Listen to Lupe Fiasco's speech.

Lupe Fiasco discusses thoughts and actions that music can motivate.

Hunter Bridge Magazine

The Hunter Online Magazine
The Hunter Bridge

Skin Deep: Part 1: Beauty as an Industry

Skin Deep: Part 1: Beauty as an Industry

What is beauty? Where do we get our cues as what is and is not beautiful? Are they all engendered by internal factors or have our views of beauty been manipulated and molded?

Skin Deep: Part 1: Beauty as an Industry is a preliminary exploration of the business behind what is considered beautiful. Certain images are consistent and prevalent in many forms of media, many which are not healthy or even realistic.

Musicians who promote healthy, positive ideas are often also-rans, especially in the hip hop genre.

This video will lead us into the next parts in an attempt to get to the root of how and why the commercial industry constantly promotes these distorted images of beauty.

The Aware Feminist Magazine

The Aware Feminist Magazine is an online publication dedicated to raise awareness regarding how images of women are portrayed in many different media outlets and the effects they have on younger female audiences- their participation in an epidemic disease in particular.

Founded by Lenis Lozano, The Aware Feminist Magazine offers different aspects of young females who have become affected by the media and the current actions they take to cope it while assessing their own images. In addition, AF Magazine shares how pop culture as well as other institutions, make their mark to stop this media manipulation.

www.theafmag.com

It's too expensive to love art - A story about a female artist in NYC

My final project is a short documentary film about my friend Monika Sala. She is a dedicated female young photographer.  She was born in Poland where she graduated from Crakow University of Economics. In 2004, she came to the United States. She graduated from Fashion Institute of Technology. She pursues her passion for art in New York City.  At the summer of 2010, Monika shifts her life back to Europe. “Monica” stands for thousands of passionate women who work hard to pursue their careers. She also represents thousands of immigration artists, who leave their family, and struggle in America for their dreams.

New York is a community, which attract a huge group of young people, step out their social cast, and come here from the entire world. They all believe her is the place to make their dream come true. They believe American is a land where they can achieve the freedom of creation. As Monica says in her interview, “I was just a common girl from a little town in Europe…It’s unbelievable that I can be a photographer in NYC…Bt somehow it happens.”  

However, to support an artist life in New York City, their stories are full of love and struggles. As women live in Nyc without family and security job support, no matter what your passion is, you have to be a slave for money.  It’s very common for them to work as babysitter, housekeeper, or any job they can find to pay the rent. Monica, as a woman, she denies to marry a man for security, and she wants to be a strong, independent artist.  However, she feels the pain of been treaded as a object. She always says, “In Most time of my days, I feel like a vegetable… When I am working, I am a back ground furniture in rich people’s house.” It’s not only hard to be recognizing as an artist, but also hard to be recognizing as a human being. She is a true artist in soul, and she has wonderful personalities. She bravely pursues the profession as a living artist.

Art, is her language, is her voice. She is yelling out in her art works to challenge American’ material society. Financial struggles and un-fair society treatments, shape her art journey and changing her point of view about life. I document segments of her daily life for the past three years. The mission to make this documentary is for her to see her braveness, kindness, and encourage her to keep going to be an artist. 

http://monikasala.com/

Women In Video Game Media!

My final project is an extensive researched blog post into the development and portrayal of women in video games.

Within my researched post I've included screenshots and imagery of the heroines from the video games I've chosen. I also found "In the Making Of..(Game)" footage of the game designers and creators of these characters. I delve into the character concepts and interviews and analyze their reasoning on the character design. As I go into researching each character . It seems like the designers and publishers use sex appeal to sell women video game characters for profit. Despite the popularity of characters Lara Croft, Nariko, and Sheva. There have been disappointments such as Ayumi from X-blades. But, there is at least one gem of a video game character that deserves praise despite poor sales, Jade from "Beyond Good and Evil".

I go in depth with these characters in my researched post as well as putting personal input from my own experiences.

Glimpse Into the Development and Portrayal of Women in Video Games

RETOUCHING: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
My final project is a blog that focuses on beauty industry and more specifically on retouching.On the blog I posted my own story, and explained why the topic is special for me. I also posted links to articles and some interviews. My original idea was to write an article but I than decided that a blog might be more influential.Most importantly I can continue posting materials and keep it alive. I hope that you will take a look at my blog and share your opinions on the topic. Here is the link to my blog:
http://desi-about-retouching.blogspot.com

Women in Sports Media: The Fight to Make it in a Man's World

Here is a direct look into women in the sports media. It has a been a struggle for women to gain acceptance in the sports broadcasting world. In a male dominant world, I discuss the past, the present and the future out look for women in sports broadcasting.





http://www.scribd.com/doc/45605730/Bobby-White-Shoes-Kiernan-Final-Dec


http://forum.sbrforum.com/players-talk/92226-best-looking-espn-female-reporter.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ESPN_personalities

http://www.danno.net/My_Pool_Tidbits_Top_10_Women.htm

Catfight: Competition Among Women

Competition among women is a pervasive and relentless reality. Women compete with each other for men, looks, jobs, attention. In asking both women and men about this issue, most admitted there was a problem, but no one could really pinpoint why. Is it the pressure we feel to be perfect, because that's what's expected? Is it in our nature? Is it because we live in a patriarchal society and men have set up this dynamic because they enjoy feeling that women are fighting for something they (men) possess?

Media has undoubtedly played on this idea of the catfight or the bitch-slap. They're have been countless headlines about celebrity battles between women.

