushing Blacks out of

her filmmaking could not even convince

the market. One of the ways a filmmaker
can finance a film is to trade off the ser-

Black businessmen to finance her films.

Edie Lynch

number of years, and we used those same
skills for budgeting the tape. We had a few
thousand dollars of program money left in
our organization budget; not enough to
begin a new group but enough perhaps to
start the videotape. We also received money from Unity Settlement Association, a
local money-giving organization for ‘“wor-

thy” causes. è
Jean G. Facey: I divide my time between
practicing as a Registered Nurse and making films. I have obtained funding from
friends and resources, and have deferred
many expenses, such as lab costs.

“They never understood films—either as
investment or tax shelters,” she said (Black

vices. For example, crew members may

Alile Sharon Larkin: I must work full-time

work for low wages in order to use the

outside film to support not'only myself but

Enterprise, Sept. 1982).

experience on a resumé, or as a school cre-

my film work as well. I have worked as a

dit. Crew members might also be filmmakèrs themselves and ask that a favor be

temporary secretary for businesses and

completing one film and beginning another seèms to be two years. It should be

done for them in return—like working on

education programs and I currently teach

noted that none of the women interviewed

their film.

The average length of time between

make a living as filmmakers. Many make
their “real” living in other professions. For
example, Collins teaches at City College,
Facey works as a registered nurse, and
Chenzira is the Arts Administrator of the
Black Filmmaker Foundation (BFF).
Of particular interest is the support
that these filmmakers receive from family
and friends. All specified that parents,
spouses, or siblings had made donations of
time and money to their projects.
Because there is limited interest from
the public, what money there is (usually
earned through a full-time job) has to be
used expertly. Many hats have to be worn
by these filmmakers, including budgeting
the money once it is raised. But the response of all these women illustrates the
capacity they have for making it through.
Melvonna Ballenger: My primary source of
funding comes (slowly) from working,
loans, and donations. Although there have
been extremely few opportunities for me to
work professionally in a salaried position, I
consider myself a full-time filmmaker because of my training, interest, and experience in producing films. How do I budget

Kathleen Collins: I teach film, write plays,
and make films. I raised money for my
first movie myself. Using that money, I got
which was sold to European television. I
don’t expect to get a lot of money in America to make the film, so I will try for a Eur-

opean-American co-production (with Germany, Italy, or London). My budget is entirely pragmatic—it is based on how much
money I get. My partner, Ronald Gray, is
primarily in charge of our budget and finances. Half the battle is the look of the
film, and if you have a really talented partner and a good script and good acting, you
have half the battle won before you need
the money. It shows that you know how to
run the ship. Very few people know how to
run low-budget movies. Ronald and I
an American Film Institute grant and a
New York State Council on the Arts grant;
individually we each received Media grants
from the National Endowment for the

arts organizations. I have taught in arts-inkindergarten in an independent Black institution. I also fund my films through
loans, small grants, community raffles,
awards, and family support—through inkind services such as transportation, catering, acting, the use of homes for sets, small
donations, and their faith, support and
pride in me and my work. Since I don’t
start with a large sum of money, my budgeting process is different. There seem to
be two schools among independents: Wait
until you have all the money or shoot what
you can when you can. I shoot what I can
when I can. If I were waiting on a major
grant to do a film, I’d still be waiting and
T’d have no films. I apply for grants as a
yearly and painful fall ritual—that’s why
this questionnaire is so late being answered; I have two grant applications due.
To date I personally have received no
major grants. The Black Filmmaker Collective received a small grant from the
Foundation for Community Service to produce a video (cable) program on the effects
of stereotypes on children.

Arts; and Ronald received a Creative Arts

Edie Lynch: I learned the hard way. In the

Public Service grant.

beginning, I think, we all try to save money

Cynthia Ealey/Lyn Blum: Even during the

in the wrong areas. Now, if I don’t have the
money for a good cameraperson, lighting

my films? Through hard work, experience,

making of our one tape, A Mother Is a

and the lack of experience. Right now, the

Mother, Lyn and I did other things as well.

major part of my budget goes of course to

I was paid to work on the tape 20 hours a

film stock, production costs—feeding the

week, Lyn was paid to work 10 hours a

crew, transportation, props, etc., and lab
costs. Salaries are nonexistent. Actors do-

week, and we both worked a lot of volunteer hours during the year it took to make

Kathe Sandler: Funding is almost nearly

nate their talent because of course they

it. We worked on it sporadically. As a co-

impossible for young independent film-

can’t afford the expense of having some-

operative organization, we have budgeted

makers. Black filmmakers are in the most

thing filmed or videotaped merely to show-

[the Childcare Resource Center] for a

trouble of all here. Recently a representa-

director, or sound person, I don’t shoot. I
budget $1,000-3,500 a minute, depending
on whether it’s color or black and white,
and count $5,000-10,000 for surprises.

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Screenings of these women’s films are a

tive from a major federal funding source

to see the reaction to my second film,

for film told me that a documentary I was

problem. Although all these filmmakers

planning on a particular aspect of Black

screen their work at festivals, theaters for

late discussion about the issues presented

American life was passé, dated, it reminded her of the ’60s. Her remark made me

showing films by Black filmmakers (whe-

in the film.

realize that she was simply stating what

ly nonexistent. On the other hand, white

many other funding sources feel but won’t

tape in our community, making it acces-

filmmakers do have space, and often they

sible for community people to attend. The

say: that they view anything concerning

ther independent or commercial) are near-

are required by the funding sources to give

Nappy-Headed Lady, to see if it will stimu-

Cynthia Ealey/Lyn Blum: We screened the

audience reaction to our tape has been

Black America as passé, that in 1982 we

screening space to minority filmmakers.

generally cease to exist, except in stereoty-

Still, Black filmmakers have to request the

very positive—most people have liked it a
lot. We have had some constructive criti-

pical images, in the minds of mainstream

use of the space well in advance, and often

America. Still I apply to the sources most

last-minute changes prohibit the screen-

cism. On the whole, people believe it to be

independents try—CAPS, NEA, NEH,

ings altogether. In addition, Black audi-

NYSCA, AFI, etc. To date I haven’t re-

ences do not support independent cinema

ceived any funding from them. To com-

the way they support commercial cinema.

plete Remembering Thelma I took out

Few Blacks, if any, go out of their way,

plenty of loans. I also received a $1,500

e.g., “downtown,” to see Black indepen-

grant from the Women’s Fund—Joint

dent films. Moreover, often the screenings

Foundation Support, Inc., and a small

are not well publicized. In any case, it is

grant from the Brooklyn Arts Cultural As-

unfair to expect Black filmgoers to go out

sociation. A good friend steered a $1,500

of their neighborhoods to view their own

tax-deductible contribution my way. Later,

films.

when the film was nearly completed, I soli-

It is organizations like the Black Film-

cited funds from the- dance community,

maker Foundation and Third World

which responded to my efforts to document

Newsreel that have been instrumental in

t R
A

Alile Sharon Larkin

Thelma Hill’s life most enthusiastically.
James Truitte (Thelma Hill’s mentor and
friend) initiated the contributions by sending a check and a list of names of friends
of Thelma’s whom he suggested I write.
They responded with checks and more
names. One former student of Thelma’s
sent me a check for $250 and 10 more people to write for contributions.
Joan Myers Brown, the Executive Director of the Philadelphia Dance Company,
gave the film a benefit in Philadelphia and
arranged a special screening for her com-

good and want to use it.
Kathe Sandler: The audience response has

been very enthusiastic—particularly
among dancers and artists. Film has a very
broad appeal. This year, my first real year
of distribution, I intend to promote it to

Black audiences, feminist audiences,

cultural audiences, to children, schools,
and libraries. Perhaps the film will one day
pay off the loans I borrowed to make it.
Whatever it took, though, it’s been the
most important and exciting undertaking
I’ve ever done.

screenings for these filmmakers, here and

Fronza Woods: My films have been

abroad. Black filmmakers have been able

screened at private homes, in film festivals,

to premiere their work at many festivals,

and for New York City high school stu-

thereby attracting buyers and, vitally im-

dents participating in the Lincoln Center

portant, an audience. Still, the audience
has to be cultivated in order to increase.

gram, for which I am a guest filmmaker.

According to film archivist Pearl Bowser,

Audience reaction to my films has been

Black people need to be “cultivated” to

very favorable, especially toward Killing

Film Society’s Artist in the Schools pro-

appreciate and support their cinema. In-

Time, a comedy, which is more accessible

terestingly, Kathleen Collins has stated

to the public than Fannie's Film, which re-

that European audiences are especially

quires a real commitment by the audience.

appreciative of Black independent cinema:

It is interesting that although Fannie’'s

“Europe has a tradition of more personal

Film is about a Black woman, often white

filmmaking thriving outside the main-

people in the audience will tell me how

stream than in America. Personal film-

much she reminds them of their mothers

making (what Americans call independent

or grandmothers, and will be quite moved

cinema) is a longstanding tradition in

by the film. It is not unusual to find people,

Europe. European audiences are more in-

especially older people, with moist eyes
after Fannie's Film.

terested in unusual Black subjects.” (Since
this article deals only with Black American
filmmakers, there is no information about

Pearl Bowser has referred to a particu-

their Black European counterparts. It is

lar aesthetic in Black films which makes

possible that they are victims of the same

them distinct enough to constitute a genre.

kind of indifference to their art in Europe

This aesthetic encompasses the themes,
the politics, and the technique (documen-

pany and students. That was probably the
best audience I’ve ever encountered—

States.)

young students and dancers and members

Melvonna Ballenger: I screen my films

of the Philadelphia dance community.

mainly at festivals, and currently I distri-

When the film was first completed, I had a

bute my own films. I’d be more interested

big benefit at Clark Center for the Per-

in getting a distributor in another year...

forming Arts where Thelma had taught for

Sometimes people are indifferent, and

tary, narrative, or experimental) of the
filmmakers and the films. I asked the
women filmmakers in the survey to comment on this and to expand on what they
consider to be the Black aesthetic in their
own films.

15. years. Dancers, choreographers, stu-

other times they really respond to the mes-

Melvonna Ballenger: I feel that as Black

dents, teachers, and friends (Thelma’s and

sage in my first film, Rain. But I am eager

women we have a certain experience in this

mine) came out. I raised about $1,000 that
world was really tremendous.
Fronza Woods: Good budgeting is learned
from training and experience. However,
most Black or independent filmmakers are
hardly in a position to get the kind of proper training, nor do their projects usually
warrant it. My films were budgeted with a
kind of ass-backward common sense that
worked. Any woman who has managed a

learn. |

household can budget a film. Men have to

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country and maybe we are addressing our
particular needs, issues, and concerns more
fully in relation to the whole Black population, as well as the general population. I
notice several films, like Sharon Larkin’s
A Different Image, Barbara McCullough’s

information on grants, screenings, books,
etc., as Melvonna Ballenger noted.
Kathleen Collins: I am not really in contact with other filmmakers. To be quite

Syvilla Forte, a Black concert dancer and teach-

er. (Distributor: BFDS)
Hair Piece: A Film for Nappy-ĦHeaded People

(1982; 16mm, 10 min.): An animated satire on
redressing the legacy of Eurocentric beauty
standards. (BFD5S)

honest I do not think of myself as a film-

Fears Don't Have to Be, Ijeoma Iloputaife’s

maker in some ways. I am a filmmaker

African Woman, Karen Guyot’s Pas Si Bo,
and Julie Dash’s Illusions, as well as my

when I am making a movie. The rest of the

own film Nappy-Headed Lady and a whole

wright or a writer. I think of these things

time I might think of myself as a play-

Secret Sounds Screaming: The Sexual Abuse
of Children (1982; 3/4” video, 40 min.): Diverse
women show this issue’s relation to power and
societal support. (BFDS)
Flamboyant Ladies Speak Out (1982; 3/4”
video, 30 min.): A documentary on Black wom-

host of other films, are all dealing with our

as what I do when I get a good idea and I

own identity in some way. I don’t think

want to do something with it. The rest of

that was really a priority among Black
women until now, when we might possibly

the time, I am just another person walking
down the street. I sort of take on the occu-

have a few more choices to be, do, and find

pation of whatever I am doing at that time.

16mm, 60 min.): A comedy about three Puerto

out who we are than, say, our grandmoth-

Alile Sharon Larkin: I attended UCLA

Rican brothers and a dying Irish lady. (Coe

ers and our mothers, who had a whole lot

film school at a time when the Black stu-

Films)

to contribute and teach us, so that we

dents were primarily women. I have attended conferences nationally and interna-

might take up where they left off in the
preservation of our culture. I guess films
by Black women bear our own world view

tionally where I have met and spent much
time with other filmmakers. I’ve sat on

and perspective, but don’t necessarily exclude views of Black men and children.

panels and done radio interviews with
other filmmakers. I’m also a co-founder of

Kathleen Collins: Yes, I would think that

the BFC in LA, and a member of Black-

there is a Black aesthetic among Black

light and the Black Filmmaker Founda-

en artists who participated in the 1981 Disarmament Rally. (BFDS)

KATHLEEN COLLINS
The Cruz Brothers and Mrs. Malloy (1980;

Losing Ground (1982; 16mm, 86 min.): A
musical comedy on a Black woman’s quest for
identity. (ICAP)

CYNTHIA EALEY/LYN BLUM
A Mother Is a Mother (1981; 3/4” video, 27

min.): A speakout by Black teenage mothers
about their lives. (BFDS; Childcare Resource
Center, Minneapolis)
JEAN G. FACEY

women filmmakers. Black women are not

tion Distribution Co-op.

white women by any means; we have dif-

'Edie Lynch: I see the work of other Black

min.): A documentary on efforts to honor Mar-

ferent pasts, different approaches to life,

women filmmakers and we often help each

tin Luther King’s birthday as a national holiday.

and different attitudes. Historically, we

other with facilities, etc.

(BFDS)

come out of different traditions; sociologically, our preoccupations are different.
However, I have a lot of trouble with this
question because I do not feel that there

Fronza Woods: No, I am not in touch with
other Black women filmmakers, much to
my regret. Networking is not as easy as it
seems.

are becoming masters of the craft.
Cynthia Ealey/Lyn Blum: Black women’s
films are few and far between, but of

My reasons for writing this article are
probably obvious—I am just as hungry to
see my image on the screen as these women
are. In addition, I want to interest others

course they have a distinguishable style.

in their films, in the hopes that they can

Black women are free and open and realis-

gain more of an audience. It is my belief

tic. The artfulness of our films, our songs,

that the rewards for these women are

our poems, our books are definitely dis-

greater than the drawbacks. We are ren-

tinguishable from others.

dered visible by them. There is power in
having our images documented in the most

Jean G. Facey: I do not see the need to differentiate between Black and white or

powerful medium—film. It is ironic that

woman and man as a specific genre.

Black people spent over $40 million last

Alile Sharon Larkin: Films by Black women could be seen as a specific genre, but
one would find, on classifying them as
such, that our films touch on every genre.
Fronza Woods: No, the only thing Black
women filmmakers have in common is that
' they are Black. They are still making films
about human beings. I don’t think they
(we) should be locked into that category or
genre, if you want to call it that, because it
limits us, our audience, and the way we are
seen.

JACQUELINE A. FRAZIER
Hidden Memories (1977; super-8, 20 min.):
A woman who has an abortion and the problems
with her family and lover.

Azz Ezz Jazz Ensemble (1978; 3/4” video, 30

has been a long-enough tradition. I think
we are just getting to the stage where we

Happy Birthday, Dr. King (1983; 16mm, 25

year on movies, according to the NAACP,
but we are seldom, if ever, seen on screen

min.): Billy Harris’ music and his songs about
his children.

Black Radio Exclusive Conference (1978;
3/4” video, 30 min.; co-produced with G. VelFrancis Young): Live coverage of a Los Angeles
conference of all-Black radio station managers,
DJ’s, and bands.

Shipley Street (1981; 16mm, 30 min.): The
racism and physical abuse experienced by the
only Black girl in a Catholic school. (BFDS)

ALILE SHARON LARKIN
Your Children Come Back to You (1979;
16mm, 27 min.): The assimilation problems of a

Black girl torn between Western and pan-African values. (BFDS)
A Different Image (1981; 16mm, 51 min.): A

as we really are in life. Further, the Black

fictional film about the destructiveness of West-

exploitation films of the '60s rescued the

ern sexism. (BFDS)

Hollywood film industry from certain
bankruptcy, but 90% of Black actors are

EDIE LYNCH
Lost Control (1976; 16mm, 45 min.): Men

unemployed (Black Enterprise, Sept. 1982).

and women confined in prison environments

and only two Black directors worked on

talk about drug problems. (BFDS)
Mister Magic (1977; 16mm, 30 min., bi-

known projects last year—both are men.

lingual): The dreams of Mexican children, portrayed by transforming their schoolroom into a

FILMOGRAPHY

magic show. (BFDS)

MELVONNA M. BALLENGER

min.): A documentary on Thelma Hill, a pillar

KATHE SANDLER
Remembering Thelma (1981; 16mm, 15

I asked the women whether they were in
contact with other filmmakers and the response was mixed. A few of them associate
professionally or personally/socially. Several belong to Black filmmakers’ groups,
such as the LA Black Filmmaker's Col-

Rain (1982; now on video only, 15 min.): A
young clerk-typist changes her routine lifestyle
for a more fulfilling one, with rain as a metaphor.

Nappy-Headed Lady (1983; 16mm, 30 min.):

in the development of Black dance in America.
FRONZA WOODS
Killing Time (1978; 16mm, 8⁄2 min.): A
comedy about suicide. (BFDS)
Fannie'’s Film (1980; 16mm, 15 min.): A

How Yvonne endures hair straightening and

documentary profile of a Black cleaning woman.
(BFDS)

lective (BFC) and Blacklight: A Forum for

then changes her hair in coming to appreciate

International Black Cinema, in Chicago.

her Blackness.

Sometimes, if they cannot afford to pay for

AYOKA CHENZIRA

technical services on a project, they trade

Syvilla: They Dance to Her Drum (1979;

services with each other. They also share

16mm, 25 min.): A documentary portrait of

Loretta Campbell is a freelance writer, proofreader, and copyeditor living in New York City.

62

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I say to you: The future belongs to the
film that cannot be told. The cinema can
certainly tell a story, but you have to remember that the story is nothing. The story
is surface. The seventh art, that of the
screen, is depth rendered perceptible, the
depth that lies beneath the surface; it is

the musical ungraspable....The image
can be as complex as an orchestration
since it may be composed of combined

A House Divided (1913) by Alice Guy

Lis Rhodes and

Light Reading (1978) by Lis Rhodes

Felicity Sparrow

movements of expression and light.
Sitting with her at the table, talking,
her hands are poised over the typewriter.
The words in our minds turn between description and analysis—to write an image,
or to write about an image. This will be a
subjective gathering of threads of meaning, a drawing of your attention to the
spaces between four films that are dense
with connections and difference; rather
than forcing each woman into a false isolation, a separation from each other determined by history as it is written—as it has
been read—to mean meanings other than
HERS. Seen together the whole program
of four films becomes a specifically constructed fiction in itself; through looking
at and listening to the relationships between the filmmakers—their stories—new
meanings emerge.
We shall try to make explicit the links
and fractures between the four films made
by different women, whose lives and work
belong to different languages, but whose
voices are always placed within similar
constraints—constraints that we are familiar with but upon which most women are
allowed no time or space to reflect.
. . . the idea came from the experience
of sharing a kitchen with two men.
Through realizing, over a period of
time, specific things that they didn't
notice, I was able to crystallize my own
responses to particular tasks, particular parts of this room. ..….I discovered
several areas (often very small) within
the kitchen that I was very aware [were]
becoming dirty, and enjoyed—or rather
was urged— to clean. I developed a special relationship to these “corners; I
enjoyed the materials that constituted
them and felt the repetitive cycle of
things becoming dirty—the way each
part became dirty and the different
methods of cleaning. I became more
aware of this as I realized that the men
had no understanding for it. Why? Was

been delicately hand-tinted by the filmmaker. A woman’s voice is heard describ-

different pleasure—the satisfaction of a
job being done—is described by another

familiar—and through the various activities taking place within it. The room is

voice, a man’s, reading extracts from the
testimonies of women’s reflections on

referred to as the center of the house, and

housework as catalogued in The Sociology

the voice describes the traces left by users
of the kitchen (the spatterings of food left
on the floor after the cat has finished eating; the little pieces of hair washed from a

of Housework.^ Written extracts from this
book also appear on the screen explaining
and rationalizing this apparently obsessive
behavior in terms of “collective standards.”

razor after a man has finished shaving).

