A' level Film Studies - Gendered Film Studies New Topic 09

Happy New Year to you all. I hope you have had a lovely, restful holiday and feel ready for the challenges of this term. We have 12 weeks to secure your A'level and Team Media and Film will have high expectations. In Film Studies we are going to begin the FS6 Section C Topic 'Gendered Cinema'.  This exam paper is 'synoptic' in nature which means you are expected to draw upon a wide variety of film texts from prior study and films you watch both inside and outside the classroom. We are going to be looking in the main at femininity in film but will be exploring the construction of gender identities (male and female)through film language; the complex relationship between gender representations, audiences and institutions; gendered film theory and applying this to key texts that will form our critical examination of the debates. We will be looking at: 

Boys Don't Cry / Thelma and Louise / The Piano and possibly Point break. In addition to this clips from Alien, Terminator, Fight Club, Mulan, Dr No, Casino Royale, and a plethora of other movies will be used to highlight debates.

There are already some links to this topic on the blog that I posted last year, so feel free to dip into these that can be found under the label of 'Year 13 Film: FS6 Gendered Film Studies'. I will add lots of resources both here and under the 'Learning Resource Zone' to support you with your study of this topic. So here are a few to get us started:

YouTube Links:

Women in Bond Films 'The Bond Gaze'
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=pfL09c4cw2I

This site is full of useful articles about Women and their role in the Hollywood Film Industry. The site is called 'New York Women in Film and TV' and it is worth browsing some of the other articles on this site:

http://www.nywift.org/article.aspx?id=84

This is a useful blog exploring 'Feminist Film Studies' and is jam packed full of useful links and resources:
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/raim0007/wost3307/

Some of you have already explored representations of femininity in Disney films in your Critical Research Study for Media. The knowledge derived from this unit should be used in film and here is a great little chapter about Mulan that is seemingly an empowering film for women but argues that Mulan does in fact conform to 'Patriarchal' expectations:

http://www.ubcpress.ca/books/pdf/chapters/2007/CinematicHowling.pdf