3.0

credits

Average Course Rating

In recent times in Italy, a new generation of women filmmakers has found its own space in the traditionally male dominated film industry. This “counter cinema” abounds with female city walkers, migrants, vagabonds and other types of urban nomads, whose movement through space signifies a quest for freedom, gestures of protest and rebellion, and a search for place. We start by looking at the work of a pioneer filmmakers such as Elvira Notari, the first woman director in Italy, and then discuss the issue of gender and space in contemporary films by directors Francesca Comencini, Alice Rohrwacher, and Eleonora Danco. To enrich the analysis, we shall also examine films directed by non-Italians who deal with the theme of women’s mobility and their centrality/marginality from different socio-geographic contexts. Other directors included will be Agnès Varda (France), Chantal Akerman (Belgium), Haifa al-Mansour (Saudi Arabia), and Xiaolu Guo (China) Readings will include essays by Laura Mulvey, Ann E. Kaplan, Linda Williams, and Patricia White.