This conflict—can pleasure be pleasing if

She reflects on the task of cleaning and

that pleasure can be seen as oppressive?—

repair, the ‘small unnecessary” tasks, the

is expressed by the filmmaker through

caring for a space.

it education? My conditioning as a
woman? Was it to do with me in partic-

there was a gap between the enamel

ular? Or is it just part of “women’s
nature”? ?

part and the wooden drawers that sup-

Traces made, traces removed; a woman

came dirty,” and the placing of things. A

geography—with which she is intimately

When we first constructed the sink

is caught in mid-sentence, often during the

faces and textures, ‘the way each part be-

ing a particular kitchen space through its

port it. The gap worried me because I

images showing the continual violation of
her feelings for the space. In the final shot
of the film, a long continuous take, the tea
is poured, the bread is cut. An arm reaches
across a woman’s body to reach the butter.
SHE refolds the paper carefully after he

saw [that] water trickled onto the things
in the drawers. The others didn't no-

has used it. Their consumption leaves

tice, or didn't mind, and it took me sev-

traces: a scattering of crumbs on the surface of the table, the stain of tea leaves on

day. The traces of sound from a radio, as a
newscaster’s voice surfaces and sinks in a

eral months to do anything about it. ?

burble of music, remain peripheral and

The attention given to a domestic space

obscured by the unnaturally loud sounds

that Joanna Davis speaks of seems to avoid
a strict definition of housework—the un-

them up.

of tea being poured and bread being cut

the draining board. Disturbed by the
crumbs, she interrupts her meal to wipe
This sense of impingement is con-

repeatedly throughout the film. Often

paid servicing that it usually implies—and

firmed by the quotations from The Soci-

During the Day opens with a series of still

centers on her pleasure. It is a pleasure

ology of Housework, which rest within the

images of a kitchen, photographs that have

that is expressed in relation to certain sur-

film as uneasily as the news from Armagh

©1983 Lis Rhodes and Felicity Sparrow

63

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and the song “Dancing in the City.”...

do better. Arming myself with courage,

would have embarassed the men, who

The printed words emerge, on screen, from

I timidly proposed to Gaumont that I

wanted to smoke their cigars and spit in

a thin veil of tissue paper with an authority

write one of two sketches and have

peace while discussing business.” °

Joanna Davis is extremely wary of. Perhaps
it is to enforce this distance from her own

them acted by friends. If anyone could

experience that a man’s voice reads the

The character is not the center of im-

have foreseen the course of development this would take, I would never

portance in a scene, but the relation-

passages, just as the women quoted from

have got this permission. My youth, my

ship of the images to one another; and

the book are defined by the men to whom

inexperience, my sex, all would have

as in every art it is not the external fact

they are married: a carpenter’s or lorry

conspired against me. However, I ob-

which is interesting, it is the emanation

driver’s wife. In Often During the Day, the

tained this permission, on the express

from within, a certain movement of

woman is not socially placed by a particu-

condition that it didn't interfere with

things and people, viewed through the

lar man; the issues of sexual and economic

my secretarial duties. *

state of the soul”. ..Plot or abstract

A House Divided plays upon the wom-

film, the problem is the same. To touch

control are recognized rather than suffered, and the historical determinants that
underlie her feelings of pleasure and anxiety toward domestic tasks can be analyzed.
It is here that one of the central issues
connecting the films is raised; it can be
clearly seen in the different positioning of
the women in Often During the Day and
the two earlier films, The Smiling Madame
Beudet and A House Divided. For Madame
Beudet, it is not only the institution of
marriage, but also the collusion of the
Catholic Church in reinforcing that institution, which is questioned. In A House
Divided, Alice Guy approaches the domestic relationship as a civil bargain, the external social control being secúlar rather
than divine. The marital relationship of
the couple is represented by the ‘“house.”
The divine is privatized as romantic love,
and now forms the fragile foundations of
the “house.”
The bourgeois home depicted in A
House Divided had already developed the
characteristics of the industrialized family,
with separate but supposedly equal spheres
of work: the woman within the home, the
man outside. A similar division of work is
apparent in the office, between the husband and his secretary. Thus the women
are established as financially dependent,
and their work is primarily concerned with

en’s independence within dependency, and

the feelings through sight and. ..to give

providing service for the man. A misunder-

the husband’s apparent independence—

predominance to the image.®

standing, an assumption of mutual infidel-

although, left to himself, he is incapable of

ity, shakes the foundation of the home; the
house divides into silence. In a nice use of

even deciding whether or not to wear a
raincoat! But for Alice Guy, rationality

Germaine Dulac made The Smiling Ma-

intertitles, communication between the

overcomes doubt, and the divided house

dame Beudet. Its plot, the surface, was

wife and husband is via a series of notes

can be restored to unity: The infidelities

carefully stored in a jar in the kitchen. The
wife refuses to service the husband. The

are no more than misunderstandings. The

simply described by a reviewer sixty years
later: “Madame Beudet is married to a

contract is reestablished; romantic love

bombastic idiot, refuses to go to the opera

can reassert itself. The yawning chasms of
difference which determine a woman’s

with him, dreams up the nearly perfect

in the film asserts itself, as a new ‘legal
agreement” must be arranged. Only now

position within marriage—so accurately

because of Monsieur’s lack of imagina-

can the wife reclaim her identity and in-

portrayed by Germaine Dulac ten years

tion.” ? But despite the simplicity of the

dependence: She deletes the words “your

later—were not part of Alice Guy’s prag-

plot, the film’s intensity—its visual impact

wife” at the end of a letter and signs her

matic optimism and trust in “equality.”

marriage bargain is broken and the humor

own name (albeit her name by marriage).

Her determination and optimism were

Some years before writing these words,

murder and, when it fails, gets away with it

an orchestration of emotive gestures and

By contrast, the cheerful independence of

shared by many women at the time, in

the unmarried secretary is established

their fight for equal education, better

early on; with a pencil precariously tucked

working conditions, and the vote. However,

into her pinned-up hair, her fingers dance

this energy was rapidly dissipated by the

point of view throughout; her ‘“voice,” al-

in lively mimicry of typewriting. Surely

outbreak of war, the ensuing nationalism

though silent, can only be that of the first

sophisticated special effects. Often described as the first feminist film, we share
Madame Beudet’s (and Germaine Dulac’s)

Alice Guy must have directed those office

and economic depression—and much of

person singular, as in Often During the

scenes gleefully, remembering when she

the work that Alice Guy and others had

Day.

herself was secretary to Leon Gaumont.

achieved was undermined. Her husband,

“In a quiet provincial town..." Madame

Herbert Blaché, took over her production

Beudet is isolated;

Daughter of a publisher, I had read

company in 1914. Outside producers were

“...behind the peaceful facades...” she
is trapped.

widely and remembered a fair amount.

brought in, forcing Alice Guy out of the

I had done a bit of amateur theatricals

picture. She finally gave up going to pro-

and thought that one could probably

duction meetings because “Herbert said I

Her gaze through the window is blocked
by the view of the prison opposite; inward-

64

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ly she sees the reflection of that institution

and understanding of life. However, close-

in her wedding ring. Locked within the

thread of Madame Beudet’s story sixty

ups of Madame Beudet’s face earlier in the

niceties of a middle-class marriage, she

years later. She can now record her spoken

film show her awareness of, and resigna-

words, and we can finally hear them. As

struggles to maintain her sanity. The in-

tion to, Monsieur’s stupidity. He thinks

terior space of her home reflects Madame

for her image. .….that has gone. The years

that she knows nothing about Faust, that

Beudet’s mental restriction; her gestures

women have no minds of their own (which

of film and television and advertising have
much to answer for.

and expressions, constantly juxtaposed
with those of her husband, reveal her emo-

might be true when their heads are forcibly

tional suffocation. The placing of a vase of
flowers becomes symbolic of conflicting

she does know the story and recognizes it
as one of male dominance and female de-

sensibilities; the key to her piäno, the con-

pendency. The most bitter moment of the

trol of her means of expression. Her book

film— the center of the argument—is when

removed), but her expression shows that

The film begins in darkness. A woman’s voice is heard over a black screen.
“She” is spoken of as multiple subject—
third-person singular and plural. Her voice
continues until images appear on the
screen; then she is silent. In the final section of the film, she begins again, looking
at the images as these are moved and replaced, describing the piecing together of
the film as she tries to piece together the
tangled strands of her story.
The voice is questioning, searching.
She will act. But-how? Act against what?
The bloodstained bed suggests a crime:
Could it be Žis blood—was that the action
denied to Madame Beudet? No answers
are given; after the torrent of words at the
beginning, all the film offers are closed
images and more questions: Is it even
blood on the bed? What fracture is there
between seeing and certainty? Could it be
her blood—rape/murder of the mind, of
the body, of both? Her image has gone. If
there has been a crime, “she” might still
be the victim: How can a crime of such
complexity and continuity be ‘solved’?
The voice searches for clues, sifting
through them, reading and rereading until
the words and letters (in themselves harmless enough) loom up nightmarishly.
cutting the flow of her thoughts
forcing her back within herself
damned by the rattle of words
words already sentenced

A House Divided (1913) by Alice Guy

imprisoned in meaning. . . .12

of poetry provides a way for her to retreat

he mistakes her intended murder of him

into herself and her desires. Debussy, Bau-

for her own suicide. He is incapable of con-

that has trapped her, meanings that have

delaire, and the ghostlike apparition of a

sidering the possibility that she meant the
bullet for him. The subtitle reads: “How

excluded her, and a past that has been
constructed to control her. Do we have to

pages of a magazine are her only cultural

could I ever live without you?” She is

reference points. But even these are im-

delve into history and reappropriate it?

caught in /is emotional dependency; she
knows but cannot act.

male tennis player stepping out from the

pinged upon by the distorted face of Monsieur Beudet. Escape is impossible. Outsiđe, the institutions of justice and religion

The film ends where it began, unsmilingly—‘“in the quiet streets without hori-

The clues suggest that it is language

Perhaps there are other ways, like examining the scene of the crime as if we’re in
detective fiction. But magnifying the stain
on the bed only reveals a blur; measuring

have sealed and sanctified her dependency.
Inside, “it was in this accumulation of

zon, under a low sky...united by habit.”
With Madame Beudet’s back to the cam-

with a ruler doesn’t add up to much. She’s
forced back within herself and her own

other men’s thoughts and experiences that

era, we see the priest and Monsieur Beudet

thoughts; she begins again cautiously:

she looked for affirmation of identity.”!0
She is excluded. Monsieur Beudet’s ob-

greet each other, indicating their collusion

structive and destructive presence occupies
both her physical and mental space. With

the scene of her imprisonment; behind the
facade of habit are the scenes of her at-

the loss of space, she cannot act; in the

tempts to escape. Germaine Dulac could

absence of action, she remains without re-

not accept the “happy ending” provided

sponse. She is shown looking at herself,

by A House Divided, but the escape and

attempted escape into Baudelaire, can

framed in a triple mirror, alone with her
own reflection.

the analysis of her situation remain private

neither provide relief nor reflect her own

In case we need more clues, Germaine
Dulac shows the completeness of Madame
Beudet’s mental decapitation: As Monsieur Beudet tears the head off her ornamental doll, an intertitle reads: ‘“a doll is
fragile. .….a bit like a woman.” He puts the
head in his pocket, and thus the cigar
smokers can spit in peace and continue to
exclude women from the “real” business

and her exclusion. The provincial town is

to Madame Beudet, voiced only in her fan-

she watched herself being looked at
she looked at herself being watched
but she could not perceive herself
as the subject of the sentence.!3
Madame Beudet’s light reading, her

thoughts and desires. Lis Rhodes recog-

tasies. She cannot change her situation,

nizes that particular dead-end in Light

however clearly she may understand it.

Reading; she searches for other clues and

in her own voice she cried
the end cannot be confused with the
end that ended
somewhere—but not here
not here at the beginning...
Light Reading could be picking up the

other means of finding her own reflection.
But she seems to be framed everywhere she
looks: The cosmetic mirror gives her back
only part of her image; photographing herself in a mirror gives her back another.
There are fragmented images, multiple
images and shadowy photographs, but they
65

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гетаіп аѕ епівтаііс апд ітрІасаЫіе аѕ Фе

1910 апд таггіаре іо Негбегі ВіІасһё. Іп Рогі
Іее, М.Ј., ѕһе Ғоипдед һег оу ргодисііоп сот-

пођоду сап ѕау апуќћіпр ипіеѕѕ ѕотеопе іѕ

ѕѓаіп оп Ње Бед. Тһе ітареѕ (ѕпарѕһоіѕ оѓ

ѕіепіпе. Апа уе сап асі уііһоці ге-

а раѕ) аге ќогп ир апд геаггапред, Іеауіпр

ѕропѕе...

рапу, ЅоІах, ућісһ угаѕ ѕиссеѕѕёш! ипії! ії ҒоІдей

іп 1914. А Ноизе Оіуійей, а $оах ргойисііоп,
іѕ опе оѓ а һа1Ё-догеп оѓ һег ѕһогі бт їо һауе

І геад їо уои апа уои геай їо те апа

рарѕ у/Һісһ ѕһе ігіеѕ іо теаѕиге угіі Іейегѕ

Бееп ргеѕегуей—попе оѓ ег Ғеаішгеѕ һауе ѕшүіүед. Іп 1923 ѕһе геіштед іо Егапсе (йіуогсед),

уге Боїћ геаа іпіепу. Апа І пайей ўог

апа йригеѕ—гартепіх.
Үүһеге до ме Беріп? Тһеге іѕ е разі,
аІмауѕ, у/һісһ мге сап гегеад, гекгате, јиѕї

уои апа уои уайеа ог те апа уге Бої
уайед айепііуеіу. І ўпа Кпійіпр іо Ве

аѕ уге сап іту апд ге-рІасе Асе Сиу апі

а сопііпиоиз оссирайіоп апа І ат ўш

6. Асе Сиу, “А УЙотап’з РІасе іп РһоѓорІау

Сегтаіпе Ошас. Виї ії пої јиѕє а диеѕоп оѓ ЂаІапсіпр ойі іе іпјиѕќісев: “Тһеге

оў ртайіиае Ьесаизе І геаШге Лоу
тисћ І ат іпаеһіей іо іе һапах іһаі

1914).

іѕ поіһіпр соппесіед міі іе ѕ(аріпр оѓа

угіеіа іће пеейез. 7

м Һеге ѕһе гетаіпед ипії һег деаіһ іп 1968.
Ргойисііопѕ,” Моуѓпр Рісіиге У/огіа (Ушіу 11,
7. Сегтаіпе Ошас, “Тһе Еѕѕепсе ої һе Сіпета: Тһе Уіѕиа! Ідеа,” іп Ауапі-Сагае Ейт.

тоќіоп рісішге аі а уотап саппої до аѕ

еаѕу аѕ а тап.” № воеѕ йеерег ап

8. Ошас, “Уіѕиа! апд Апіі-Уіѕиа1 Еїтѕ.”

езе сгітеѕ оѓ ехсІиѕіоп апа шпедиа! ор-

1. Сегтаіпе Ошас, “Уіѕиа1 апі Апіі-Уіѕиа!

9. Неіеп МасКіпіоѕһ, іп Сйу Гітііх (АргіІ 16,

рогішпіќіез.
Сегігиде $іеіп ѕаій:

Ейт,” Ге Воире еі Ге Моіг (Ішу 1928). Кергіпіей іп: ТЛе Ауапі-Сагйе Ейт, ей. Р. Адат

1982).

Апа пом тоипіаіпх ао пої сІоий оуег
Іеї из паѕћ оиг ћаіг апа ѕіағе
ѕѓаге аі тоипіаіпх. 5

Ѕрһеге ВооКѕ, 1981).

11. Егот Г.іе1 Веайїіпо (Шз Вһодез, 1978).

2. Јоаппа Оауіѕ, гот а сопуегѕайоп уіќћ 145

12, 13, 14. ід.

Вһодеѕ апд Еейісііу Ѕраггом (1978).

Нег уога5, дџпоѓед, аге Не а Нрһі гекгаіп

3. Егот Оўеп Оигіпр һе Оау.

гиппіпр Њгопеһ е Њгеадѕ оѓ теапіпр іп

4. Апп ОаКІеу, Тһе ЅосіоІоргу оў Ноиѕемогк

ІліеһЕ Веайіпр. Тһе Пт епз уі по

(Гопдоп: Магііп КоБегіѕоп, 1974).

ѕіпріе ѕоїшііоп. Виі еге ів а Беріппіпр, оѓ

5. Асе Спу, АиѓоЬіоргарћіе а’ипе Ріоппіеге
аи Сіпета (Рагіз: Оепоёі/Сопіһіег, 1976).

аќ ѕһе іѕ роѕіііуе. Ѕһе уі поі Бе Іоокей
аі Биі Піѕіепед іо:

10. Р. Г. Јатеѕ, Іппосепі ВІооа (Гопдоп:

Ѕііпеу (Мем Үогк: Мем Үогк Опіуегѕіку Ргеѕз,
1978).

зће Ьеріпз їо гегеай
аІоиа 6
Іп һег оулп угога5, ѕһе сап Беріп {о па
геЙесііопѕ оѓ һегѕеїЕ опізіде оё һегѕеіЁ. Виї

15. Сегігиде $іеіп, “Ѕопаіпа ЕоПоугей Бу Апоег,” іп Вее Тіте Уіпе (Мем Наүеп: Үа!іе
Шпімегѕііу Ргеѕѕ, 1953).

16. Егот Г.іе/і Веайіпе.
17.:Ѕіеіп, “опала.”

Асе Сиу аѕкей Саштопі ќо таке һег йгзё біт

І1ѕ Вһодеѕ іѕ а ЯіттакКег ућо Пуеѕ іп Гопдоп.

айег ѕееіпе Ње Ілітіёге Вгоіһегз’ Ята. УҺ
{е ѕиссеѕ5 оѓ Һег Ягѕі Ясіоп т, Саштопі

Евїісііу $рагтоу іѕ іе соогдіпаѓог ої Сігсіез, а
Ғетіпіѕі дівігіБийоп пеімогк Ғог мотеп’з таз,

теайіІу аПоугей һіѕ ѕесгеѓагу іо сопііпие Оігес{огіаІ могі. Ѕһе Бесате һеад ої Ргойисііопѕ Ғог

чійеоіареѕ, регѓогтапсеѕ, апа ѕаеѕһомз, іп
Іопдоп.

Саштопі шпії һег дерагішге Ғог Фе О.5. іп

Оп е Мау Васк Егот
е Моміеѕ
Оеаг Оіапе. Не аһумауѕ сотріаіпз.
Не аһмауѕ һаѕ ѕоте геаѕоп ѓо сотріаіп.
Тһе сһіІагеп Ғее!1 ѕоггу Ғог һіт, артее уі һіѕ геаѕопѕ
Ғог сотрІаіпіпе. Тһе сһіІагеп агеп'ё сһіІдгеп.
Не Іесішгед ет оп е уау іо Ше тоүіеѕ аБоиці топеу.
І іоїа һіт Ње топеу ѕішаќіоп аѕп’і һіѕ ѕіішафоп.
ІпсІпде те ріеаѕе, І іоїа һіт.
Оп е угау Баск от Ње тоуіеѕ һе іпсІпдед те.

А ТУ Моміе
ІлЈарап, а Ғаќһег ігауе!ѕ Бу гайгоад мії һіѕ ойеп-

үееріпр іе іо Ғатіеѕ оѓ сгіте уісітѕ іо їо
ѕотеіћіпр, Биі пої уепреапсе, Ғог Ње ѕоп һо
аіей іп һіз агтѕ Берріпр, һіѕ Ғаіһег іо ауепре һіѕ
аеаќһ. Аф йгѕі, һе мапіед ошіу һе деаіһ оё Ње
тигаегег һо КШед е ѕоп опу Бесаиѕе ће һаррепед ѓо Бе е опе раѕѕіпр Бу. Еуегуіпр іѕ этопр
іп шу ҒатіЇу апа ту Нѓе. Егот е аүепие ої Ње
ѕһорріпре сепіег сотеѕ Ње ѕоипд ої ап ашЬшіапсе
ог йге епріпе аѕ іп а тоуіе гот Епріапі, іе

І сотріаіпей һе діѕігасіей те. Үоий оп’ сопдисі а диагіеї,
а дџагіеі іѕп'ї сопдисіед.
Не Њоцеһќ е тоуіе угаѕ ргеаі. У/һаі діа І іпк.
І Њоцеһі һе тоүіе дііп'ї тоуе,
ке а раіпііпе. Еуеп а ѕегіеѕ ої рогігаііз.
Оп һе уегре оѓ ітргеѕѕіопіѕєт, Ње соІогѕ уагіей апд мауу,
Ьиі І сошап’і веў іп, а тоуіе ѕһошіа Іеў уои іп,
ѕһошап' іі. Нипдгейѕ ої пу роіпіз, е Іеауез.
І сошдп’ё еі іп. І маѕ ехсіидед.

ѕошпд І аііп’є іһіпК ойг етегрепсу уеһісіеѕ таде.
І аѕК ту һиѕЫапд іѓ һе ошід тіпд ѕІееріпр Фоулѕіаігѕ. Не йоеѕп’є тіпа. ѕ Шке а тоүіе. І ішгп оп
Ње НеҺі ќо уггіќе іє Фоул. І тиѕі зор іФіпКіпр, һом
із геайѕ. І тиѕі ѕау маі тиѕі Бе ѕаій апд аі-

геаду Гуе сһапред і. І аесеіүе туѕеГ уі
сһапрееѕ. Тһаѓѕ Бееп сһапред. 1Е І агеат, е
агеат угіШ Ђе {о һе зігеп уЛаї ії уаѕ о іе ТУ
тоуіе. Тһе уогаѕ асситшіаіе Бу Фетзеіуеѕ. Зоте
үогаѕ һауе їо Бе сһапред.

МауЬе іќ уғаѕ те. Тһе уоишпр реоріе меге Іайеһіпр.
Ошг ѕопѕ меге Іапеһіпе. І Іайрһед Ыиі ії уаѕп’ё Ғиппу.
Реѓег дііп'ї еуеп Іацреһ.
Оп е угау Баск І аѓќе е рорсогп І Боцеһі Ғог іе уау Баск,
а ѕтаП Ђох, Биіќегед.
Ооп’ мгііе те апу тоге Іеііегз.
І Зоп’ќ угапі іо угтііе уоп а Іеікег Баск.
Роеігу Ьу РһуШѕ КоеѕіепЬаит, уо іаирћі стеайіуе юліііпр аі Ѕап Етапсіѕсо Ѕ$іаіе Шпіуетзйіу ипій поі гећігей
Іаѕї уеаг, апа һаѕз риЫхһеа јоиг ЬооКхѕ ој роетѕ, ће
Іаіехі, Тһаі Македпеѕѕ, ўғот Магіе Оегп'з Јипр1е Сагаеп Ргеѕз.

66

©1983 РһуШѕ КоеѕіепЬашт

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Tilly Lloyd

NOT A TRAVELOGUE

s N: zealand’s
; ; pseudo-blend
of
t Maoritanga! and

s

high-tech devonshire
scones is SSE of the

hong kong shop
over, SSW of soweto,
and NN of the penguins. We know a
compulsory englandette. And more than
a touch of uncle sam.
Since the men have always been obsessed
with sheep, new zealand sports a 3rd world
dollar and commercially we’re just a new
knot on australia’s apron string. This is
not a happy software marriage, and is yet
to be analyzed by a roving Jan Morris. For
the moment let’s just note a couple of obvious things. Of conundrums and destinations new zealand has plenty. The former
are predominantly inward (the Great NZ
Clobbering Machine scrunches any talented act) and the latter are predominantly
"uáj010) 111f pu phor Gng, Áq avuowoz0yq

outward (though most tickets are bought
“rẹturn” because of our ambivalent parochial shuffle).
FX: CANNED IMPORTS

THE SP’ IT

son & Johnson, who have been implicated

Yet this same country was first to permit
national (= federal) enfranchisement for

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE DAY,

who in any case manipulate women for

women, and this was secured by the NZ
suffragettes on 19th September 1893. On a
global scale it can still astonish that we
could land so fat a fish in such a small, remote, and new piece of english imperialism. It’s greeted with some pride even while
the vote as a symbol of equality has smelt
distinctly suspect since the 20th September
that same year. And particularly so for the
lateral thinkers of the local Women’s Liberation Networks—historical triumph may
well be a triumph but it doesn’t translate
at all well into today’s schemes for anarcholezzo inspirations.
Despite any efforts to the contrary the NZ
2nd wave has been more or less fashioned
on the northern hemisphere model. This is

in the ’81 Toxic Schlock investigations but
1982, WELLINGTON.

“hygienic” profit. The live telecast was rac-

A turgid radio show collectif Went Too Far
on the local “Access” Radio station with a

ist glam all the way.

half-hour program designed to cast nas-

vances of all new zealand women, they paid

Sliced between a documentary on some ad-

turtiums on the medical industry and any-

a bourgeois tribute to a handful who were

thing else playing at male domination.

advancing more noticeably. Put another

They achieved publicity for all of the femi-

way, they saw merit in giving prizes for

nist “isms” (including heightism). The
message was pro Self-Help organizing

“good” feminism which is in sore contradiction to what we learnt on our sisters’

(even the much-maligned CR groups) and

knees.

their attitude reeked of insolence. They

The ideological flatulence of the farce was

figured the problems of women’s oppression were bigger than anything assertive-

severely criticized by the “We Know What’s
Best For You and Us” earnestinas of ur-

ness training, voting, or hip restaurant

ban culturalism. The gala (gal/ah?) was

management could solve, and the show

also vehemently picketed by the auckland
branch of the Failure Is a Feminist Issue

quarrelled with anything testerical in eye
shot.

lobby, the authors (approx. 400) of the new

particularly so with the Women’s Liberation Networks within what is still often

Ironically Radio Access is a “borrowed

book “Phuck-Phat-Let’s-Dance,” and the

time” radio station—normally it’s used for

old dykes haime quartet. The Women’s

called the Women’s Movement. Our an-

live broadcasting of government sittings!

