Reel Women

In the last several decades, the number of films featuring female protagonists has increased significantly. Many of these films reflect the vast cultural and sociological changes that have taken place since the early 1960s, highlighting not only a wide spectrum of female characters depicted onscreen, but the creative work of women behind the camera as well. In Reel Women: An International Directory of Contemporary Feature Films about Women, media librarian Jane Sloan has assembled an impressive list of more than 2400 films_from nearly 100 countries_that feature female protagonists. Each entry includes a brief description of the film and cites key artistic personnel, particularly female directors, producers, and screenwriters involved in its production. Reel Women also contains a critical survey in which Sloan charts the changes women have undergone both on screen and off, as moviemaking and audience sensibilities have evolved in the last forty-plus years. Listing many more films on the subject of women than can be found in any other source, this reference brings together important titles from area studies and genre markets along with titles associated with women's cinema and feminist film. In addition to title and actor indexes, the book contains a subject index that provides detailed access to place names, historical characters, time periods, and storylines, as well as the backgrounds_religious, racial, and ethnic_of the main characters. This directory is an ideal reference tool for researchers studying the evolution of female characters in films around the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. It is also a resource for casual viewers who are looking for films that reflect the diversity of women's roles that can be found in independent and national cinemas as well as commercial blockbusters.

Jane Sloan is the Media Librarian at Rutgers University Libraries. She is the author of Alfred Hitchcock: A Filmography and Bibliography (1995) and Robert Bresson: A Guide to References and Resources (1983).