SUSTAINING FEMINIST FILM CULTURES: AN INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF WOMEN MAKE MOVIES by Kristen M. Fallica Bachelor of Arts, Bryn Mawr College, 2006 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2013 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Kristen M. Fallica It was defended on July 29, 2013 and approved by Mark Lynn Anderson, Associate Professor, Department of English Randall Halle, Klaus W. Jonas Professor, Department of German Neepa Majumdar, Associate Professor, Department of English David Pettersen, Assistant Professor, Department of French and Italian Dissertation Advisor: Lucy Fischer, Distinguished Professor, Department of English ii Copyright © by Kristen M. Fallica 2013 iii SUSTAINING FEMINIST FILM CULTURES: AN INSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF WOMEN MAKE MOVIES Kristen M. Fallica, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2013 This dissertation presents an institutional history of the feminist film and media organization Women Make Movies (WMM) from its founding as a collective in the 1970s through the present and is the first comprehensive examination of the history of the organization itself. Drawing on the archival history of WMM—materials ranging from old newsletters, scrap paper, and correspondence to tax returns and board meeting minutes—this dissertation illuminates the past and present of this influential institution in broader social contexts, narratives of cultural history, and sets of political tensions. Critically situating WMM’s history reveals how the organization’s transformations over time are imbricated in a number of larger historical tendencies. More specifically, these tendencies include evolving concerns about the role of visual media in education and feminist and social movements; fluctuating political and economic climates and their impact on independent media and non-profit arts organizations; changing media technologies and their effects on production and distribution; shifting interests, successes, and difficulties of social movements; and transforming conditions around the contemporary production of images, their circulation, and effects in a globalized media space. Moreover, this project argues that WMM was important for the growth of Film and Women’s Studies as academic disciplines and remains a significant force in shaping how we think about the past, present, and future of feminist moving image culture. Thus, this project enables productive lenses for a number of intellectual projects, iv including interdisciplinary discourses around women, gender, sexuality, and identity; economies and histories of the arts; studies of transnational media production and reception; and the relation between cultural history and institutions that create, distribute, or preserve media. This project historicizes and culturally situates WMM to better understand its place in histories of independent film and feminism, its extensive influence in education and media culture, and its role in shaping trajectories of global feminist media practices. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ................................................................................................................................. VIII INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................... 1 1.0 MISTRESSING THE APPARATUS ......................................................................... 9 1.1 WMM PREHISTORY ...................................................................................... 20 1.2 WMM AS PRODUCTION COLLECTIVE: THE FIRST FIVE FILMS .... 30 1.3 THE CHELSEA PICTURE STATION ........................................................... 34 2.0 FEMINIST MEDIA GROUPS AND THE POLITICS OF DIFFERENCE ......... 65 2.1 CONFERENCE OF FEMINIST MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS .................... 71 2.2 FEMINIST COALITIONS IN THE 1970S ..................................................... 94 2.3 “JUST A MOOD”?: THE POLITICS OF FEMINIST ORGANIZING .... 105 3.0 CINEMA OF IMMEDIACY ................................................................................... 121 3.1 THE IMPACT OF HEALTHCARING .......................................................... 143 3.2 DISTRIBUTION AT WMM ........................................................................... 159 4.0 IDEOLOGY AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION ................................................. 164 4.1 CETA AND ORGANIZATIONAL (IN)STABILITY .................................. 180 4.2 IDEOLOGICAL RETRENCHMENT AND “THE CULTURE WARS” .. 185 4.3 MOVING THROUGH CRISIS: WMM RESTRUCTURES ...................... 195 5.0 VITALITY AND VIABILITY ................................................................................ 229 vi 5.1 THE INSTITUTIONAL MARKET ............................................................... 246 5.2 WMM IN A TRANSNATIONAL CONTEXT .............................................. 261 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 278 vii PREFACE I am deeply grateful for the support I received from a number of generous individuals, and want to express my sincere thanks to as many of them as possible. First, I simply adore the members of my phenomenal dissertation committee—Lucy Fischer, Mark Lynn Anderson, Randall Halle, Neepa Majumdar, and David Pettersen. They have been not only critical readers and interlocutors for my dissertation, but exceptional mentors as I developed my scholarship and professional persona. Before I even started my dissertation research, I had the privilege of taking graduate seminars with Lucy, Mark, Neepa, and Randall, and their exemplary teaching and dedication will guide me as I continue to shape my own approaches to pedagogy and scholarship. I always looked forward to official committee meetings and informal discussions because of the tremendous warmth and care with which these individuals approached my work and intellectual exchange in general. I owe Lucy and Mark a special debt for their guidance around the challenges of historiography, which I dealt with continually while researching and writing this project. They are the kind of people who take the time to personally photocopy articles they think might be helpful, and leave them in my mailbox with a friendly note: “Thought you might want to read this!” This project simply would not have been possible without the access to materials and generosity of spirit that the fantastic people at Women Make Movies provided, and I owe them viii enormous, sincere, heartfelt thanks. Longtime WMM Executive Director Debra Zimmerman has supported my project from the beginning, and granted me unprecedented access to whatever I needed, including her personal collection of feminist film history material and endless anecdotes from WMM’s vibrant past. Her tireless advocacy for feminist media is inspirational. Kristen Fitzpatrick has been a friend and cheerful supporter since we met in 2005, and an incredibly generous resource as I worked on the manuscript. She always greeted me at the office with a warm hug and answered my endless stream of questions patiently and thoughtfully. I also want to thank Amy Aquilino, Maya Jakubowicz, Natalie Peart, and the whole crew of WMM staff and interns for being so welcoming and helpful during many research trips, and for never batting an eye when I monopolized the office scanner. One of the WMM co-founders, Ariel Dougherty, has provided valuable insights into the organization’s origins and I am thankful for her willingness to keep up our virtual conversations. I want to thank some of the esteemed colleagues in English and Film Studies at the University of Pittsburgh who contributed to my scholarly development through their teaching, guidance, and collegial presence. Thank you to Susan Andrade, Mark Best, Ellen Bishop, Marcia Landy, Adam Lowenstein, Brent Malin, Daniel Morgan, and Vladimir Padunov. A number of influences from my undergraduate years, too, deserve recognition for their mentorship and exceptional teaching. The wonderful Patricia White has championed this project from the beginning, shared materials, and provided invaluable advice, and I am so grateful for her generous ongoing support and abundance of good will. I am thankful that Homay King’s brilliant critical eyes passed over my very first Film Studies paper as an undergraduate, and once again years later over my very first scholarly publication. Thank you to Jennifer Horne and Jonathan Kahana, who helped me land the internship at WMM that would lead eventually to this ix very project, and have been friendly and supportive collegial presences for many years. Meta Mazaj helped me discover some of my favorite films as an undergraduate and shaped my approaches to film pedagogy. While researching and writing this dissertation, I benefited from the generous support of several funding entities. A Mellon Fellowship and a College of Arts and Sciences Graduate Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh provided the time I needed to process and work with piles of archival material. Many thanks are due to Jean Carr and the Women and Gender Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh, which provided me with generous research travel funding and a supportive venue to share work in progress. My home Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh also supplied me with a generous research grant,