Right to Fart brigade produced a lofty po-

And typically, the Women’s Suffrage Day

sition paper and the women’s No Confi-

show had no funding. The members of the

dence ballot option, who stayed home be-

alysis, tactics, and profiles are self-defined,
but perhaps the reciprocity of influence
was greater in the late 60s. And surely that
can’t merely be because NZ as a whole has
been so much more americanized since
then? It would be too simplistic to put it

For-This-Show-Only are actually union

cause of the foul weather, turned the sound

and student provocateurs, workers from
the local Hecate Women’s Health Collec-

ing.

tive, entrepreneurs of bad taste Lesbian

down on the box and held another meetMeanwhile, back at the show, the core-

down to the US media machine, for that is

pragmatica, and abortionists.

group for The Meek Don’t Want It were

merely one vehicle of the great american pie

FX: CANNED LAUGHTER

tied up pouring concrete into the back-

hype (ø) or the global bakery dream (9g).

AND SHRIEKING

stage toilets. It was a real have.
FX: CANNED SILENCE

Insomnia prevailing, NZ Women’s Suffrage Day is a good day for tokenism, and
a good day for microcosms. It reveals the
NZWLM in all her warts, splits, and (semi)
separatisms—the same divisions inherent
to westernized feminism anywhere. Try
these two examples.
FX: CANNED APPLAUSE.
©1983 Tilly Lloyd

THE IMAGE
WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE DAY,
1982, AUCKLAND.
“Media Women” presented their peak
time television show, the “1982 Awards for
Women.” They were bankrolled by John-

Concept of the Sp'itting Image somewhat plagiarized from Ian Lee’s “The Third Wor’d War.”
1. Maori culture.

Tilly Lloyd has contributed to Girl’s Own (Syd-

ney), Bitches Witches and Dykes (Wellington),
and Radio With Wurds (Florence).
67

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Diana Agosta and Barbara Osborn
In this panel held in November 1982, we asked Christine Choy
(CC), Michelle Citron (MC),* Margia Kramer (MK), Deborah
May (DM), Mira Nair (MN), and Deborah Shaffer (DS) to reflect

but a national minority. When I joined Newsreel in 1971, I saw
white people making films about Blacks and Hispanics, for instance. And I felt there was a lack of depth in the representation of

on their histories as women documentary film- and video-makers.

how minorities really feel in this country. A few of us began to

Much of their work has been seminal to independent documentary,

recognize that to deal with issues affecting our community (Third
World communities), it would be better to take our demands fur-

and their experiences include a variety of aspects of film- and videomaking. We've edited the transcript considerably, sometimes rearranging its order to consolidate discussions on particular subjects,
but we tried to retain each participant's meaning and style. We

ther and to take control of the whole process. That’s when I seriously began to engage in filmmaking.
I got into filmmaking for subjective as well as objective reasons.

asked the panel one central question: What are your personal and

Subjectively, I felt that as an immigrant coming to this country, I

political reasons for choosing the forms and subjects in your work?

encountered a lot of issues and experiences which I wasn’t able to

DS: In 1969 I got introduced to the peace movement, the New

verbalize or articulate. Filmmaking in some way seemed non-

Left, and the women’s movement in rapid succession. It was a

verbal, although today I realize it’s very verbal—not only writing

pretty heady year. I also got introduced to alternative filmmaking
at the same time. Until that time all I knew from films was Satur-

proposals 100 pages long but alsó dealing with all the corporations,

day afternoon. I met a group of people in an organization called
Newsreel, which was making and distributing political and social

etc. Anyway, I needed to express these experiences from my point
of view. Minority women encounter different kinds of pressure
within the society: economic, social, and cultural.

documentaries—mostly anti-war films but also films about other

Secondly, an objective reason or need I felt at that time (the

movements, things that were happening on campuses and in com-

early ’70s) was that minority women needed to be able to work with
the overall women’s movement—but the movement never really

munities around the country. So my interest in film was initially
political, in film as an organizing tool. But without the women’s
movement, I don’t think I ever would have become a filmmaker.

got into race or class. I started to realize that racism and class
issues are inseparable from other issues. They need to be ad-

There were just beginning to be opportunities for women in film-

dressed, and not only from the side of the white American. I

making, and at Newsreel there was a mini-revolution to train the

thought it was about time to bring up the minorities’ point of view,

women. We learned quickly, and that really opened doors to my

to make it more balanced. I’m using the term ‘minority’ quanti-

career in film.

tatively, since people of color all over the world are a much larger

After leaving Newsreel I formed a company called Pandora
Films with other women I knew at Newsreel. We made two films—

country.

one on sex education called How about You, a half-hour black and

population. I’m talking qualitatively in terms of rights in this
I also felt this need to get into filmmaking to express some of

white film for high school students. Then we made a film called

the needs and experiences of Asian-American sisters in this coun-

Chris and Bernie, about two single mothers, divorced women try-

try. In television and the mass media, you rarely see any Asian-

ing to cope with their children and develop their careers.

American announcers. Generally Asian-American women are de-

After that I felt somewhat ghetto-ized in two respects: I was
making short documentaries that were very limited in terms of
available distribution, and I felt confined to women’s issues. I

picted as sexy stereotypes, and in return most are very shy in front
of the camera. They don’t feel they can present anything important
or contribute anything to the overall American culture or history.

think it’s very important that women filmmakers are now taking

So I felt it was my own responsibility to present our contribution to

on a whole range of subjects rather than being confined to “purely

America. Recently the New York Times printed it very clearly:

women’s themes.” That could be a dangerous tendency, particu-

One out of four persons in New York City is foreign-born; 50% are

larly in the bigger film industry, where women are hired only when

minorities. But look at Channel 13, PBS programming. It hardly

it’s a ‘women’s subject.” It’s real gratifying to me that at First-

deals with that sector of the population. Obviously that comes

Run Features [which commercially distributes independently pro-

down to the dollar question.

duced films] we have films directed by women on a range of sub-

Unfortunately, although you want to present women’s issues

jects. Still, I think it’s important that women continue to make

and minority issues and Asian-American issues, somehow you

films that are primarily of interest to women, on issues that other

gradually get forced into this confined area—that’s the only area

people aren’t going to deal with in the way we can.
Now I’m co-producing a film on DES for the PBS “Matters of
Life and Death” series, and I’m researching a film on immigrants,
on undocumented workers in the urban Northeast. The most re-

people recognize you can do. Once, I wanted to do something on
the automation-cybernation of industry; nobody wanted to give me
a cent. That’s an institutionalization of racism and sexism.
And how are we going to be able to counteract that? I think I

cent film I did was called The Wobblies, an hour and a half docu-

can’t do it myself, as an individual. I need the voices, for example,

mentary about a labor union at the turn of the century. It intrigued

of other people who work within institutions who are able to see

me because women played a key role in it, and it was the first

that confinement as a way of perpetuating the same stereotypes,

union that tried to organize women.

but in a much more sophisticated and institutionalized manner.

CC: I know Deborah because we were in the same organization
many years ago—lots of fights and disagreements. Ironically, Deborah’s consciousness was raised because the film industry is pretty

I am working on a piece right now called Delta Mississippi
Chinese Between Blacks and Whites, a 90-minute documentary
with dramatic elements. I’m influenced by Italian neo-realism—

much white male-dominated, technically and in terms of who’s

using a particular situation very far removed from your personal

directing. It’s a microcosm of our society as a whole. So at News-

reality but depicting a larger universal phenomenon. In this case,

reel, women got together and demanded that the organization deal
with what would enhance our directing, our point of view.
My situation is a bit different because I am not only a woman

*Michelle was able to participate in the discussion from her phone in Chi-

it’s the Chinese caught like a middle-man minority between white
planters and Black slaves. It’s a system basically built for two in
the South. When the third element comes in, what kind of change
takes place? In some ways this film is a very subjective translation
of the Mississippi situation because, as an immigrant, I’ve been

cago through the wonders of modern technology and the generosity of
Roberta Taseley and Joyce Thompson from the NYU Interactive Com-

influenced culturally and historically by both white and Black

munications Center. Roberta and Joyce hooked up a phone conference

credibility of white America, and they deny that they have had any

between Michelle and our meeting room.

kind of influence from other minorities. .….and I think I’ve figured

68

Americans. The majority of the Chinese tend to recognize the

©1983 Diana Agosta and Barbara Osborn

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out why. They inherit the southern mentality of the colonizer and

not a fine artist, designing posters, publicity, and sets—mostly in

perpetuate it against other minorities. So it appears that I am very

theaters in South Africa. I was working in theaters outside of the

critical of my own people sometimes. I mean I would never be who

mainstream like community theaters that were multiracial. Then I

I am today without the civil rights movement, without a Black

became involved in literacy campaigns and health education work-

struggle, without a women’s movement in the early 70s. Many of

shops, and got involved in film by looking for a suitable medium

us filmmakers tend to forget others who have paved the road be-

for whatever program we were doing.

fore us. Without that kind of struggle, I would never be able to

I became interested in the history of the women’s movement in

make films today. And filmmaking is a way to try to eliminate the

South Africa, which was hardly documented and which very few

racism in this country.

people knew about. In fact there was an enormous women’s move-

MK: I make videotapes. I started out as a visual artist and did a

ment in the ’50s in South Africa, made up mainly of the women’s

work on Jean Seberg and the Freedom of Information Act. I got

movement of the ANC, a Black organization, although the Indian

her file from the FBI after she died and I made a tape about her,

Women’s League, the Colored Women’s Congress League, and

her file, and her media life. Also, I just finished editing a videotape

Democrats, a white women’s league, were active as well. All that

which is a documentary of a street festival called “No More Witch-

was a history which had been completely ignored by both the Left

hunts.” The festival was held to protest neo-McCarthyism and took

and the Right in South Africa.
A friend of mine and I decided to make a documentary film on

place right out here on Astor Place on June 19, 1981.
What I’m working on now is a tape called Progress (Memory)
about the evolution of communications, technology, and national
security. Basically I’m interested in access to and freedom of information. I noticed in the New York Times today that the Reagan
Administration is cutting back on the collection of statistics—

that movement. So I dove in the deep end, not really knowing
much about film at all, and managed to persuade people to fund
it. I think it was purely because people were taken by the idea. It’s
quite amazing that anyone gave us any money considering I’d no
experience.
At the moment I am working on another film on South Africa

that’s health statistics and all kinds—that affect OSHA. They're
eliminating hundreds of government publications or charging
large sums of money for them and reducing the staff of the National Archives, making less historical material available. All that
serves to reduce the freedom of information in the U.S.
The tape I’m making about progress and memory looks at what
makes up the legitimacy of democratic government in the United
States. The idea of industrial progress and technological progress
has always been married to social progress, generally speaking.
The tape looks at how the military has replaced social progress
with technology in the equation that defines the legitimacy of government. National security has become a kind of password. Security and protection have replaced social benefits and social welfare.
The tape looks at how communications are increasingly designed
for the military, for technological advancement and transnational
exchange. It examines how crucial information is to our existence,
individually and as a democracy, and how there’s no access to it.
The problem is really tremendous and growing in the United
States because multinational private corporations have control
over communications systems. Although in my work I have been
concerned with government, there is a way people may have access
to government by trying to get things declassified. But nobody has
any access to private corporations. They control the privacy of their
information because they have First Amendment rights. This has
to be worked out: That is, how can we regulate private enterprise
so it’s not monopolizing communications throughout the world?

which is based on a play done in New York, mainly by Black South
Africans. It looks at a South African woman’s life, a Black woman
who’s a domestic. It’s called The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena,
and was written originally as a novel by an Afrikaans woman called
Elsa Sheber. It’s quite extraordinary because it deals with the facts
of a woman's life in a lot of detail, and gives a side of Black people’s lives in South Africa which hasn’t been touched or explored
before. I’m making a documentary around the theater production,
because the play deals with the actors’ lives or the lives their
mothers led. So it’s a reflection of their own lives. There are points
where reality and performance become blurred and art and politics
also become blurred. I hope to get across this kind of information
in a way that will appeal to a much broader audience than, for
example, a political documentary on South Africa.
MN: How did you come to this country?
DM: It was when we finished shooting the footage for the other
film called You Have Struck a Rock—the title’s actually from a
song made up for a big demonstration: “You have touched a woman, You have struck a rock, You will be crushed.” As we were
shooting, security men followed us and we were scared of being
caught and having the film confiscated. So every day we’d ship the
film out through a contact I had. There was a choice of either
cutting the film in London or cutting it here, so I decided to cut it
here.

The film deals with a period of history in which the women’s

HC: What I thought was fascinating about your Seberg tape—I

contribution has certainly been neglected. So many times these

saw it at the Museum of Modern Art—was the way it was installed,

young kids would come out of these screenings and say, “We never

having to look at the tape through the FBI files and the New York
Times articles.
MK: Right, I don’t only make tapes; I build installations with
them. That’s the art part left over from being an artist, I guess.
The tapes can exist by themselves and they also collaborate with
the materials in the installations. It’s a way to get people to experience by just walking through something. I grew up in Coney Island
and the thing that really fascinated me was going to these horror
houses. I think my installations are a remnant of being affected in

knew we had that kind of history; we never knew this about our
grandmothers.” That’s been incredibly important. In some way
the film broke a barrier about women getting involved in some of
the organizing and political activities; it seemed to break the ice
and established some kind of credibility. Even if it never had any
other kind of success, that is really important.
DS: Does it affect you being a white Zimbabwean making films on
Black Africans?
DM: I’ve always worked in mixed groups. I think one of the most

that way. As you walk through, something reaches out to you, like

pressing needs of filmmaking in Zimbabwe and South Africa is

a furry, hairy hand, so that you feel scared or threatened or cajoled.

that it’s nearly all white people who have the technical skills. Most

But I am really concerned with just one subject—freedom of

of the Black people I’ve worked with are consultants or writers, not

information. I came to this because I was working for the State

in technical positions, just because they never had the training.

Department, taking around an art exhibition in Eastern Europe,
and it was a routine kind of thing to be under surveillance by their

That’s changing in Zimbabwe now. They've got a lot of programs
to train Black Zimbabweans in film and television and radio and

government. It was a horrifying experience. And the artists I met

other communications.

there were so eager to exercise the kinds of rights that we have in
America, rights that artists never exercise much in their work here,
that I just wanted to focus on this.
I am trying to convince people to make a bridge between something intellectual and the more emotional place where we live.
DM: I also came to filmmaking from art. I was a graphic artist,

MN: It’s interesting to hear all these other stories. Mine is so different, but it still has so many elements of everybody else’s. During
the civil rights and women’s movement that everybody’s spoken of,
I was 13 years old, in a very small hicktown in a remote part of
India. I didn’t quite know all this was happening in the rest of the
world. It was a very protected life, very much like what Chris
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described as a life “being colonized by the colonizer.” My father

from a working-class/lower-middle-class background and there

worked for the relics of the British Raj, and although we’re very

was a part of me that was relentlessly culturally upwardly mobile. I

Indian, we were quite obsessed with what the British had left be-

somehow associated experimental films with art, with something

hind. It did seem odd that I spoke English better than all the other

better than mere documentary. And so I would make these experi-

Indian languages that I knew. I always felt that I wanted some-

mental films and show them around to women, and they would be

thing different, and this eventually led me to join a theater which

totally uninterested in what was going on; there was absolutely no

was begun by a number of Indian students. Of course, we only had

communication. It forced me to reevaluate what I was doing. At

English plays to perform. What theater did for me in India was to

that point I did make a documentary film called Parthenogenesis,
about a woman musician who was a classical violinist in Boston,

give me a sense of great independence, without the traditional baggage of being an Indian woman, being submissive and the rest of

and her student, my sister. But I felt very limited with documentary.
Since then, I’ve been making films that are clearly hybrids. My

it. This independence got me to Boston, where I studied as an
undergraduate. Then I stumbled into filmmaking.
My feelings of being a guest in so many worlds led me to make

last film was Daughter Rite, about mothers and daughters. It was
a hybrid in that the narrative portions were shot to look like docu-

my most recent film, So Far from India. When I started I had a

mentary, like cinema verité. The literal documentary portions of

voice and I had a vision, but I didn’t quite know the language and

the film—home movies taken of my mother, my sister, and myself

elements to use to tell the story. So I did what I saw many docu-

by my father—vwere optically printed in an experimental film way,
and the entire film was a narrative. It was successful in that it was

mentarians around me doing—picked a subject and researched it.
Gradually the subject changed by itself. I met 150 Indians living in

not a traditional narrative, not a traditional documentary, but it

New York, and picked this man who was working in a subway

was accessible to people who had no experience in any kind of

newsstand, and inherited his story. We followed him in quite a

avant-garde film. I was able to communicate with slightly new

traditional documentary style. It came out that two weeks before

forms to women who didn’t have any experience with those forms

he left India—in a very mythical, old-fashioned way, to seek his

at all.

fortune in America—he was married off by his family to a village

The film I’m working on now— What You Take for Granted. ..,

girl in order that he not marry a foreigner here. I didn’t know this

which is feature-length—is about women and work. It’s about

when I first met him; over six months of filming we gradually

token women, women who are very isolated in nontraditional jobs,

unraveled the story. The woman became pregnant after two weeks

blue-collar and professional jobs. The film is about the difference

of being married to him and she had a son in India. He was deter-

between blue-collar work and professional work in our culture,

mined to go back to India to see his son. By that time we had

and the contradictions for women in those positions—psychologi-

gotten so close to him and he had gotten so used to us, the crew,

cally, historically, politically, socially. And once again, it’s a hybrid.

that we decided to follow him. We also happened to get a grant at

The film consists of six women who talk about their experiences in

the right minute. So we went to India and inherited the story of his

a talking-heads format. Then two of the women, a doctor and a

family and the story of his wife, who emerged as â very strong

truck driver, meet through a contrivance, and there’s a narrative

character. The film is not just about a husband who leaves his wife

spin-off. The film alternates between narrative and the talking

because a husband in that community literally defines your pres-

heads, all of which are acted. The whole film places the two women
and the narrative in a broader historical context. And it also tries

ence or your absence.

to play off between public and private more than a traditional nar-

behind but also about the position of a woman without a husband,

I really feel what Deborah was saying about being locked into
one area. I mean, a feminist is something I surely consider myself,

rative would. I feel documentary film is very good at presenting the
public sphere, which has been extremely important for women, but

but I don’t describe myself as that right off the bat. So I hesitate—

is not necessarily good at presenting the private sphere. I think

I don’t want this film to be described as a ‘“woman’s film,” though

that the intersection between the public and the private—who we

it has very much to do with women and men and what makes us
what we are.

I find myself very intrigued and excited by the documentary
forms, but I’m finding that this need to tell stories is propelling me
more toward dramatic film. I want more control, but I’m still

are publicly and how we present ourselves publicly as opposed to
who we might be privately—is intriguing. And it’s very much related to work.

THE FIRST THING IS MONEY

interested in the neo-realism which puts drama in a context which

DS: We used to make films for so little money and I was very grate-

is very authentic. My next project—the one that’s in my head right

ful for that training. I mean, I went from making films for $2,000

now—has to do with mail-order brides. Immigrants, Indians, are

to The Wobblies, which cost $180,000. I was pretty spoiled when I

very, very careful about maintaining their purity in terms of their

finished The Wobblies, because it was reasonably successful. It

caste or community. The whole milieu determines that you marry

premiered at the New York Film Festival; it’s been shown in thea-

someone who will keep this milieu going. This is very common; it’s

ters around the country; it’s been in a lot of foreign festivals. And I

not an amazing phenomenon even in America right now. The story

figured: Great, this is easy, now I’ve got it made. I'll write another

is about a woman who is raised—not in the poor and exotic part of

proposal and get some more money. Guess what? No money.

India that we all know here in America—but in something that is a

Whatever the sources have been that have supported the inde-

mix of all these colonial and Indian backgrounds—middle-class

pendent film community in the past few years are shrinking to

India. So this woman, who in the eyes of middle-class Indians is a

almost nothing. I’m coming to grips with the grim fact that it’s

“liberated” woman, is placed in an arranged marriage, leaves her

almost like starting all over again—starting a film with no money,

country not just to a strange country but also to a strange man,

having a job, working nights and weekends, asking my friends to

who has been programmed to expect a certain kind of woman.
And she has to conform.

work for free, stealing film stock—all the ways we started out. I
feel like we’ve been doing it for a long time already, for chrissake,

MC: Well, my background is really different, and in a way I also

I’m tired of it! And I don’t feel there’s any hope right now for mak-

feel slightly strange, being on this panel, because I’m not really a

ing films any other way, at least under the present administration.

documentary filmmaker, even though I’ve made one documentary.

CC: Talking about the funding situation, I just came back from

I started getting interested in film when I was in graduate school in
cognitive psychology. At the same time my political consciousness

masters get together and sell their products. The main debate with-

got turned around. I was in Madison in the very late 1960s and

in the conference was about the $12 million AT&T put out to

early ’70s, and was very affected by what was going on there with
the New Left and the women’s movement, and somehow saw film

expand the MacNeil-Lehrer Report as a challenge grant. What

as a way to articulate what I was feeling.

fund and $5 million from all the different stations. Overall, the

When I started making films I had a strong notion—this is
simplistically stated—new forms for new contents. What it meant
was that I made a lot of films that were formally experimental and
were about women’s issues. I realize now that was because I come

does that mean? It means $5 million has to come from the program
Corporation for Public Broadcasting received $23 million from
Congress. After allocating all this money to MacNeil-Lehrer,
Frontline, American Playhouse, etc., there’s very little left for independents. There was a big controversy around that issue.

70

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3 s
Personally, I’m a little fortunate because I got a grant just
before the change in administration. But you can’t look at yourself

i

F F

Mn t

ia „p h

give you a little bit of it to make a film. First-Run Features is an
attempt to commercially distribute independently produced films

as a fortunate person—you have to look at the economic situation

— films that don’t usually get in theaters. It’s working with moder-

as a whole. And Reagan cut all the grantors—NEA, NEH. He is

ate success, but it’s a struggle. It’s not like Newsreel partly because

pledging that the private sector is going to match the remaining

we’re all older and have more financial needs, and people aren’t in
a position to volunteer.

money, but obviously that’s ludicrous. The private sector will contribute money only for their own sake. For instance, you know the
American Masterpiece Theater? Now it’s called Mobil Theater.
That’s what the future is going to look like. It’s the way public
broadcasting is going to promote private entities, openly advertising corporate products.
I’ve been looking at it dialectically. There was a period of time
when, with large corporation money and federal money, the independents (including myself) went off in their individualistic manner, and in the process many of us gained experience. But now
there is a change, and independents have to begin to consolidate
and organize, pool their resources and equipment, and be able to

CC: We need to experiment in new forms of distribution. Distribution is tied to the product itself. For this film on Mississippi, I'm
planning to transfer the film footage to tape, which will be cut for
television and video release. But at the same time there remains
the negative for the film version. There is a possibility to produce
both, if the financing and people power are available. Television or
cable is relatively convenient for reaching a large audience, but the
film format is important for Third World countries and this
country too.

