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

美国电影通常对女性导演进行高度的性别区分，而对男性导演则不进行性别区分。男性董事的性别在学术或大众写作中很少被提及，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”，有一种观点认为，这些电影有特定性别的观众和一系列正式的期望。这项研究旨在评估这种性别话语如何影响女性导演在美国独立电影中的机会以及她们的电影被接受程度。金(2005)和利维(1999)等学者认为，与主流电影相比，美国独立电影提供了更多的电影制作机会。然而，根据圣地亚哥州立大学女性电视与电影研究中心的数据，2016-17年度美国100部独立电影中只有29%是由女性导演的，相比之下，100部主流电影中只有17%是由女性导演的。这表明，女性导演面临的障碍仍然是基于她们的性别，即使在更容易接触到的美国独立电影领域也是如此。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的方法来评估被归类为女性导演如何影响女性在美国独立电影中的机会。聚焦于罗娜·默里(Rona Murray，2014)等学者认为的电影行业繁荣时期(上世纪80年代初至21世纪初)，我将分析学术文章、行业媒体上的文章，以及流行媒体上的评论和采访，以检验在电影文化中，女性导演被按性别分类的频率有多高，以及这种性别话语对她们电影的接受有什么影响。我还将对利齐·博登、索菲亚·科波拉和凯利·赖克哈特等导演进行第一人称采访，以确定性别在多大程度上影响他们的电影制作，以及他们的性别对他们获得电影资金的能力有什么影响。我将结合这些访谈和当代美国独立电影中女性导演对关键电影的文本分析，如《生于火焰中》(1983)、《处女自杀》(1999)和《老喜悦》(2006)，以检验吉萨·拉马纳坦(2006年)等学者提出的观点的有效性，这些学者认为女性制作的电影在形式上与男性制作的电影不同。通过这篇论文，我将考察突出女性导演性别的效果。通过考察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了解我们是如何谈论性别的，并帮助进一步促进性别平等。通过对凯利·莱哈特、朱莉·达什、索菲亚·科波拉等人的个案研究，本文将探讨本质主义分歧如何影响这些电影的接受，以及这与这些导演对自己作品的看法有何关系。通过我与莱斯特独立电影院凤凰城的联系，我还将利用我的研究为一系列电影、讲座和讨论提供信息，这些电影、讲座和讨论是关于女性在美国独立电影业的地位，使我能够通过教育活动向公众宣传我的工作成果。

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.