'Women's Style' and American Independent Cinema: Gender Politics and Women Film Directors

美国电影对女性导演来说往往是高度性别化的，而对男性导演来说则是去性别化的。男性董事的性别在学术或流行的写作中很少被提及，但在讨论女性董事时却经常被提及。通过强调女性导演的性别或建议女性导演制作“女性电影”，可以提出这样一种论点，即这些电影有一个观众和一套针对性别的正式期望。本研究旨在评估这种性别话语如何影响美国独立电影中女性导演的机会以及她们的电影的接受。King（2005）和Levy（1999）等学者认为，美国独立电影比主流电影更容易获得电影制作，但根据圣地亚哥州立大学的女性电视和电影研究中心的数据，2016-17年美国独立电影中只有29%是由女性导演的，相比之下，前100名的主流功能只有17%。这表明，女性导演面临的障碍仍然是基于她们的性别，即使是在美国独立电影更容易进入的领域。我的论文将使用接受研究技术，第一人称访谈和文本分析相结合，以评估被归类为“女导演”如何影响美国独立电影中女性的机会。关注Rona Murray（2014）等学者认为的行业繁荣时期（20世纪80年代初到21世纪初），我将分析学术论文，贸易出版社的文章，以及大众媒体的评论和采访，以研究女性导演在电影文化中按性别分类的频率，以及这种性别话语对女性导演的影响。接受他们的电影。我还将对Lizzie Borden，索菲亚科波拉和Kelly Reichardt等导演进行第一人称采访，以确定性别在多大程度上影响了他们的电影制作，以及他们的性别对他们获得电影资金的能力有什么影响。我将结合联合收割机这些采访与文本分析的关键电影，由女性导演在当代美国独立电影工作，如生于火焰（1983），处女自杀（1999），和老欢乐（2006），以检查的有效性的论点，如学者Geetha Ramanathan（2006），认为女性制作的电影是正式不同于男性制作的电影。通过这一点，我的论文将考察突出女性董事性别的效果。通过研究性别话语对美国独立电影中女性机会的影响，我的研究旨在更好地告知我们如何谈论性别，并帮助促进性别平等。本文将通过对凯莉·赖克哈特、朱莉·达什、索菲亚·科波拉等人的个案研究，探讨本质主义分歧是如何影响这些电影的接受的，以及这与这些导演对他们作品的看法之间的关系。通过我与凤凰，在莱斯特独立电影院的关系，我也将利用我的研究，通知一系列的电影，讲座和讨论的工业地位的妇女在美国独立电影，让我促进我的工作的调查结果，通过教育活动向公众观众。

American cinema is often highly gendered for women directors, yet de-gendered for male directors. The gender of male directors is rarely referenced in either academic or popular writing, yet is frequently evoked when discussing women directors. By highlighting the gender of women directors or suggesting that women directors make 'women's films', there is an argument that can be made that these films have an audience and set of formal expectations that are gender specific. This research aims to assess how this gendered discourse effects the opportunities for women directors in American independent cinema as well as the reception of their films. Scholars such as King (2005) and Levy (1999) suggest that American independent cinema offers greater accessibility to filmmaking than mainstream cinema, yet according to the Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, just 29% of the top 100 American independent features of 2016-17 were directed by women, compared with just 17% for the top 100 mainstream features. This suggest that the obstacles that women directors face are still based on their gender, even in the more accessible sphere of American independent cinema. My thesis will use a combination of reception studies techniques, first-person interviews and textual analysis to assess how being categorised as a 'woman director' impacts the opportunities for women in American independent cinema. Focusing on what is considered by scholars such as Rona Murray (2014) to be the boom years of the industry (the early 1980s to the early 2000s), I will analyse scholarly essays, articles in the trade press, and reviews and interviews in the popular press to examine how frequently women directors are categorised by their gender within film culture and what effect this gendered discourse has on the reception of their films. I will also undertake first-person interviews with directors such as Lizzie Borden, Sofia Coppola and Kelly Reichardt to ascertain the extent that gender informs their filmmaking and what effect their gender has on their ability to secure film funding. I will combine these interviews with textual analysis of key films by women directors working in contemporary American independent cinema such Born in Flames (1983), The Virgin Suicides (1999), and Old Joy (2006) to examine the validity of arguments by scholars such as Geetha Ramanathan (2006) that suggest that women make films that are formally different from those made by men. Through this my thesis will examine the effect of highlighting the gender of women directors. By examining the impact of gendered discourse on the opportunities for women in American independent cinema, my research aims to better inform how we speak about gender and aid the furthering of gender equality. Through case studies of Kelly Reichardt, Julie Dash, Sofia Coppola and others, this thesis will explore how essentialist divisions have affected the reception of these films, and how this relates to these directs' perception of their work. Through my ties with Phoenix, an independent cinema in Leicester, I will also use my research to inform a series of films, lectures and discussions on the industrial position of women within American independent cinema, allowing me to promote the findings of my work to a public audience through educational events.