Last fall, filmmaker, film critic and historian Mark Cousin unveiled an ambitious project titled Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Film. This huge 14 hour documentary offered a journey across the work of female filmmakers, and the entire 14 hours has been screening at Toronto International Film Festival in five separate installments, to rave reviews, and even landing massive US deals in the process.
It’s not a chronological history and according to Mark, it’s a “a film school, where all the teachers are female.” by exploring techniques and art processes used in several females’ films. “It’s not like there have been little crumbs dropped back through film history. There are massive histories that have been forgotten “, Mark said.
They are 183 females filmmakers from every area and all around the world. One of them are familiar as Agnes Varda, Dorothy Arzner, Elaine May, Claire Denis, Chantal Ackerman, Barbara Kopple, Ava DuVernay. But a lot are unknown.
The entire documentary is narrates by Uk actresses Adjoa Andoh and Thandie Newton, New Zealander Kerry Fox, India icon Sharmila Tagore, and Hollywood star Debra Winger all join by Jane Fonda and Tilda Swinton, who is an executive producer.
Tilda Swinton open the documentary by saying : “Most films have been directed by men. Most of the recognized so-called movie classics were directed by men. But for 13 decades and on all six filmmaking continents, thousands of women have been directing films, too. Some of the best films“.
Mark Cousin spent years to make it, scouring archives, and the documentary includes around 700 clips from 183 films around the world, all made by women.
“Cinema is even better than we think,” Cousins says. “This medium that we love, it’s even richer than we know“.
#Peace.Love.WomenMakeFilm