DM: Yes, the other problem with video is distributing outside of

cooperate.

America. Europe, for example, is on a different system, and there

MK: Well, I started working in video because it was the cheapest

lities.

thing I could find that could hold all the information that I had
together. I was just talking to Chris Choy about working in video
and she said, “Well, you have to do CMX editing; it costs a lot of
money.” You don’t have to do CMX editing; you can just work on
a console, you can work for $20 an hour in somebody’s studio. But,
of course, you’re left with something which isn’t the best technically,
especially because these machines which are used by a lot of people
are always breaking down—you’re never sure whether they're
going to eat your tape. It’s a struggle, but it really is the cheapest
way to get something together and get it out. And I’m for video
because it’s the medium of now—I mean everybody watches TV.
MC: Video has a kind of immediacy. When I work, even though I

are places in Third World countries that just don’t have video faciDS: In Latin America, for instance, it’s even difficult to distribute
North American independent films because the circuits are all in
35mm.

FORM AND QUALITY
DS: The reason that documentaries traditionally don’t get much
distribution is that traditionally they’re not very good, they're
boring. I’m personally more interested in seeing the quality improve, whatever the form, whatever form is appropriate to content.
I feel strongly that among filmmakers like us, among independent
filmmakers, we have to encourage the growth of quality of every
form, including traditional fiction, genre films, experimental films.

eventually end up with film, I first make videotapes. Before I film I

I get real nervous when I hear these discussions about the correct

usually conduct interviews and do a tremendous amount of re-

form for film. I think that what form can express best what some-

search. So in the film I’m making about work, I interviewed about

body wants to say depends a lot on the person. For me, it’s more of

S0 women on both audiotape and videotape and used all that information as the basis of the film script. I don’t even think that

a challenge to work with real people and to film real people. For
me, fiction would be putting words in people’s mouths, and that’s

film is better than video, except for the ease of distribution at this

not interesting to me. I understand that for people who make fic-

point in history.

tion and who work with actors, that’s not what it is to them—it’s

DS: From my point of view, one of the major problems with video
is distribution. This is a remnant of my Newsreel training—the
idea that films are made to be used. My whole first year with Newsreel I didn’t make films at all; I went out with them every night
and showed them at churches and community groups and dormi-

shaping a way to say something that they want to say. My way of
trying to shape what I want to say is to struggle with all the mistakes
that real people make. I find that a vital process and a vital way to
work.

MC: I agree with Deborah. I think it’s really important that all

tories. Wherever anyone would give us a blank wall, we’d show up

kinds of films get supported, get made. I don’t believe at all in the

with a projector.

domination or hierarchy of forms—and that’s what I’m trying to

To me, distribution is important for two reasons. One, it’s
important that as many people as possible see the films, that we
broaden our public. And there’s always been this dream I’m begin-

say in my own film work. I think all film forms are important tools
to get at what you’re trying to say.
MK: Since Atomic Cafe got such wide distribution and made so

ning to think is crazy—that slowly we could begin to earn back

much money, I don’t think people feel any longer that documen-

through distribution what the films cost to make, instead of being

tary can’t be entertaining. That kind of editing on that material for

dependent on this grant system, which I find obnoxious anyway.

a feature-length film was a form I think nobody thought could go

Even when it’s working, it’s begging people with a lot of money to

over. It was pretty much the same thing over and over and over
71

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again, but it fell together partly because of what it was about and

the soundtrack, the effects, everything. I feel the same way about

partly because it was done so well. But technically, it was not con-

the word “manipulation” as I do about the word “propaganda.”

sistently good—because of its magnification, the image often fell

Both are considered dirty words and they shouldn’t be; they’re just

apart. So it all depends on what kind of quality you're talking

what we do. All films are propaganda, all films are manipulative.
We need to learn to be effective, whatever that means. And it

about.

For me, it’s the quality of the content that’s really important. I

certainly doesn’t always mean Hollywood, although in certain

come from a different kind of background so I don’t feel any con-

cases it might mean competing with the look of a Hollywood film if

straints about using one documentary style over any other, drama

that’s the distribution and fundraising you need.

over documentary—you can use any kind as long as you get across
the content.

MN: I have a problem, though, with most so-called political films.
I think there’s an attitude that since the films are on such important issues, be it wife-beating or abortion or political prisoners in
India, you have to like the films; the audience must be sympathetic
because the issues are so obviously right. I feel very much for those
films, and I certainly think they are important and deserve audiences and ought to be seen. But they definitely sacrifice quality in a
way that it needn’t be sacrificed, especially in the medium of film.
I don’t know how many films I’ve seen about political issues

CC: I think all films are political, all films are agit-prop. It depends
on your point of view. Every single Hollywood film has its message,
whether you like it or not. Kramer vs. Kramer has a particular
political message. Unfortunately, American audiences are not
trying hard to look at films.
DM: I agree with Chris and Margia that obviously the ideal is to
have the content and the aesthetic, the technique, balanced. But I
find it far more intolerable if the content is sacrificed to the aesthetic or technique and not the other way around.
MC: I think this is related. I would talk about the importance of a

that could just as effectively be slide shows or panel discussions.

pleasurable film as opposed to a documentary or a narrative or

They show pictures and they have talk. You could make these films

whatever. A good-quality film is one that’s pleasurable. One of the

doubly, trebly, a hundred times more effective if more care was put

main things that drives people to traditional Hollywood films is

into the form. You have to be more ambitious, almost more mani-

how they perceive pleasure. There’s also some strong ideological

pulative, or, I hesitate to use the word, artistic. You have to use the
medium.

for our films to have this element and I think that mixing different

Deborah mentioned earlier she’d been interviewing Joris Ivens,
and he’s such a fantastic example of what I like in political films,
because he makes films that are so rooted in time, rooted in a certain opinion, and yet they last. And they last because of the beauty,
the poetry that goes into them. There are so few films that concern
themselves with issues that Ivens raises and that present themselves
in such a manner.
You can even use dramatic elements—I don’t mean fictionalized but dramatic in terms of editing, involvement with the human
characters, allowing people to have a certain space within which
we can read their lives instead of always giving us the messages of
their lives, which, in my opinion, makes people in these films
mouth political concerns, more like specimens, like in some anthropological films.
CC: I agree with Mira that form and content should be combined,
as Eisenstein said, all the time. But that also depends on the historical period, and unfortunately political filmmaking in America
has been very short-lived. In the 1930s it lasted briefly, and in the
1960s Newsreel was one of the pioneers in political filmmaking.
There was a kind of desperation in the 1960s and 70s, and many
of us made films coming out of those needs and desperation. So
sometimes, I would say, content does precede form.
DS: There’s something Mira said I want to get back to. I think you
got to the real point, which is: How effective are our films? I sometimes say that I’d like to māke films that make people laugh or
make people cry. I’m a sucker for a good movie; I’d love for my
documentaries to be really right-on political documentaries and to
have a few laughs and all the things that a really good movie should
have. That’s one bad legacy that we came out of Newsreel with,
which goes back to the whole question of agit-prop.
MN: What’s agit-prop?

support they get from going to Hollywood films. But it’s important
approaches to film helps create that kind of pleasure.
MN: What do you mean by pleasure?
MC: I guess I mean satisfying on some level, whether it’s an emotional level or an intellectual level or a visual level. It’s a very deep
involvement with the film but not in terms of traditional narrative,
with characters that you totally identify with and get caught up
with. Also, audiences come to films with certain expectations as to
what the film means. If they think of it as a documentary or if they
perceive it as a narrative before they walk in, those expectations
are part of the real experience of watching that film and getting
your message across. It’s not just a question of what we want to
make ourselves, but how it’s going to be received by the audience.
CC: It also depends on audience development. How do you raise
audience consciousness to look at films differently? I look at documentary films differently, look at progressive films differently. It’s
important for people to do outreach programs to reach, for instance, the Third World. Newsreel is now trying to package films
for upstate, for rural areas, the South, to reach audiences we normally don’t reach, and introduce new film languages to those audiences. We’re doing a program now called In Color about minority
women and their point of view in filmmaking.
Most filmmakers are a pain. When their film is finished they
say, “Ahhh, I’m finished, I don’t want anything to do with it,”
instead of going with the film and speaking with the audience,
getting their reactions and synthesizing that experience to make
their next film. Without that kind of experience, I think audiences
will never develop and will continue to be in tune with the
ABC/ NBC junk stuff. |
DS: My experience with distribution is that it’s not so much the
audience that’s our problem as the channels of distribution. I have
rarely had an audience receive a film badly. But I’ve had plenty of

DS: Agitational propaganda. Agit-prop was a term that we used

theater owners and exhibitors receive a film badly. One of our

for films that were specifically meant to do some political educa-

basic problems is breaking through this bottleneck. I think audi-

tion task, to rally people, to organize people to go on an anti-war

ences are hungry for—this is something that if I ever stop believing

march. And they worked. I was showing films in Ann Arbor and

TI’d have to stop making films—the kinds of films that people here

people would march on the ROTC building when the film ended.

are making, films that talk about their real problems, their real

But there was one critical mistake in the early Newsreel days.
This was about the time that the avant-garde film scene and the
political film scene separated, which is something that wasn’t true,

struggles, their real concerns. And sometimes I think they're
hungry for fantasy, too. And that’s fine.
That’s where a lot of us started with film: The power of the

for instance, in the Soviet Union; Dziga Vertov’s films were incred-

medium is overwhelming. I think we make films for a variety of

ibly political and they were also incredibly avant-garde movies. But
we had a mistaken notion that we didn’t want our films to be

reasons; everyone has personal stories about what led them to it,

“manipulative.” We wanted them to be very truthful, which meant
putting them in stark backgrounds, not paying attention to the
aesthetics of a shot. And I think that was a real mistake because
film is manipulative. It’s all manipulation. Every image, every
choice, from the first shot to the last, from the first cut, the music,

mostly by accident. But the point is the tremendous impact films
have on the culture and on consciousness.

Diana Agosta is a film- and videomaker and writer in New York City.
Barbara Osborn is a writer currently in charge of video distribution at the
Kitchen, New York City.

72

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(continued)

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CO-ED SLASHED IN LOVERS' QUARREL
TEACHER RAPED AS CHILDREN STUDY
7 KIDS DIE IN BRONX BLAZE
XMAS PARTY GIRL SHOT FOR HER RADIO
Recognize the Post and Daily News
headlines—the ones featuring the violence,
the tragedy experienced by women or their
children? The New York Times prefers to
“inform” its upmarket readers. No domestic homicide stories here. More fit to print
is news of the geo-political nightmare, the
full-scale invasion, the refugee camp massacre. The photos come from far away, but
it is here in the U.S. that they’re selected,
seen, and interpreted.
The photos on these first three pages
are a sample of the Times’ coverage of the
events in Lebanon from June 4, 1982, to the
present: the invasion, the massacre, and
the Israeli occupation. This selection is not
statistically based nor are these kinds of
images found only in the Times. We chose
images that, like effective advertising, stick
in our minds. They are repeated over and
over with only minor variations,

> massacre
after massacre. It is only
during such a crisis that we see pictures
of women from places like Lebanon, Angola, or El Salvador: What can we know
about them from these pictures?

Collages andandtext
by Diana
Agosta
Martha
Wallner

A Lebanese woman trying to silence her husband
he offered to tell Israelis of a hidden cache of arms.
©1983 Diana Agosta and Martha Wallner

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These images were taken from the context
of Lebanon and put into the context of a
newspaper laced with ads aimed at an economic-cultural elite. When we look at a page
from the Times, we see the ad image of the
elite woman and the news image of the refugee woman side by side. How are these images
related—one seductive, the other pathetic? Are we—
the reader, the consumer—the missing link?
We're presented with a world-view that suppresses
the explosiveness of the contradictions between these
_ad and news images. Ah! We get it. It’s just the way
„ things are—there are women who have and
women who have not. But both are vulnerable—to tanks...to that certain man...to
the photographer’s gaze. .….to our gaze? Sex
and violence from Bergdorf Goodman to
Beirut.
; And just what do we “learn” from the photographs of “Lebanon in Crisis”?
THE WOMEN are traditional; their heads
are covered. They are rarely shown with men but
often with children. They are seen fleeing through
rubble or mourning. If they express anything it is
a cry, a wail. They receive aid/are taken care of. They
do not fight back. When other women like Mother
Teresa respond, they are represented as saints or engaged in symbolic action.
There is little evidence of any link between the men
and the women. But then how does a guerrilla army #
exist? Who are the guerrillas? Who gave birth to
them? Who fathered the children that the women hold
THE MEN are fighting the war and making deci
sions about the course of events. They are soldiers,
diplomats, ministers, guerrillas. They are uniformed,
organized. They are the legitimate targets of war.
Their photographic separation from the women suggests a real physical separation and implies the possibility of avoiding civilian casualties.
Just as the women are separated from the men,
there is also a distinction between the way Third
World men (Lebanese and Palestinian) and Western men are represented. The former are general
ly shown as either terrorists, fools, or, more
rarely victims alongside the women. The
Westerners and the U.S.-allied Israelis are
not relegated to such extreme positions.
in fact they are often shown in such a way
that we identify with them.

We get a nice view over the Israeli soldier’s shoulder. Palestinians in our sightline
(Fig. 1). Begin appears with an unshaven
face; what was previously a sign of his enemies’ savagery is now a sign of his morality,
his religious conviction (Fig. 2). Would the
real Palestinian men please stand up (Figs.
3-5)? As women to men, Third World men
to our boys and the French Foreign Legion
(Figs. 6-7). What’s missing from this scenario?
(continued)

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NVAVSSIH VANIN9

LEBANESE WOMAN,

PLO FIGHTER

ISRAELI SOLDIER

| WITH WIFE

MEN AND WOMEN TOGETHER
Above are two choices—the first common, the second rare. The questions that slip
through in these photos about women’s involvement in their societies are the messages emphasized in some other news media. At right are examples of the variety of ideologies at work
in images published in the Third World.
Some women theorize that until women are image-makers images of women will be op- JOVENCITA
pressive. Is this enough? The photographs that get published reflect more than just the pho- IRs
tographer’s point of view. They must also reflect the viewpoint, the official history of those :
who own, who control the media. Why does the Times buy and print images of the mourning
but not the resisting?
An archetype of liberation media is the armed woman. Why? And why is it at the same
time such a taboo image for the Times? Is it because it links women with active, violent resistance, a role that is not traditionally theirs? Such an image unites two opposites: women
typically seen as defenseless, nonpolitical, and the gun, a symbol of political, physical power.
Mainstream media initially interpreted the armed Israeli woman as evidence of equality
in Israeli society. Her image was construed as particularly significant in light of what is seen
as a sea of oppressed Arab women surrounding the state of Israel. Conversely, there is a
tendency to dismiss images of armed Palestinian women, and other women and children involved in resistance, as obvious constructs of propaganda or evidence of their manipulation
by the Russians. But the Phalangists stormed the refugee camps looking to kill Palestinian
men, women, and children, not Russians.
Meanwhile, in its effort to “help you keep up with a modern, changing world” the Times
continues to rely on an old stereotype, dripping with journalistic pathos: the image of the
woman as the uninvolved victim. Woman-as-victim is a pet theme of most Western press
coverage. It is expressed in terrorizing headlines, elitist ads, and images of women in crisis.
Yes, women are often victims. But don’t the many images of chaos and grief in Beirut
blind us to the fact that women also prepare food, raise and educate children, work as
nurses and doctors, and that many support the Palestinian liberation movement in a variety
of ways, even as guerrillas?
In short, they are not simply victims. The activities of women’s lives construct and support the social base out of which any political movement operates. Just as elite women’s
images are used to sell cars, stereos, and software, Third World women’s images are used to
sell us a grossly distorted view of both our and their societies, revolution, its repression, and
women’s participation in history. If we buy this view we will never understand our lives,
their lives, whose side we’re on, or what to do.
Diana Agosta is a film- and videomaker and writer living in New York City.

Martha Wallner studied film and philosophy and is currently documenting the
destruction of her neighborhood, the Lower East Side in New York City.
;
&

.

” t

ON

Bendt, Ingela, & Downing, James, We
Shall Return— Women of Palestine.
London: Zed Press, 1972.
Berger, John, ‘Photographs of Agony,’
in About Looking. New York: Pantheon, 1980.
MERIP Reports, No. 95 (March/April
1981). Other issues feature stories
on Palestinian women. Write: PO
Box 1247, NY NY 10025.
B Said, Edward W., Covering Islam.

76 CUBAN (photo by Martha Wallner)

New York: Pantheon, 1981.

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No NE
Where are we? Spring 1983. Over a decade ago I and other
women artists found ourselves with very few options. Pitiably few

co-director, and directing Robin was exciting and painful. None of
us knew much about working together, though. When a few of the

women earned money with cameras. Pitiably few women earned

crew took Kate to court for monies the film wasn’t earning, I knew

money from their work at all. Things are different now—not where

we were losing the revolution. Letting men decide our arguments

we want them, but different. I’ve worked in stills, film, and video

was humiliating. We were in court because of vagueness in the

for many years, and theré’s an explosion of women’s work visible

wording of our contract and fantasies of riches that never material-

now that wasn’t there when I started. The issue of money is still a

ized. The women instituting proceedings wanted to be paid before

sore one. I’ve done some crazy things to get my projects made with

the producer recouped her initial investment, and they saw their

little or no money. We all have. It’s still depressing how little money

time as equal to her cash. The judge ruled—fairly, I thought—that

gets to women. But we’re changing that; in fact, we’ve changed a
lot already.

we all be paid back equally. We’ve yet to be paid back completely,

Younger women have more options than we did 15 years ago.

and Kate will probably never make back her initial investment.
I’m proud to have worked on that film. I learned a lot. None of

They aren’t as afraid of their competence as we were either. In my

us knew beans about making a feature, yet we created a piece of

teaching I don’t have to trick them into handling equipment as

history. We know about fighting it out, our expectations are more

much as I used to. Years of fighting it out with male faculty are
paying off. More women are employed than when I was the first

grounded, we value our time, and we write better contracts now.
When I went to Miami with five other women to videotape the

woman teaching photography at Pratt Institute in 1970. There are

Democratic National Convention in 1972 (Another Look), I hadn’t

more organizations of women artists now than I can possibly join.

yet learned about contracts. This was the convention in which

We've moved pretty far since the ’60s, when Art Workers Coalition and Artists United, radical artists’ groups, were dominated by

women were expected to “emerge” into mainstream politics—and
didn’t. We called ourselves Women’s Video News Service and were

men, and a small group of women responded by forming Women

the first women’s group to cover a major media-event for television

Artists in Revolution (WAR). I joined them in late 1969. My sug-

(I take pride in my “firsts’”’). We were sponsored by Teleprompter

gestion that the two groups merge generated lots of suspicion and

and the Feminist Party (Flo Kennedy). Opening night, everyone

competition (not unusual back then). Money and recognition were
scarce. WAR had asked the New York State Council of the Arts to

had stage fright and wouldn’t go to the convention floor. I hadn’t

fund a building of studios for them. I inherited the project, and

to shoot and interview. Given the scene there, our group did well

when I went to the Council, I was told they weren’t even consider-

covering the whole event.

ing it. “It wasn’t written up appropriately,” they said, “and any-

freaked yet, so I went alone. I was goosed by delegates while trying

Afterwards we realized that none of us had ever faced such a

way, women aren’t a minority—WAR isn’t a large enough group—

massive editing job before: We had to reduce 30 hours of tape to

not serious enough.” So, together with women from both groups, I

one hour. I had never edited video; nevertheless, I was elected to

wrote a “real” proposal. We created Interart, based on the new

edit the tape. When the editing started taking longer than expect-

ways some of us were working with each other. Although we had

ed, a couple of women kidnapped the tapes. Thinking they’d do it

allies on the Council, they still wouldn’t fund us. So we demon-

faster, they didn’t do anything at all. After desperate pleading, I

strated in the corridors outside their offices and brought in WBAI

got them back. I happen to be a compulsive maniac, so I finished it

Radio. After that, they gave us $5000, which wasn’t much for a
new arts group representing the ‘silent majority.” I resigned as coordinator shortly after the usual infighting over money began.
I didn’t realize, then, what an accomplishment that first grant
was. I was too busy feeling disappointed in what was happening to
us. Since then, women’s groups have learned a lot about how to
organize, get funds, and stay human with each other. Stormy history aside, I’ve since taught at the Women’s Interart Center, produced some film and video with their help, even assisted with fundraising. It isn’t the Women’s Interart Center of my dreams, but it
is a place where women can produce work. There wasn’t anything
like it a decade ago.
Part of why I wanted the Center, originally, was so I could learn
filmmaking with other women. Robin Mide (who first designed the
theater for the Center) introduced me to Kate Millett. Kate wanted
to produce a feature-length documentary made by women: Three
Lives. In 1970 women making a documentary about women was a
revolutionary idea. We were the first all-woman company to do it,
and I think Robin was the first lesbian to come out on film. I was a
©1983 Susan Kleckner

77

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Those were heavy years. Some of us paid high emotional tariffs.
I was involved in a videotaping that left me shattered. I went into it
way overextended and almost didn’t come out. I stopped working
with women for a few years, left the planet for a while, and refocused
on my still photography and drawing (private, solitary mediums
for me). It took me years to realize that I did accomplish something—we did accomplish something, back then. I believe it’s important to hear from those who burned out or nearly burned out in
the early 70s.
In recent years my work with women has been more of a pleasure. We’re a lot more relaxed, and we respect each other. We’re
not so much competitors as colleagues. Other things have changed.
We’re not so afraid of getting out there, of falling on our faces, or
of being wonderful. We’re not sabotaging ourselves the way we did
back then.
When I made Bag Lady I made a quantum leap. A few years
before shooting it, I worked with another group, Video Woman, on
a documentary directed by Garland Harris, about a woman living
in welfare hotels. The work was interesting, heartbreaking, and
provoked many issues of responsibility. The woman started dropping by at all hours for food and money. We did what we could,
but it became difficult after awhile. What was our responsibility to
her? She became pregnant, and her family committed her to a
state mental hospital. The tape was never finished. When I started
writing Bag Lady, I knew I couldn’t handle that kind of disruption
in my life. I was certain I’d end up bringing bag women to my
home to live. More pressing, for me, was the desire to work with
fiction. I wanted control, to tell the story my way. I felt we needed
new archetypes, new myths, to inspire us. On a metaphorical level,
I believed street women were heroic, with great dignity, and I believed I could say this more effectively with fiction. I wanted a story
of triumph, not defeat (unfortunately, it’s hard to find triumph in
the facts of a real bag woman’s life). I interviewed over 25 actresses
before meeting Dale Soules, who was starring in The Magic Show
on Broadway at that time. I was completely intimidated by the
prospect of directing someone who earned her living in theater, but
she was absolutely right for the character, and her energy and
commitment to the film matched my own. It was thrilling to watch
everybody push themselves beyond what they thought they could
do. We were more proud than scared, with a growing tradition of
women’s art to inspire us.
I finished that film excited about working with women again,
but I discovered a new Pandora’s box of issues. This time it was
in time for broadcast before the election. We were all overwhelmed

over ownership. I had made the film through the Interart Center,
and guess what, no contract! They believed they owned the film. I

by what we’d taken on. It was a major accomplishment, but once

believed I did. I did the kidnapping this time. At the same time I

again the pain involved overshadowed the pride we should have felt.

hađd started another film. It was supposed to be made through the

Three months later my Birth Film premiered at the Whitney
Museum. I made this film with Kris Glen (since elected Civil Court

Center, but because of our disagreement, they refused. I went
ahead on my own.