My project brings this issue to light and gives examples of how media makers are profiting on the cliche of the Catfight and portraying women as petty, catty, hateful beings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdggm9jPacw

The Seeing

My Final Project; The Seeing, consists of elements such as illustrations, animation, web design, statistics and infographics. My main goal was to give the visitors of the website an awareness on the issue of how certain women see their bodies. Throughout the semester we've seen videos on how women see their bodies and how some would like to have the "ideal" female body through cruel practices and surgeries. By making this website, I wanted to raise some questions why women should be content by the way they look, and how there is no such thing as "ideal" female body. I have also given examples how this issue affects young teenage girls and what are some of the dangers.

http://www.tiredandangry.com/theseeing/

Lauryn Hill's Music and Its Message

As we learned this semester, media is a powerful force that influences society and, in turn, humanity as a whole. Throughout its evolution, media has taken on various forms. One type, which I concentrate on for my final project, is the recorded music of an artist. My essay analyzes Lauryn Hill's career as a recording artist and explores the meanings behind the lyrics in her songs. From her debut as a solo artist, 1998's "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" to 2002's live recording, "MTV Unplugged No. 2," Hill uses her music as a platform to spread her messages. With the fundamental message reminding us that we are who we are and that we should not conform to any socially constructed "standards."

Lauryn Hill's Music and Its Message

ART WILL ALWAYS CHANGE. PEOPLE WILL NOT.

The Final Project is video about women's portrayal in Western culture and Media and the audience's motivation towards changing the cultural trends. The whole idea of the film is to distinguish the categories of people. First, there are those who are drawn and enjoy the media blindly. The second category of people, are those who study and want to make drastic changes. The third group, which is my conclusion are the majority, they are the ones who aren't blind, they are media literate but ultimately do not care to make any changes. Like the contradictory nature of the title, the video’s ultimate goal is to show the contradictory nature of the characters, who are the representation of the masses.

The Link to the Final Project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD0DnuqR14U

The following are the links to the outside sources used for this project:

Bullen, Rebecca Richards. “The Power and Impact of Gender-Specific Media Literacy.” Youth Media Reporter. (2009). November 12 2010. http://www.youthmediareporter.org/2009/08/the_power_and_impact_of_gender.html

Didion, Joan. Slouching Towards Bethlehem. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968.

The Color of Pomegranates. Parajanov, Sergei. Armenfilm 1968.

Dj LCM (e-cletus). Conta De Burgues.

Link to the soundtrack < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBl2T3b6-hc&feature=related>

Interview with an Educator

Growing Up Addicted to 60 minutes, I decided that I would try to emulate that style for my own interview this semester. Originally I was unsure what type of medium my project would be, but I felt emotions tell stories. As we blog, and tweet and post things, I felt that society is moving from textual to more visual.

I chose to interview the head principal of Lyons Community School (where I work) Taeko Onishi, not only to show some of the great things we do, but because I truly believe the community aspect of education has a huge role in media and gender studies. I also couldn't help but think of my first time meeting her at my job interview and not shaking her hand first because I didn't think she was the principal. I remember thinking to myself "what a stupid move" whether it was the fact that she was a woman, or the fact that she dressed like a hippie, I, like most people grew up with preconceived notions on how I expect a principal to look and act.

In this interview Taeko touches on Education as Medium, Being a Woman, and How it shapes her ideals.

Trailer

Preview:Interview with an Educator from wuta o on Vimeo.

Full Video

Interview with an Educator from wuta o on Vimeo.

The Princess Effect

Image Source - http://boingboing.net/2010/05/24/what-disney-princess.html

In today's society so many of our kids are raised by Disney Films. Of course there are several ways to interpret these films, especially the fairy tales, but my project focuses on the issue of self image. It's only natural for little girls watching these films to identify and idolize with the "Disney Princess". Unfortunately, the beauty possessed by Belle, Ariel, Cinderella and Snow White is the focal point of their respective films. Leading these girls believe that their self worth is solely based on what is on the outside. At some point they realize that they look nothing like the Disney Heroines. So, the process begins to take all measures to look like a princess and end up "Happily Ever After". Since, Disney is clearly not going anywhere, if we want to see a change we must support alternative forms of media and try to give girls a different and more positive message.

The Plight of Gay Men in Media and Masculinity

The Plight of Gay Men in Media and Masculinity

Just Be You.

Young girls consume an immense amount of advertisements daily and magazines contribute their share. When girls see these images in magazines, they feel that there is a possibility for them to achieve this perfection, when in reality, those images are all digitally enhanced. Many ads portray images of women that can permanently affect the way girls look at themselves. The ads are created in order to persuade consumers that the products must be bought to achieve the look. In this case, the consumer would have to drink ONLY this brand water to get a slender body like the model.

The saddest part of it is that girls are not educated about what takes place behind these ads until later in life. My two 14 year old girl cousins were looking at the magazines we had at my house one day, and they asked me about the perfected images of the models. Although they were technologically updated, I was surprised that they did not know the power of photoshop. This experience really inspired me to create this fictional video production piece about a teenage female student who is given the chance to show an interest in magazines. Not only does she begin to question her own body image in accordance to the ads she saw, she is also pressured by her mom and the Chinese culture where it is a MUST to be skinny. The storyline is based upon personal experiences that my sister and I have had (although the video IS exaggerated to some extent). I chose this topic because I believe that many girls can relate to the situation in one way or another.

For the magazine, I chose the name "Outer Eye" because I felt that girls begin to worry too much about how everybody outside of their private life see them. They want to look a certain way to please the eyes of the outside world other than their own. Young girls are beginning to care about their body image too early in their life that they forget what's important. The world we live in today constructs different images for girls to follow. In my opinion, it is important for girls to focus on just being themselves rather than chasing images they see.



I want to take the chance to thank all the people who participated in the project (my camera-people and actors). Special thanks to Danielle Elizabeth Chin for composing and performing the music in the video.

Final Project: Zine

Below is the link and a copy of my zine called New Beauty. The focus of this first edition of the zine was culture and body image. It features a mix of facts and features on girls discussing their body image. The focus of this issue of the zine is mainly Caribbean girls and how their body image and self esteem has developed in relation to culture and the American beauty ideal. In the United States, girls of various cultural backgrounds (minorities), when studied, have been shown to be as affected by the American ideal beauty image perpetuated by the media, as the typical affected female (largely assumed to be white middle class teenager girls). Studies have shown that as girls, immigrant females, become more acculturated, they become more aware of the beauty image and try to measure up to it; which often causes a rise in insecurities, sometimes leading to dangerous behaviors, all to attain acceptance. The goal of this zine is to bring awareness to this issue and educate young (immigrant) girls (and their parents) on how to build self esteem, something highly important to emotional and physical health, and realize that there is no true ideal for beauty, but that beauty exist within us all.

