Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors

With 33 profiles of female filmmakers and distributors, this book addresses difficulties facing women in film. ""Women directors bring women's lives to the screen in ways male directors, regardless of their levels of sensitivity, never could,"" writes Brownworth, a 1993 Pulitzer nominee, in her introduction. Yet, as she points out, more women were directing in Hollywood in 1915 than in 1995. In a male-dominated field, women directors are blocked from entering the studio system, have trouble getting financing and don't win Oscars. Interviews cover a wide range of styles, countries and categories (narrative, experimental, documentary). Subjects span newcomers, such as Marta Balletbo-Coll (Costa Brava), to more familiar names--Allison Anders (Gas Food Lodging), Lizzie Borden (Working Girls), Jane Campion (The Piano) and Susan Seidelman (Desperately Seeking Susan). Tightly edited chapters zoom in to magnify important issues, conflicts and creative struggles. But the book suffers from being too design driven, with small movie stills swimming in white space and chapter sidebars that offer only film titles and force the reader to hunt through the filmography for full details. Also, it's not clear why many significant figures are missing. Why not have chapters on pioneer women like Alice Guy-Blache, who, in 1896, invented the concept of using a film camera to tell a story, or avant-garde genius Maya Deren? Many modern directors have also been ignored or squeezed out, from the dedicated documentarian Suzie Baer to acclaimed animators Sara Petty and Suzan Pitt. Such overlooked talents leave readers hoping that they might surface in a follow-up book. Photos not seen by PW. (Dec.)