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TRACTION is an inter-active, online magazine by and for women in "the industry", and proudly spawned by the Women In Film/General Motors Alliance.

The ambition of TRACTION is to provoke robust discussion and fresh thinking about women and media (women and film, women and documentaries, women and television). We hope the present and future articles and the access to real information will get our readers to think out loud and, not incidentally, to erupt into dialogue with the magazine and through the magazine.....

The dialogue so far has only been had in classrooms or covered in a great seminar on entertainment, or heard at inspirational women's conferences on our industry.

But daily? While we may delight in an article having a whiff of a woman's pov, we have no place to dissect our delight; we recognize that an institutionalized system exists but are too busy 'getting through the day'; we might like reviews written frankly by a woman but don't know if that matters; we may miss certain kinds of opinions but can't hear our own above the de rigueur noise.

The information, perspectives and opinions simply aren't stacked up anywhere they can provoke deeper thought and further commentary. Let's use this magazine to expand people's way of thinking about women and this ubiquitous, attitude-forming industry of images. Women who aren't in the industry need to think about what they are seeing or when they like what they see versus when they simply accept it. Within the industry we need to dialogue more - not to carp, not from a crouch, but to wonder out loud about being affecting and effective, getting credit for it, having that turn into impact.

There's a great section called The Virtual Mentor. Born of our fundamental belief at all women in film chapters in truly mentoring women, trusted as the true basis to the power of " the old boys' network" - look for information here. They are of course sometimes about career choices in media, but also about foreign production, bonding a film, adding music on a film/documentary or video, fair use doctrine, minority images in media, children in media, etc.

And reviews - when there is something pertinent to say - film reviews, documentary reviews, television reviews, media criticism and media commentary.

And articles - articles on film, articles on television, articles on documentaries , articles on media and even articles on chick flicks.


Explore!!
Visit the Letter from the Editor page
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THE SHOW YOUR WORK ISSUE
We've got a new section - SHOW YOUR WORK. And the new articles today are actually reflections on the need for a place to do so. Being able to show your ability to create.More >
 
Other Media
A MOVIE STAR HAS TO STAR IN BLACK AND WHITE By: Adrienne Kennedy
The lead character, Clara, tells her own story - the story of a young African- American woman writer in the late 1950's - by using scenes and imagery from powerful popular movies of the time (Now Voyager, Viva Zapata, A Place in the Sun). Bette Davis, Shelley Winters, Jean Peters speak as her. Paul Heinreid and Montgomery Cliff and Marlon Brando respond to her. Through them and parallel emotions, she tells her loved ones about her desperate confusion over having ambitions unexpected of a mother, a woman, a black woman, a writer. The play speaks in images that both shape and reveal all the cores of all of this young woman's lives...
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View Recommended DVD's - a compilation of films of distinct interest to women
 
  Here you'll find films that either have core themes and values that are of distinct interest to women or stories intent on depth of character,  films you may have missed, most having opened and closed because they couldn't hold onto the theaters. In the present day atmosphere, the opening weekend gross has become the determinant of whether a film is 'good' or not. Not true and we have to say it. We have to mobilize to compete on behalf of films which are worth our time and valuable and never set out to be 'blockbuster' of this sort. We need to embrace their DVD as our release -- find and rent or buy these films so that they live.


 
 
PROCESS: KRISTI ZEA - CONFESSIONS OF A PRODUCTION DESIGNER-HYPHENATEAmongst others? The Departed, Good Fellas, As Good As It Gets, Philadelphia, Beloved, Married to the Mob, Silence of The Lambs, Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Sometimes Zea deals with the dumb stuff just like everybody else. The progress she has made, she believes, is in how she reacts to those crazy-making moments. “As I’ve gotten older, I recognize that it’s only a movie. Before I would have thought It’s my life. Something is wrong with me if things are not working out. Now I have the confidence to say, Maybe it’s not supposed to work out; maybe it’s the idea and not me. I’ve developed a tough skin and, I hope, not lost my sense of humor.”
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Just Released Articles
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SEX AND APPEAL By: Tarice L.S. Gray
Does a male idea of what is sexy really rule? Last November, Maxim magazine, a men’s publication known for its artful covers of buxom women just barely covered, posted their on-line list of the unsexiest women. The list, which a Maxim representative said was a tongue cheek response to an Esquire magazine poll, listed “Sex In the City” star Sarah Jessica Parker as the unsexiest woman alive.
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VIRAL VIDEO NIGHT IN HOLLYWOOD By: Erin Condron
Viral videos fly around the internet at top speed, generally finding a home on YouTube, SuperDeluxe (superdeluxe.com), Viral Video Chart (viralvideochart.com), MySpace the list goes on and on. Brandon Burkhart and his partner Randall Mills are out there sorting through the videos and lending them a dash of dignity, pre-YouTube, and giving an audience a great evening in the process.
More >
 
