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Palgrave Macmillan

The Female Gaze in Documentary Film

An International Perspective

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Lisa French

    1. School of Media and Communication, RMIT University School of Media and Communication, Melbourne, Australia

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  • Features interviews with leading female documentary directors from the contemporary industry globally
  • Considers whether the films of individual women directors might be interpreted as offering aesthetic approaches that are informed specifically their gender.
  • Examines the documentary form in relation to gender and argues that there is a 'female gaze' in this form

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvii
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  2. Introduction

    • Lisa French
    Pages 1-12

  3. Correction to: The Female Gaze in Documentary Film

    • Lisa French
    Pages C1-C2

  4. Women’s Documentary Practice, Theory and Histories

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 13-13
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    2. Women and Documentary

      • Lisa French
      Pages 15-51

    3. The ‘Female Gaze’

      • Lisa French
      Pages 53-70

    4. Aesthetics and the Influence of Gender

      • Lisa French
      Pages 71-90

    5. Feminisms, Feminist Theory and Documentary Practice

      • Lisa French
      Pages 91-110

  5. Case Studies: Female Documentary Directors in Focus

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 111-111
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    2. Documentary as Artform: Pirjo Honkasalo’s Cinematic Poetics

      • Lisa French
      Pages 113-131

    3. Transnational Feminism in the Cinema of Kim Longinotto

      • Lisa French
      Pages 133-157

    4. Nishtha Jain: An Auto-ethnographic and a Postcolonial Feminist Gaze

      • Lisa French
      Pages 159-175

    5. Marie Mandy: Female Subjectivity and Aesthetics

      • Lisa French
      Pages 177-197

    6. A View from the Margins: The Films of Nancy D Kates

      • Lisa French
      Pages 199-217

    7. Gillian Armstrong: The Line Between Fact and Fiction

      • Lisa French
      Pages 219-247

    8. Conclusion: Rendering Female Reality

      • Lisa French
      Pages 249-253

  6. Back Matter

    Pages 255-275
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Keywords

About this book

The Female Gaze in Documentary Film – an International Perspective makes a timely contribution to the recent rise in interest in the status, presence, achievements and issues for women in contemporary screen industries. It examines the works, contributions and participation of female documentary directors globally. The central preoccupation of the book is to consider what might constitute a ‘female gaze’, an inquiry that has had a long history in filmmaking, film theory and women’s art. It fills a gap in the literature which to date has not substantially examined the work of female documentary directors. Moreover, research on sex, gender and the gaze has infrequently been the subject of scholarship on documentary film, particularly in comparison to narrative film or television drama. A distinctive feature of the book is that it is based on interviews with significant female documentarians from Europe, Asia and North America.

Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Media and Communication, RMIT University School of Media and Communication, Melbourne, Australia

    Lisa French

About the author

Lisa French is Dean of RMIT University’s School of Media and Communication and Professor of Screen and Media. She has published extensively on women in film, produced documentaries, is co-chair of a UNESCO 19 global university research network on media, gender and ICTs, and is a member of Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Taskforce. 

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Female Gaze in Documentary Film

  • Book Subtitle: An International Perspective

  • Authors: Lisa French

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68094-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-68093-0Published: 05 July 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-68096-1Published: 05 July 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-68094-7Published: 04 July 2021

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVII, 275

  • Number of Illustrations: 6 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: Documentary, Gender Studies

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