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Introduction

“One might simplify this by saying: men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object—and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.”

—John Berger, Ways of Seeing

In 1973, film critic Laura Mulvey wrote an explosive essay called “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” In it, she used examples from Hollywood films to explore how the perspective of the camera lens (the types of angles, editing, and lighting used) is masculine, with the women onscreen looked at as passive sexual objects. There are many examples of this throughout film history, from the way Lana Turner’s character is introduced legs first in The Postman Always Rings Twice to Megan Fox leaning over a car engine in Transformers. These two movies are very different, but in both cases the camera directly mirrors the hungry gaze of the male characters.

Mulvey’s piece quickly became famous—and contentious—and her ideas continue to be dissected today. To put it simply, Mulvey was interested in what happens to us when the majority of the films we watch are made by men and seen through this “male gaze.” This gaze places the male characters in a position of power. In film, men are almost always doing the looking, with women left in the weaker position of being looked at. This not only contributes to the slew of passive female characters we see onscreen, but also affects how each of us view women—and how women view themselves.

There is a very good argument to be made that an equivalent “female gaze” simply cannot exist, because society is not set up that way. The male gaze is a byproduct of our imbalanced world, one where men hold the majority of the power. While the term “the female gaze” is used throughout this book (and as its title), this is not intended to imply a narrow view of gender or an ignorance of the structure of our world. It is a phrase used here to open up a conversation about the experience of seeing film and being seen in film for those who don’t identify with being white, cis, or male.

What happens, for example, when we look at the world from a female point of view? How do women see themselves? How do women see other women? What makes a movie essentially feminine? What can audiences of any gender identification gain by looking at film through a female lens? These and other questions are at the heart of this book.

With conversations about women’s experiences in Hollywood currently at fever pitch, I am often asked how to best support women in film. The answer? Watch movies made by women. Every click, download, or DVD purchase helps to send a message that we want more. That is why I wanted to write the book you now hold in your hands: to provide an easy, accessible list of some of my favorite movies made by women—many of whom have been overlooked or forgotten, despite their important contributions to the history of cinema.

Each of the fifty-two films in this book is made by a woman and features stories about women. Though the focus is mainly on narrative and drama in films, each of the movies you will discover here is unique in tone and genre, and they are drawn from across very different time periods and locations. Some of my criteria in choosing the films was intended to ensure that there was a representation of diversity of era, country, race, and sexual orientation; and that each film is readily available to watch on streaming services or DVD.

As a way to include voices other than my own, I asked a group of established and aspiring female film critics to write short odes to movies they love made by women. This book represents a wealth of perspectives—and while at times their choices mirrored my own, at other times they helped to introduce even more films to this packed little guidebook. From dreamlike portrayals of turn-of-the-century matriarchal families to unapologetic explorations of sex work and complex female friendships, there is something here for everyone.

For each film chosen here, you will find the production details, a short synopsis, and some interesting backstory about the film and its filmmaker, along with what the uniquely feminine perspective does for the story. The idea is to give you the flavor of what each film offers and why I feel it is worth rediscovering.

As you move through these chapters, there are several things to note; first, the sparseness of female-directed films at the beginning of the twentieth century and how that changed starting in the 1970s. You’ll also note how it’s not until the 1990s that I include a female director of color, and how many of these filmmakers only made one feature film. There are also quite a few directors who eschew the modifier of “female” or who have rejected the notion of their films being called “feminist.” And the quotes used from critics and authors mainly come from white men. All of this demonstrates how female filmmakers (and our experiences of film as a whole, including who has historically written about film) have been limited by the barriers of gender, race, and sexual orientation.

It can be frustrating to wonder what kinds of stories we might have experienced if a wider variety of people had been allowed to tell them. But it’s important to celebrate what we do have, because despite the odds, women have been making movies from the beginning of cinema itself. And there is much more to discover than what I have included. My selection here represents only a small sample of the many wonderful movies that have been directed by female filmmakers. I capped the list at fifty-two in case you wanted to watch a film a week for a year and use this book as part of the #52FilmsByWomen challenge started by the Women in Film organization. But of course, you can simply dip in and out of this collection at your own pace and use this guide to explore those titles that most take your fancy.

Above all, my wish is that this book provides you with a valuable starting point: a concise and engaging list of my favorite films made by women. From here, I hope you take it upon yourself to explore these and other filmmaking gems more deeply. Enjoy!