[ecrea] CFP - Special issue of Feminist Media Studies - Independent Women: From Film to Television

*CALL FOR PAPERS*

**

*Special Issue of /Feminist Media Studies /(**Vol. 19, No. 6, December 
2019**)**

*

*Independent Women: From Film to Television*

Issue Guest Editors: Claire Perkins (Monash University) and Michele 
Schreiber (Emory University)

**

Working in television has historically been considered ‘bread and 
butter’ labour for female filmmakers around the world. For decades, 
women have taken on roles in the production, writing and direction of 
broadcast series as a way of supporting their ‘real’ and hard-won work 
in feature filmmaking, with these television jobs rarely considered part 
of their professional profile by themselves or others. Insofar as it 
functions as paid employment but is not seen or valued at a symbolic or 
material level in the same way as the development of a film, this type 
of women’s television work functions as a form of invisible labour. And, 
given that a large majority of female filmmakers work primarily in 
spaces outside the global channels that are constructed and understood 
as ‘mainstream’, this mode of labouring has been especially recognisable 
in the career pathways of women broadly identified with independent 
sectors of film production around the world.

As we move toward the end of the twenty-first century’s second decade, 
though, this narrative is undergoing a critical transformation. 
Radically displaced from the cultural and technological profile that it 
developed during the twentieth century, television//is now regularly 
valued as the preeminent screen art format of our age, with its once 
defining distinction from cinema far less pronounced. At the same time, 
a change in the profile of popular feminism in the contemporary era has 
led to the reanimation of issues and discourses from earlier feminist 
movements, such as systemic inequality, body politics and labour. And, 
relatedly, the issue of gender equity in screen industries is in the 
spotlight, with renewed calls for action from industry, government and 
celebrity organisations leading to schemes that actively support women’s 
creative leadership in television production.

In this environment, the work that female practitioners from the 
independent sector undertake in and on television has taken on a wholly 
different status and potential. In the Anglophone west, the critical 
logic of ‘Peak TV’ is in large part founded upon a conception of the 
current moment as a golden age for female-driven and female-focused 
content. As a result, women such as Jane Campion (/Top of the Lake/), 
Ava DuVernay (/Queen Sugar/), Lena Dunham (/Girls/) and Sharon Horgan 
(/Catastrophe/) are now hailed as the visionary creators of their 
celebrated series, and the historically negative role of the 
director-for-hire has become a type of acclaimed cameo appearance for 
the numerous women who labour on multiple or individual episodes of high 
profile series, including Lisa Cholodenko (/Olive Kitteridge/, /The 
Slap/), Andrea Arnold (/Transparent/, /I Love Dick/), So Yong Kim 
(/Queen Sugar/) and Susanne Bier (/The Night Manager/).

Many questions arise as a result of this shift. For instance, have these 
programs increased the presence of imperfect female characters, with 
women valued for their unlikeability, anger, vulnerability and 
precarity, rather than traditionally feminine characteristics? Has the 
rise of digital platforms allowed women practitioners to exercise more 
control and singularity of vision than has been historically offered in 
traditional television production? How is the global conception of 
independent production shifting along with these industry paradigms?

This special issue interrogates this shift in women’s television work 
and how it is being understood and valued globally. It aims to cast a 
transnational perspective on the migration of female practitioners from 
film to television, exploring how the industrial, textual and critical 
logic of independence moves across formats in different contexts. How is 
the profile of women’s television work changing around the world as a 
result of this migration, even if women still hold only a small 
percentage of the share of creative roles overall? How does this 
television work connect to the revitalisation of the category of 
‘women’s filmmaking’ in academic screen studies and distinguished media 
circuits over the past decade or so? How does the narrative of imperfect 
womanhood operate outside the Anglophone west? And, ultimately, (how) 
are these changes impacting upon the long-standing marginalisation of 
women in screen production?

Topics for consideration by both scholars and practitioners include, but 
are not limited to:

·the gender politics of television series driven by women from 
independent film sectors around the world

·the transnational reach and reception of content identified with the 
narrative of ‘Peak TV’ that is driven by women from the independent sector

·the historical and political significance of the invisible labour of 
women from independent film sectors working in television

·the impact of transnational digital television platforms around the 
world upon the kinds of feminisms that female filmmakers from the 
independent sector can engage and generate, and the politics of 
independence that surround these (conglomerate) platforms

·the strategies by which independent female filmmakers working in 
television both promote and resist traditional auteur practices and 
discourses

·the potential of the category of ‘Indie TV’ for female filmmakers and 
contemporary television feminisms

·practitioner experience of moving from independent film to television 
production

Please submit a 350-word abstract as well as a short (2-page) CV to 
Michele Schreiber ((mjschre /at/ emory.edu)) <mailto:(mjschre /at/ emory.edu))>and 
Claire Perkins ((claire.perkins /at/ monash.edu)) 
<mailto:(claire.perkins /at/ monash.edu))>by April 15, 2018. Authors whose 
abstracts are selected will be notified by July 1, 2018 and asked to 
submit complete manuscripts by December 15, 2018. Acceptance of the 
abstract does not guarantee publication of the paper, which will be 
subject to peer review.

**

*Aims and Scope *

Feminist Media Studies provides a transdisciplinary, transnational forum 
for researchers pursuing feminist approaches to the field of media and 
communication studies, with attention to the historical, philosophical, 
cultural, social, political, and economic dimensions and analysis of 
sites including print and electronic media, film and the arts, and new 
media technologies. The journal invites contributions from feminist 
researchers working across a range of disciplines and conceptual 
perspectives.

Feminist Media Studies offers a unique intellectual space bringing 
together scholars,

professionals and activists from around the world to engage with 
feminist issues and debates in media and communication. Its editorial 
board and contributors reflect a commitment to the facilitation of 
international dialogue among researchers, through attention to local, 
national and global contexts for critical and empirical feminist media 
inquiry. When preparing your paper, please click on the link 
‘Instructions for Authors’ on the Feminist Media Studies website 
(www.tandf.co.uk/journals/rfms <http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/rfms>) 
which provides guidance on paper length, referencing style, etc. When 
submitting your paper, please do not follow the link ‘Submit Online’ as 
special issue papers are handled directly via email with the special 
issue Editors.


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