British Women Film Directors in the New Millennium

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Introduction

   • Stella Hockenhull

   Pages 1-30

3. Women and British Cinema Funding: From the UKFC to Creative England

   • Stella Hockenhull

   Pages 31-58

4. Women Directors and Documentary Cinema

   • Stella Hockenhull

   Pages 59-108

5. Women Directors and Poetic Realism

   • Stella Hockenhull

   Pages 109-148

6. Popular Cinema from a Female Perspective

   • Stella Hockenhull

   Pages 149-186

7. Alternatives to Mainstream and Classic Modes of Narration

   • Stella Hockenhull

   Pages 187-211

8. Conclusion

   • Stella Hockenhull

   Pages 213-217

9. Back Matter

   Pages 219-264

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This book focuses on the output of women film directors in the period post Millennium when the number of female directors working within the film industry rose substantially. Despite the fact that nationally and internationally women film directors are underrepresented within the industry, there is a wealth of talent currently working in Britain. During the early part of the 2000s, the UKFC instigated policies and strategies for gender equality and since then the British Film Institute has continued to encourage diversity. British Women Directors in the New Millennium therefore examines the production, distribution and exhibition of female directors’ work in light of policy. The book is divided into two sections: part one includes a historical background of women directors working in the twentieth century before discussing the various diversity funding opportunities available since 2000. The second part of the book examines the innovation, creativity and resourcefulness of British female film directors, as well as the considerable variety of films that they produce, selecting specific examples for analysis in the process.    

• British
• Women
• Gender
• Female
• Film
• Directors
• Industry
• Post-Millenium

“Hockenhull’s book is a benchmark text for those seeking to understand the extent of women’s contribution as directors to British film culture of the new millennium. Surveying a range of genres and cinematic traditions; including poetic realism, documentary, mainstream and experimental cinema; Hockenhull’s analysis is clear-sighted, lucid and politically-engaged. It gives us not only a much-needed critical insight into the subject matter and aesthetics of women’s practice but a passionate championing of the inventiveness and visual élan of our women film-makers.” (Dr Melanie Bell, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, University of Leeds, UK, Author of Julie Christie (2016), British Women’s Cinema (2010) and Female Technicians: Women,Work and the British Film Industry, 1933–1989 (forthcoming)

• Department of Film Studies, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

  Stella Hockenhull

Stella Hockenhull is a Reader in Film and Television Studies at the University of Wolverhampton. She is co-director of the Research Centre for Film, Media, Discourse and Culture and is widely published in the field of British cinema. Her published works include Aesthetics and Neo-Romanticism in Film: Landscapes in Contemporary British Cinema (2013) and Neo-Romantic Landscapes: An Aesthetic Approach to the Films of Powell and Pressburger (2008).

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