by Zaquoya Rogers
This weekend, I found out about these following feminist movies:
The Hours (2002) – A British-American drama film focusing on three women of different generations whose lives are interconnected by the novel Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Critical reaction to the film was mostly positive, with nine Academy Award nominations for The Hours including Best Picture, and a win for Nicole Kidman as Best Actress.
Daughters of the Dust (1991) – An independent film, and the firs feature film directed by an African-American woman to be distributed theatrically in the U.S. The film follows three generations of women on St. Helena Island as they prepare to migrate north. Cinematographer Arthur Japha won the top cinematography prize at the Sundance 1991 dramatic competition for the film.
Persepolis (2007) – A french animated film based on Marjane Satrapi‘s autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. The story centers around a young girl coming of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The film co-won the Jury Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
I haven’t yet watched them but it makes me ask, “What makes a movie feminist?” I took to Google to find out what criteria or guide to determine how the judgement is made. I found that there was a test called Bechdel test made in 1985 that states that to be a feminist movie, it has to have two female characteristics and one scene in which they talked about something other than a man.
My reaction: *???!???!??* But later in my research, I found out that its intention was not to judge if a movie is feminist, but to determine if, personally, it is worth spending money. With feminism in film, it takes more than adding more women and allowing them to, you know, ACTUALLY talk about important things. To me, it is showing women as they truly are: independent, diverse, strong and empowered.