Liberating Hollywood: Women Directors and the Feminist Reform of 1970s American Cinema

by Maya Montañez Smukler

Winner of the 2018 Richard Wall Memorial Award​ from the Theater Library Association

Liberating Hollywood examines the professional experiences and creative output of women filmmakers during a unique moment in history when the social justice movements that defined the 1960s and 1970s challenged the enduring culture of sexism and racism in the U.S. film industry. Throughout the 1970s feminist reform efforts resulted in a noticeable rise in the number of women directors, yet at the same time the institutionalized sexism of Hollywood continued to create obstacles to closing the gender gap. Maya Montañez Smukler reveals that during this era there were an estimated sixteen women making independent and studio Penny Allen, Karen Arthur, Anne Bancroft, Joan Darling, Lee Grant, Barbara Loden, Elaine May, Barbara Peeters, Joan Rivers, Stephanie Rothman, Beverly Sebastian, Joan Micklin Silver, Joan Tewkesbury, Jane Wagner, Nancy Walker, and Claudia Weill. Drawing on interviews conducted by the author, Liberating Hollywood is the first study of women directors within the intersection of second wave feminism, civil rights legislation, and Hollywood to investigate the remarkable careers of these filmmakers during one of the most mythologized periods in American film history.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, History, Feminism, Womens, Media Tie In, Pop Culture

364 pages, Paperback

First published December 14, 2018

Reviews

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A largely unheralded but vitally important chapter of Hollywood and cinema history finally gets its due in Montañez Smukler's impressively researched study. Over the course of reading I compiled a long list of filmmakers and films to track down, and it has already yielded numerous treasures and additional avenues to explore.

[Jordan Ludwig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved. Now I need biographies on all these women.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

"One of the challenges of writing a history of women directors in Hollywood is balancing the push and pull between stark discrimination and progress, often of the smallest kind." ~ Maya Montañez Smukler


In "Liberating Hollywood," Ms. Montañez Smukler does a masterful job distilling this comprehensive history into a balanced and engaging page-turner. Women still have a long way to go in Hollywood (and beyond), but we're on our way -- even though the progress feels painfully slow.

[Clayton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! My complaints are few, mostly that I found the author's writing style (or perhaps more accurately the stylistic guidelines) a bit frustrating and that I would've appreciated a less technical description of the legal issues in chapter 4.

[no elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

a depressing history of women’s talents being actively + regularly suppressed!

[Noah Gittell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Essential.

[Raza Rizvi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Will never get tired of hearing and reading about development and production stories of movies.

[Zeke Fairley]

Technicallyyyyy didn’t finish this but used as the main book for an essay