I hope that you'll find it entertaining and informative.

http://www.scribd.com/full/45597676?access_key=key-64gvbn6pi7akotf6u27


New Beauty

Sexist Marketing in The Classical Music Industry

Have you ever noticed the way sex appeal used in the classical music advertisements? The easiest way to see images of the musicians is on the jackets of CDs. If people look at the male musician’s advertisement including CDs, they will notice them as musicians. However, if people see the female musicians on the CDs and advertisements, they will notice them as women. Female musicians have double product: their music and themselves, but male musicians have just music. This phenomenon affects female musicians negatively in different ways. Classical music industry has been used the same marketing strategy, that they sell music with sexism, like pop music industry does, but it is not easily noticeable because classical music is used as a synonym of pure.

Sexist Marketing in the Classical Music Industry

The Money, The Cars, and The Hoes

Media has a great power to influence. The media that one chooses to consume has a great influence on the ideals, thoughts, and opinions of an individual. As individuals we take away messages from media images that may or may not shape our lives. In my experiences the youth is often extremely influenced by the media that they are exposed to. These media which include, music, movies, television programming, and online sources of media, are often enriched with heavy sexual messages, glamorizing, fame, money, and sex. In Particular this same media also has an affect on the teenage boys that view it, and formulate opinions of women, and their relations to women.

To gain a better understanding of what type of media that teenage boys are exposed to, and what possible relationship this might have with the attitudes and opinions that they formulate about women, I interviewed two teenage boys. With the Conversation that I had with them, and the media sources which they mentioned, I discuss in my paper the ideals that these individuals have in regards to the media that they consume.

The Money, The Cars, and The Hoes; A Narrative of the Relations Between Teenage Boys, Media, and their View of Women.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/45081542

Sexy or Trashy: Women in Advertising

We all know that sex sells. That is no secret... But the trouble starts when models are used in advertising campaigns where the boundaries between what is sexy and what is sexiest, and what is tasteful and what is vulgar are totally blurred. Especially in the case of young models. And we as consumers are no longer able to define, or have a say in whether something is tongue cheek, risque or just totally downright scandalous and inappropriate.

My final project is about women in advertising and how they are constantly portrayed naked in ads. My original goal was to interview models and see how they felt about this issue in their line of work. But i took a spin on things and decided that models are not the only ones affected by this problem : consumers, kids and the every day average Joe's are affected by these issues too.So i decided to interview everyone who i thought this topic affected.So here is a preview of what my video is about.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AituwuznLX4

The Heavy Deal

I created an autobiographical blog about how my self image was influenced by the media, events and the people in my life. I didn't realized how much my opinion on what is defined as a beautiful girl with a gorgeous body and how badly I wanted to be classified as such by society, was formulated and manufactured by media conglomerates.

At each developmental stage I will reveal parts about myself that have never been shared with the public. Being an introvert and private person it, I will try to reprogram my way of thinking, of not just knowing better but truly believing in the importance of accepting myself as I am- a curly haired, heavy girl with a great sense of humor and lots hidden talent. I will start from when I was a little girl on through my teenage years and to present time, as a woman in my thirties.

Growing up in the cusp of a period when all these different views of women were so pervasive and ever changing, I will discuss how my family’s traditional perspectives, from generation to generation, have changed through time. From my grandmother to my mother, their views of what’s proper and how a women should act to the juxtaposition of what my undying addiction, television, conditioned me to think about women in general.

I will also discuss my feelings of discrimination when being overlooked and all the missed opportunities that could have been granted to me had I looked different; finding a mate, friendships, and betrayal from trusted loved ones.

theheavydeal.blogspot.com

A Teen Mom Story

A Woman of Many Faces

Teenage pregnancies is always a hot topic. Statistic always focus on the the negative outcome of becoming a parent at a young age. It is not often that we hear positive stories about teenage mothers that are making strides toward a greater future.

I wanted to share my personal experience about becoming a teenage mother. I was barely a teenager when I had my first child. Despite all odds against me I can proudly say I have emerged into a successful women. I am a woman of many faces. I play various roles each day.

Presently I have three children: Aaron (nineteen) Darrin (sixteen) and Jared (four.) At I also have my brother Vitalis (twenty five) and my five year old Yorkie Maddy. I have experience many bumps along my journey because I chose to parent at an early age but I have shatter many stereotypes placed against many young minority woman. I wrote and composed a zine to share intimate details about some my teenage life experience.

I was inspired to focus on myself after watching several episodes of the MTV reality show 16 and Pregnant. It took me back to memory lane. I could not help but to think HOW POWERFUL! I too have faced many of the decisions as those young ladies. It is scary, but my personal belief is that through communication and education about contraceptive many of these pregnancies could be avoided.

I have no regrets about choosing to keep my children. They are my joy and I love being a mother! It has not been an easy journey, each day I find myself fighting battles. No one understands unless they take the same steps. I am a mother first and also financial provider, student and an educator. The balance between work and motherhood has posed many challenges but I am succeeding. I am a woman of many faces.

In the first photo is Jared

Second image is Aaron, Jared, Darrin and I

http://www.mtv.com/show/16_and_pregnant/season1_1/series.jhtml

Watm Final 12 05 10

How Women Choose Men in The Absence of Father Figures

http://shermacools.blogspot.com




My final project is about reviewing how women choose men in the absence of a father or father figures. I have looked at the end results of women who grew up in abusive environments and women who did not have a father in the house at all.

I used mostly personal stories sprinkled with findings from professional sources. I used the personal stories so I can get a first hand account of the psyche some women experience. Some are withdrawn and write off men, others are unsure of their path and there are others who hold out hope. I found the end result tend to be along the same lines for most. I have set up the personal stories and findings on a separate extensive blog at http://shermacools.blogspot.com/

I have also linked as many help websites I could find for battered women and those in need of help. I believe its important to have access to these types of resources for anyone who may be interested in getting help for either themselves or others.

