Woman with a Movie Camera

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course explores the cinematic contributions of women directors, camerawomen, script writers, and editors from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and their legacies in contemporary cinema. We begin with Soviet cinema of the 1920s, examining the often downplayed role of women editors in the formation of a unique montage culture in both feature and documentary film. We then focus our attention on the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc in the postwar period, which witnessed a growth of women directors and the entry of women into other professions in the film industry. Finally, we examine the legacies of women’s cinematic contributions in contemporary film from Russia and Central and Eastern Europe. Central to this course is the exploration of Marxist feminism as a possible theoretical backdrop against which we can understand women’s cinema in the region, as well as the “western” feminist concepts of écriture feminine and cinécriture. Examining specific works of art, we will ask: is women’s cinematic writing as a gendered vision of reality possible within a Marxist political-theoretical framework, which sees women’s liberation as part of the broader class struggle? Does women’s “writing” in cinema of the region exist in spite of an overarching framework that minimizes gender differences in favor of the universal human? What did women directors, cinematographers, editors, etc., from this geographic region contribute to cinematic techniques and the language of film? Does women’s cinema of the socialist period continue to inform the film industry in Russia and Central and Eastern Europe today?