We are thrilled to announce that the latest issue of Films for the Feminist Classroom is now available at http://www.signs.rutgers.edu/ffc_home.html.
In this issue’s special feature, edited and introduced by Agatha Beins, scholars and activists discuss their pedagogical approaches for using films in the 21st-century classroom. Focused on engaging and unconventional methods that resonate with students, these essays raise consciousness and spark social transformation. In her essay and accompanying lesson plan, “Documentary Production & Documentary Problems,” Shara K. Lange elaborates on the idea of deconstructing films and evaluating the intersections of gender, race, representation, and politics at the crossroads of students’ experiences. Özlem Sensoy writes about the importance of media literacy and the power of mainstream representations and their histories as forms of entertainment and oppression in “‘Ball Licky-Lickly!’ Pedagogical Strategies for Interrogating Pop Culture Images.” In “Teaching Afghan Women: A History of Struggle,” Shoba Rajgopal speaks about using the film to increase students’ awareness of Afghan women activists and to deconstruct stereotypes of Afghan women as helpless victims in need of rescuing. Anna Zailik explains her advocacy work using film to empower adolescents and to open up dialogue about transnational injustices in her lesson plan and essay: “Creating Spaces for Community Engagement through Documentary Film: My Social Action Project.”
Films reviewed in Issue 4.1 include: Miss Representation with student responses; Women of Turkey: Between Islam and Secularism, Gender Me; Patsy Mink: Ahead of the Majority; Chisholm ’72: Unbought and Unbossed; Alice Neel; Who’s Afraid of Kathy Acker?; A Crushing Love: Chicanas, Motherhood and Activism; Antonia Pantoja: Presente!; Look Us in The Eye: The Old Women’s Project; Five Friends; Made in India: A Film about Surrogacy; The Beaches of Agnes; and The Gleaners and I.
This issue also contains coverage from MIX NYC, the 24th New York Queer Experimental Film Festival, and the Margaret Mead Film Festival. Films for the Feminist Classroom encourages recommendations of regional and international film festivals and proposals to review them for forthcoming issues.
We hope that you will enjoy reading this issue and that you will circulate the news of its publication widely!
Films for the Feminist Classroom (ffc@signs.rutgers.edu) is an online, open-access journal that publishes reviews of documentary films with the aim of helping teachers choose the right films and use them effectively as texts. Since our first issue was published in the spring of 2009, Films for the Feminist Classroom has featured dozens of films in reviews written by scholars in disciplines across the humanities and social sciences. FFC works with distributors, including those with a long tradition of promoting feminist film, as well as fledgling companies and young directors distributing their own productions. To submit a proposal, please visit: http://www.signs.rutgers.edu/call_4_proposals.html.