Big Girls Dont Cry

http://about-face.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/whitney-antm.jpg

http://creoleindc.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2007/05/17/theweathergirlsbiggirlsdontcr297978.jpg

In the midst of a slow economic recovery, political achievements around the world, and Lady Gaga, it seems as if we are going through many significant changes within the last five years. It would be wonderful to say the same about big girls or full figured women in the media, but we're still lagging in that category. It is important to learn to accept everyone, even if we don't agree with how they look or dress or act. As individuals we are allowed to be unique and allowed to be content with our size, whether we're a size 2 or a size 16. Every women should be allowed to go into a store and find their size on a rack.

I decided to research a topic that was both controversial and common in American society. One of the most difficult issued a women faces in her lifetime is not learning to accept herself even with her flaws. This is in part due to the many images we see in the media on a consistent basis. These images portray an 'ideal' woman that does not exist and so women develop a notion that they will never fit the mold and end up hating themselves for that. On my website, I want to pay tribute to the many women in the media who are proud of their full figures. You can find interesting articles and videos, as well as testimonials of everyday women who say their perfectly content with being a size 10.

Check it out www.fullandfab.weebly.com

Link to videos from Ingrid Dahl's presentation

Kiri Davis - A Girl Like Me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWyI77Yh1Gg

Mona Lisa Smile - Multiple parts - one part http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHLsQIQC6zw&feature=related

Byron Hurt - Beyond Beats and Rhymes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjxjZe3RhIo&feature=related

"No Homo" - Masculinity, Homophobia, and Hip-Hop Culture http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84wHXT2KgWY

Sexism, Strength and Dominance: Masculinity in Disney Films http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CWMCt35oFY&feature=PlayList&p=AEF538818566081F&index=0&playnext=1

Jane Campion

Jane Campion was born in 1954 in New Zealand and now she lives in United States. She began filmmaking in the early 1980s, has a BA in Anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington in 1975 and a BA with a painting major at Sydney College of Art in 1979. While she was attending film school in Australia, Campion made a short film, An Peel – Exercise in Discipline and the film won the Palme D’Or at the Cannes film festival in 1986. In 1989, she co-wrote and directed her first feature film, Sweetie, and it won the Georges Sadoul prize in 1989 for Best Foreign Film, as well as the LA Film Critics' New Generation Award in 1990, the American Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Feature, and the Australian Critics Award for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress. Three years later, her third feature film, The Piano, released and the film won the Palme D’Or at Cannes. It made her the first woman ever to win the prestigious award. She also captured an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for Best Director at the Oscars in 1993.

The films she has made until today have in common that woman characters in them are trying to find their identities against social norms and suppression of sexual desire. Campion is interested in the ego-identity of women who are disregarded in society. As she is Anthropology major, she finds the root of this problem through Anthropology in her film. The Piano received extraordinary critical and popular public attention. Vincent Canby of The New York Times described The Piano as ‘a triumph . . . so good, so tough, so moving and, especially, so original.’

The piano is a story about a mute Scottish woman, Ada McGrath, whose father sells her, along with her young daughter into a marriage to a man, Alistair Stewart, who she does not know. Since she stopped speaking at the age of six, Ada expresses herself through playing piano and some sign languages. Her husband, Stewart, thinks their house is too small for having the piano, which is very important object for Ada, and throws it away at the beach. Ada and Stewart never have a sexual interaction. Ada gets help from Baines, who lives like a primitive man, to move the piano. They have love affairs and Stewart finds out about it. Her husband cuts her finger and Ada and Baines departe from that place. They start to have a new life in Nelson and Baines makes a silver finger to replace hers.

The piano plays an important role in the film. Campion says “The piano was chosen by the designer Andrew McAlpine. I queried it at first, because I imagined a tall piano and I found it hard to think of this table as a piano. But at the same moment as I saw it, I loved it.” In Campion’s films, women usually are the main characters. They are all considered incompetent and powerless but trying to find their talent or an escape to have a better life. The movies by Campion are about the lives of women who cannot live normally in a male-dominated society. She is also using feminism and pictorial imagery together in her films. This is why her works are unique as auteur. The films also show what her interests are and she is combining women with common problems that happen in families and society. Campion is not just talking about the problems which can happen to anybody but also emphasizes how they can affect women. As Bell Hook’s writing in Introduction Making Movie Magic “They give the reimagined, reinvented version of the real. It may look like something familiar, but in actuality it is a different universe from the world of the real.”, Campion creates films with the sense around herself like real world and it touches people’s mind. The piano is her alter ego.

Campion describes a woman who is suppressed sexual desire in Victorian Age. Stewart destroys his wife because he is jealous and angry. That Ada is a mute is a symbol that expresses women's social status that they cannon do anything

External Sources

1. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/05/30/movies/film-view-jane-campion-stirs-romance-with-mystery.html?scp=3&sq=Jane+Campion+piano&st=nyt

2. http://flickeringmyth.blogspot.com/2009/12/burning-brightly-jane-campion-profile.html

Meet Sally Porter

Met Sally Potter is one of my greatest adventures in the summer of 2010. She is a British female director, I don’t know her name even I have admire the amazing “Orlando” for about 15years. In one of typical hot July afternoon, my dear friends calls me, “No matter what are you doing tonight, you have to come to Moma tonight, Sally Porter is here.” I wasn’t listening to my friend. I end up spent 3 night in Moma watch Sally Porter’s films, listen to her interviews and talk to her after events.

Her journeying of growing to be a female artist is very fascinating. At age sixteen, she left school to become a filmmaker. Later on she was trained as a dancer and choreographer at the London School of Contemporary Dance. Sally Potter’s work from the early 1970’s, embraced dance, performance, theatre, music and film.  

