ABOUT THE SERIES This month we highlight the work of a few independent women filmmakers who dominated the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Trailblazers such as Claudia Weill, Barbara Loden, Lizzie Borden, Kathleen Collins, Jan Oxenberg, Donna Deitch, and Cheryl Dunye managed to define three decades of filmmaking within a male-dominated society. These women brashly told stories from their perspectives and opened the door for future female writers and directors. Touching upon themes of love, friendship, mental health, philosophy, politics, and sexuality, the films included in this series uphold the female experience as it was during these thirty years and as it remains. 1970’s WANDA was the first and only feature film by Barbara Loden. Loden wrote, directed, and starred in this groundbreaking masterwork about a drifting woman who has just left her husband and lost custody of her children. The realism and grit of WANDA coupled with the type of female character not usually portrayed on screen challenged audiences at the time. While some feminist critics championed Loden’s work upon initial release, WANDA gained most of its notoriety in later years, and continues to impact generations. Later that decade, Claudia Weill told the ever-relatable story of a female friendship that suffers once one half of the duo gets married. In GIRLFRIENDS (1978), Melanie Mayron plays a struggling photographer who finds living alone to be quite the adjustment. Weill’s GIRLFRIENDS is endearing, witty, and utterly authentic. The 80s brought audiences more films about women trying to own their autonomy. This decade was all about having it all and for these women, that meant having careers, having sex, and having a say. Kathleen Collins’ LOSING GROUND (1982) is one of the first feature films directed by a Black woman and explores how love, race, and gender intersect. Set in a futuristic dystopian society, Lizzie Borden’s BORN IN FLAMES (1983) theorizes what would happen if a group of women organized and rebelled against a not-so-far-fetched government. With DESERT HEARTS (1985), Donna Deitch has her heroine ditch her husband to run off with a woman. 1986’s WORKING GIRLS similarly explores the sexuality of women, here through the eyes of a sex worker, with a nonjudgmental lens. Jan Oxenberg’s early 90s docu-fantasy THANK YOU AND GOODNIGHT (1991) is an extremely personal work that questions both life and death. Cheryl Dunye’s THE WATERMELON WOMAN (1996) also uses autofiction to tell the story of an aspiring lesbian filmmaker, played by Dunye herself, and her quest to research a fictional 1940s Black actress deemed “The Watermelon Woman.” Join us throughout September at the Los Feliz 3 as we pay tribute to these trailblazing women filmmakers of the late 20th century! The series continues in November 2021 with a special screening of Allison Ander’s GRACE OF MY HEART (1996). Stay tuned! -Program notes by Kayla Cummings