Call#: Van Pelt Library PS151 .F46 1989
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks PS338.W6 P48 1997
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks PS338.N4 W22 1998
Call#: Van Pelt Library PR739.F45 A77 2003
Call#: Van Pelt Library PR739.F45 G75 2003
Call#: Van Pelt Library PS261 .S57 2002
Call#: Van Pelt Library PS153.N5 G29 1999
Call#: Van Pelt Library PS338.W6 C73 2004
Call#: Van Pelt Library Reference Stacks PS338.W6 P48 1997
"A celebration of women's behind-the-scenes contributions to film. Divided into 13 main sections relating to directors, producers, writers, film editors, animators, stunt women, foreign notables, etc. Sketches contain filmographies and emphasize career accomplishments (and sometimes hurdles). Select bibliography; index of names, titles, and topics." (Balay, Guide to reference books, 11th ed, 1996)
"Writer/producer/director Acker's volume capably fills a surprisingly neglected gap in the film field by profiling more than 120 women directors, writers, producers, editors, stuntpersons, etc., who worked or are working in the U.S. film industry. Coverage is from the 19th century to the present day. Each entry includes a biographical sketch, emphasizing interview quotes, and filmographies (some selective). Acker wisely avoids any critical analyses of her subjects' films, and should be commended for her accuracy. Her resource is more compact, comprehensive, and useful (while more pricey) than works such as Louise Heck-Rabi's Women Filmmakers (Scarecrow, 1984)." (Library Journal, 4/15/91, Vol. 116 Issue 7, p94)
An extensive biographical listing with critical/analytic commentary. "A welcome addition to the growing number of reference works on women in the film industry, this book is more general in scope than works confined to cinematic contributions by women during a particular era (e.g., Anthony Slide's The Silent Feminists: America's First Women Directors, CH, Jan'97) or their occupations in the industry (e.g., Women Writers: From Page to Screen, by Jill Rubinson Fenton et al., CH, Feb'91). Its breadth of scope and inclusion of essays about outstanding women filmmakers complement Ally Acker's Reel Women: Pioneers of the Cinema from 1896 to the Present (CH, Nov'91) and Gwendolyn Audrey Foster's Women Film Directors: An International Bio-critical Dictionary (CH, Apr'96). Entries include filmographies and literature by (and sometimes about) the women profiled. A list of films in which women filmmakers have had a major role has several entries and gives credits and references for further reading. Illustrations enliven the text. A chronology of women filmmakers and indexes by nationality, occupation, awards, distributors, and film titles add greatly to the value of the work. General and academic libraries." (Choice, November 1998)
""In imaging female subjectivity and addressing the spectator as female, feminist filmmakers have created films which transform and innovate cinematic codes and conventions." Smelik switches the focus of feminist discourse from spectator to filmmaker. Unwilling to revive the auteur theory, which she considers to be elitist and phallocentric, she nevertheless investigates the works of such filmmakers as Sander, Campion, Treut, and Adlon and discovers ways in which they subvert traditional cinematic subjectivity, affect, and modes of representation. Smelik's arguments are, of course, deeply rooted in the feminist theory of Lacan, Mulvey, Silverman, Kaplan, Irigaray, et al., but she also includes such figures as Eisenstein and Barthes. She does not privilege any particular theory but uses whatever works for the particular filmmaker she is dealing with. Her choice of films is as refreshing as her method: one is too used to reading about the same feminist films in book after book. Smelik's knowledge of the field is encyclopedic, and her analyses are consistently persuasive. This welcome addition to the ongoing feminist discourse is recommended for upper-division undergraduates through faculty." (Choice, February 1999)
"This fourth volume of a series formerly published semiannually (1975-79) offers wider coverage than do articles in a single periodical issue, and it addresses a general audience. After a brief section defining feminist film theory and criticism, the essays treat individual films (The Women, 1939; Sunset Boulevard, 1950; Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979; Marianne and Julianne, 1981), individual stars (Marilyn Monroe, Gloria Swanson, Marlene Dietrich, and Jane Fonda), or categories of film genres and authorship. This focus results in a gap between the stated methods and goals of feminist film theory and the subsequent essays that frame questions about women as image or author within traditions of literary analysis. Most contributors do rely on Laura Mulvey's touchstone essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" (written 1975) for its psychoanalytically based conception of women's cinematic representation and objectification as the target of a specified male gaze. But the paucity of theoretical development beyond this point makes both essays and bibliography (which appear to be five to ten years old) seem somewhat dated, almost nostalgic. There are notable exceptions, including Richard Dyer's extraordinary study of Marilyn Monroe and sexuality (also published in his book Heavenly Bodies, CH, Mar '87) and Susan Leger's essay on Margeurite Duras, which embraces concerns of women and language as well as early writings of French feminist theory. Usable from lower division onward" (Choice,July 1989)
"Unlike many other film criticism collections, which concentrate on the representation of a particular group or genre, this volume collects a range of writings on a number of very different and specific topics and links them together through the rubric of gender. Pomerance (sociology, Ryerson Polytechnic Univ., Toronto) has divided the book into three main areas: gender in non-American films, gender as coded through actions, and transgressive representations of gender that are held up as "paragons or pariahs." While the range of topics makes the volume difficult to pin down conceptually, the essays are, for academic work, quite readable. This collection is unusual enough to warrant a spot in most academic libraries with collections devoted to film studies or gender issues." (Library Journal, 05/01/2001, Vol. 126 Issue 8, p88)
Pfaelzer, J. (1999). Salt of the Earth: Women, Class, and the Utopian Imagination. Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers, 16 (1): 120-31.
This is an article that deals with representations of working women and class in the film.


