Film, Feminism and the Avant-Garde

Abstract

It is not until recently that any conjuncture has been possible between feminism and film. Women’s political consciousness, under the impetus of the Women’s Movement, has now turned critically towards cinema and, in spite of its brief time span, cinema now has a history that can be analysed from a feminist point of view. For the first time, the consciousness is there, and the body of work is sufficient. The heterogeneity of the cinema as an institution is reflected in its first encounter with feminism. There have been campaigns against sexism within the industry, analyses of sexism in representation, use of film for propaganda purposes and debates about culture politics. ‘Woman and film’ and ‘woman in film’ have only existed as critical concepts for roughly a decade. A first phase of thought has, it seems, been achieved. It is now possible to make some tentative assessments of feminist film criticism, find some perspective on the past and discuss directions for the future.

Written as a lecture for the series ‘Women and Literature’ organised by the Oxford Women’s Studies Committee in 1978 and published in the anthology of the series Mary Jacobus (ed.), Women Writing and Writing about Women.