Judge of Manhattan). We had been together in a consciousness-

Amazing Graces, starring Lynne Thigpen, is a very short film;

raising group for years. When she became pregnant and planned

it’s really a study for a feature I hope to make someday. This one

to give birth at home, we decided to film it. The women who

was a total pleasure to shoot. It ends: “To be continued...” which

worked on the project were my friends (one was also a member of

is my commitment to go on. In writing this article I almost didn’t

our CR group). Most of them hadđd little or no film experience. It

write about this film. In fact I almost “forgot” to mention it. After

was an ambitious project for me. I had directed the camerawoman

wrestling with my own discomfort, I realized I was afraid of my

for the “Robin” sequence in Three Lives, but didn’t shoot it my-

own confusion in talking about working with a Black woman. I

self. Birth Film was to be my debut shooting film. I was scared, but

was afraid anything I would say might be construed as racist. Lynn

the great Spirit was with me and I got beautiful footage. As far as I
know, this was the first all-women-made film on birth. There

and I never spoke about being Black and white while making the
film. It was important for me, and the film, that she’s Black. I

weren’t many birth images around, period, at that time (1970-73),

couldn’t imagine exploring the subject of street women without in-

and people weren’t used to seeing vaginas—particularly close-ups

cluding Black women—so many of them are Black. When I showed

of bloody vaginas, 15 feet tall on the screen. Many people fainted,

her this article recently, we finally discussed being Black/white in

and I ended up holding heads while women threw up in the ladies’

relation to the film. She said the question had never come up for

room. People don’t do that anymore—we’ve been showing what we
look like for a decade.
The Birth Film was my alternative to film school. I urge women
to just go out there and do it. Mistakes happen, money is wasted,
very few people understand what you're going through, your

her. I, however, had to move through a lot of fear to create a character with her. It was worth it, and it was just a beginning. Confronting my own racism has been hard. Working with Lynn was
easy.

Perhaps hardest for me to confront is my own internalized op-

friends and family think you’re crazy, but you learn fast. This is, in

pression—patterns in my own behavior that keep me down. I have

a sense, what we've done in the movement—pushing ahead with-

all kinds of self-defeating patterns that are learned and interna-

out knowing enough, using every bit of experience we had, learning
wherever we could.

lized: insecurity, fear, self-hate, and isolation, for`starters. Mild
example: Soon I have a gig at the Washington Women’s Art Center

78

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to show work and speak. Great. Months ago they asked for a bio

The Cinema

and photo so they could publicize the event. Very reasonable. I
didn’t send them. I kept “forgetting.” Now it’s too late for their
newsletter, and I’ve ensured myself a smaller audience. Like many
others, I keep my own oppression going. I’m changing that—this

The film was consummate, leaving the theater

article is one way. And after thinking about what I’d done, I found

a denial of sorts. Out on the street, air is now cruel, demanding.
The days have reached their peak of shortness, now two notches

a way to get that event listed in a Washington paper.

past winter, moving into spring...

It’s important to remember that internalized oppression stems
from real oppressions. As a Jewish woman, I know that anti-Semit-

who looks at it that way, though, when we are stunned

ism still exists, and that I still come up against it. We all know that
some Jews are successful, but when you hear that a/l Jews are successful, you’re hearing anti-Semitism (most Jews are working class).
It’s not unusual for Jews of my generation to have a lot of fear and
confusion about “success.” Personally, I have a lot of ambivalence

at the passing of two hours? We cannot miss the streetlights
now on, outlining the ice, blackened by many, transformation
is everywhere a possibility. ..even the watching of a movie
becomes hardly the nonactivity we had bargained for. There
we were, agreeing to have a quiet evening, catch an early flick.

around recognition. Recognition means visibility. I know a lot of

Perception changes

women who share my approach/avoidance relationship to the

every second perhaps
a chance.

whole issue of “fame.” Throughout history, Jews have been slaughtered, often when too many became too successful. You don’t have
to be Jewish to be hurt by anti-Semitism. We are all hurt by racism,
homophobia, and any other oppression. We’ve heard a lot about
fear of success—for me, it’s more like fear of mutilation and ex-

termination. |

It’s täken a lot of work to even recognize these fears. It’s taken
physical and spiritual work to become healthy and creative. This
work recently took me on a drive of over 5000 miles for a month in
the desert. It was a major step for me as an artist, a woman, and a
Jew to go alone to the desert. I wouldn’t have done it 10 years ago.
It was a coming-of-age ritual; it was also part of the film/video/
performance work, Desert Piece, that I’ve been doing for the last
two years. The women in the piece gave themselves freely to the

What did you see all the times you cleaned the floor never
noticing the chunk of glass left from the one broken seasons
before or the gargoyles above your lover’s door ?
Where were your eyes when I couldn’t take mine off the screen?

Though your gait is unlike the protagonist's, it is unlike
the way you usually walk. The French actress had light red hair,
and lots of freckles. My dark hair is getting white strands,
I remember the red highlights I one summer thought I saw.
Some people we pass watch us go by. Perhaps we watch each other.
Home, I fall asleep
under your influence.

work, learned from each other, took risks, and put themselves on
the line. I’ve never worked so well with other women, and I’ve
never been so comfortable directing.
I feel that there really is more support “out there,” and I can

Poem by Julia J. Blumenreich, who hates serving bacon and eggs but loves
painting and writing.

begin to speak. Fear and rage have always rendered me speechless,
but with hope I am finding a voice. It’s with hope that I’m going to
get through the rest of my life. I can even start to forgive myself
and others for our lack of grace during this decade.
For women in media, it’s been very complicated because media
is about visibility. We often are involved in making others visible,
while keeping a certain anonymity for ourselves. I’m just beginning
to look at all this, but I think the issue of visibility determines my
and many other’s behavior. The more I confront this, the more my
work and my relationship to getting-it-out-there take off. I (we)
don’t have to continue being caught in patterns of fear and silence
anymore.

E

Walking crosstown I see the French countryside across
your never having left the United States cheekbones.

Clara Bow

(The "IT" Girl)

When life became stress-laden, intolerable,
Harrowing, filled with pain
And bitter disenchantment,
I think of the mother of a redhead—
A child destined to be a movie star—
The mother grown mad with disappointments,
Who held a knife at her young daughter’s throat,
Intending to kill her
So that the child could escape
From life’s harrowings.
I also think of that child, half waif,
Half sensuous woman,
And how she rose to fame, yet was denied
The privilege of great dramatic roles—
Roles in which she could show her true talent,
And be more than sex symbol
To a nation of theater-goers.
It is said that Clara Bow, whose life
Was tragic from its beginning
To its end, could have been
The greatest of tragediennes.
But, for her, life was (as her mad mother
Had predicted) brutal and terrible,
Despite transient glamour,
Despite transient wealth and fame,
Despite marriage to a good and noble man...

Poem by Merry Harris, a Southern poet of Cherokee ancestry living in
Susan Kleckner is a filmmaker and photographer, currently teaching at
the International Center for Photography in New York City.

California. Her fifth book of poetry, Even Such Is Time, was published in
1981.

©1983 Julia J. Blumenreich © 1983 Merry Harris 79

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fragments of a filmscript: in our own image bicy pantek
in our own image regarding sequences of events taking her hands from their pockets colors entered her mouth in
waves obscuring horizons drowning in differences fighting across the different points of view locations rush by on
a plane of glass her reflection stares back at me observing what it was i had wanted to ask arranging letters on
a paper putting flowers in a vase tracing spaces i developed signs on tablecloths covering yesterdays reasons lie
beneath fighting across the different points of view scattering vibrations making meanings ripped apart in waves
disturbing variations smiling at her in layers of emulsion and paper smiled back through endless indecisions
swapping seats exchanging glances long since fled by sewing buttonholes on a bloodstained sheet waiting for the
bleeding to subside i buried the buttons in the earth and stumble on a different phrase how do we agree i erase
a thought stumble on a different phrase slipping through my fingers rolling over multiplying reaching no
conclusions i did not say the words were missing letters arranging sequences on a paper putting flowers in a vase
vacating questions imprisoning me in cages of light pieces of my identity slipping through my fingers rolling over
multiplying staring back at me observing what it was i had wanted to ask below surfaces swallowing vibrations
she exuded pass from her weightless limbs into mine obscuring horizons drowning in differences arranging letters
on a paper putting fragments in a vase i lose sight of myself secreting blood behind a name discharging
limitations left unsaid crests of waves falling my shadow escapes counting all the faces which are mine slipping
through my fingers rolling over multiplying reaching no conclusions i seize myself to abandon myself below
surfaces inside movement into gesture you keep repeating yourself she said trickles into words forming distances
between us i was opening doors she was closing from another side scattering vibrations behind variations bleeding
between the seams my vagina stares back at me observing what it was i had wanted to ask in unmade scenes
contexts lie buried in boxes on shelves somewhere else disturbing memories a mirror watched me take it from the
wall turn it to face itself some men coming out from behind were scraping at the air between us a mirror hangs

regarding sequences obscuring horizons tracing space i developed across the different points of view counting my
identities smiling back exchanging glances taking me across the different points of view sewing buttonholes in the
earth another question imprisoning me in words secreting limitations raping colors in layers of emulsion and
paper losing sight of myself below surfaces inside movement into gesture into words running behind me searching
in unmade scenes buried in boxes on shelves somewhere regarding sequences obscuring horizons outside and inside
my vagina trickles into words tracing spaces on a paper putting letters in a vase in our own image i erase a
thought drowning in differences i developed signs through endless indecisions long since fled slip by swallowing
vibrations she exuded colors passing from her weightless limbs into mine secreting blood falling into faces which
are mine slipping through my fingers words discharging limitations staring back at me scattering vibrations making
waves ripped apart in meanings disturbing variations taking her across the different points of view in our own
image someone raping colors changing into me conclusions slip by bleeding everywhere i turn a mirror hiding
remnants entering her mouth in waves searching in unmade scenes remnants escape on empty pages contexts lie
buried somewhere else catching sight of myself emerging from another side losing sight of myself shattering
patterns making meanings ripped apart discharging variations my vagina trickles into words left unsaid between
us a mirror hangs questions i was asking below surfaces inside movement into gesture running behind me
disturbing memories exchanging fragments taking sequences of events drowning in our own image swallowing
vibrations i developed differences covering yesterdays points of view my reflection on a bloodstained sheet opening
doors she was closing distances between us slip by on a paper in a vase into colors obscuring horizons falling away
on a plane of glass tracing space exuding distances into colors secreting points of view a thought escaping trickles
into words staring back through endless indecisions i buried the buttons in a different phrase waiting for the
bleeding to subside i stumble inside movement into gesture on the questions which are mine repeating letters on
paper putting fragments in a vase obscuring words secreting limitations imprisoning me in questions i had wanted
to ask staring back at her observing yesterdays reasons bleeding in the earth escaping conclusions below surfaces
swallowing vibrations she exuded pass from her weightless limbs into mine outside and inside movement into
gesture you keep repeating yourself she said you keep repeating trickles into sequences of events overlapping
yesterdays points of view bleeding in the earth entering her mouth in waves colors stumble between us horizons
stare back at me closing doors i was opening spaces on paper tracing questions in a vase between distances
repeating movement into gesture secreting limitations bleeding below surfaces beneath layers colors stare back
through endless indecisions exchanging variations repeating sequences of events covering yesterdays glances slipping
through my fingers rolling over multiplying between us horizons stare back in boxes on shelves in our own image
disturbing memories a mirror watched me take it from the wall turn it to face itself some men emerging from the
other side were scattering vibrations shattering patterns making meanings ripped apart in words disturbing variations

raping distances between us a mirror hangs questions secreting in a different phrase reaching no conclusions
colors pass from her weightless limbs obscuring sounds tracing spaces across horizons imprisoning me outside
and inside limitations rush by rolling over multiplying into spaces i developed across the different points of view
her reflection stares back at me secreting identities scattering all the faces which are making waves ripped apart
in meanings disturbing variations long since fled slip by into colors discharging points of view obscuring horizons
drowning in differences left unsaid crests of waves falling my shadow escapes someone raping colors constantly
changing tracing distances on paper putting spaces in a vase arranging what it was i had wanted to ask between
horizons losing sight of myself

80 ©1983 Lucy Panteli

Lucy Panteli is a London filmmaker currently working on a film concerning female imagery in experimental films.

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THE CASE
OF THE

MISSING
[MÍOTHER

a x Maternal

ted Y Issues
,

R

B = I in Vidor's

tg 3n Stella Dallas

E. ANN KAPLAN
For complex reasons, feminists have

archy is constructed according to the male

allotted to the margins, put in a position

focused on the Mother largely from the

unconscious, feminists grew up in a society

daughter position. When I first joined a

that repressed the Mother. Patriarchy

consciousness-raising group in 1969, we

chose, rather, to foreground woman’s sta-

dealt with Mothering only in terms of our

feminists’ negative attitude toward Moth-

tus as castrated, as lacking, since this con-

ering in the early days of the movement.

own relationships to our mothers, and this

limited to that of spectator.
These constructions contributed to

struction benefits patriarchy. If the phal-

We were afraid not only of becoming like

group already had children. As a graduate

lus defines everything, legitimacy is granted to the subordination of women. Femi-

our own mothers, but also of falling into

student and mother of a one-year-old girl,
I badly needed to talk about issues of ca-

despite the fact that a few of us in the

nists have been rebellious about this second

one or the other of the mythic paradigms,
should we have children. Put on the defen-

construction of ourselves as castrated, but

sive, feminists rationalized their fears and

the child affected my marriage, about the

have only recently begun to react strongly
against the construction of the Mother as

the nuclear family as an institution, and

conflict between my needs and the baby’s

marginal.

reer versus Motherhood, about how having

needs; but for some reason, I felt that these
were unacceptable issues.
I think this was because at that time

This reaction began in the mid-’70s
with the ground-breaking books about

anger, focusing on the destructiveness of
seeing the Mother as an agent of the patriarchal establishment. We were unable
then to see that the Mother was as much a

feminism was very much a movement of

motherhood by Adrienne Rich, Dorothy
Dinnerstein, and Jane Lazarre.! Rich and

victim of patriarchy as ourselves, construct-

daughters. The very attractiveness of femi-

Dinnerstein exposed the repression of the

nism was that it provided an arena for

—psychoanalytic, political, and economic.

Mother, and analyzed the reasons for it,

separation from oppressive closeness with

showing both psychoanalytic and socio-

the Mother; feminism was in part a reac-

economic causes. Building on Melanie

tion against our mothers, who had tried to

Klein’s and Simone de Beauvoir’s ideas,

inculcate the patriarchal “feminine” in us,

Dinnerstein described the early childhood

much to our anger. This made it difficult

experience as one of total dependency on a

ed as she is by a whole series of discourses

The Hollywood cinema is as responsible as anything for perpetuating the useless patriarchal myths. Relatively few Hollywood films make the Mother central,

for us to identify with Mothering and to

Mother who is not distinguished from the

look from the position of the Mother.

self (she is “good” when present, “bad”

narrative focused on a husband, son, or

relegating her, rather, to the periphery of a

Unwittingly, then, we repeated the

when absent). This, together with the

patriarchal omission of the Mother. From

Mother’s assimilation to natural processes

a psychoanalytic point of view, we remained

daughter. The dominant paradigms are
similar to those found in literature and

through her reproductive function, results

locked in ambivalence toward the Mother,

mythology throughout Western culture,

in her split cultural designation and representation.

at once still deeply tied to her while striving for an apparently unattainable autonomy. Paradoxically, our complex Oedipal
struggles prevented us from seeing the

Rich shows in numerous ways how the
Mother is either idealized, as in the myths
of the nurturing, ever-present but self-

and may be outlined quite simply:
1. The Good Mother, who is all-nurturing and self-abnegating—the “Angel in
the House.” Totally invested in husband
and children, she lives only through them,

Mother’s oppression (although we had no

abnegating figure, or disparaged, as in the

such problems in other areas), and resulted

corollary myth of the sadistic, neglectful

in our assigning the Mother, in her hetero-

Mother who puts her needs first. The

sexual, familial setting, to an absence and

Mother as a complex person in her own

underside to the first myth. Sadistic, hurt-

silence analogous to the male relegation of

right, with multiple roles to fill and con-

ful, and jealous, she refuses the self-abne-

her to the periphery.

flicting needs and desires, is absent from

gating role, demanding her own life. Be-

Traditional psychoanalysis, as an ex-

and is marginal to the narrative.
2. The Bad Mother or Witch—the

patriarchal representations. Silenced by

cause of her “evil” behavior, this Mother

tension of patriarchy, has omitted the

patriarchal structures that have no room

Mother, except when she is considered

often takes control of the narrative, but

for her, the Mother-figure, despite her

she is punished for her violation of the de-

from the child’s point of view. Since patri-

actual psychological importance, has been

sired patriarchal ideal, the Good Mother.3

©1983 E. Ann Kaplan

81

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3. The Heroic Mother, who suffers and
endures for the sake of husband and children. A development of the first Mother,

the Morrison family. She is excluded not
only as a working-class woman, but also as
the Mother. Ben Brewster notes that the

she shares her saintly qualities, but is more

1923 novel moves Laurel “decisively into

central to the action. Yet, unlike the sec-

the world of Helen Morrison, shifting its

ond Mother, she acts not to satisfy herself

point of identification to Laurel’s mother,

but for the good of the family.
4. The Silly, Weak, or Vain Mother.
Found most often in comedies, she is ridiculed by husband and children alike, and
generally scorned and disparaged.*
As these limited paradigms show, Hollywood has failed to address the complex
issues that surround Mothering in capitalism. Each paradigm is assigned a moral
position in a hierarchy that facilitates the
smooth functioning of the system. The
desirable paradigm purposely presents the
Mother from the position of child or husband, since to place the camera in the
Mother’s position would raise the possibility of her having needs and desires of her

Stella Dallas, who abolishes herself as visible to her daughter so as to be able to contemplate her in that world.” ó It is the
process by which Stella Dallas makes herself literally Mother-as-spectator that
interests me, for it symbolizes the position
that the Mother is most often given in patriarchal culture, regardless of which paradigm is used.
Stella is actually a complex mixture of
a number of the Mother paradigms. She
tries to resist the position as Mother that
patriarchal marriage, within the film, seeks
to put her in—thus, for a moment, exposing that position. First, she literally objects
to Mothering because of the personal sacrifices involved; then, she protests by ex-

own. If the Mother reveals her desire, she

pressing herself freely in her eccentric style

is characterized as the Bad Mother (sadis-

of dress. The film punishes her for both

tic, monstrous), much as the single woman

forms of resistance by turning her into a

who expresses sexual desire is seen as
destructive.

disapproving gaze, a gaze the audience is

It is significant that Hollywood Mothers are rarely single and rarely combine
Mothering with work. Stahl’s and Sirk’s

“spectacle” produced by the upper class’
made to share through the camera work
and editing.
The process by which Stella is brought

versions of Imitation of Life are exceptions

from resistance to passive observer high-

(although in other ways the Mother figures

lights the way the Mother is constructed as

reflect the myths). Often, as in Mildred

marginal or absent in patriarchy. As the

Pierce, the Mother is punished for trying to

film opens, we see Stella carefully prepar-

combine work and Mothering. Narratives

ing herself to be the object of Stephen Dal-

that do focus on the Mother usually take

las’ gaze; she self-consciously creates the

that focus because she resists her proper

image of the sweet, innocent but serious

place. The work of the film is to reinscribe

girl as she stands in the garden of her

the Mother in the position patriarchy de-

humble dwelling pretending to read a

sires for her and, in so doing, teach the
female audience the dangers of stepping
out of the given position. Stella Dallas is a
clear example: the film “teaches” Stella
her “correct” position, bringing her from
resistance to conformity with the dominant,
desired myth.

book. Despite all her efforts to be visible,

P

Mildred Pierce (1946). Mildred's close, narcissistic bonding to Veda must be punished because it

cinema spectator, seeing that Stephen is as
much someone with class as Stella is without it, realizes that Stella is overlooked because she is working class:
Stella’s plan to escape from her back-

excludes men. Here, Veda is seen flirting with
Mildred's lover Monty, presaging her full-blown
affair with him and her deliberate rejection of
her mother. Photo courtesy of Museum of Modern Art/Film Stills Archive.

ground is understandable, given the place

How could she—oh how could she
have become a part of the picture on
the screen, while her mother was still
in the audience, out there, in the dark,
looking on?

her mother occupies within the family.
This gaunt and haggard figure slaves away
at sink and stove in the rear of the frame,
all but invisible on a first viewing. She only
moves into the frame to berate Stella for
refusing to give her brother the lunch he

giving her—an attention that surprises but
flatters the heart-sick man.
Shortly after this, we find Stephen and
Stella at the movies. A shot of upper-class
men and women dancing on a screen,
filmed from the perspective of the theater

wants. “What do you want to upset him
for? What would I do without him?” she

audience, is followed by a front shot of

novel Stella Dallas, by Olive Higgins. It

asks, betraying her economic and psycho-

shows how the cinema had already, by

estedly on popcorn while she snuggles up

logical dependence on this young man, not

to him, intensely involved in the film. This

1923, become a metaphor for the opposi-

yet ground down (as is her husband) by toil

scene confirms that Stella has been acting

This quotation is taken from the 1923

Stella and Stephen. He munches disinter-

tions of reality and illusion, poverty and
wealth. Within the film Stella Dallas, we

praises her own fresh beauty in the kit-

find the poor on the outside (Laurel’s

Stephen according to codes learned through

chen’s dismal mirror, she is inspired to

watching films. We see how films indeed do
“teach” us about the life we should desire

at the mill. As Stella narcissistically ap-

“as if in the movies,” performing with

mother, Stella) and the rich on the inside

take her brother his lunch after all, hoping

(Laurel and the Morrisons). This mimics,

to meet Stephen Dallas, whom she now

as it were, the situation of the cinema spec-

and about how to respond to movies. As the

knows is a runaway millionaire.

film ends, Stella is weeping; and as wom-

tator, who is increasingly subjected to a
screen filled with rich people in luxurious
studio sets.
But it is not simply that the 1937 version of Stella Dallas makes Stella the

Stella’s “performance” at the mill office, where Stephen has settled down to a
lonely lunch, is again self-conscious. But
this time her flawless acting wins her what

en watching Stella watching the screen,
we are both offered a model of how we
should respond to films and given insight
into the mechanisms of cinematic voyeur-

she wants. Dressed as a virginal young

ism and identification. Stella, the working-

working-class spectator, looking in on the

lady, she gazes adoringly up at Stephen

class spectator, is outside the rich world on

upper-class world of Stephen Dallas and

instead of following the directions he is

the screen, offered as spectacle for her

82

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who is yelling loudly. Both the mother and
son are terrified that the father will discov-

to look at Stella through Stephen’s eyes.

er that Stella has not come home. Indeed,

As a Mother, Stella is no longer permitted
to control her actions, or to be the camera’s

the father angrily ejects his daughter from

eye (as she was in the scenes before her

his house—until her smiling arrival, al-

marriage and Motherhood). The scene

ready wed to Stephen Dallas, mitigates all

with Laurel as a baby opens with the cam-

sins.

era still in Stella’s point of view. We see her

This is the last we see of Stella’s fami-

with her maid, feeding the baby and de-

ly. For all intents and purposes the work-

lighting in her. Munn and his friends drop

ing-class family is eliminated on Stella’s

by, and a spontaneous little party devel-

entrance into Stephen Dallas’ upper-class
world—it is made as invisible in filmic

ops. Everyone is having fun, Laurel includ-

terms as it is culturally. What Stella has to
contend with are her remaining working-

ed. Suddenly Stephen arrives, and the
camera shifts to his perspective: The entire
scene changes in an instant from a harm-

class desires, attitudes, and behaviors,

less gathering to a distasteful brawl, ren-

which the film sees ambiguously as either
ineradicable (which would involve an un-

dering Stella a neglectful Mother. The

characteristic class determinism), or as

in Laurel’s food bowl, to the half-empty

deliberately retained by Stella. Women are

camera cuts to the stubbed-out cigarettes
liquor glasses, to the half-drunk, unshape-

socialized to be flexible precisely so that

ly men; we get Stephen’s eye moving around

they can marry into a higher class, taking

the room. Laurel begins to cry at her fath-

their family up a notch as they do so. We
have seen that Stella is aware of how she

er’s shouting, as the friends hurriedly and

should behave. (“I want to be with you,”

the “object,” and judged from Stephen’s

she tells Stephen after seeing the movie, “I

supposedly superior morality, is found to

want to be like you. I want to be like all the

be lacking in Motherliness.

people you've been around.”) But Stella

shamefacedly slip away. Stella has become

These scenes initiate a pattern through

resists this change once she has won her

which Stella is made into a “spectacle” (in

upper-class man, which makes her at once

a negative sense) both within the film story

a more interesting and a more tragic hero-

and for the cinema spectator. It is the first

ine. Given the structures that bind her, she

step on the way to her learning her ‘“cor-

has more sense of self than is ultimately

rect” place as “spectator,” as absent

good for her.

