In our Hollywood by the Decade series, we’ve been exploring film history by watching and discussing landmark films from the beginnings of cinema up through the 1980s with new expert guests for each decade. In this final episode, we’re joined by two special guests: prolific writer and film critic Walter Chaw, and long-lost co-host Dr. Ebony Adams. We dive into what was happening in the 1980s politically and cinematically, discussing Walter’s picks: 1988’s MIRACLE MILE directed by Steve De Jarnatt, and Kathryn Bigalow’s 1987 vampire western NEAR DARK.

Links Mentioned:

• Ebony didn’t mention this link, but she meant to, because Near Dark made her think of it, so she wanted to share - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X3RiliFsHw&feature=youtu.be
   

Find Walter:

• https://www.filmfreakcentral.net
• https://twitter.com/mangiotto
• Book preorders - https://mzsworldstore.com/products/pre-order-a-walter-hill-film-hardcover-signed
• Voir on Netflix - Walter Chaw episode on 48 Hours

Find Ebony:

• twitter.com/ebonyaster
• Women in Film - wif.org

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Carolyn Petit returns as special guest to lead our discussion of the 1970s on the penultimate episode of our “Hollywood by the Decade” series. She selected two acclaimed films to focus our discussion. From 1971, Alan Pakula’s KLUTE, in which Jane Fonda plays a sex worker who teams up with an investigator (played by Donald Sutherland), to search for a missing person who’d once been a client of hers. In Paul Mazursky’s 1978 film AN UNMARRIED WOMAN, Jill Clayburgh stars as an Upper West Sider who navigates dating, friendships, and parenting an independent teenage daughter in the aftermath of an unexpected divorce. Two disparate films about female characters directed by men, but connected by a very 1970s focus on character with glimpses into their inner thoughts and lives.

Links Mentioned:

• Angelica Jade Bastién’s Criterion Collection essay about An Unmarried Woman: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6975-an-unmarried-woman-the-business-of-being-a-woman
• “Everyone is Beautiful and No One is Horny”: https://bloodknife.com/everyone-beautiful-no-one-horny/

Find Carolyn:

• twitter.com/carolynmichelle

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The 60s in America are remembered as a time of cultural upheaval and revolution, but did Hollywood keep in step with contemporary conversations? Our expert and guide on this episode of Hollywood by the Decade is Dr. Philana Payton, a scholar-activist with research interests in Black film and television history and popular culture, as well as gender and queer studies, and who is currently a professor of film and media studies at the University of California, Irvine. She’s selected two films from the period to launch our discussion: PARIS BLUES (1961) and GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER (1967).

Find Dr. Philana Payton:

• twitter.com/philanapayton
• https://www.blackstarfest.org/seen/read/issue003/the-voice-i-sing-is-an-echo-the-power-of-black-collectivity/

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Halfway through our “Hollywood by the Decades” series, we time-travel to the 1950s with our special guest—writer, podcaster, and film review editor—Alonso Duralde. We’ll be framing our conversation around two 50s films recommended by Alonso: ALL ABOUT EVE (1950) and THE SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957).

Links Mentioned:

• Anita & Alonso on “Let’s Go, Atsuko!” https://megaphone.link/FODP1317812259
• Alonso’s TheWrap listicle: https://www.thewrap.com/best-romantic-comedies-made-before-1980/
• Alonso’s TCM puzzle: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/turner-classic-movies-alonso-duralde/1139963963

Find Alonso Duralde:

• twitter.com/ADuralde

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Anita and Kat are joined by literature and film studies Professor Julie Grossman—an oft-published scholar who’s penned numerous essays about the classic archetypes of women onscreen and behind the camera in vintage Hollywood. She’s taking us into the 1940s, and specifically the introduction of film noir and the femme fatale for our “Hollywood by the Decade” series. To set the scene for our conversation, we watched two films on Julie’s recommendation: from 1943, Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, and from 1948, Road House—directed by Jean Nogulesco and starring Ida Lupino before the advent of her directing career. 

Find Julie Grossman:

• twitter.com/JulieGrossman1
• The Femme Fatale - https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-femme-fatale/9780813598246
• Twin Peaks - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52737979-twin-peaks

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The 1930s saw the introduction of sound in film, the implementation of the Hays code, and marks the beginning of the “Golden Age of Hollywood”.  On this episode of our “Hollywood by the Decade” series, we’re guided by special guest Patricia White—Centennial Professor of Film and Media Studies and Coordinator of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Swarthmore College—through a discussion of the landscape of Hollywood in the 30s, including how the enforced morality of the Hays code influenced which stories were told and how, while perhaps counterintuitively creating opportunities for surprising subtext. Join us as we examine BLONDE VENUS (1932) starring Marlene Dietrich, and STELLA DALLAS (1937) starring Barbara Stanwyck.
 