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I AM NOT.... A PIECE OF ASS By: Elisabeth Finch
The very first day of my very first high profile "industry job," I received an email from my boss by accident. It was meant to answer a colleague’s seemingly innocuous query about me, The New Assistant. The subject heading: "I did not hire..." The email : "I did not hire a piece of ass. But she's a Harvard grad, very bright, and laughs a lot. So there you go." The fact that he considered me intelligent and funny was instantly and utterly lost on me. Less than ten minutes at my brand new desk, there I was, signed, sealed, and delivered...More >
 
MID-LIFE MAKEOVER By: Susan Baerwald
What I am talking about is a complete change in professional orientation. Changing careers. Making new goals. Finding out how to achieve them. And I don’t mean going from a buyer to a seller, (although that one was a real eye-opener) or from catching to pitching, or from actively producing to teaching producing, or from making films to assessing films or enabling films. I’m talking out of one entire field into a new one.
More >
VIDEO Q&A with the Filmmakers of FREEHELD By: WIF/LA Panel A video Q&A with Cynthia Wade, director and producer of FREEHELD and Vanessa Roth, producer. FREEHELD became the winner of the 2008 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject and was finished with a grant from the Women In Film Foundation's Film Finishing Fund. The Q&A is moderated by Ilene Chaiken, creator of The L Word. More >
 
Visit POV - A look at the television and film industry from a woman's point of view
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STATISTICAL RESEARCH
2007 Celluloid Ceiling Report By: Martha Lauzen Ph.D.
Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, a professor in the School of Communication at UC San Diego conducts annual studies of women working in the film and television industries. This is The Celluloid Ceiling report for 2007. it provides an in-depth look at the number of women not employed in influential positions on the top 250 grossing films each year.
More >
Boxed In: Women On Screen and Behind the Scenes in the 2005-06 Prime-time Season By: Martha Lauzen Ph.D.
Women comprised 24% of all creators, executive producers, producers, directors, writers, editors, and directors of photography working on situation comedies, dramas, and unscripted programs airing on the broadcast networks during the 2005-06 season. This percentage represents a decrease of one percentage point from last season...More >
 
MOST RECENT FEATURE REVIEW

THERE WILL BE BLOOD? By: Peter S. Freedman
Porn films never get compared to “Citizen Kane.” This is because, first of all, “Citizen Kane” has a plot, which porn films don't. Porn plots usually revolve around a cliched male protagonist strutting and thrusting his way through a series of preposterous situations chosen simply because they highlight the actor’s impressive talent for strutting and thrusting...More >
 
MOST RECENT DOCUMENTARY REVIEW

THE DEVIL CAME ON HORSEBACK By: Lynne Littman
“The Devil Came on Horseback” and took my breath away, and broke my heart, and explained the origins of the genocide in Darfur, clearly. It’s a provocative call to action.More >
 
 
Visit the Virtual Mentor page
These "how-to's" are contributed by experts in their fields. Plumb them, consider them and if you have more questions post your questions on....
View More Virtual Mentor Articles
OWN THIS By: Georgia Jeffries
Are there ANY strategies whereby you can own your own work as a writer?
More >
 
Naturalized
Added: 3 weeks ago, in category: Shorts
Comments: 0 / Views: 15
Paper Words (Part 1)
Added: 3 weeks ago, in category: Trailers/Scenes
Comments: 0 / Views: 9
Soledad is Gone Forever
Added: 3 weeks ago, in category: Shorts
Comments: 0 / Views: 14
The Mark
Added: 3 weeks ago, in category: Shorts
Comments: 0 / Views: 32
Sea of Change (Part 1)
Added: 3 weeks ago, in category: Documentaries
Comments: 0 / Views: 7

Women in Film Programs
 

Acceleration Grants for Emerging Filmmakers: The Latina New Filmmakers Grant and the Acceleration Grant for Emerging Filmmakers

Created for and recognizing up-and-coming filmmakers from under-represented communities across the country giving deserving female filmmakers access to valuable resources and contacts that otherwise would be a challenge to attain. You can read more about the 2007 grant winners for both filmmaker grants here.



Read More About It

Women In Film Clip Reels
View videos from the Women-In-Film Library, including contest winners, student films, the Legacy Series DVD and much more...
View Clip Reels
Visit a collection of Sheila Benson's Reviews
 
Sheila Benson
A collection of Sheila Benson's critical best (LA Times critic from 1981 to 1991, msn.com after that, Seattle Weekly now Etc ). There is something subtly uncommon about Sheila's reviews, another way of observing, another way of remarking on the emotional center of a movie, so often observing things not only unobserved in ordinary reviews but missing from the ordinary review.
That is of course from our pov. ......it's nice to pay respect and give credence to that here on these pages.
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