Season 1 Episode 8: The Female Gaze

Some refer to her as the OG of programming and filmmaking, but to many in the filmmaking community she’s known as Lynne Fernie – programmer, filmmaker, artist, cat lover and song writer. She joins us this episode to continue our conversation about women in film. Given her long career and her recent retirement from the role of Senior Canadian Programmer at Hot Docs, Lynne has much to share about her ground-breaking filmmaking, intersectional activism, the female gaze, and why the heck there are so many self-indulgent documentaries about men on road trips.

Featured music in this episode includes:

• Rise up – Parachute Club (penned by Lynne Fernie)
• Q.U.E.E.N – Janelle Monáe
• Good Woman Down – Mary J Blige
• Neon Blue – Holly Cole Trio

Suggested Reading & Watching:

• Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema – Laura Mulvey’s seminal essay
• The Male Gaze vs. the The Female Gaze – MsCinephile for Cinema Verité
• Embracing the Female Gaze – Melissa Silverstein for IndieWire
• Magic Mike XXL and the Rise of the Female Gaze – Sarah Seltzer
• Forbidden Love: The Unashamed Stories of Lesbian Lives – Lynne Fernie & Aerlyn Weissman