Women and Film: Both Sides of the Camera

Analyzes the treatment of women in American movies and examines the themes of a variety of contemporary movies made by women.
Simply by making a movie, independent feminist filmmakers begin to claim the power to define and interpret the world for women. E. Ann Kaplan makes this basic concern of feminist theorists and filmmakers a critically important enterprise. Through her analysis of four films depicting different cinematic periods, Ann discusses how the male gaze in the camera eye, through its position of power, has defined, limited and viewed women wholly as erotic objects. She also describes women filmmakers' attempts to overturn the dichotomy of subject looking at the world as object by defining a path for women to speak on film as subjects. Ann suggests that the Mother, who has been mostly overlooked in male representations of women, is a good place for women interested in finding a voice outside patriarchal definitions to start. Lucid and provocative, this book will give filmmakers and viewers a world to think about, in the movies and in real life.