Chick Flicks : Theories And Memories Of The Feminist Film Movement

"Ruby Rich reinvents both herself and her approach to film criticism, in a fascinating book that alternates autobiography and theory. She is wise and funny at the same time, never dogmatic, always allowing her discovery process to remain in clear view."--Roger Ebert

"This is a remarkable book. Rich has written a memoir that encourages the reader not only to see the original essays in a new context but also and especially to understand the development of an intellectual and political moment with all of its complications and personal investments."--Judith Mayne, author of "Cinema and Spectatorship"

"This collection of writings by B. Ruby Rich is sure to become a classic. She has proven herself to be a courageous guide into uncharted aesthetic and political territory and, in describing so eloquently what she finds there, she does what critics aspire to but rarely achieve: she both educates and entertains."--Sally Potter, director of the films "Orlando" and "The Tango"

If there was a moment during the sixties, seventies, or eighties that changed the history of the women's film movement, B. Ruby Rich was there. Part journalistic chronicle, part memoir, and 100% pure cultural historical odyssey, "Chick Flicks"--with its definitive, the-way-it-was collection of essays--captures the birth and growth of feminist film as no other book has done.
For over three decades Rich has been one of the most important voices in feminist film criticism. Her presence at film festivals (such as Sundance, where she is a member of the selection committee), her film reviews in the" Village Voice," "Elle," "Out," and the" Advocate," and her commentaries on the public radio program "The World" have secured her a place as a central figure in the remarkable history of what she deems "cinefeminism." In the hope that a new generation of feminist film culture might be revitalized by reclaiming its own history, Rich introduces each essay with an autobiographical prologue that describes the intellectual, political, and personal moments from which the work arose. Travel, softball, sex, and voodoo all somehow fit into a book that includes classic Rich articles covering such topics as the antiporn movement, the films of Yvonne Rainer, a Julie Christie visit to Washington, and the historically evocative film "Maedchen in Uniform," The result is a volume that traces the development not only of women's involvement in cinema but of one of its key players as well.
The first book-length work from Rich--whose stature and influence in the world of film criticism and theory continue to grow--"Chick Flicks" exposes unexplored routes and forgotten byways of a past that's recentenough to be remembered and far away enough to be memorable.