A New Feminist Critique of Film Canon

Anna Cooper
School of Theatre, Film, and Television
University of Arizona

Abstract:

This work reopens film canon as a site for debate about social justice in how we organize, memorialize, and preserve films over time. It examines several of the most prominent film canon lists in Anglophone film culture, tracking the shift from traditional publication to social-media based models and the effects of this shift on issues of gender equity. I build on recent radical critiques of diversity/inclusion to argue that over the past 20 years, these liberal approaches have had at best a very limited effect on the continuing exclusion of films by, for, and about women. I conclude with some speculative thinking on new, radical strategies that might effectively harness film canon as a tool for increasing social justice.