As Catherine Saalfield says, “Filmmaking is the most efficient creative and satisfying form of activism”(Saalfield). Sally Porter’s films have strong voice in visual style. The best way to know her is through her films. From the glory “Orlando”, the beautiful “The Tango Lesions” and the quaky “Rage”, her characters and herself as character act for her voice. 

The internationally distributed Orlando (1992) brought Potter’s work to a wider audience. In addition to two Academy Award nominations, Orlando won more than 25 international awards. The film was based on Virginia Woolf’s novel and adapted for the screen by Potter. This film is a great example to explain the theses of Writing in Light lectures, the ways in which the language of film has influenced poetry and fiction and how they share technique.  In Orlando Potter visually broken up time, gender limitation on film and poetry. The film brings the novel close to audience by vivid visual language.  In the movie, Orlando has some shots out of story, acts off scene to stare at audience. These nuances of framing, inflection and particularly authorial viewpoint prove that, “No concept of gendered media representation can function without a concept of Authorship.”

THE TANGO LESSON (1996) was directed by Sally Potter. She also was the leading actress of the film. Potter plays herself in this story about a filmmaker who becomes enamored of the tango—and her dance instructor. Their relationship is fraught with tension, laying bare the power dynamics between dance instructor and film director, leader and follower. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfn5_sz_B8M

Female filmmaker always been put on the hot chare of challenging men’ leading roll in society. The great line from the movie is, “I have been fallow you in the Tangle, but to make a film, you have to fallow me. “

RAGE (2009) is Potter’s latest film and the first feature ever to premiere on cell-phones.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B2spyclmw8

RAGE was in competition at the Berlin Film Festival in 2009 and nominated for a WEBBY for Best Drama in 2010. This is a fiction film using documentary film style. The whole 1-hour and half film is a back stage of a fashion show. The whole movie is in one interview setting. Characters just walk in the scene and talk to camera. As Auteur theory point out, “Also social contexts shape film processes, it was the director who authored a film.” When Lily Cole introduces herself as, “My name is Lettuce, they call me Lettuce leaf… They told me to make me a big star, I have to be small.” Sally potter gives voice to those object women hidden behind the fashion industry. They are human they are scared. It’s Sally Potter’s desition to view fashion industry this way, she is the one has power to isolate the whold glory fashion show in back stage interviews.

I remember when I was asking her a typical film student question. “What advise you would like to give to a struggle film student?” She holds my hand and says, “If you know film is what you want, you have to work hard everyday, even there seems like no hope at all. Keep crawling and be happy with every little step you made. ”

http://www.sallypotter.com/

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1090

Jamie Babbit

In Maggie Humm's Author/Auteur piece, she expresses how much being a female auteur of their own work is significant to vocalizing the unheard thoughts of women to their community and its supporters. Jamie Babbit is a director, a writer, a producer, a radical feminist, an activist, a lesbian... Jamie Babbit is also very much an auteur. Babbit has directed several films, including short films and also has written scripts for TV shows such as The L Word, Gilmore Girls and Nip/Tuck. All of the works that she auteurs has the presence of a female, either an identified lesbian or one with an unidentified sexuality, in the foreground.

Gynocentrism, as demonstrated in Humm's piece as well, is a system used to try make feminist culture more prevalent; to bring out the female voice as the primary voice in a work of out to relate to the female on-lookers. Babbit's distinctly tries to bring out two voices: the female voice and the lesbian voice. She works with a film production company called POWER UP! which tries to 'challenge the perception' of women and the LGBTQ community through film and her dedication to the organization can easily be seen in her works, which commonly have a female lead, usually a defined lesbian or one who has an ambiguous sexuality, silenced or filed into a gender role and the movie visualizes how the lead woman finds her voice.

'But I'm A Cheerleader', Babbit's perhaps most popular and first major film, depicts a girl who is pressured into the social role of being a cheerleader and gets silenced by her own family and friends after suspicions are raised about her sexuality, thus she is sent to a camp that would not only silence her, but silence her true desires. In the end, her inner-voice strengthens rebelling against the camp and vocalizing, even illustrating, her desires more. Another film of hers 'Itty Bitty Titty Committee', which was produced through POWER UP!, is about a female who doesn't express her sexuality because of her traditional upbringing and is taken under the wing by a feminist friend who not only brings her a new culture to identify with, but brings out the desires that laid inside of her.

Babbit has expressed that the reason her films center around lesbianism and feminism is because she wants to represent a community that she believes is unheard yet scrutinized, which is also her reasoning in partnering up with POWER UP! Her work is mostly humourous because she feels that not only does it create an accessibility, but that it can show the humanity and progression of a community when they can depict themselves in a comical fashion. Her films generally appeal to younger audiences, as older audiences tend to be more offended at her works, in which she believes because she's poking fun at issues that were more taboo in older times and she finds the younger appeal more favourable, because the younger audiences will soon be the prevalent voices and can bring the issues more attention, so she now tries to specifically target the younger demographic with her films.

Not only does Babbit put her touch on the scripts, but she likes to create awareness through her soundtracks. Soundtracks to her movie have included bands like Dressy Bessy, Le Tigre and Cat Power, all musical projects with a strong female voice heard in the audio and lyrics. To get the attention of the fans of these artists is significant, because the awareness is spoken in the lyrics and the music and with a visualization like a film, it's likely to create a response, which is a tactic of an auteur.

Babbit is an auteur representing two communities, the feminist community and the LGBTQ community. Her works always feature a powerful female character who is facing sexual ambiguity or androgyny and their resistance to social norms and gender roles. Being an auteur is about trying to get your message into all shots of a frame, all dialogue of a scene, and the output of an audio speaker, which is something Babbit intentionally seeks out to do, by spotlighting female characters in her films or soundtracking her works with feminist bands, she's certainly created a voice.



http://www.afterellen.com/archive/ellen/People/interviews/62004/jamiebabbit.html (Interview with Jamie Babbit)
http://www.afterellen.com/movies/2007/5/ittybitty (Movie review of Itty Bitty Titty Committee)
http://www.powerupfilms.org/ (Film organization for Women and the LGBT community)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamie_Babbit (Naturally...)