It is both Stella’s (brief) resistance to

Mother (as she gradually realizes through
the upper-class judgments of her that she

Mothering and her resistance to adapting

is an embarrassment to her child). The

to upper-class mores that for a moment
expose the construction of Mothering in

second step is for both audience and Stella
to validate the alternative model of the

patriarchy and at the same time necessi-

upper-class Morrison family, set up over

tate her being taught her proper construc-

and against Stella. The lower-class Stella
and the cinema audience thus become the

tion. Stella first violates patriarchal codes
emulation and envy. “I want to be like the

when, arriving home with her baby, she

women in the movies,” Stella says to Ste-

manifests not delight but impatience with

fect lifestyle. Other figures are brought in

phen on their way home.

her new role, demanding that she and Ste-

to provide further negative judgments of

admiring spectators of the Morrison’s per-

Meanwhile, Stella and Stephen them-

phen go dancing that very night. Next, she

selves become objects of the envious, voy-

violates the codes by wearing a garish dress

not take Laurel to cultural events, so the

euristic gaze of some passersby when they
embrace outside the cinema. The women

and behaving independently at the club,

schoolteacher has to do this; Stella then

leaving their table to dance with a strang-

behaves loudly in public with an ill-man-

watching are now ‘on the outside,” while

er, Mr. Munn (who is from the wrong set),

nered man, where she is seen by the teach-

Stella is beginning her brief sojourn ‘“inside” the rich world she envied on screen.

and going to sit at Munn’s table.

er. Moreover, Laurel’s peers indicate dis-

Thus, to the basic audience-screen situation of the Stella Dallas film itself, Vidor

for the spectator when the camera takes

Laurel’s party, and later on her upper-class

Stephen’s point of view on the scene, al-

friends at the hotel laugh outright at Stel-

has added two levels: Stella and Stephen in

This behavior is immediately ‘“placed”

Stella as Mother. For example, Stella does

approval of Stella by refusing to attend

though it could as easily have stuck with

la’s appearance. By implicating us—the

the movie house, and Stella and Stephen

Stella’s perspective and shown the stuffi-

cinema spectator—in this process of rejec-

as “spectacle” for the street “audience.”

ness of the upper class. Staying with Ste-

tion, we are made to accede to the ‘“right-

Stella will herself create yet another spec-

phen, who has now collected their coats

ness” of Stella’s renunciation of her daugh-

tator-screen experience (one that is indeed

and is waiting by the dance floor, the cam-

ter, and thus made to agree with Stella’s

foreshadowed in the movie scene here),

era exposes Stella’s vigorous dancing and

position as absent Mother.

when she becomes “spectator” to the

loud behavior as “unseemly.” At home,

screen/scene of her daughter’s luxurious

Stephen begs Stella to “see reason”, in

Once the lacks in Stella’s Mothering
have been established from the upper-class

wedding in the Morrison household at the

other words, to conform to his class. He

perspective (which is synonymous with pa-

end of the film. Stella has made her daugh-

does not take kindly to Stella’s round reply

triarchy’s construction of the ideal Moth-

(“How about you doing some adapting?””),
and when he asks her to move to New York

crete form of Helen Morrison. Refined,

because of his business she refuses on ac-

calm, and decorous, devoted to her home

ter into a ‘movie star” through whom she
can live vicariously.
This is only possible through Mother-

er), we are shown this “Ideal” in the con-

and children, she embodies the all-nurtur-

hood as constructed in patriarchy, and

count of ‘just beginning to get into the

thus Stella’s own mothering is central to

right things” (which the spectator already

ing, self-effacing Mother. She is a saintly

her trajectory. It is fitting that the movie

knows are the wrong things from Stephen’s

figure, worshipped by Laurel because she

scene cuts directly to Stella’s haggard

perspective).

gives the child everything she needs and

mother laboring in her kitchen the follow-

The following scene shows even more

asks nothing in return (she is even tender

ing morning. Her victimization is under-

clearly how the film wrenches Stella’s point

toward Stella, for whom she shows ‘“pity”

scored by her total fear of Stella’s father,

of view away from the audience, forcing us

without being condescending). Modern
83

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viewers may find these scenes embarras-

rel forgives her and tenderly brushes her
hair. Most remarkable, is the train se-

singly crude in their idealization of upperclass life, but within the film’s narrative

quence, where Laurel overhears her friends

this is obviously the desired world: the

ridiculing her mother. Hurt for her moth-

happy realm where all Oedipal conflicts

er (not for herself), she creeps down into `

are effaced and family members exude

Stella’s bunk and kisses her tenderly,

perfect harmony. The contrast with Stel-

snuggling up to her under the covers. Fi-

la’s world could not be more dramatic; it

nally, of course, Laurel is almost ready to

reveals her total lack of refinement.

give up her own chance for the pleasures of

But if unmannerliness were the sum of
Stella’s faults, patriarchy would not be as

the Morrison family and upper-class life
when she realizes why Stella wanted to let
the Morrisons have her. It takes Stella’s

threatened by her as it evidently is, nor demand such a drastic restitution as the re-

trick to make Laurel stay (and I'll come

nunciation of her child. What is behind

back to this “trick” in a moment).

this demand for such an extreme sacrifice

The very mutuality of this Mother-

on Stella’s part? What has she really done

daughter relationship makes it even more

to violate patriarchy’s conception of the
Mother?

threatening and in need of disruption

The clue to answering this question lies
in her initial resistance to Mothering, for

than, for example, the one-sided dedication to the daughter in Mildred Pierce.
That film highlights the dangerous narcis-

“selfish” reasons, and her subsequent en-

sism of a love like Mildred’s (where the

thusiastic embracing of Motherhood. The

investment in the child is tantamount to

refusal and then the avid assumption of

merging, to abandoning the boundaries

the role are linked from a patriarchal point

altogether). This love must be punished

of view through the same “fault,” namely

not only because it excludes men (as does

that Stella is interested in p/easing herself.

Stella’s relationship to Laurel), but also

She refuses Mothering when she does not
see anything in it for her, when it seems
only to stand in the way of fun; but she

II-

hatred) offers a kind of protection for pa-

can give her pleasure, and can add motre to

triarchy; it ensures that Mildred’s love will

her life than the stuffy Stephen can! Short-

be destructive and self-defeating.
In contrast, Stella Dallas in the end

ly after Stephen has left, Stella says, “I

provides an example of Mother love that is

\ right away. But I'm crazy about her. Who

properly curtailed and subordinated to

wouldn’t be?” And later on, talking on the

what patriarchy considers best for the

train to Munn (who would clearly like a
-> sexual relationship with her), Stella
emarks, “Laurel uses up all the feelings I

E

negative bonding (she is tied through

takes it up avidly once she realizes that it

, thought people were crazy to have kids

aaisa N

female bonding poses in patriarchy. Veda’s

ave; I don’t have any for anyone else.”
In getting so much pleasure for herself
out of Laurel, Stella violates the patriarchel myth of the self-abnegating Mother,
who is supposed to be completely devoted

child. In renouncing Laurel, Stella is only
doing what the Good Mother should do,
according to the film’s ideology. By first
making Stella into a “spectacle” (i.e., by
applying an external standard to her actions and values), the film “educates” Stella into her “correct” position of Motheras-spectator, Mother as absent.

ad nurturing but not satisfy any of her

Stella’s entry into the Morrison house-

needs through the relationship with her

hold at once summarizes her prior ‘“unfit-

child. She is somehow supposed to keep

ness” and represents her readiness to suc-

herself apart while giving everything to the

cumb to the persistent demands that have

child; she is certainly not supposed to pre-

been made on her throughout the film. In

fer the child to the husband, since this

this amazing scene, shot from the butler’s

kind of bonding threatens patriarchy.

perspective, she is still a “spectacle” viewed

That Laurel returns Stella’s passion

from the upper-class position: She stands,

only compounds the problem: The film

more ridiculously clad than ever, on the

portrays Laurel as devoted to her mother

threshold of the huge mansion, her figure

to an unhealthy degree, as caring too
much, or more than is good for her. In

that overwhelm her with awe and admira-

contrast to the worshipful stance that

tion. It is the lower-class stance, as Stella

Laurel has to Mrs. Morrison, her love for
her own mother is physical, tender, and

gawks from the outside at the way the rich
live.

selfless. For instance, on one occasion Stel-

Incongruous within the house, Stella

la’s crassness offends the child deeply (she
nearly puts face cream all over Laurel’s

her own volition. The decorous, idealized

lovely picture of Mrs. Morrison), but Lau-

must be literally pushed outside—but of
Morrison family could not be seen depriving Stella of her child (remember: Mrs.

Stella Dallas (1937). The confrontation between
Mrs. Morrison (left) and Stella toward the end
of the film highlights the contrast of the Good,

Morrison is represented as tender toward
Stella), so Stella must do it herself. Paradoxically, the only method she can conceive of, once she realizes Laurel’s unwav-

Ideal Mother and the “resisting” Mother that

ering commitment to her, is by pretending

has been a theme throughout the film. Photo
courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art/Film

to step outside of her Mother role. “A

Stills Archive.

woman wants to be something else besides
a mother,” she tells a crestfallen Laurel,

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who has left the Morrisons to be at home
with her. Ironically, through these decep-

well as a split of the female image into

tive words, Stella is binding herself into the

old-style Mothers and new-style efficient
career women. Kramer Versus Kramer es-

prescribed Mother role; her self-sacrificing

tablished the basic model for the 80s: The

“trick”—her pretense that she is weary of

wife leaves her husband to become a suc-

Mothering—is the only way she can achieve

cessful career woman, willingly abandon-

her required place as “spectator,” relinquishing the central place she had illicitly
occupied.
Structured as a “screen” within the
screen, the final sequence of Laurel’s wedding literalizes Stella’s position as the

ing her child to pursue her own needs. The
husband steps into the gap she leaves and
develops a close, loving relationship to his
son, at some cost to his career—which he
willingly shoulders. If the wife, like Stella,
is reduced to a “spectator” (she returns to

Mother-spectator. We recall the previous

peek in on her child’s doings), it is ulti-

movie scene (Stephen and Stella looking at

mately because she is also (albeit in a very

the romantic upper-class couples on the
screen) as Stella stands outside the window

different way) a Bad Mother. Meanwhile,

of the Morrison house, looking in on her

the husband pals up with a solid, old-style
earth Mother who lives in his apartment

daughter’s wedding, unseen by Laurel.

building, just so that we know how far his

Stella stares from the outside at the upper-

wife has strayed. Cold, angular career

class “ideal” world inside. And as spectators in the cinema, identifying with the
camera (and thus with Stella’s gaze), we
learn what it is to be a Mother in patriarchy—it is to renounce, to be on the outside, and to take pleasure in this positioning. Stella’s triumphant look as she turns
away from the window to the camera assures us she is satisfied to be reduced to

women, often sexually aggressive, have $

come to dominate the popular media while i

Fathers are becoming nurturing. (The :

World According to Garp is another recent : j
example.) And there are also plenty of sa- / =
distic Mothers around (Mommie Dearest). /
Thus, the entire structure of sex-role :
stereotyping remains intact. The only
change is that men can now acquire previ-

spectator. Her desires for herself no longer

ously forbidden “feminine” qualities. But

count, merged as they are with those of her

career women immediately lose their warm

daughter. While the cinema spectator feels

qualities, so that even if they do combine

a certain sadness in Stella’s position, she
also identifies with Laurel and with her

mothering and career, they cannot be

attainment of what we have all been so-

Good Mothers. It is depressing that the
popular media have only been able to

cialized to desire—romantic marriage into

respond to the women’s movement in

the upper class. We thus accede to the

terms of what it has opened up for men. It

necessity for Stella’s sacrifice.

is up to feminists to redefine the position
of the Mother as participant, initiator of

With Stella Dallas, we begin to see why
the Mother has so rarely occupied the cen-

action—as subject in her own right, capable of a life with many dimensions.

ter of the narrative: For how can the spectator be subject, at least in the sense of
controlling the action? The Mother can

1. See Adrienne Rich, Of Woman Born: Mother-

hood as Experience and Institution (New York:

only be subject to the degree that she re-

Norton, 1976); Dorothy Dinnerstein, The Mer-

sists her culturally prescribed positioning,
as Stella does at first. It is Stella’s resis-

maid and the Minotaur (New York: Harper &
Row, 1977); Jane Lazarre, The Mother-

tance that sets the narrative in motion, and
provides the opportunity to teach her as
well as the spectator the Mother’s ‘“correct” place.
Given the prevalence of the Mother-as
spectator myth, it is not surprising that
feminists have had trouble dealing with

Knot (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1976).
2. Examples of films embodying this myth
are: A Fool There Was (1914), Meet Me in

St. Louis (1944), Christopher Strong (1933
Our Daily Bread (1937), The River (1950),
The Searchers (1956).
3. Examples are: Craig's Wife (1936), Little

the Mother as subject. An analysis of the

Foxes (1941), Now Voyager (1942), Marnie
(1966); most recently: Mommie Dearest (1981),

psychoanalytic barriers to ‘“seeing” the

Frances (1982).

Mother needs to be accompanied by an

4. Examples are: Griffith’s films, The Blot

analysis of cultural myths that define the

(1921), Imitation of Life (1934, 1959: the black
Mother in both versions), Stella Dallas (1937),

Good Mother as absent, and the Bad
Mother as present but resisting. We have
suppressed too long our anger at our mothers because of the apparently anti-woman
stance this leads to. We need to work
through our anger so that we can understand how the patriarchal construction of
the Mother has made her position an untenable one.
Unfortunately, today’s representations
of the Mother are not much better than
that in Stella Dallas, made in 1937. Ironically, the mass media response to the recent
women’s movement has led to numerous
representations of the nurturing Father, as

The Southerner (1945), Mildred Pierce (1946),
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946).

5. Examples are: Alice Adams (1935), Pride and
Prejudice (1940), Man Who Came to Dinner
(1941), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), Splendour in the Grass (1961).

6. Ben Brewster, “A Scene at the Movies,”
Screen, Vol. 23, No. 2 (July-August 1982), p. 5.

E. Ann Kaplan teaches film and literature at
Rutgers University. She has published widely on

women in film. Her book on Fritz Lang appeared in 1981 and her book Women in Film:
Both Sides of the Camera will be published by
Methuen in September 1983.

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This interview with Sandra Osawa (SO)
and Peggy Barnett (PB) was conducted by
Cecilia Vicuña (CV) at the American Indian Film and Video Festival in New York
in November 1982.

CV: How many tapes have you done, and
which was the first?
SO: I have produced and written approximately a dozen half-hour videotapes dealing with the Native American experience.
The first series was produced for KNBC in

NATIVE
VISION
Cecilia Vicuña

Survival Gathering. For some time I've
been concerned to show the special relationship that I believe all Native people
have with the land, and in this videotape
we highlight the fact that, in our view, the
Black Hills are the spiritual birthplace of
the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne people.
Most people should know that this relationship is a real religion and that when
you contaminate the land you are seriously
threatening our Native American culture
and religion. There are approximately four
state areas that have been termed ‘“nation-

Los Angeles. It was a 10-part half-hour

al sacrifice areas” by the government, be-

series exploring the various facets of Native

cause they know that once they start to

American life, and it was aired in 1975.
PB: You must remember that there was
nothing done by Indians up to that point.
SO: Right. This was the first series produced, written, and acted entirely by Na-

mine uranium, and attempt to bury the
tailings on the reservation, it contaminates
the water and air.
PB: The American Indian Movement has
800 acres of liberated zone in the Black

tive Americans. This series is now being

Hills right now. It is known as Yellow

distributed by Brigham Young University

Thunder Camp. However, we have been in

in Salt Lake City, Utah. However, I have a

court over the situation. Our legal defense

copy in Seattle that I sometimes release for

is the Indian Freedom of Religion Act of

use in libraries and schools, particularly in
the Northwest.

At the beginning, when our people first

CV: How did you get started?
SO: My grandfather always pushed us in
our education. He always believed that we
should become educated, that we should
be able to survive in today’s world, so I always grew up with a feeling that I would go
to high school and college. I think I got
started when I was working with my own
tribe. I realized that we read the same
newspapers, we listen to the same radio
programs and TV everyone else does, we
basically go to the same schools (even
though they are on the reservation, the
schools are controlled by non-Indian people), so I felt a great need to get involved in

communications. We started on a local
level by producing the Makah Times. In

1978, and Article 6 of the Constitution.
went to Yellow Thunder Camp, the authorities were saying, “Oh, religious freedom,
that’s just a term Indian people use loosely. Actually, there’s no substance to it, it
can’t be proved.” But the government sent
in archaeologists to determine if in fact
the area was a religious site, and so far they
have only proved what we said in the beginning. Yellow Thunder Camp has been
nominated one of the religious sites in the
country. This special relationship is not
just a contact we have with the land; it is a
spected Indian Medicine Man and one of
the religious advisors to the American Indian Movement, told us that at one time
we were all one people, and that the red
man was given the Western hemisphere to

addition, we started to appear on local
Seattle TV.

take care of. And that’s why there has been

CV: How did you do the KNBC series?

throughout the hemisphere, because we

so much resistance from Indian people

SO: We launched a two-point attack. One

realize that we have a responsibility that

community group went to KNBC and de-

has been given us by the highest order of

manded that the station do something
about Native Americans. After this first

the law of nature. That is where we begin.
SO: We look at the land as our mother,

onslaught, the producer said, “OK, but

and from your mother comes all life. That’s

who do you have that’s Native American

another beginning, another foundation for

who could handle this?” So they men-

our philosophy. Many times you can see it

tioned my name. The second wave was

in everyday life: Women were given the re-

when I went to meet the producer and his

sponsibility of carrying on the people.

approach was to hire a writer and a producer for me. I told him that I could do it
myself. At that point he said, “We will give
you a chance.”
CV: What about your work here in the
festival?

SO: For the American Indian Film and

CV: Would you say that people are more
willing now to listen to the Indian’s vision
because the land is being contaminated,
and they realize that it has to be taken
care of?

