Strong Female Characters

Casting is one of the film industry's most misunderstood processes, and it also happens to be a field dominated by women — but one woman, Sarah Halley Finn, gave us the MCU as we know it (and a plethora of hotties named Chris).

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The Duchess of Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish, was a poet, a philosopher, a scientist, a philanthropist, a socialite, and a pioneering sci-fi author who helped to create the literary genre we adore so much to this day.

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Vera West worked to no credit and died under very mysterious circumstances, but her costuming work on Bride of Frankenstein helped craft the aesthetic of women in the golden age of horror.

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You've definitely heard of Kevin Feige and maybe Louis D'Esposito, but did you know there's a third partner in the MCU triumvirate? Her name is Victoria Alonso, and she's a kickass producer who's been part of Marvel Studios since the beginning with over 20 blockbusters under her belt.

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On today's episode of Forgotten Women of Genre, we turn our attention to the woman who made action movie history with her editing on Mad Max: Fury Road, Margaret Sixel.

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Debra Hill was a producer, screenwriter and the "godmother of indie filmmaking,” whose successes in Hollywood opened the door for future generations to follow in her footsteps.

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As a silent-era director, Lois Weber created some early works of genre that still hold up surprisingly well by today's standards.

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This week, Preeti and Courtney celebrate the greatness of the Avengers: Endgame trailer and welcome Shang-Chi and Destin Daniel Cretton to the MCU, and we present part two of Cher's interview with Kelly Sue DeConnick.

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Living in a society beleaguered by the horrors reported from the frontlines of WWI, Gertrude Barrows Bennett — under the pen name Francis Stevens — created dark fiction the likes of which the world had never before seen.

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From her breathtaking work on Bram Stoker's Dracula to the boundary pushing baroque madness of her collaborations with director Tarsem Singh, Japanese production and costume designer Eiko Ishioka created some of the most striking and revolutionary clothes ever seen on film.

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