Diablo Cody has a very intriguing and unique approach to writing. It begins with her name of Diablo Cody, Diablo meaning bull in Spanish and Cody, which she got from passing through a town called Cody in Wyoming. This is just the beginning to Diablo’s super open and eccentric lifestyle.
After graduating college, Cody began to strip for money but also continued to write. Because of the feeling of being afraid to fail, Diablo opted for the internet after working from some local newspapers because then no one could tell her what to write or deny any of her writings. As Katherine Sall Field states in her article, “I teach the kids how media works and how powerful it can be, and how they can use for their own ends.” She began her blog on the sex industry and stripping and shortly after became very popular on the internet. Even earning the interest of Mason Novick, the producer. At first Diablo wasn’t interested on writing for Hollywood but was convinced and then began her script for Juno.
An auteur sees beyond the film, beyond the script but bring there life into the story and writings. That is exactly how Cody came up the script for Juno. On writing the script she called it, “a spontaneous thing.” Writing from a vision, Diablo said in an interview, “thinking about the image of a teenage girl sitting across from uptight yuppies and basically auditioning to be the parents of her unborn child. And I was like that is usually the most awkward thing I could imagine, and it is therefore hilarious.” As easy as that an award winning script was developed.
Because of the fear of failing and the sense of optimism Diablo’s success on the internet ignited her career. In Debra Zimmerman’s article, she says that she was moderating a panel of film makers in San Francisco and the film makers were trying to do something different with the films but the audience didn’t like it. Diablo, although, as the auteur of Juno does exactly that and that is why she has won awards.

Belma Bas

“Could existing film auteur theory, if reconsidered, provide sufficient conceptual tools to deconstruct feminist films?” is one question stated in the article Author/ Auteur: Feminist Literary Theory and Feminist Film that caught my attention. An “auteur” is mainly the director who executes the words of an author and puts them into play with a motion picture. Currently, the argument is very simple, why are “auteur’s” focusing on accomplishing a block buster hit rather than actually taking the time to deconstruct their work process in order to produce a movie that does not project a stereotype? One common growing stereotype is a damsel in distress or a woman being insufficient to play the part of a hero. But if the author and the “auteur” are both a women, would “existing film auteur theory” change? It did when Belma Bas, a Turkish director, wrote and produced “Zephyr.”

Belma Bas introduced Turkey to Zephyr, an 11-year-old girl who is

left to her grandparents by her mother. Instead of focusing on the future and on her new life with her grandparents, Zephyr reminisces on her mother’s memory. Her absence has become her focus and takes a toll on her overall personality, causing her to be an unhappy little girl.

Bas as an author, wanted to make sure the film would focus on the absence of a mother and the affect it would have on an innocent child. The direction she chose for the movie was one that was surely not to categorize her as a feminist movie maker. According to writer Dorian Jones, ““Zephyr” drew condemnation from some female critics for its unsympathetic portrayal of lead female characters.” As an auteur, she played with the setting and the characters overall portrayal. “The lead female character in "Zephyr" is often portrayed in a less-than-positive light, which Bas says allowed her to avoid a feminist discourse.”

Bell Hooks, writer of the introduction “Making Movie Magic” describes film making relevant to us, the audience, with common stereotyping. ”Most people find it very difficult to journey away from the familiar and fixed boundaries.” In “Zephyr’s” case, this movie may be highly targeted to women because of the relationship between a child and their mother. However, the “boundaries” Hooks touches upon on are not present in this film, or at least not to me.

Bas also directed a short film named Poyraz which also features a child. However, Bas the auteur is mainly seen in this film. The landscapes she used to shoot the film in addition to the cloudy days Bas chose to record, portrayed very well the lifeless lifestyle of a young girl.

http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/834/Poyraz---Boreas

Culture Unplugged; Poyraz/Boreas. Belma Bas 2006.
>http://www.cultureunplugged.com/play/834/Poyraz---Boreas>

Indie Wire; Zephyr
<http://www.indiewire.com/film/zefir_zephyr/>

Jones, Dorian; “Women Directors Stand Their Ground In Turkey’s Film Industry”
<http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,6240588,00.html>

Nadine Labaki

Nadine Labaki is a Lebanese Film director who is known for her movie Caramel (Sukkar Banat), even though she started her career as a director for Arabic music videos. Her biggest break was in 2003 when she directed a music video for the female icon singer Nancy Ajram. She continued to rise up as director and played small roles in a variety of music videos as well as films; which includes her 1998 short film 11 Rue Pasteur (her graduating project at Beirut's Saint-Joseph University) which won the top prize at an Arabian film festival in Paris (Dawson).

Her first and most noted movie is Caramel. Labaki did not only direct the movie, but wrote the screenplay and took on one of the major roles in the film. Her role as Auteur is very clear in this movie. She did not only write the screen play which makes her the author but she also directed how it will be shot and what kind of characters are used. She stated in an interview that the idea of the movie “was something very personal. It started with something I used to feel and am feeling sometimes, this contradiction between [the fact that] I live in a country that is very modern and exposed to Western culture, and at the same time I'm confused between this culture and the weight of tradition, religion, education and there's always a lot of self-censorship, self-control” (Dawson). As an auteur we see that she does not try to imitate mainstream plots and stereotypes her movie. Rather, she designed her movie to explore contradictions that exist in Lebanese culture, but mainly wanted to break the stereotypes and misconceptions that exist about life in war zones.

The major difference between author and auteur is authors are a creator of a purely literary work while auteurs are the true creators visual narration. For example, if a movie is based on a book, the director of the movie is the true author of everything shown and done in the movie and the author of the real work truly has little influence on the movie. This reality is because a director decides the lighting, camera shots, as well as the expressions given to the characters for the lines they recite. Labaki is not purely an auteur in her film Caramel; this film is actually better categorized with the director Gorris discussed in our readings: Gorris’s imprint is much more subtly autobiographical and marks framing and camera movements…Rather than representing Gorris as some exemplary auteur, feminist literary criticism would make instructively explicit those minute textual places where authorial energies surface (Humm 94). She explains in the interview that the actors were real people that were asked to be themselves with some modifications for the movie. This indicates that it is not the director’s ideas that are solely guiding this movie, but her intention was to discuss real people’s “everday problems.” Therefore as an auteur she did not have full control over the script of the film (Dawson).