PB: I think Indian people have been talking about the sacredness of the land for

Video Festival, they chose to air The Black

many years. You can look at the speeches

Hills Are Not for Sale, about the issue of

from the beginning of the contact with

uranium mining and drilling in South Dakota. It documents the coalition of farm-

non-Indian people and you can see the
warnings, 400 years ago, of what was going

ers, environmentalists, and Native Ameri-

to happen if they didn’t listen to what our

cans who were coming together to resist
further exploitation of the land. We video-

people were saying. Now in South Dakota
the farmers are forced to make an alliance

taped the meetings at the International

with the Indians because they are both ex-

86

©1983 Cecilia Vicuña

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ploited by energy companies, they are both

have a tremendous outlet all over the

having their water and air contaminated.

is a very critical area, because we first have

world, especially in Europe. We have an

They have no other choice but to join to-

to address the writing at script level before

office in Geneva, Switzerland, run by Mario

we can get good movies. I’ve joined the

gether and develop an alliance. Their whole

Ibarra, a Mapuche Indian. We are also

survival depends on it.3

Writer’s Guild of America West, but I

establishing an Indian Audio Bureau,

CV: How do you fund your work?

which will work with all the established

don’t know of any other Native American
women writers in the union who are work-

SO: Well, for example, The Black Hills was
funded by an Indian communications

Indian radio stations throughout the coun-

ing with scripts. I am really hopeful that

try. At this point we are looking for fund-

someday something that I’ve written can

ing to get that project on the way.

be produced. I am interested in the area of

CV: Would you say that you find more

contemporary dramatic fiction concerning

group in Seattle which had received NationEndowment money for research—basically
the research we were doing. I would really

response to your materials outside the

like to see this project receive more fund-

U.S.?

ing so that a really complete program

PB: Oh yes. There are many countries,
such as France and in the Caribbean area

could be made, but it is very difficult to receive funding for this kind of film. In fact

(and in fact we have a delegation in Nica-

you find that there is very little about polit-

ragua right now), that are interested in re-

ical issues or politics in Native American

educating the people away from the con-

films. Wherever you find real poverty, peo-

stant cowboy-Indian movie syndrome.

ple have trouble communicating. When

When we go to another country we tell

you don’t have access to, or the ability to

them that it’s not going to do us any good
to come and talk to them if their children

communicate with, other tribes, your sense
of poverty is maintained. For example, the

are not going to be educated from the be-

Bureau of Indian Affairs has always been

ginning about the true history of our peo-

reluctant to fund anything dealing with
film; I know because I have worked with

ple. In fact one of our commitments with

my tribe for quite some time. One of the

the Iraqi Women’s Federation is that they

first things we tried to do was to get money

will translate the 1868 Fort Landon Treaty
into Arabic and make it available to all

to make films and videotapes, but the

their people. But zŽłis country doesn’t want

BIA’s response was always “no.” Also,

to be educated! This country wants to go to

after the Watergate period, Marlon Brando

Disneyland, to be entertained. They don’t

and several others tried to get a series deal-

want to see anything with any political

ing with Native American concerns, and

substance to upset them because they are

the answer was always “no.” Maybe the

busy working the eight-hour day and then

public isn’t ready.

they go home and they don’t want to watch

CV: What about distribution?
SO: I really haven’t worked on distribution.
We didn’t have the means, but we wanted
to be sure they got out to the Indian people, especially in the BIA’s schools. Even
though the BIA has a very bad reputation
around the country, they were exactly the
institution that needed to be informed. As
you know, the media are largely controlled
by the white man. We have been excluded

anything about the contamination of the
land. They have enough bad news as it is
all day, and this is the syhdrome. Education in this country is such a lie. How do
you get back and undo all the lies that have
been told? We need to look at a different
approach to education, to look at young
children who will grow up with another
attitude, because education about Indian
people has been hidden.

from all aspects of the media and I think it

CV: What other projects do you have?

is very important that other voices be

PB: Perhaps we should talk about Big
Mountain, the traditional homeland of the

heard. Now minorities are trying to get inside the system and participate.
CV: You have had no response from the
public television networks?
SO: There’s basically been no response
from them. We were given a great opportunity at KNBC, but it was aired at 6:30
a.m., which is not exactly prime time. But
we were on the air, and the products were
finished. I believe that has helped people
to see that Native Americans can produce,
and can write scripts, and this is very important. You are continually faced with
proving your credibility in the media if you
are a minority.
PB: One of the things we are trying to do
at the International Treaty Council is to
build a`library of selected works done by
Indian people, but many of the films we

Navajo, and of Louise Benally and her
mother and sisters. There had been a relothey opposed it and were arrested.^ This
is very important both in terms of religious freedom and human rights. Relocation is a violation of about 10 international
covenants, which was also brought up at
the Russell Tribunal.
SO: We have some 14 videotapes already
shot on location in the Big Mountain area
in the Southwest, and we want to finish the
Benally videotape and get out a half-hour
program.

and I hope it gives some awareness about
man being. I’m hopeful that it will help
people to realize that the stereotyped image
of the Indian has to be taken away. You always see the Indian (even at this film festival) sitting by the river smoking a peace
pipe, or sitting around the drums in the
middle of the bushes; you always see him
dancing, of course, doing something very
colorful. This tends to create a romanticized picture of the Indian person. I’d really like to see current images from today. It
could be an Indian walking up and down
the street in tennis shoes, drinking a coke,
or whatever—this is what we haven’t seen.
Too many of us fall into the same pattern
of trying to copy the white man’s version of
what we are. Some of the films at this festival were done by non-Indian people, so
that explains it in part. But this is the trap
we fall into ourselves, because we see the
same movies presented to us and so therefore that appears to be the “truth.”
PB: One of the comments made about The
Black Hills Are Not for Sale was: “We
finally got a chance to hear what the Indians have to say.” There is a philosophy
in the Indian movement: We know that
Indian people have resisted from the very
beginning, and we also know that our
brothers and sisters in El Salvador and
Guatemala are now going through what we
went through 100 years ago. And actually
there’s always been resistance—that’s why
we are still here.

1. The Makah Times is an independent newspaper produced by the Makah community of
Neahbay, Washington.
2. Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution guarantees “the right to a speedy and public trial, by

an impartial jury...and to be informed of the
nature and cause of the accusation” with provi-

sions for adequate defense.
3. The office of the International Treaty Council

has documentation (available for distribution)
on the effects of low-level radiation and steriliza-

tion. Write: ITC Office, 777 United Nations

CV: Sandra, I’ve heard that you are also a

Plaza, Suite 10F, NY NY 10017; phone (212)

poet. Would you like to talk about the re-

986-6000.

lation between your poetry and films?

4. The Benally women tore down the fences

SO: That’s really a good question because,

erected by officials to impound their sheep.
They were arrested, then freed; the case never

in my opinion, a poem is the briefest way

Indian people. We are very issue-oriented

that you can sum up your feelings, and I
think that film should also be brief and to

hope that filmmakers and people who are
in the media will send us their work. We

Northwest. It deals with a slice of her life,
the Indian as an ordinary person, as a hu-

cation process because of coal mining, and

have are done by non-Indian people about
in terms of the political situation, so we

Native Americans, and I first completed a
script called Dakah, about a fictional Indian person from my own tribe in the

went to trial.

Cecilia Vicuña is a Chilean poet, artist, and film-

the point. A good poem is very concrete,

maker who lives and teaches in New York City.

the same as a good film. I think the script

Her forthcoming book is Precarious Works.

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who turned the light away
the light away from her
she will not be placed in darkness
she will be present in darkness
only to be apparent
to appear without image
to be heard—unseen
she lightens her own reading
she reads by the reflection of herself
in mind of herself she listens
she saw the story in a moment
the end began—where the beginning ended
inseparable in the myth of her memory
in the sound of her voice

the sounds were always behind
behind in the depths of her mind
drowned in the drumming of the passing days
her hands reached out
she could only glimpse the shadow
the faint reflection of the fading image
stumbling on the traces of her knowing

the violence of sequence

sinking in the ruts of her experience

tears at the threads of her thoughts

slipping amongst the shadows of her story
she couldn’t reach herself

the sense of her dreams is disturbed

the folds of light fade into deep shadows
by the presence of a past not past

she begins again
she reads by the sun
her face to the moon
she is guided by darkness

a past that holds her with fingers sharpened on logic
nails hardened with rationality
cutting the flow of her thoughts
forcing her back within herself

threatened by those things that might have been

damned by the rattle of words

could have happened

words already sentenced

surrounded by sounds no longer heard
images lost from sight

imprisoned in meaning
shot full with pellets of punctuation
exhausted with explanation

regathered to the sound of her voice
reaped to the rhythm of her body

in her -own voice she cried

the words dance in a moment of light

the end cannot be confused with the end that ended

the image of the story is apparent

somewhere—but not here
not here at the beginning

the sense of the story is seen

88

but which moment of beginning

end of reel

follows which moment of end

end

is the end beginning

end to end

or the beginning ending

cut to white

she is told the end is not the beginning
if it were—she is told

then black
she raised her hand
©1983 Lis Rhodes

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hold still shot of raised hand
sound of shot still

reframed—by whom
in whose frame

silence

end of reel two

she said that i was to wake her in an hour and a half
if it didn’t rain

it is still raining what should i do

another camera movement
fading to white
join end to end

should i wake her or should i let her sleep longer

sound of footsteps moving backwards and forwards

she begins to read

the closer she looked

she reads in silence
blurring her mind with the sound of words
images

reaching back into darkness
after the frames of her raised hand
stretch print the next frames six times

the more she resented herself
for minding

could she -not mind for herself
could she change her mind
be mindless
mind that which she had a mind
to mind

she tries to read

the words fall away

total length four hundred and forty feet
print next twenty feet head to tail

fall through

her mind twisting in sharp circles

and now she wrote

herself circling in on herself

and now mountains do not cloud over

diverging along sudden tangents

let us wash our hair and stare

tangents without direction

stare at mountains

there could be no direction

how sweet are suns and suns

on her own

and the season

on her own she was just passing time

the sea or the season

passing time from one hand to one hand

and the roads

enclosed behind a closed door

cut out ten black frames where the camera stopped
she slept a little this morning
pale with self-absorption
flicker on camera—loop print with close-up
over and over—round and round

roads are often neglected
how can you feel so reasonably
polaroid photo with unseen barely visible
camera movement—reading backwards
hold last frame
sound of shot—mixed with footsteps running in frame

her head was cluttered with blank images
perfectly symmetrical and transparent
she could look at herself
in reflection

but the reflection was not hers

still of camera to man’s eye
still no sound

she writes on the small white frames
turns them over
hidden under the smooth surface
her thoughts are framed
in reflection

lengthen next frames
stretch hand in shadow
frame paper in mid-shot
move around from
top right of frame

in a complete circle
no sound

framed in reflection
her image fixed
her thoughts framed
her image outside the frame
trying to be in frame

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sound of footsteps running away
countering the inward movement of the zoom
tracking herself
through the frame
forced by the sound of the footsteps

stopped the action—re-action
she began to read
she began to reread
the story backwards
it began

to fear the constriction of the frame
tracking herself
through the frame
captured contained
she lost track

include optical print of the first section
pace the soundtrack exactly
pace out a rectangle thirty by forty feet
always moving in the same direction
held in line—underline
always under
misframed
in a blank frame

invisible in mid-frame \

i dreamt last night that i was dead
i was closed from my life
from time and knowing
i could see her and speak with her
she was dead
she said that i was to wake her in an hour and a half
if it didn’t rain

it is still raining what should i do
should i wake her or should i let her sleep longer
there remained several strands
each black and white
threads of possible meaning
nothing was unraveled—nothing revealed

head of reel one (105 ft)
title?

over exposed
exposed as
imposed on
impaled by

no singularity of structure or logic
she looked more closely
she read more clearly
she saw that

she was both the subject and the object
she was seen and she saw

there had been no decisions

she was seen as object

no`choice

she saw as subject

it had been decided

but what she saw as subject was

she had no choice

modified by how she was seen as object
she objected

she said that i was to wake her in an hour and a half if it
didn’t rain

she refused to be framed

it is still raining what should i do
should i wake her or shoulđd i let her sleep longer

mistake at the beginning of the camera movement
cut

start again—sound of running footsteps
was she working back to front
front to back

images before thought
words prescribing images—images prescribing sounds
which was in front of why
was it just the orientation of her look
the position of her perception
the back of the front
or the front of the back

she listened
she looked at the surroundings of the images
close-up of the title fills the frame
the sound of the shot is louder
she watched herself being looked at
she looked at herself being watched
but she could not perceive herself
as the subject of the sentence
as it was written
as it was read

the context defined her as the object of the explanation

cut

she raised her hand

All photos from Light Reading (1978) by Lis Rhodes.

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Edith Becker
This issue of Heresies seeks to reinforce connections among

pendently produced films and video. Also, if there are films and

many women who believe that feminist visual work is a neglected
resource. Some of our articles should awaken the idea that watch-

tapes that you believe a larger audience would enjoy, lobby your
local educational and cable TV channels to show them. There is no

ing TV and movies is neither simple nor harmless. In order to

limit to where women’s film and video work can go if it gets sup-

educate ourselves about our own images, and how we are audio-

port from more women.
Women’s film programs can be shared among a small circle of

visually controlled, we must actively and knowledgeably watch
women’s film, video, slide shows, and other media. This media is

friends or presented by feminist and other women’s organizations

not regularly consumed by CBS, PBS, UA, etc., implying that the

at meetings or as a separate public film event. Sound projectors

work too clearly illuminates our understanding of women’s lives.

and video recorders can be rented from camera shops, equipment

In women’s work, we become the creative subjects rather than
remaining the necessary objects, and because we do not accept the

rental companies, some libraries, schools, YWCAs, churches, synagogues, banks, service clubs or other organizations. They may

media’s silencing of women’s contribution, we have had to develop

also be willing to provide meeting rooms as well as co-sponsor pro-

other systems of exhibition and distribution. This network is small
and needs continual use if we are to continue to control it. The

grams of public interest.

survival of the workers and their work depends on our support.

background for the viewer as well as insight into the relationship

Because there is a finite amount of public money available to
women’s media, relatively little work is shown. But there are some

Program notes and a brief introduction of the films provide a
between works shown. A discussion conducted by an experienced
facilitator can further raise consciousness and encourage personal

strategies that will help us bring women’s media to the community.

insights and ideas. A less formal atmosphere is achieved by

Women’s culture has pockets of prosperity and areas of great

regrouping chairs and providing light refreshments. Set up the

dearth. Actively bringing films and tapes to areas of underdevelop-

screen and check the picture (and sound) well in advance of audi-

ment is a task each individual can initiate. Women and progressive

ence arrival. If there is sound, place the speakers near the screen

groups must regularly exhibit independently produced work in

and try not to keep the audience waiting.

addition to challenging museums, art theaters, libraries, and film
clubs that do not.

work. Remember: Many independently produced films and tapes

Film- and video-viewing can be a personally consciousness-

The following guide is only a start to a women’s media netare self-distributed. These works must be sought from the artists

raising event and need not include the aura of festival, series, or

through exhibitors and publications. Phone calls and letters are

benefit. The difficulty for some women may be a resistance to pay-

necessary means for obtaining some of the work our list offers. You

ing for the work brought into your home or basement. Women

may need to be a member or go through your local library for use

must be willing to spend as much money on women’s work as we

of some of the guides. If your library is not a member, you may ask

spend for commercial entertainment. We suggest pooling money to
show selected work once a month or as often as you can. You don’t

them to join. Many of the books, periodicals, and directories list

have to be an established group to rent, watch, and discuss inde-

information for funding series or special programs.

U.S. DISTRIBUTORS
American Federation of Arts, 41 East 65th St.,
NY, NY 10021. Independent cinema and some
video, some by women.

Asian Cine-Vision, 32 East Broadway, NY, NY
10002. Tapes by Asians and Asian-Americans,
some by women.

Black Filmmaker Co-op and Black Filmmaker
Foundation, 1 Centre St., WNYC-TV, NY,
NY 10007. Distributes Black independent
work and provides programming services.

Document Associates, 211 East 43rd St., NY,
NY 10017. Distributes International Women’s
Film Project collection.
Electronic Arts Intermix, 84 Fifth Ave., NY, NY
10011. Video art.

Filmmakers Co-op, 175 Lexington Ave., NY, NY
10016. Independently produced films, some
by women.

First-Run Features, 144 Bleeker St., NY, NY
10012. American independent features, some
by women.

Goddess Films, PO Box 2446, Berkeley, CA
94702. All the films of Barbara Hammer.

International Women’s Film Project, 3518 35th

additional resource guides, bibliographies, filmographies, and

New Day Films, PO Box 315, Franklin Lakes,
NJ 07417. Feminist and social issue films.

Pandora Films, 1697 Broadway, Rm. 1109, NY,
NY 10019. Feminist and social issue films.

Riverside Church Disarmament Program, 490
Riverside Dr., NY, NY 10027. Six films and
six slide shows on the disarmament movement, most by women.

Second Decade Films, PO Box 1482, NY, NY
10009. Independently produced women’s
films and tapes.

Serious Business Co., 1145 Mandana Boulevard,
Oakland, CA 94610. Independently produced
documentaries and experimenal films by
women.
Third World Newsreel, 160 Fifth Ave., NY, NY

10011. Produces and distributes social issue,
anti-sexist, anti-racist films, some by women.

Transition House Films, 25 West St., Sth Fl.,
Boston, MA 02111. Distributes We Wil! Not
Be Beaten about battered women.

University Community Video, 425 Ontario St.
SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414. Social issue and
documentary tapes.
Video Data Bank, School of the Art Institute of

Somerville, MA 02144. Sound filmstrip,
Straight Talk About Lesbians, available.
Women Make Movies, 19 West 21st St., 2nd FI.,

NY, NY 10011. Films and tapes by women.
Documentary, narrative, and experimental.
USING THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
The local public library is an excellent resource for women’s films, as well as information

and programming. Although film collections
are usually located in state, county, and big city

libraries, even the smallest libraries are usually
associated with free film networks or co-ops. If

your library does not have an “in-house” film
collection, ask your librarian if films may be
borrowed from a county, regional, or state col-

lection. A catalog is usually available and the
subject index should reveal a variety of films of
special interest to women.

Larger libraries may also have The Educational Film Locator (New York: Bowker, 1980),
an index to 50 university film services that rent
films for about half what the distributor charges.
University film services also issue their own in-

St. NW, Washington, DC 20016. Work by
Women in. Latin America and about U.S.-

Chicago, Columbus Dr. at Jackson Blvd.,

dividual rental catalogs. Another useful reference is the NICEM (National Information Cen-

Chicago, IL 60603. Tapes about artists and by

ter for Education Media) Index, which serves as

Latin American relations.

artists, many women included.

Iris Films, Box 5353, Berkeley, CA 94705. Feminist film producers and distributors.

Iris Video, PO Box 7133, Powderhorn Station,
Minneapolis, MN 55407. Producers and distributors of independent feminist tapes.

Media Project, PO Box 4093, Portland, OR
97208. Social issues and history tapes.

Mountain Moving Picture Co., PO Box 1235,
Evergreen, CO 80439. Feminist documentaries.

Videofarm, 156 Drakes Lane, Summertown, TN
38483. Tapes on natural childbirth by farm
women.

Videographics, 2918 Champa St., Denver, CO
80205. Tapes on women in the arts and docu-

a sort of Books in Print for films, listing thousands of titles and distributors. Distributors also
offer their catalogs for the asking, and if you
have more money than time, the distributor may

be the way to go. —Anita Bologna

mentaries.

Videowomen, 595 Broadway, 3rd FI., NY, NY
10012. Tapes of women’s conferences and
documentaries.
Women’s Educational Media, 47 Cherry St.,

Anita Bologna is the record librarian at the
Donnel Library, New York City, and was formerly an audiovisual consultant and film librarian for the New Hampshire State Library.

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U.S. INDEPENDENT EXHIBITORS

INTERNATIONAL RESOURCES

Write for series schedules and guidelines for

Cinema of Women, 156 Swaton Rd., London

submitting work for screenings. Some publish

E3, England. Distributes women’s films.

regularly.

Anthology Film Archives, 491 Broadway, NY,
NY 10012. Screenings are suspended until
1984. The Jerome Hill Publications Library is

operating by appointment.
Artists Space, 105 Hudson St., NY, NY 10013.
Programs of film and some video.

Chicago Filmmakers, 6 West Hubbard, Chicago, IL 60610. Regular screenings of new
and avant-garde films.
Collective for Living Cinema, 52 White St., NY,
NY 10013. Presents avant-garde films.

El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Ave., NY, NY
10029. Annual festival of Latino- and Latinaproduced film and video.

Film Forum 1, 57 Watts St., NY, NY 10013.
Premieres U.S. and foreign independent film.
The Kitchen, 59 Wooster St., NY, NY 10012.
Exhibits all forms of media art; also distributes videotapes.

Millennium, 66 East 4th St., NY, NY 10003.
Screens new domestic and foreign films, most-

ly experimental. Publishes Millennium Film
Journal.
Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd St., NY,

NY 10019. Co-sponsors New Directors/New
Films Series, Cineprobe, What’s Happening?
and Video Viewpoints.
Pacific Film Archives, 2621 Durant Ave., Berke-

ley, CA 94704. Premieres independent film.
Publishes Program Notes.
San Francisco Cinematheque, 480 Potrero Ave.,
San Francisco, CA 94121. Showcase for independent and experimental film.
Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Ave., NY, NY 10021. Presents New American Filmmakers Series.

Cine-mujer, Apartado Aereo 2758, Bogota, DE
Colombia. Feminist film producers; information and sales available.

Circles, PO Box 172, London N66 DW, England. A women’s film, video, and slide distribution network.

Four Corners Film Workshop, 113 Roman Rd.,
London E2 OHU, England. Contributes to
the development of experimental work.

Frauen und Film, Verlag Roter Stern, Postfach
180147, D-6000, Frankfurt, West Germany.

Feminist film magazine. .

South Wales Women’s Film Coop, Chapter Art:
Centre, Cardiff, South Wales.

PUBLICATIONS
1. Films in Distribution

Alternatives: A Filmography, by Nadine Covert
& Esme Dick (New York: EFLA, 1974).
Catalogue III, Young Filmmakers/Video Arts,
Center for Arts Information, 625 Broadway,
NY, NY 10012.

Catalogue of Independent Women’s Films, Sydney Filmmakers Co-op, PO Box 217, Kings
Cross, NSW 2011 Australia. International
listing, annotated; with distributors and subject index.

Catalyst: Media Review, A/V Center, 14 East
60th St., NY, NY 10022. Annotated bibliography of a/v material relating to women and
work.

“Directory of American Labor Films,” Film
Library Quarterly, vol. 12, nos. 2/3 (1979).
Many listings for labor women.

“Filmographies of Women Directors,” in Sexual Stratagems, by Patricia Erens (New York:
Horizon Press, 1979). International listings of
films in distribution.

U.S. INFORMATION CENTERS
AND ASSOCIATIONS
American Film Institute, JFK Center for the
Performing Arts, Washington, DC 20566.

Films about Women, 2nd Ed. (1979), Penn.
State University, A/V Services, Special Services Building, University Park, PA 16802.

Films by Women, Canadian Filmmakers Distri-

Guidance to film educators and reference in-

bution Center, 406 Jarvis St., Toronto, Ontar-

formation. Published AFI catalog of Motion
Picture Features: 1921-1930 and 1961-1970;

io M4Y 2G6, Canada.

also Factfile, Nos. 1-13.

American Library Association, S0 E. Huron,

Films by and/or about Women: 1972, Directory
of Filmmakers, Films and Distributors, Inter-

couver, British Columbia USY 1R3, Canada.
Titles listed by subject.

Women’s Films: A Critical Guide (1975), Indiana University, A/V Center, Bloomington, IN
47401. Select list of educational films, with

distributors. :
Women's Films in Print, by Bonnie Dawson (San

Francisco: Booklegger Press, 1975). Annotated guide to 800 films; subject index.
2. Women’s Films

Camera Obscura, PO Box 4517, Berkeley, CA
94704. Journal of feminism and film theory.
Films of Yvonne Rainer, by B. Ruby Rich (Min-

neapolis: Walker Art Center, 1981).
Journal of the University Film Association, vol.
26, nos. 1-2 (1974). Special issue on women in
film.
Jump Cut, no. 24-25 (PO Box 865, Berkeley, CA

94701). Special lesbian section.
“Notes on Women’s Cinema,” Screen Pamphlet
no. 2, ed. Claire Johnston, Society for Educa-

tion in Films and TV, 63 Old Compton St.,
London W1V SPN, England.
Quarterly Review of Film Studies, vol. 3, no. 4

(Fall 1978). Two landmark pieces on feminist
criticism by Julia Lesage and Christine Gledhill.

“Sex and Spectatorship,” Screen, vol. 23, nos.
3-4 (Sept./Oct. 1982). Several articles on
women’s independent film and media.
Women and Film, vol. 1, no. 1 (1972) to vol. 2,
no. 7 (1975). Only U.S. publication devoted to

women’s films; ceased publication in 1975.
Women and Film: A Resource Handbook (1973),
Association of American Colleges, 1818 R St.,
Washington, DC 20009.
“Women in Film,” Film Library Quarterly, vol.
5, no. 1 (Winter 1971-72).

