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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Blog Roll

Guest Post: Aroused

Features

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

Features

So what is it that makes a movie a lesbian movie? Does it require lesbians playing the roles of the characters? Does the director have to be gay? Is there a quota of girl on girl “action” that determines the “gayness” of the film? If it had been directed by men like the Bound (the former Wachowski Brothers), Lianna (John Sayles), or Personal Best, (Robert Towne), would A Perfect Ending have had a different trajectory?