Directora

Leni Riefenstahl was one of the most important directors of the 20th century. She pioneered several filmmaking techniques and forever influenced how sports and action are filmed on camera. But she was also a Nazi. Or was she? After the war, Riefenstahl spent the rest of her very long life defending her work and denying any involvement with the Nazi Party...sometimes in the face of very real eviden...

"She's so f***ing mean," Quentin Tarantino once said of film critic Pauline Kael. Kael was known for brutally harsh film reviews that could make or break a movie. People want to dismiss critics for "not knowing anything", but Kael knew a lot - and her knowledge was valuable to the industry. Her ability to spot up-and-coming talent in the 60s and 70s helped New American Cinema flourish. Find out ab...

When I was planning episodes, a friend suggested that I talk about lavender marriages. Lavender marriages were essentially fake Hollywood marriages set up by studios, agents, or the actors themselves to hide a star’s sexuality or clean up their image. I know that lavender marriages and queerness in early Hollywood are really salacious and fun to talk about, but I couldn’t immediately figure out ho...

Season one of Directora is all about foundations. We've talked about the first female director ever, and we talked about Hollywood's first successful female director. Today, we ask the question: who was the first Black female filmmaker?  Well, this is actually a difficult question to answer. There is no one answer. There are a couple of early contenders, but the answer also depends on what yo...

They say sex sells, but can sex also sell feminist ideas? That's what director Stephanie Rothman did in the 60s and 70s. European movies and groovy new ideas inspired the bold director to make low-budget movies with big impacts. She began working for the great B-movie director Roger Corman, who trusted her to direct her first independent films. She directed The Student Nurses , launching a wave of...

Lois Weber was a powerhouse director in her day. She wrote and directed blockbuster films. She experimented with split-screen storytelling, wrote boundary-pushing material, and even directed Hollywood's first nude scene. She was the first female studio head. She had lucrative contracts with major studios like Universal. At one point in the 1910s, her movies made more money than Cecil B. DeMille an...

What is Directora? Listen to this short trailer that talks about what the podcast is, who it is for, and what's happening next. This is a podcast that celebrates the history and contributions of women in film. We've had two seasons and are moving networks to a free feed, so this is about where we've been and where we're headed. Tune in every Wednesday to hear a new episode of Directora. Thank you...

On the very first episode of Directora, host and creator Stephanie Weber introduces herself and the premise of the entire podcast. This podcast celebrates the history of women in film, so it is only fitting that we start with the very beginning of the film industry and the woman believed to be the first female filmmaker in the world. Her name was Alice Guy-Blaché, and she went from being an employ...