Assignment: You will present orally a Film Analysis of a film to the class. Your presentation should allow for a brief discussion. Your presentation should:

• analyze the gender assumptions in the film
• make use of  feminist theory  to illuminate the way in which gender is understood and used in your example.

Purpose: Analyzing film will help you put theory to work in the world around us.

Method: Choose 1 of the following films. In each of these films a woman is one of the principle film makers: script writer, director, producer, or it is based on a text written by a woman. You must provide a handout for each member of the class. The handout should include: a plot summary, a list of the women involved as original writer, screenwriter, producer, and/or director. A good source of such information is:  The Internet Movie Database:  http://www.imdb.com/.

• Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont (2005)
• Calendar Girls (2003)
• Sense and Sensibility (1995)
• Little Women (1994)
• Widow's Peak (1994)
• Enchanted April (1992)
• Thelma and Louise (1991)
• Daughters of the Dust (1991)

 Most of your time should be devoted to a feminist analysis, either of the story itself, or of the presentation of the story (e.g., what are the assumptions made about women? how are women erased or foregrounded in the account? etc.), or both. In each of these films there are groups of women. Do these women support each other or not? Are men dangerous or supportive of women in these films?

Assessment: Your Film Analysis presentation will be graded on the complexity and thoroughness of your analysis, your incorporation of course readings and theories into that analysis, clarity of presentation, and adherence to time limit.