Featuring material from The Independent Film and Video Monthly—a leading publication for independent filmmakers for several decades—as well as new interviews conducted with the filmmakers specifically for this book, editor Michele Meek’s compilation provides unique access to the diverse voices of women filmmakers integral to independent film history from the 1970s to the present, spanning narrative, documentary, and avant-garde film.
Independent Female Filmmakers also includes a biographical profile of each filmmaker, a history of The Independent Film and Video Monthly, and an essay about women in film through Meek’s introduction and a foreword written by Patricia White.
Filmmakers include Lisa Cholodenko (High Art, The Kids Are All Right), Martha Coolidge (Valley Girl, Real Genius, Introducing Dorothy Dandridge), Cheryl Dunye (The Watermelon Woman, Stranger Inside), Miranda July (The Future, Me And You And Everyone We Know), Barbara Kopple (Harlan County USA, Wildman Blues), Maria Maggenti (The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love), Deepa Mehta (Fire, Earth, Water), Trinh T. Minh-ha (Surname Viet, Given Name Nam, Night Passage), among others.
This project has been awarded a grant from Bridgewater State University’s Center for the Advancement of Research and Scholarship.
Reviews
“Michele Meek’s Independent Female Filmmakers is an invaluable collection of some of the very best interviews with legendary female practitioners in film, television, and the visual arts.”
-Feminist Media Studies
Independent Female Filmmakers is full of insights and advice from women who have been walking the difficult path that has helped lead Hollywood toward its aspirational future of gender equality.”
-MovieMaker Magazine