Hollywood is crowing about a new age of women directors — and, indeed, in our lifetimes we’ve never seen so many major motion pictures directed by women. Still, in 2020 only 21 of the top 100-grossing films had a woman behind the camera — up from 16 in 2019 and an unbelievably meager 4 the year before that. But although the movie business is still largely a boy’s club, that was not always the case.
We’ll trace the rise and fall (and slow return) of women in film, beginning Alice Guy Blache, the first director ever to create a narrative film…Leni Riefenstahl, whose visionary Nazi documentaries influenced generations of films (including Star Wars)…film noir genius Ida Lupino, who brokered her acting startom to an influential second career behind the camera…and the little-known talkie pioneer Dorothy Arzner, whose 1930s Holllywood comedies always featured strong central female characters, and who launched the careers of Katharine Hepburn, Rosalind Russell, and Lucille Ball.
Speaker bio: Bill Newcott is film critic for the Saturday Evening Post. For 18 years he was film critic for AARP the Magazine, where he created the influential Movies For Grownups Awards and for 12 years hosted the weekly award-winning Movies For Grownups radio show, heard on 600 stations nationwide. His weekly reviews, videos and interviews are at www.MoviesForTheRestofUs.com.
This program will take place by Zoom and registration is required. After registering, you will be e-mailed the link to join this Zoom meeting. If you have questions about the program or need help with set up, please contact Caroline at cpak@alexlibraryva.org.