Women Who Make Movies, by Sharon Smith
(New York: Hopkinson & Blake, 1975).
Sketches of women filmmakers and their filmographies.

Women's Pictures: Feminism and Cinema, by
Annette Kuhn (London: Routledge & Kegan
Paul, 1982).

Work 1961-1973, by Yvonne Rainer (Halifax/
New York: Nova Scotia College of Art and
Design/New York University Press, 1974).

nationally, Past and Present, by Kaye Sullivan

3. Resource Books

Chicago, IL 60611. Promotes libraries’ film

(Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1980), or

Audio/Visual Market Place Multimedia Guide

acquisition and programming.
Cine Information, 215 West 90th St., NY, NY

write: Women’s History Research Center,

(New York: Bowker, 1982). Annotated lists of

2325 Oak St., Berkeley, CA 94708.

services, producers, distributors, associations,

10024. Services to support distribution and

Films on the Women's Movement, by Janice K.
Mendenhall (1973), U.S. General Services

use of film and tape.

Consortium of University Film Centers, A/V
Services, 330 Kent State University Library,

Administration, Office of Civil Rights, Washington, DC 20405.

Kent, OH 44242. Cooperative planning of

Library of Congress Film Catalogue, Library of

film information, exchange, and distribution.
Council on International Non-Theatrical Events

Congress, Washington, DC. Publishes annually, Lists all films (many shorts) registered

(CINE), 1201 16th St. NW, Washington, DC
20036. Coordinates U.S.-made shorts and
presents awards. Publishes CINE yearbook.
Educational Film Library Association, 43 West
61st St., NY, NY 10023. Promotes production, distribution, and use of A/V materials;
information center for schools, libraries, and
organizations. Publishes EFLA Bulletin and
Sightlines.

Media Alliance, 245 West 75th St., NY, NY
10023. Information clearinghouse on electronic arts.

Media Network, 208 West 13th St., NY, NY
10011. Clearinghouse for information on social issue media; houses the Reproductive
Rights National Network.

New York Film Council, 43 West 61st St., 9th
FI., NY, NY 10023. Promotes nontheatrical
use and distribution of film and tape in the
community.

with Library of Congress.

Past 60: The Older Women in Print and Film,
by Carol Hollenshead (1977), Institute of Ger-

ontology, University of Michigan, Sayne St.
University, 520 East Liberty St., Ann Arbor,
MI 48109. Over 60 listings, annotated, with
distributors.

Positive Images, by Linda Artel & Susan Wiengraf (San Francisco: Booklegger Press, 1976).
A guide to nonsexist films for young people,
with subject index, distributors.

Reel Change: A Guide to Social Issue Films
(1979), The Film Fund, PO Box 909, San
Francisco, CA 94101.

Women in Focus, by Jeanne Betancourt (1974).
Pflaum Publishing Order Dept., 8121 Hamilton Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45231. 91 films, an-

notated, subject index, feminist perspective.
Women in Focus 1982 Catalogue, Arts/Media
Center, 456 West Broadway, Suite 204, Van-

and equipment dealers.
Directory of Women’s Media, Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press, 3306 Ross Pl.

NW, Wāåshington, DC 20008. Updated annually, majority of entries are of print media,
entries are voluntary.

Educational Film Locator of the Consortium of
University Film Centers (New York: Bowker,
1980). Rental libraries, subject listings, producers, distributor indexes, and annotated
listing of all films.

Film Programmers Guide to 16mm Rentals, by
Linda Artel & Kathleen Weaver (1972), Reel
Research, PO Box 6037, Albany, CA 94706.
In Focus (New York: Film Fund, 1980). A comprehensive guide to using films: programming, rentals, and equipment. Available
through the Media Network.

Landers Film Reviews, Landers Associates, Box
27309, Escondido, CA 92027. Evaluates nontheatrical films of all subjects.
North American Film and Video Directory: A
Guide to Media Collections and Services (in
U.S. and Canada), by Olga S. Weber (New
York: Bowker, 1976). Catalogued by state or
province, lists publications, universities, and
colleges that make their films available.

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Heresies,

cifically with women, this I can understand

To whom it may concern: I’m presently
incarcerated within Louisiana’s so-called

your consideration and I.Käye you to know

tion in which there is rarely the slightest

that I salute you Ak tsin the struggle.

trace of intellectual decency in content or
tone, issue after issue. “Sisters” on the

correction system and have been so for the
last six years. Since coming here my aware-

and respect. Thank you in advance for

virtually impossible. Miss Achebe’s feeble
utterance blends seamlessly into a publica-

ness toward this oppressive regime has

primitive level of artistic awareness of

been broadened to the point that I'm get-

Achebe in particular, and feminists in general, should at least be speculative about

ting hip to their thing. Before coming :
I was aware of the racist nature. stituti
alized into this society in its í

the writings of their betters before attemptift eing more or less amused by

overt and covert; however, bein
Black who views myself,as';

uf tasteless rag (no pun intended) almost
ince its inception, you have finally printed
a remark I do not want to let pass without
comment. I quote: “The Nigerian authoress, Chinua Achebe, has asked white authors to refrain from creating works like
Conrad’s Heart of Darkness in which Afri-

ng

have been hearing terms like ERA, fenis
nism, etc., but some kind of way never connected it to the overall picture of racism,
that in order to have a true revolution and
thus self-determination all traces of class,
racism, sexism, and exploitation must be
eradicated. Cats like George Jackson, Huey
Newton, Malcolm X, Lenin, Karl Marx,
and a few others, with a little Angela Davis
every now and then, was my instructors
through their writings. Until recently when

cans are degraded” (Issue 15, Editorial
Statement).*

ing anything like a critical observation.
Your magazine abounds in proclamations,
judgments and accusations which time
and again betray the shameless ignorance
of its writers. It would be curious to see the
manuscripts you receive to better appreciate the laborious work that must go into
transforming the incoherent babblings of
the ill-educated into something which finally emerges as only minimally coherent
and sane.

For every thoughtful person of whatever color, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is a
work of fiction which is animated by a
spirit of subtlety, depth and beauty. It is

Sincerely,

Ronald McComb
Seattle, Washington

one work among many which clearly demonstrates that this particular author wrote
on a level of philosophical profundity and

*Editors' Note: The original statement read:
“The Nigerian author...” Chinua Achebe is a

stylistic sophistication which so far exceeds

renowned male author. Enough said.

“Hysterectomies” pathetic efforts at ‘“collective thought” as to make comparisons

(continued on inside back cover)

I was shown your publication; this was the
first time I’ve got firsthand information on
how this system is designed to double its
discrimination toward women, and in far
more ways than men, women have caught
the blunt end of its effects. Your booklet
Heresies titled “Racism Is the Issue” really

Many men have a hearing problem.
audible, while those of women are not.
It- is

knocked the blind off my eyes in that I see
the women’s plight in a whole new light

for women.

and have changed my ideology to embrace
all forms of the struggle.

only to meet their needs.

I had the opportunity to read only
about half of the issue since at the time the

communicate.

guy whose issue I read was on the tier only
for a few hours before he was moved to another camp, but I wrote down the address.
How he came to obtain your booklet or
how he learned of you all I don’t know.
Knowing that your organization is feminist
and your aims are directed toward making
the woman aware to man’s exploițation of
herself in a man-dominated society perhaps you are somewhat suspicious of me in
saying I’m very much interested in your
publication and, if possible, would very
much like to receive some of your literature. I ask that any excess literature you
may have around, please send, as I’m
anxious to broaden my awareness on this
subject. There are a lot of militant-minded

Total confusion
communication.
impairment of a faculty.
suspected SR man - trust your
intuitions. Listen to
your needs, not his.
There's no need to
make excuses or
justify your
decisions.
Just
SAY NO, and

walk away.

SAY NO,
and hang up

the phone.
You can't
afford to
waste your
time: say
what you

really
want,

brothers here, hungry and in search for
knowledge, not the brainwashing trash we
have been forcefed all our lives since falling from the womb. I’ve been discussing
your booklet with them and they agree with
me that in order for us to reform this system we cannot do it without the sisters being in the struggle and must get insight
into the overall picture from all sides. I will
share the literature with all the brothers
here. If, however, you feel that me being
male and that you would rather deal spe-

'D1qUnNJO) YSIIg ‘1aANOIuD4 ‘SuonNpOLd 310p ‘Y19qvZ1]J W01f pas1999 Y 10N S401PJ

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JUMP CUT, No. 27 $2.00
Special Section:
Film and Feminism in Germany

ENDAL C"HAMDSUPEIR

Today: The German Women's

FILNM JOURNAL

Movement; Helke Sander on Feminism and Film; Gertrud Koch or
Female Voyeurism; Interviews
with Helga Reidemeister, Jutta
Bruckner, Christina Perincioli ;
Reidemeister on Documentary
Filmmaking; more.

try and abroad.
Still Available:
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION. One Year: $12.00 Indi-

Double Issue 24/25 $2.50

vidual/$16.00 Institutions and Foreign. Two Years:

Special Section: Lesbians and

$20.00 Individual/$25.00 Institutions and Foreign.

Film: Filmography of Lesbian
Works, Lesbian Vampires, Les-

No. 12 Fall/Winter 1982-1983
REGIONAL REPORTS [D FEMINISM

bians in 'Nice' Films; Films of
Barbara Hammer; Films of Jan
Oxenberg; Growing Up Dyke

MILLENNIUM FILM WORKSHOP INC
ó6 East 4th Street (212) 673-0090

with Hollywood; Celine and
Julie Go Boating; Maedchen_ In

New York, N.Y. 10003

Uniform; more.

LIANN

Forthcoming:

WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL EROTIC ART FILM
CALL FOR ENTRIES

Independent Feminist Filmmaking;
Women and Pornography; Film
and Feminism in Germany |l;

Women filmmakers from all countries are asked

Women's Filmmaking in India;

to contribute to a compilation film on female eroticism. Complete a 3-minute Super-8 or 16mm film
of erotic content and form and mail before De-

more.

US subs: 4 issues, $6.00
Abroad: 4 issues, $8.00
JUMP CUT

EEE
PO Box CA
86594701
On Berkeley

ZN

BEST FILMS ON

REPRODUCTIVE
RIGHTS?

cember 1984 to:
Barbara Hammer

Women’s International Film P.O. Box 694

P.O. Box 2446 Cathedral Station

Berkeley, Cal. 94702 New York, N.Y. 10025
The film will be compiled with filmmaker’s name
(or anonymous if desired) and country.

FILMDANCE FESTIVAL
Sponsored by Experimental Intermedia Foundation
Curated by Amy Greenfield and Elaine Summers
Featuring exciting current and rare film-dance works
by about 35 artists.

At the Public Theatre, New York City
November 29 to December 11, 1983
For more information, call (212) 966-3367

Our Guide to Media on Reproductive Rights lists films,
videotapes and slideshows for education and organizing on abortion, sterilization, contraception, childcare, gay and lesbian rights,

teenage sexuality, reproductive hazards, and more. With tips on
how to organize a successful program.
Produced by Media Network and the Reproductive Rights National Network, in cooperation with The Film Fund.

Order for $1 per copy (inquire for bulk sales) from Media Net-

work, 208, West 13 St., New York, NY 10011; (212) 620-0877.

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READ & SUBSCRIBE TO

NO MORE CAGES,
A BIMONTHLY

WOMEN’S PRISON NEWSLETTER

A

Available at women’s and
progressive bookstores or from
Women Free Women in Prison,
PO Box 90, Bklyn, NY 11215.
$1 each copy, $6 per yr.
more if you can, less if you can’t
FREE TO PRISONERS

AND PSYCHIATRIC INMATES

o e
Feminist Review aims to develop the
C mMm 2 N 2 S theory of Women’s Liberation and debate

e the political perspectives and strategy of
the movement, and to be a forum for

C Ve wW work in progress and current research
and debates in Women’s Studies.

Recent issues of Feminist Review include articles on:
The material of male power (Cynthia Cockburn), the ‘Ripper’ case
(Wendy Hollway), imperialism and its effects on Third World women
(Diane Elson and Ruth Pearson), 19th century protective legislation
(Jane Humphries), sex and skill (Anne Phillips and Barbara Taylor), the
relationship between psychoanalysis and feminism (Elizabeth Wilson),
and a feminist critique of the record of socialist states (Maxine
Molyneux).

Why not subscribe?

Sai l

UNITED

Y3

AT THE

As an independent video or
filmmaker, you've decided to work
“outside the system’ —but you still
need a community of peers. The
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Filmmakers (AIVF) is such a

Feminist Review is published three times a year. Only £6.00 for three
issues for a UK subscription and £7.00 for a USA subscription (surface).
Subscription, general enquiries and information on institutional and
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community. As the national trade
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represents your needs and goals,
along with thousands of other

members nationwide, to government,
industry and the general public.

Off our backs
The Best in Feminist Journalism

Along with its sister organization,
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& Film (FIVF), it offers you a wealth of

concrete services: * Comprehensive
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kaa — m m t a Mlle mm em aa m s

TODAY
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AIVE
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95

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THE "THINGS THAT

Z KNOW,
GLadys!

OPPRESS US ARE á
PRESENT EVERY DAY N
IN EVERY PART OF

CCOCARR

OUR CULTU R£.

P A
WHAT BOTHERS

LATER| T NEED HELP GLADYS! T CAN FIND
100 BOOKS TELLG ME HOW TO COOK AD NOT

ME 15...

ONE TELLING ME Hou) Tò FIGHT RACISM «s

I LISTEN TO MVSC CONSTANTLY BUT
L DON'T KANOJ THE ANANE OF 4 S'AGLE

Wma COMPOSER... L COULD G

YoU NEES 4 SUBSCRIPTION Ta HERESIES, S11E84!
IT'S 4 FZMINIST PUBLICATION OA ART AND

NEW TRUTHS BEGIN AS HERESIES.

POL710S. SVBSCRIBE WOW AWP YOU'LL GET

SUBSCRIBE

FOUR ISSUES FOR THE PRICE OF THREE !!9
Please enter my subscription for:

one year (4 issues) D $15 (individuals) D $24 (institutions)
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Please send the following back issues ($6 each):

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D #10 (Women & Music)

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Please send copies of the Great Goddess Reprint at $8 each.
Included is a tax-deductible contribution of: 3 $10 D $50 O $100 D other.

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HERESIES COLLECTIVE STATEMENT
HERESIES is an idea-oriented journal devoted to the examination of art and politics
I’m not a radical,
not usually.
Not art

it wasn’t “art”...
I took them

(not quite like Luther
nor any other proclamation-maker)
I want you to know—
expansive of me,
populist-political of me,
and put them up
on the walls.

I tore out one leaf,
then another,
the personal-political,
the messages—
here, see.

I covered the walls
with them

social expectations aside,
external factors,
serious consideration
of meaning aside
(now really)...
I papered the walls practically,
with Heresies’ expressions—
organizing myself,
or community organizing?
defacing the niceties,
making a ‘democracy wall”
with these heresies,
at our YWCA.
Joan Van de Water
Kenmore, New York

from a feminist perspective. We believe that what is commonly called art can have a political impact, and that in the making of art and of all cultural artifacts our identities as
women play a distinct role. We hope that HERESIES will stimulate dialogue around radical political and aesthetic theory, as well as generate new creative energies among women.
It will be a place where diversity can be articulated. We are committed to broadening the
definition and function of art.
HERESIES is published by a collective of feminists, some of whom are also socialists,
marxists, lesbian feminists, or anarchists; our fields include painting, sculpture, writing,
anthropology, literature, performance, art history, architecture, filmmaking, photography,
and video. While the themes of the individual issues will be determined by the collective,
each issue will have a different editorial staff, composed of women who want to work on
that issue as well as members of the collective. HERESIES provides experience for women
who work editorially, in design and in production. An open evaluation meeting will be held
after the appearance of each issue. HERESIES will try to be accountable to and in touch
with the international feminist community.
As women, we are aware that historically the connections between our lives, our arts,
and our ideas have been suppressed. Once these connections are clarified, they can function as a means to dissolve the alienation between artist and audience, and to understand
the relationship between art and politics, work and workers. As a step toward a demystification of art, we reject the standard relationship of criticism to art within the present
system, which has often become the relationship of advertiser to product. We will not
advertise a new set of genius-products just because they are made by women. We are not
committed to any particular style or aesthetic, nor to the competitive mentality that pervades the art world. Our view of feminism is one of process and change, and we feel that in
the process of this dialogue we can foster a change in the meaning of art.
HERESIES Collective: Lyn Blumenthal, Sandra De Sando, Vanalyne Green, Michele
Godwin, Sue Heinemann, Elizabeth Hess, Lyn Hughes, Kay Kenny, Nicky Lindeman,
Lucy R. Lippard, Sabra Moore, Cecilia Vicuña, Holly Zox.
Associate Members: Ida Applebroog, Patsy Beckert, Joan Braderman, Cynthia Carr, Mary
Beth Edelson, Su Friedrich, Janet Froelich, Harmony Hammond, Joyce Kozloff, Arlene
Laddđen, Melissa Meyer, Marty Pottenger, Carrie Rickey, Elizabeth Sacre, Miriam Schapiro, Amy Sillman, Joan Snyder, Elke Solomon, Pat Steir, May Stevens, Michelle Stuart,
Susana Torre, Elizabeth Weatherford, Sally Webster, Nina Yankowitz.
Staff: Sandra De Sando (Circulation Manager), Sue Heinemann (Production), Patricia
Jones (Coordinator).

UPCOMING ISSUES

Our thanks to all who supported our 1982 art benefit, especially Frank
Marino Gallery and the artists: A. Adams, J. Allyn, I. Applebroog, T. Arai,

H. Aylon, N. Azara, N. Becker, L. Benglis, S. Bernstein, L.M. Blocton,

No. 17: Women’s Groups—Time to Raise Hell! Projects and plans from

L. Blumenthal, E. Borstein, L. Bourgeois, M. Brofsky, V. Browne, C. Bruce,

progressive political and cultural groups all over the world. An actionoriented issue with suggestions for organizing and mobilizing the public.

D. Byars, M. Cappelletto, C. Carr, Catti, Colette, M. Connor, J. Culbertson,

No. 18: Acting Up! Women in Theater and Performance Art: Please send

B. Damon, N. Davidson, S. De Sando, S. Draney, M. Edelheit, M.B. Edel-

us essays, original scripts, technical designs, documentation, visuals, and

son, H. Feigenbaum, J. Feinberg, S. Fellman, L. Fishman, A. Flack,
M. Fox, D. Freedman, N. Fried, S. Fuerst, S. Gellis, M. Godwin, L. Gold-

interviews exploring the diverse work by women in contemporary theater
and performance art. Deadline: NOW.
No. 19: Mothers, Mags and Movie Stars—Feminism and Class: We want

berg, E. Golden, D. Green, V. Green, J. Gross, H. Hammond, S. Heinemann, P. Hellman, D. Henes, J. Henry, M. Herr, E. Hess, C. Hill-

cultural/social/economic analyses of the institutions that shape the mother-

Montgomery, K. Horsfield, L. Hughes, P. Janto, V. Jaramillo, S. Jenkins,
B. Johnson, M. Kendall, K. Kenny, M. King, G. Klein, H. Korman,

daughter relationship—to use this relationship to understand family, class,
and culture. How do women’s magazines and movie stars point up issues

J. Kozloff, L. Kramer, B. Kruger, E. Kulas, D. Kurz, B. Lane, E. Lanyon,
S.B. Lederman, L. Lee, D. Levin, M.L. Levine, N. Linn, J. Logemann,

1983.

R. Mayer, A. Mendieta, M. Meyer, K. Millett, M. Miss, B. Moore, S. Moore,

mothers and daughters are in conflict about (or agree on)? Deadline: Fall
No. 20: Satire: A remedy to conventional media presentations of women.

E. Murray, L. Mussmann, B. Naidus, A. Neel, D. Nelson, P. Nenner,
L. Newman, P. Norvell, H. Oji, S. Payne, L. Peer, H. Pindell, A. Pitrone,

Send us parodies of food and fashion features, “celebrity” interviews, how-

L. Porter, B. Quinn, F. Ringgold, A. Robinson, A.M. Rousseau, E. Sacre,

that laughs. Deadline: Fall 1983.
Guidelines for Contributors. Each issue of HERESIES has a specific theme

M. Schapiro, C. Schneemann, J. Semmel, A.L. Shapiro, D. Shapiro,
K. Shaw, A. Sillman, C. Simpson, L. Simpson, M. Smith, S. Smith,

to info, advice to the lovelorn, feninist comics, political “ads”—anything

and all material submitted should relate to that theme. Manuscripts should

J. Snider, J. Snyder, E. Solomon, N. Spero, A. Sperry, A. Steckel, P. Steir,

be typed double-spaced and submitted in duplicate. Visual material should

M. Stevens, S. Straus, M. Strider, M. Stuart, C. Tardi, P. Tavins, M. Temkin, C. Thea, M.L. Ukeles, C. Vicuña, A. Walsh, J. Washburn, K. Webster,

be submitted in the form of a slide, xerox or photograph. We will not be

M. Weisbord, S. Whitefeather, B. Wilde, H. Wilke, F. Winant, N. Yanko-

stamped, self-addressed envelope for it to be returned. We do not publish
reviews or monographs on contemporary women. We do not commission

witz, Zarina.

responsible for original art. All material must be accompanied by a

Thanks also to Lynda Benglis, Harmony Hammond, Joyce Kozloff, Eliza-

articles and cannot guarantee acceptance of submitted material. HERE-

beth Murray, Alice Neel, Howardena Pindell, and Michelle Stuart for

SIES pays a small fee for published material.

donating prints to our recent raffle, and to Laurie Carlos, Lenora Champagne, Vanalyne Green, and Jessica Hagedorn for performing at our show
“Classified” at the New Museum. Finally, thanks for much-needed contributions from Stephanie Hammerschlag Bernheim, Stephen Blum, Leonard
Blumberg, Judy Brodsky, Anne Casale, Sandra De Sando, Lucius and Eva
Eastman Fund, Lucille Goodman, Betsy Hasegawa, Elizabeth Hess, Ida
Kohlmeyer, Vernon and Margaret Lippard, Miriam Maharrey, Jane Rubin,
Francine San Giovanni, Miriam Schapiro, Kendall Shaw, Ralph E. Shikes,
Amy Brook Snider, Nancy Spero, Marie-Monique Steckel, Joan Watts,
Jeff Weinstein, and Betty Yancey.

ERRATA: HERESIES NO. 15
p. 22 “Looking Backward...” by May Stevens: The missing line in the
second column should read: ‘playing? A playing at toughness, verbal
violence from this...”
p. 30 “Love Story” by Elena Poniatowski: In the second to last paragraph,
the word ‘“proctological” should be ‘“proctolalic” (a made-up word).
p. 54 “An American Black Woman...” by Howardena Pindell: The eighth
line should read: “Black woman representing...”

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Соһесіїме Еєіїогіа! $іаїетепі

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