History of Hollywood & the Status of Women:
• The first movies were silent and in black and white.
• The first talkie film, The Jazz Singer (1927), kickstarted the Golden Age of
Hollywood which lasted up until the sixties.
• This shift translated into favoring large feature films and blockbusters as opposed
to small, independent films. Thus, the industry was dominated by “the big 5”
studios: MGM, Paramount, Fox, Warner Brothers and RKO.
• Women were tasked with what men considered to be boring jobs.
• Women were paid less than men.
• Women were excluded from unions and leagues.
Editing:
• Editing was thought to be more fitting for women.
• those women used to be referred to as “patchers,” “joiners,” or
“cutters.”
• The first person to be credited as “film editor” was
Margaret Booth.
• She became MGM’s number one supervising film editor.
• She received an honorary Oscar from the Academy Awards
for her lifetime of achievement.
Costume Design –Edith Head:
• She’s considered to be one of the best costume
designers in Hollywood history.
• She worked for Paramount, and later, Universal
Pictures.
• She designed for numerous superstars including
Audery Hepburn, Grace Kelly and even Steve Martin.
• She was nominated for the Academy Awards’ best
costume designer 35 times and won 8 times.
Directing –Dorothy Arzner:
• Worked for Paramount.
• Went from typist, to editor, to assistant director, to
finally, director.
• Was the only American female director in the 30’s
and 40’s.
• The first woman to join the Directors League of
America and the first woman to direct a sound film.
• She is credited for inventing the first ever boom
microphone.
Female directors and The Oscars:
• Of the 96 editions of the Oscars, 477 individuals have been
nominated for best director, only 9 of them were women. The
nominees for 88 of these editions were all males.
• The first woman to ever be nominated in the category was Lina
Wertmüller in 1976. The first woman to ever actually win the award
was Kathryn Bigelow in 2009.
• Only one woman, Jane Campion, was nominated twice and only
one woman of colour, Chloé Zhao, was nominated at all.
• In total, only three of these women won the award.
Acting –Mary Pickford:
• She was known as “America's Sweetheart’’ during the silent
film era.
• A significant figure in the development of film acting,
earning the nickname "Queen of the Movies.’’
• She is credited with having defined the ingénue, or the
damsel in distress, archetype in cinema.
• She was one of the 36 founders of the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars).
• She was the highest paid actress at the time.
Acting –hattie mcdaniel:
• She was the daughter of a former slave.
• She was a singer, songwriter, actress and comedian.
• She was the first black woman to sing on the radio in the U.S.
• Her breakthrough came in the supporting maid role of “Mammy”
in Gone with the Wind (1939).
• She was criticized heavily by the black community and civil rights
activists for the stereotypical representation of African-Americans.
• She was denied her final wish to be buried in Hollywood Cemetery
Misrepresentation:
• Pandering to the male gaze.
• Lack of women-speaking parts.
• Stereotypes.
السينماالمصر
ية
Al-Shaarawi’s Rape Fatwa with Reference to ضد الحكومة
During one of his late interviews, Al-Shaarawi
claimed that there is no such thing as “rape.”
Physically, a woman is incapable of being
penetrated against her consent.
In the 1992 movie, ضد الحكومة, Ahmed Zaki played
a cunning lawyer who defended a rapist in court,
building his defence statement on the biological
“fact” that rape is nothing but a myth.
It is also worth mentioning that during that era,
“rape” was not an actual crime. The term itself was
never used in legislation. Instead, incidents of
alleged non-consensual intercourse, or assault were
referred to as “هتك عرض.”
Honour Killing, Custody and Divorce Laws in Film –عفوا
أيها القانون & الشقة من حق الزوجة
عفوا أيها القانونportrays the injustice of unequal
punishment inflicted on men and women for
committing the very same crimes even though they
are supposed to be one before God.
الشقة من حق الزوجةserves as a sort of warning to men
that the law had become too empowering of
women.
Feminist Films by Salah Zu ElFakar and Magda:
مراتي مدير عام •
كرامة زوجتي •
أين عمري •
الحقيقة العارية •
THANK
YOU