Labaki understands that Homosexuality as well as other contradictions in her culture are considered “secret,” because they exist but are not talked about in the public sphere. Her film is all about those issues brought out during a conversation in a beauty Salon where women can be who they are. In addition the Salon represents the only place where women can really go to become beautiful and above all be theirselves and talk about politics, culture, and sexuality. Just like the feminist film Madwoman in the Attic, Labaki’s movie focuses on “women’s subcultures and anxieties of femininity” (Humm 99). The movie received good reviews and is accepted as the most exposed Lebanese film on an international level (NYtimes). One of the reviews I’ve read agrees with the message of the film as well as the plot. The criticism however is about the quality of the actoris and actresses themselves (Berardinelli). Overall the movie is popular and was reliesed in over forty countries, which indicates that it was a success.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadine_Labaki
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/01/caramel_director_nadine_labaki.html
http://www.croydonfilms.org.au/Croydon_Films/Nadine_Labaki.html
http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/directorinterviews/2008/02/nadine-labaki-caramel.html
http://movies.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/movies/01cara.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caramel_(film)
http://www.reelviews.net/movies/c/caramel.html

Agnieszka Holland

As the movie industry is undeniably dominated by men, it is important for women directors to make their presence known through the films they create. As auteurs, female directors have the choice to make their voices heard, whether they choose to concentrate on spreading the feminist message or in the form of other social or political contexts. A woman who is successful as a filmmaker is a great stride on its own.

According to Maggie Humm's Author/Auteur chapter in her book, Feminism and Film, "Feminist literary critics have already made a firm decision that gender shapes signature and that there is an aesthetic difference in the way in which gendered signatures write" (Humm 110). For this reason, female filmmakers are essential to bring forth issues and stories as viewed through the female mind onto the general public. Humm goes further to support her theory by citing Alexandre Astruc's idea of "the camera which Astruc identifies as a writer's pen, or metaphorical penis, and as the mechanism with which directors inscribe their ideas onto film" (Humm 96).

Agnieszka Holland is a prominent Polish director as well as screenwriter. Born in 1948 in Warsaw, Poland, Holland graduated from the Prague Film and TV Academy (FAMU) in 1971 as Poland’s best cinema institute was inaccessible to her in 1966 due to her mixed Polish Catholic and Jewish ancestry. Holland started her career as a filmmaker by working with Polish directors, Krzysztof Zanussi and Andrzej Wajda, as an assistant director. Soon after, Holland began making her own films. Even though, Holland realizes the importance of women in her film, feminism is not the central theme in her work. Rather her early work mainly consists of political agendas. For example, while making movies in Poland under the communist regime, Holland concentrated on what appeared to be the main political issue – cross-gender solidarity against censorship. As an auteur, Holland is most known for her highly politicized contributions to Polish New Wave cinema.


It is thanks to this "metaphorical penis" that Holland has managed to receive international acclaim for her films. After escaping the Polish martial law in 1981, Holland moved to Paris, France. Her 1985 film "Bittere Ernete/Angry Harvest", which is an examination of the relationship between a gentile farmer and the Jewish woman he conceals during World War II, has earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Even though the film may be construed as counter-productive in the feminist world, that is not the story's focus. The film concentrates on political and social context by shedding light on the human atrocities that occurred in the Holocaust. Holland garnered even greater international acclaim through her 1991 film "Europa, Europa." The film tells the true story of a Jewish man who assumes the identity of a Nazi in order to survive the Holocaust. Again, this film concentrates on political and social context. This powerful film highlights the human atrocities that occured during World War II but also adds a dimension by discussing the nature of identity.

Presently, Ms. Holland continues to create films and directing various other projects. In a 2000 interview with a Polish newspaper, "Rzeczpospolita," Holland spoke of the attempts to reach a wider audience. She confesses that she wants to make "cinema of the middle," understandable to the average spectator, yet "with a certain scale of complexity and an intellectual message."

Photo Credit: Jeff Vespa / WireImage.com
Humm, Maggie. "Feminism and Film." Indiana University Press: 1997.
NYTimes.com Person Profile: Agnieszka Holland - http://movies.nytimes.com/person/94664/Agnieszka-Holland
Agnieszka Holland feature - http://www.culture.pl/en/culture/artykuly/os_holland_agnieszka

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is by all means a renaissance woman. A celebrated poet, novelist, educator, actress, filmmaker, producer and civil rights activist, Angelou has conquered numerous media outlets. Alongside her numerous honored autobiographies and poetry, she became the first by an African American woman to write a screen play that was filmed with 1972 Georgia, Georgia, showing her as a talented author. She takes on the role as auteur with her first time directing a film Down in the Delta.

In the Author/Auteur reading, auteurism is said to have developed in the 1950s from the critical ideas of the French journal Cahiers du Cinema, in which it argued that although social context shaped film processes, it was the director who authored a film. The reading describes a camera as a means by which directors inscribe their ideas onto film. This can be seen in Down in the Delta. Though Angelou was not the writer behind this film, it’s based on a contest-winning screenplay by a Georgian named Myron Goble, the film is a definite reflection of her influence in it. According to Rod Gustafson of Parents Previews, “Angelou's familiarity with the trials of her characters makes this story natural and compelling.”

As a director, Angelou, plays into the reading’s description of “the history of cinema as the self-expressive signatures of Hollywood directors rather than a collection of ideas to which these signature were signed.” This is the case as even though this story isn’t written by Angelou, one can see her as a character in the story, knowing her history. Like the main character, Angelou was a single mother at 16 and had to build herself up to get to the point where she is today. According to Gustafon, Angelou, who directed this film at the age of 70 (film was released in 1998), displayed her decades of wisdom throughout the film.

