Buried Treasure: Overhauling the Canon in 'Women Make Film'

Turning its lens on the many neglected female directors who have brought their distinctive techniques and preoccupations to the seventh art, Mark Cousins' mammoth documentary is a necessary corrective to the male-dominated cinematic canon. Despite its unashamedly political premise, however, Women Make Film shows far less interest in detailing this history of exclusion than in celebrating the films themselves and the women who authored them, writes Danica van de Velde.

Additional keywords:
Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema, The Story of Film: An Odyssey, gender, feminism, female filmmakers, masculinity, representation, Tilda Swinton, Jane Fonda, Adjoa Andoh, Sharmila Tagore, Debra Winger, Kerry Fox, Thandiwe Newton, Treeless Mountain, Evolution, Big, Innocence, Olympia, Jeanne Dielman, 21 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Archipelago, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Point Break, Le Bonheur, Loving Couples, Kathryn Bigelow, Agnès Varda, Lucile Had