Dorothy Arzner, Pioneer, Queer, Feminist

Dorothy Arzner began her career as an editor before moving on to directing in the 1920s, at a time when the talkies had not yet upheaved Hollywood and ousted many filmmakers. The censorship code, the infamous Hays Code, did not yet exist, and sex and bodies were freely depicted on screen. Even the most taboo subjects did not intimidate directors and screenwriters. A true feminist pioneer, who never claimed the label, she nevertheless created essentially female characters, atypical and modern heroines, often ready to do anything to renounce their predestination. Her films are often manifestos against marriage, against heterosexuality, against the sexual domination of men over women, against the “male gaze” even before the term existed.

Arzner worked within a patriarchal system; that of the American moguls who controlled Hollywood, yet she dressed like a man, openly embraced her homosexuality at a time when it was almost inconceivable, and she remains the only female director in Hollywood from 1927 to 1943, with more than 16 films to her credit. Like many women of that era, she fell into complete obscurity. While Francis Ford Coppola cites her as his mentor when he was a student at UCLA, and Jodie Foster has been restoring her films for several years, the only tributes paid to her were in France and Spain. Hollywood has long forgotten this pioneer of cinema.

Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Production : Wichita Films
Producers : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Co Producer : Martine Melloul – Kali Pictures
Network : OCS
Year : 2023
Running Time : 53 minutes
World Distributor : Prime Entertainment

Watch here:

Casting

Dorothy Arzner (archive)

Francis Ford Coppola
Film Director

Shelley Stamp
Film historian and founder of “Feminist Media Histories”

Tony Maietta
Film Historian

Emily Carman
Film Teacher at Chapman University

🎬 Selected at Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2024

🎬 Selected at FIFA 2024

🎬 Selected at The Beverly Hills Films Festival 2023

🎬 Selected at AMDOCS Palm Springs 2023

🎬 Selected at Lumière 2023

🎬 Selected at Festival d’Histoire de Pessac 2023

🎬 Selected at Cinéma Ritrovato Bologna 2023