Managing the Scene: Women in the Film Industry
An area of multiple panels for the 2014 Film & History Conference:
Golden Ages: Styles and Personalities, Genres and Histories
October 29-November 2, 2014
The Madison Concourse Hotel and Governor’s Club
Madison, WI (USA)
DEADLINE for abstracts: June 1, 2014

Area: Managing the Scene: Women in the Film Industry

Has there been a “golden age” for women working behind the camera—as writers or directors, for example, or as producers, editors, choreographers, costume designers, or set decorators? Women represented only 18% of the primary film management of the top 250 domestic grossing films of 2012, and directed only 4% of the fiction films slated for release in 2014. Just four women have been nominated for an Academy Award as Best Director of a fiction film, and only one (Kathryn Bigelow in 2009) took home the trophy. Is the golden age of women as principal film managers gone, in a flicker? Or it is upon us? What traits characterize a film “managed”—directed, produced, edited, written, choreographed, or even critiqued—by a woman? And why might those traits be golden?

This area invites abstracts that trace—or perhaps anticipate—the histories of women operating behind the cameras, as directors, producers, assistants, scholars, and critics. Proposals might address topics such as

•         career paths and strategies adopted by women in the film industry
•         critical histories and controversies explored by feminist film scholarship
•         the participation of women in national cinemas
•         women filmmakers’ roles in shaping the “women’s film” and other genres aimed at female audiences (family melodrama, romantic comedy)
•         women’s involvement in traditionally male-oriented film genres, from the action film to science fiction
•         creative innovation in feminist documentary, animation, and new media
•         gendered venues such as Women Make Movies and Lifetime Network
•         women as active audience members, fans, and remixers

Proposals for complete panels (three related presentations) are also welcome, but they must include an abstract and contact information, including an e-mail address, for each presenter. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History website (www.filmandhistory.org).

Please e-mail your 200-word proposal by 1 June 2014 to the area co-chairs:

Debra White-Stanley
Keene State College
dwhitestanley@keene.edu

Karen A. Ritzenhoff
Central Connecticut State University
Ritzenhoffk@CCSU.edu