Professor Patricia White
Department of English Literature
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore, PA 19081
(610) 328-8148; pwhite1@swarthmore.edu

Feminist Film and Media Studies

This is an outline of the syllabus for English 89: Feminist Film and Media Studies, taught by Patricia White at Swarthmore College in Spring 1996. Linked to the syllabus you will find information and commentary, researched and written by the students in the class, on more than thirty films by or about women. The links fall into two categories, corresponding to two class assignments: 1) feature films--generally directed by women--assigned each week as supplementary texts for student presentations, and linked to topic headings; 2) independent films and videos by and about women. These entries form part of a Guide to Women's Film and Video in the Swarthmore College Library Collection . All of the work was completed by students in English 89, Spring 1996, and represents their original perspectives on this material. The professor assumes responsibility for copyright issues.

Feminist Film and Media Studies

Week 1. From Woman to Women: Feminist Media Theories

Screen: Dream Girls (Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams, 1993, UK, 50 min.)
The Body Beautiful (Ngozi Onwurah, 1991, UK, 32 min.)
L Is For the Way You Look (Jean Carlomusto, 1991, US, 24 min., video)
On Cannibals (Fatimah Tobing Rony, 1994, US, 6 min., video)


Unit I: Narratives and Spectacles

Week 2. The Gaze and the Image

Screen: Gilda (Charles Vidor, 1946, US, 110 min.),
Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943, US, 14 min.)
Illusions (Julie Dash, 1983, US, 34 min.)


Week 3. Desire in Narrative

Screen: Black Widow (Bob Rafaelson, 1986, US, 103 min.)
Thriller (Sally Potter, 1979, UK, 45 min.)

View on your own: The Rebecca Project (CD-Rom)


Week 4. Desire in the Audience: Stars, Sexuality, Ethnicity

Screen: Queen Christina (Rouben Mamoulian, 1933, US, 97 min.)
Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business (Helena Solberg, 1995, US, 90 min.)

Unit II: Women's Pictures: Authors, Audiences, Aesthetics

Week 5. Ideology & Authorship

Screen: Craig's Wife (Dorothy Arzner, 1936, US, 75 min.)
The Smiling Mme Beudet (Germaine Dulac, 1923, France, 35 min.)


Week 6. Feminist Aesthetics

Screen:Jeanne Dielman, 2300 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975, France, 198 min.)


Week 7. Technologies of Sex

Screen:The Match That Started My Fire(Cathy Cook, 1991, US, 19 min.)
Fuses (Carolee Schneeman, 1968, US, 17 min.)
Dyketactics Barbara Hammer, 1974, US, 4 min.)
Gently Down the Stream (Su Friedrich, 1983, US, 14 min.)
Annie (Monica Treut, 1988, US/W. Germany, 10 min.)
Me and Rubyfruitt (Sadie Benning, 1988, US, 10 min., video)
She Don't Fade (Cheryl Dunye,1991, US, 23 min., video)
Sex Fish, Sex Bowl, Fingers and Kisses, Coming Home (Shu Lea Cheang, et al, 22 min., US, 1994-95, video) NB: these dates and running times are sometimes approximate!


Unit III: Re-Visions: Women, Culture, History

Week 8. History and Memory: Multigenerational, Multicultural, Multimedia

Screen: History and Memory (Rea Tajiri, 1991, US, 32 min., video)
Measures of Distance (Mona Hatoum, 1988, UK, 15 min., video)
Coffee Colored Children (Ngozi Onwurah, 1989, UK 14 min.)
Navajo Talking Picture (Arlene Bowman, 1986, US, 40 min.)

View on your own: Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash, 1991, US, 114 min.)


Week 9. Foremothers: The Woman's Voice in Silent Cinema

Screen: How Men Propose (Lois Weber, 14 min.)
Matrimony's Speed Limit (Alice Guy, 14 min.)
A House Divided (Alice Guy, 14 min.?)
Too Wise Wives (Lois Weber, 120 min.)
Trail of the North Wind (Nell Shipman, 192?, US, 30 min.)


Screenings for Symposium: Screen Tests: Experimental Identities and New Queer Media

Watermelon Woman (Cheryl Dunye, 1996, US)
Solitaire Dream Journal: An Interactive Artscape (Pamela Jennings, 1995, CD-ROM)
Brincando al Charco: Portrait of a Puerto Rican (Frances Negron, 1994, US, 55 min.)


Week 10. Frauen und Film

Screen: Madchen in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, 1931, Germany, 98 min.)


Week 11. Fascism, History, Desire

Screen: The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani, 1974, Italy, 119 min.)


Week 12. Post-Colonial Counter-Cinema

Screen: Bedevil (Tracey Moffatt, 1993, Australia, 90 min.)
Surname Viet, Given Name Nam (Trinh T. Minh-ha, 1989, US, 108 min.)


Week 13. Diasporan Aesthetics and Ethnographic Surrealism

Screen: Song of Ceylon (Basil Wright, 1933, UK, 40 min.)
A Song of Ceylon (Laleen Jayamanne, 1985, Australia, 51 min.)
India Caberet (Mira Nair, 1984, US/India, 60 min.)


Week 14. The Romance of History, The History of Romance

Screen: The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993, Australia, 121 min.)
Night Cries (Tracey Moffatt, 1990, Australia, 19 min.)