Women behind the camera : conversations with camerawomen /

Krasilovsky's interviews with 23 camerawomen provide a useful, informal history of a very recent phenomenon. Women have managed to break into the technical side of the film industry in significant numbers (11 percent) only in the last 15 years. These conversations document women's struggle for acceptance by exploring the work lives of women who have taken on roles ranging from camera assistant to experimental filmmaker and director of photography. The interviewees include prestigious American Society of Cinematographer members (Brianne Murphy, Judy Irola, Sandi Sissel, and Nancy Schreiber), a number of established camerawomen like Leslie Hill and Susan Walsh, and women at early stages in their careers (e.g., Sabrina Simmons and Sandy Butler). All of the interviews are deeply engaging and well presented. The most common themes are the resistance and support the women have met in trying to learn the industry and to establish their careers, the creation and maintenance of women's groups like Women in Film and Behind the Lens, the experience with unions, and the regrets the women have over sacrificing family in order to do this work. Feminist film critics looking for information on the effect of the female gaze on motion picture production will be disappointed, though the frequency of dance imagery used to describe the filming process is intriguing. All academic and professional collections. J. Tharp; University of Wisconsin Centers