Links Mentioned:

• Blonde Venus https://archive.org/details/blonde-venus-1932-remastered-720p
• Stella Dallas https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B08CY15HWB/

Find Patricia White:

• Check out Rebecca: BFI Film Classics - https://shop.bfi.org.uk/rebecca-bfi-film-classics-paperback.html (also available through Amazon, other book sellers, etc.)

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• Join our Patreon
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We’re kicking off our Hollywood by Decade series with the inception of filmmaking in the 1910s and 20s. Specifically, we’ll be looking at director Lois Weber’s film, Shoes. Released in 1916 at the height of Weber’s power and popularity as one of the top filmmakers of the time, the film tackles poverty, prostitution, and gender pay inequity. Ebony pops in, and she and Anita are joined by Dr. Shelley Stamp, writer and professor of film and digital media at UC Santa Cruz, and the person who quite literally wrote the book on Lois Weber. Listen in for a fascinating discussion of early filmmaking.

Links Mentioned:

• Books:
• Movies:

Find Dr Shelley Stamp:

• twitter.com/StampShelley
• https://people.ucsc.edu/~stamp/research/Shelley_Stamp/Home.html

Find Ebony:

• twitter.com/ebonyaster

Find Us:

• Join our Patreon
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For our 200th(!!) episode of Feminist Frequency Radio, Anita, Ebony, and Carolyn reunite to discuss the Coen brother’s infinitely quotable, The Big Lebowski. Since its 1998 release, the film has earned cult classic status, spawning festivals, conferences, and even a religion: Dudism. Does our original FFR trio abide? Listen in as we revisit The Dude on his hapless, meandering odyssey through LA to find out.

Time Stamps:

6:00 - Main discussion on The Big Lebowski

41:49 - What’s your Freq Out?

• Carolyn on the book Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair by Sarah Schulman
• Ebony on the twitter thread of Orsen Welles burns on other directors - https://twitter.com/jfrankensteiner/status/1522761153822269440?s=21&t=u19lPY5tVM7xUOrofR24Ew
• Anita on new thoughts on the film The Old Guard
• Submit your own FREQ out at feministfrequency.com/FREQOUT

Mentioned:

• The Long Goodbye (1973), directed by Robert Altman
• How Aladdin Changed Animation (by Screwing Over Robin Williams), video by Lindsay Ellis - https://youtu.be/nyiBdccfNkg

Follow Ebony:

• twitter.com/ebonyaster

Follow Carolyn:

• twitter.com/carolynmichelle
• kotaku.com

Follow Us:

• Join our Patreon
• Our Website
• Subscribe to FFR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to our Star Trek Podcast
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On the heels of the recent release of director Robert Eggers’ Viking epic The Northman, Kat Spada and special guest Dr. Kishonna Gray—Associate Professor in Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky—step back to 2015 to consider Egger’s first film, The Witch.

CW: This episode contains discussion of film portrayals of supernatural or historical violence against woman and children, including infanticide. 

Time Stamps:

1:00:10 - What’s your Freq Out?

• Kishonna on the game Fortnite
• Kat on the HBOMax series Julia and the companion podcast
• Submit your own FREQ out at feministfrequency.com/FREQOUT

Follow Kishonna:

• twitter.com/KishonnaGray

Follow Us:

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Anita and new cohost Kat Spada start off the season strong with an episode all about the allure of toxic masculinity onscreen. Special guest Dave Proctor returns to discuss why male characters embodying cisheteronormative values can be so obviously problematic, but often still manage to be attractive and compelling to us a viewers.

Time Stamps:

54:36 - What’s your Freq Out?

• Kat on the movie Aline (2020) directed by and starring Valérie Lemercier
• Anita on the shows Severance on Apple TV, and Minx and Winning Time both on HBOMax
• Dave on The Linda Lindas’ album Growing Up -  https://thelindalindas.bandcamp.com/
• Submit your own FREQ out at feministfrequency.com/FREQOUT

Learn more about Kat:

• katexmachina.com
• twitter.com/kat_ex_machina

Follow Dave:

• twitter.com/blankdave
• twitter.com/mightyyell

Follow Us:

• Join our Patreon
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