French-speaking women film directors

the long version

This book is both a teaching tool and a directory for use by scholars and students of film and literature. Unique among guides dealing with film, both for its breadth and for the very fact that it is devoted exclusively to francophone women throughout the world, most of whom are omitted from other directories and studies, this guide contains listings of some three hundred francophone women filmmakers and their films. Whenever possible, dates, brief biographies, descriptions, and brief critical analyses by Professor Pallister and by others are included. In addition, there is a glossary of terms both in English and in French, a series of questions to use in analyzing films with students, and a bibliography. The filmmakers are from all parts of the world: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Latin America, Quebec - even Iceland. (The section dealing with Belgium has been verified and augmented by Professor Philip Mosley.) Users of this guide will therefore be able to set up a truly global program on the subject. Moreover, the book offers a section on "core concepts," so that it would be possible to design a course or a program on a theme of interest to feminists, drawing from world cinema by both women and men directors. These core concepts and themes include such subjects as abortion, pornography, prostitution, and mother-daughter relationships. An index of film directors and the titles of their films, as well as of geographical subdivisions, maximizes the directory's usefulness.