Women Filmmakers of the African & Asian Diaspora: Decolonizing the Gaze, Locating Subjectivity

194 Pages·1997·43.927 MB·English

by  Gwendolyn Audrey Foster

F GWENDOLYN
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T AUDREY
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FOSTER

“This book sheds a necessary light on women filmmakers and

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videographers whose existence and works have been overlooked
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in previous book-length studies.”—Mark A. Reid, author of m
PostNegritude Visual and Literary Culture E
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Not only do Black and Asian women filmmakers deserve an audi- L
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ence, Gwendolyn Audrey Foster asserts, but it is also imperative m
that their voices be heard as they struggle against Hollywood’s con- A
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structions of spectatorship, ownership, and the creative and distri- E
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bution aspects of filmmaking. S

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Foster analyzes the key films of Zeinabu irene Davis, Ngozi On-
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wurah, Julie Dash, Pratibha Parmar, Trinh T. Minh-ha, and Mira T
WOmEN
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Nair, a Black Indian woman whose challenging, celebratory work
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includes Mississippi Masala and The Perez Family. A
F
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Gwendolyn Audrey Foster wrote and directed The Women Who C
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Made the Movies, an hour-long documentary about the history of N

women filmmakers. She teaches in the Department of English at the &
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University of Nebraska and is the author of Women Film Directors:
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An International Bio-Critical Dictionary.
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Cover illustration: Sian Martin in The Body Beautiful by Ngozi Onwurah
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Photo Courtesy Women Make Movies, Inc.
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SOUThERN iLLiNOiS R ASiAN
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UNiVERSiTY PRESS
1915 University Press Drive
Mail Code 6806 ISBN 0-8093-2120-3
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ISBN 978-0-8093-2120-9 no
Carbondale, IL 62901 ivut
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www.siu.edu/~siupress re
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Printed in the United States of America y P Ill
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WOMEN FILMMAKERS OF THE AFRICAN
AND ASIAN DIASPORA

WOMEN
FILMMAKERS OF
THE AFRICAN AND
ASIAN DIASPORA
DECOLONIZING THE GAZE,
LOCATING SUBJECTIVITY
GWENDOLYN AUDREY FOSTER
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY PRESS
CARBONDALE
Copyright © 1997 by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster
All Rights Reserved
First published 1997. Reprinted 2008
Printed in the United States of America
12 11 10 09 5 4 3 2
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey.
Women filmmakers of the African and Asian diaspora : decolonizing the gaze, locating
subjectivity / Gwendolyn Audrey Foster.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Afro-American women motion picture producers and directors. 2. Women motion
picture producers and directors—Asia. I. Title.
PN1998.2.F672 1997
791.43'0233'092273—dc20 96-27635 CIP
ISBN-13: 978-0-8093-2119-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN-10: 0-8093-2119-X (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-13:978-0-8093-2120-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN-10:0-8093-2120-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992.(cid:39)
FOR WHEELER

CONTENTS
Illustrations IX
Acknowledgments Xl
1. Introduction 1
2. Zeinabu irene Davis: "Constructing an oppositional gaze" 10
3. Ngozi Onwurah: "A different concept and agenda" 24
4. Julie Dash: "I think we need to do more
than try to document history" 43
5. Pratibha Parmar: "An assault on racism,
sexism, and homophobia" 73
6. Trinh T. Minh-ha: "An empowering notion of difference" 95
7. Mira Nair: "To be mixed is the new world order" 111
8. Other Voices 128
Works Cited 157
Film and Video Rentals 169
Index 171

ILLUSTRATIONS
Zeinabu irene Davis 50
Scene from A Powerful Thang 51
Family outing in A Powerful Thang 52
Scene from Mother of the River 53
In the nighttime forest in Mother of the River 54
Scene from Cycles 55
Scene from Monday's Girls 55
Sian Martin in The Body Beautiful 56
Scene from Illusions 57
Scene from Praise House 58
Scene from Khush 58
Scene from Sari Red 59
Scene from Warrior Marks 59
June Jordan and Angela Davis in A Place of Rage 60
Scene from Shoot for the Contents 60