Women and Hollywood


Melissa Silverstein is the founder and editor of Women and Hollywood, one of the most respected sites for issues related to women and film as well as other areas of pop culture. Women and Hollywood educates, advocates, and agitates for gender parity across the entertainment industry.

She is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of The Athena Film Festival. The 4th annual festival will take place from February 6-9, 2014 at Barnard College in NYC.

Melissa recently published the first book from Women and Hollywood, In Her Voice: Women Directors Talk Directing, which is a compilation of over 40 interviews that have appeared on the site.

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Women and Hollywood

Why Society Needs Feminism

I found this through my twitter feed today and think it is appropriate and is a good thought for the weekend.  I think this should answer all the naysayers who think young women aren't feminists.  This is one of the most feminist things I have read in a long time and it's from a young woman -- Caitlin M. O'Donnell at Drake University.  
  • By Melissa Silverstein
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  • May 17, 2013 2:36 PM
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  • 1 Comment
More: Feminism

Odes to Female Friendships Rule The Weekend with Katie Aselton's Black Rock and Frances Ha

This weekend, two very different films that explore the intricacies of female friendships are hitting theaters (and VOD) near you: Katie Aselton's thriller Black Rock and Noah Baumbach's wry Frances Ha.
  • By Melissa Silverstein and Kerensa Cadenas
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  • May 17, 2013 2:30 PM
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  • 0 Comments

Guest Post: Screaming With Your Body

Hysteria is the way to express with your body desires that the society does not accept. It’s like screaming with your body.  
  • By Alice Winocour
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  • May 17, 2013 12:30 PM
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  • 0 Comments

France vs. US - What Do Movie Stars Looks Like?

As the Cannes Film Festival kicks off here is an infographic from French TV (and in French) that breaks down the difference between the US and French film industries.
  • By Melissa Silverstein
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  • May 15, 2013 11:45 AM
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  • 8 Comments

Guest Post: Invisible Women Who Rock

We are both filmmakers launching documentaries featuring different generations of women pursuing their artistic vision in the predominantly male bastion of rock and roll. And of course, the challenges of telling these invisible stories in the predominantly male bastion of film are much the same -- which is an irony not lost on both of us.  Here are each of our stories:
  • By Jackie Weissman & Karen Whitehead
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  • May 9, 2013 1:30 PM
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  • 2 Comments

Pissed Off: When Did Playing Evil Women Become a Rite of Passage for Oscar Winning Actresses?

You know I hate all the princess shit that we see everywhere.  The film business has up it ass that boys get to be superheroes and girls get to be princesses.  The boys save the girls and the girls need to be saved.  Like anyone believes that shit anymore.
  • By Melissa Silverstein
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  • May 9, 2013 12:00 PM
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  • 12 Comments

Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Willow Smith

God I love this girl.  She rules and I want that t-shirt.
  • By Melissa Silverstein
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  • May 9, 2013 11:30 AM
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  • 3 Comments

Guest Post: Aroused

I never thought I would ever make a documentary film, let alone one where my leading cast would be some of the biggest names in the Porn industry. I am a photographer, and yes, I have always felt comfortable shooting nudes, having a keen sense of light and how it touches the body allowing the lines of the female form to dictate a sensual note dependent on the elongation or recoiling of the arms or neck in front of my camera. As someone once asked me, "What is the difference between erotic photography and porn?" and my answer then and now continues to be, 'lighting."
  • By Deborah Anderson
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  • May 3, 2013 11:30 AM
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  • 0 Comments

Guest Post: The Appearing Female Magician - Desperate Acts of Magic

When I was seven, my parents took me to a magic shop at Pier 39 in San Francisco. I bought my first magic trick, the Imp Bottle. I loved playing with it. Not long after that, my parents bought me a magic set with over 100 tricks. I performed just about every single one of them for the kids at my eight-year old birthday party. Some of them didn't always work right and I'm not sure the audience was completely attentive but I had fun exploring the mechanics of all the tricks. Years passed and I met many girls who were involved in community theater, but none involved with magic. Without any mentors or peers to encourage me, that magic set ended up in the closet.
  • By Tammy Caplan
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  • May 1, 2013 1:00 PM
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  • 0 Comments

Guest Post: Marilyn Monroe Comic Book Tribute

I had written one comic book for the publisher, Bluewater Productions, which was about Elizabeth Taylor and they asked me to take on Marilyn. I said yes because I loved writing the first one so much, but I quickly realized that I had a ton of research to do if I was going to do this woman justice. Just because it's a comic book doesn't mean you don't want to tell their story in the most entertaining, respectful way you can.
  • By Dina Gachman
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  • April 30, 2013 3:29 PM
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  • 1 Comment

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