For Down in the Delta being her first film with a budget of $3 million, Angelou did a pretty decent job with the overall rating of the movie, according to Parents Preview being an A-. Robert Ebert of the Chicago Sun Times applauds Angelou for not calling attention to herself in the film with “unnecessary visual touches, but focuses on the business at hand”. This view of the film goes with the idea that even though Angelou’s familiarity with the character is evident, she is able to convey the story without purposely placing her personal history in it. Therein going against the idea that it is necessary to look at who is behind the film when critiquing it. Stephen Holden of the New York Times called the film “unabashedly inspirational” describing it saying "Down in the Delta may be an impossible dream, a cinematic Hallmark card of familial togetherness, but the vision it offers is still a dream worth dreaming.”


Down In The Delta by Rod Gustafson | Posted on Jul. 19, 1999

Down In The Delta by Robert Ebert / December 25, 1998
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19981225/REVIEWS/812250302/1023

'Down in the Delta':The Healing Power of a Delta Family's Roots By Stephen Holden http://www.nytimes.com/library/film/122598delta-film-review.html

Turkan Soray

Turkey cinema is never short of its actresses. There were many women who were involved in movies and acted in countless movies which made them renown until this day. However, female directors are something that could be rarely found in the Turkish cinema. Many could never break out of their shell and get behind the camera. Turkan Soray is notone of them.

Being one of the most famous Turkish actresses, she played in over 200 movies since her first debut in 1960. Being a tough and ruling actress, she got the nickname "sultan". She was so much aware of her talent that she even made a set of rules which production companies had to obey in order to sign a contract with her. Some of which includes:

- Soray would have to like the script at least a month before the shoot, otherwise the script would have to be changed.

- Soray won't film any nude or kissing scene

- Soray's name would have to be on the top of the movie posters

This is just a background about her personality and her acting career. She never stopped acting until today, however she also directed 4 movies in her career as well. I chose her very first movie Donus(The Return) which came out in 1972 as my main topic because it's her most famous and critically acclaimed work.

Just by looking at the poster, we can see that Soray is not messing around with this movie. The first 3 rows of text reads:

Main Actress: Turkan Soray

Director: Turkan Soray

Producer: Turkan Soray

She has taken the full responsibility with her debut title. She not only directs the movie, she play the main role. The plot has written by a male writer: Serif Goren but the subject matter is something that Soray obviously observed and accepted. It's a about a couple whom Soray plays the wife in a very small urban village in Eastern Turkey. his husband and her buys a land but in order to maintain it, the husband goes to Germany as an immigrant worker(Which was common at the time) but soon the husband stops writing to her and the village folk start to harass her and start rumors.

She makes great use of the camera and the music in the movie. She handpicked the composer Yalcin Tura which the music sets the mood for the movie. She used the music to strike out the viewer in the most dramatic scenes. She uses jump cuts and other camera techniques to make an inpactful narrative.

Before the movie came out, many critics were doubtful about the success of the movie. The main reason was that in 1972, the term "female director" was rarely heard and women never really had any control over the movie that they've played. However, Soray wronged the critics and the movie had great reviews. It even earned her the Moscow Film Festival The Grand Jury Prize in 1973. In addition, many years later in 1999, she has won the best director award from Flying Broom Women's Film Festival, the first annual women's film festival in Turkey.

http://www.kameraarkasi.org/yonetmenler/t/turkansoray.html

http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%C3%BCrk%C3%A2n_%C5%9Eoray

http://www.sinematurk.com/film_genel/1173/Donus

http://www.ucansupurge.org/

Tizuka Yamasaki

During my search of female film director to do some research on and I found Tizuka Yamasaki a Japanese-Brazilian film maker who directed the film Gaijin,Os Caminhos da Liberdade (Outsider: A Brazilian Odyssey). What really popped out was her Japanese-Brazilian origin, which made researching about her and her film much more compelling.

A quick synopsis taken from Wikipedia:

"At the beginning of the twentieth century a group of Japanese came to Brazil to work on a farm of coffee in Sao Paulo. They find it difficult to adapt because they are treated with hostility, having to work almost as slaves and are robbed by the employer. Only a few settlers treat them well, among them Tonho, the counter of the farm."

In auteur theory the director's personal creative vision influences the film, as if he or she were the main author or "auteur".

In her role as "auteur" her approach to directing the film Gaijin she had used her experiences growing up in Brazil to create the recreate the experience of hostility and hardships that Japanese immigrants faced.

Yamasaki as she was raised in Brazil she noticed that immigrants from Europe and Africa were recognized for their contributions to Brazil, while no one really mentioned Japan despite Brazil bring one of the largest colonies of Japanese Immigrants, second only to Hawaii. Using her personal experiences, the film refelts her creative vision.

Even the choice of the name of the film, Gaijin(the Japanese term for foreigner or outsider) helped emphasized the feelings the isolation and hostility that an immigrant faces.

The film was well received and had earned several international film awards.

With her debut film 1980 Gaijin, Os Caminhos da Liberdade, she had gained some critical acclaim.

Cannes Film Festival 1980 (France)

FISPRECI received the Award - Special Mention.

Gramado Festival 1980 (Brazil)

Won in the categories of Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (José Dumont), Best Music, Best Screenplay, Best Production Design.

Havana Film Festival 1980 (Cuba)

Won for Best Picture.Festival of New DelhiWon for Best Picture.

Yamasaki is similar to Saalfield who's own personal creative vision influences the film they direct.

Saalfield's activist agenda is present in most of her works. In her film "When Democracy Works" the film has an activist perspective at the strategies of the radical right with in an election year.

Saalfields videos are usually favorites at queer and women's film festivals across the country.

bibliography:

Catherine Saalfield - Art and Activism

http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaijin_%E2%80%93_Os_Caminhos_da_Liberdade

http://www.iadb.org/idbamerica/index.cfm?thisid=3533