The Films of Yvonne Rainer

Theories of Representation and Difference

by Yvonne Rainer

"To read Rainer's screenplays is to rediscover, even reinvent, the films all over again, but more importantly to realize that images and mise-en-scène are as key to how Rainer's films work as is language." ―The Independent

"The scripts record the unique structure of [Rainer's] films, the stresses, strains, and crackling of voices layering over and into one another. Their publication is an important moment for feminist film." ―Cineaste

"Rainer's films are not highly accessible but are important to the critical imagination as an example of the sustained exploration of political and feminist theory." ―Choice

"Rainer's important work in the area of avant-garde filmmaking in the seventies and eighties is amply recorded in this book . . . " ―Cantrills Filmnotes'

The scripts of Rainer's five films, presented here along with essays, an interview, and bibliography, demonstrate the evolution of her political consciousness as well as her creative engagement with the contemporary film and cultural scene. These texts challenge the illusionist and ideological presumptions of mainstream culture and cinema.

Genres: Film

226 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Yvonne Rainer was born in San Francisco in 1934. She trained as a modern dancer in New York and was one of the founders of the Judson Dance Theater in l962, a movement that proved to be a vital force in modern dance and art in the following decades. Since 1972, Rainer has completed seven feature-length films. She has received numerous awards and fellowships for her work, including two Guggenheim Fellowships (1969, 1988), a MacArthur Fellowship (1990-95), and a Wexner Prize (1995). A memoir, Feelings are Facts: a Life, was published in 2006.