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The Cinema Coven
Witches, Witchcraft and Women's Filmmaking
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Book Presentation:
Witches and witchcraft are potent metaphors for feminine power, with a history that predates the advent of cinema. The figure of the witch represents a particularly fraught, contested kind of gendered power, and has long inspired filmmakers to explore themes of race, class, trauma, motherhood, grief, and identity.
This book examines the relationship between women, witchcraft, and filmmaking, exploring types of storytelling and the central themes in these movies. Such films span the globe and have starred prominent figures like Madonna, Bette Midler, Björk, and Nicole Kidman, as well as lesser-known women behind the scenes. Some of these filmmakers have premiered their works at major film festivals, while others have produced content for television and video releases. While notable in their diversity, these movies share one crucial thing: they were all created by women in an industry broadly dominated by men.
About the Author:
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas is a film critic and author of ten books on cult, horror and exploitation cinema with an emphasis on gender politics.
Press Reviews:
• "Untold stories are bittersweet propositions. They appeal to us as exciting, illuminating ventures, but they carry with them the weight of injustice, in having been denied the light for so long. If The Cinema Coven is a story long overdue to be told (spoiler: it is), Alexandra Heller-Nicholas makes the wait worthwhile. It’s a compelling and epic history, delivered with deep knowledge, affection and passion by perhaps the only writer who could’ve done it justice. In many ways it feels like the book she was born to write, and we’re all the richer for it."—Phil Nobile Jr., editor-in-chief, FANGORIA Magazine and executive producer, Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror
• "This is the book I’ve been waiting for! Wonderfully well written, informative, and thought-provoking. An absolute must read for women, witches, filmmakers and everyone else!"—Donna Davies, filmmaker, Pretty Bloody: The Women of Horror (2009), Nightmare Factory (2011), Fanarchy (2015).
See the publisher website: McFarland & Co
> From the same author:
The Giallo Canvas (2021)
Art, Excess and Horror Cinema
The Films of Elaine May (2019)
Dir. Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Dean Brandum
Subject: Director > Elaine May
Found Footage Horror Films (2014)
Fear and the Appearance of Reality
> On a related topic:
The Amazing Transforming Superhero! (2007)
Essays on the Revision of Characters in Comic Books, Film and Television
Dir. Terrence R. Wandtke
Realizing the Witch (2015)
Science, Cinema, and the Mastery of the Invisible
by Richard Baxstrom and Todd Meyers
Phases of the Moon (2020)
A Cultural History of the Werewolf Film
The Characters of Oz (2023)
Essays on Their Adaptation and Transformation
Dir. Dina Schiff Massachi
Subject: One Film > The Wizard of Oz
The Villain's Journey (2021)
Descent and Return in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Subject: On Films > Characters
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