In the classic teen melodrama Splendor in the Grass (Elia Kazan, 1961), the central conflict arises because Wilma (Natalie Wood) is torn between her desire and social mores. She knows what she wants — she wants sex with Bud (Warren Beatty). But society, represented most strongly in the film by the voice of Wilma’s mother,… Read more »
Julie Dash’s films frequently meditate on history. Daughters of the Dust (1991) brings us into the unique culture of a Gullah family on the precipice of change in a new century. Illusions (1982) imagines if a Black woman passing as a white woman had become a film executive in the Classical Hollywood era. The Rosa… Read more »
In 1975, Ted Ngoy was working as a gas station attendant when he suddenly noticed the delicious smells coming from a nearby donut shop. Curious, he approached the counter and ordered his very first donut, the glorious pastry instantly reminding him of nom kong, a similar treat from his home country of Cambodia. Just four… Read more »
Guest post by Ellen Starr Lyon. I am chagrined that before now, Audrey Flack has not been on my radar. I am aware of those who worked in her circles, the other realists like Robert Estes and Philip Pearlstein and the abstract expressionists: Pollock, Kline, Mitchell, and Frankenthaler. The film Queen of Hearts outlines a… Read more »
Guest post by Joan Hawkins, Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at Indiana University. Valie Export (1940-) is a radical feminist Austrian artist and filmmaker. How radical? Radical enough to take a popular brand of cigarettes, Export, as her last name. She liked the design of the cigarettes, she told Gary Indiana, and she… Read more »
Guest post by Mary Figueroa, Graduate Assistant Projectionist at IU Cinema. “On November 8, 1971, twenty-three women arrived at 533 Mariposa Street in downtown Hollywood armed with mops, brooms, paint buckets, rollers, sanding equipment, and wallpaper. For two months we scraped walls, replaced windows, built partitions, sanded floors, made furniture, installed lights, and renovated the… Read more »