Abstract
The chapter illustrates some examples of scholarly contributions to women’s cinema on the Internet through the analysis of digital platforms monitored both by individuals and groups or organizations. The purpose is to illustrate the function and the impact of these platforms on feminist approaches to film and within contemporary discussions about global knowledge and new media.
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Notes
- 1.
Mayer writes: “…female film critics proliferate on the large US culture sites such as Salon.com. popmatters.com (whose film/TV editor is Cynthia Fuchs), Indiewire and Cinematical, even contributing to stereotypically masculinist sites such as Ain’t Cool News. Jen Yamamoto is a Senior Editor at Rotten Tomatoes. com, and Katey Rich is the managing editor of Cinema Blend.com” (2015).
- 2.
These are just two examples from two of the most prestigious milieus within female film criticism which find resonance in other geocultural contexts in the world.
- 3.
The Women Film Pioneers Project and the Women’s Film and Television History Network-The UK/Ireland have often been often collaborating together, notably through the organization of symposia and through their common connection to the Women and Film History International (WFHI), an umbrella organization now housed at the University of Sunderland, which supports the Women and Silent Screen conferences. The WFHI was founded in 2003 as the Women and Silent Screen International Association and was based on the scholarly network and experience of the Women Film Pioneers Project. Until then, the WFPP had been connected with the first two editions of the WSS conferences, held in Utrecht and St. Cruz in 1999 and 2001, respectively. The Women and Silent Screen Association, which sponsored the third edition of the WSS conference in Montreal, became “Women and Film History International Association” (WFHI) in 2005, during the Guadalajara edition of the WSS conference. The WFHI has had various editions at different universities around the world, including St. Cruz, USA, in 2001, Montréal, Canada, in 2004, Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2006, Stockholm, Sweden, in 2008, Bologna, Italy, in 2010, Melbourne, Australia, in 2013, and Pittsburgh, USA, in 2015. These conferences involved hundreds of scholars and students from these and other countries (https://wssviii.wordpress.com/).
- 4.
The collection of essays was published by the Center for Digital research and Scholarship at Columbia University (2013).
- 5.
A number of sources are indicated with an acronym starting with PC (standing for contributor or family member), which, as the website specifies, “indicates private holding, designed to discourage inquiries” (ibid.).
- 6.
The website lists as areas of study “scriptwriting · producing · directing · designing costumes, sets, props · acting, dancing, singing · cinematography · sound design & recording · editing · music · distributing · trade reviewing · exhibition & cinema managing · audiences & fans · journalism, criticism” (https://womensfilmandtelevisionhistory.wordpress.com/about-us/about/).
- 7.
The organization’s informational web page highlights the following purposes: ensure women’s work is recognized in the writing of screen histories; make a case for the preservation and availability of women’s films and television programmes; increase programming choice in film theatres, television channels, DVD outlets; encourage new approaches to film and television that are sensitive to gender, class and race; impact on the teaching of screen media in schools and colleges; raise the aspirations of young women who might seek careers in the media (https://womensfilmandtelevisionhistory.wordpress.com/about-us/about/).
- 8.
Many scholars have been commenting on the gender gap in digital media. I discuss this issue in the introductory chapter of this book. For further discussions about gender gap in information culture, see, among others, Cooper (2006), Cooper and Weaver (2003), and Dixon et al. (2014), Van Dijk (2005).
- 9.
McPherson specifies: “Faced with severe cutbacks at academic presses and dated systems for peer review, this second breed of digital humanists port the words and monographs of humanities scholarship to networked spaces of conversation and dialogue. They envision new modes of connection and peer-to-peer conversation, and text often remains the lingua franca of their scholarly productions” (ibid.).
- 10.
Anne Friedberg. “On Digital Scholarship”. 150.
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Maule, R. (2016). Conclusions: Women Film Scholars Online. In: Digital Platforms and Feminist Film Discourse. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48042-8_5
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