University Advancement

Public Relations and Strategic Communications

NEWS RELEASE

CSUN Professor’s Documentary Explores Lives of Pioneering Camerawomen

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., Feb. 20, 2007) — Six years of intense production went into Alexis Krasilovsky’s "Women Behind the Camera," the Cal State Northridge cinema and television arts professor’s groundbreaking documentary that is the first to examine the lives, work and challenges of camerawomen around the globe.

A sneak preview of the award-winning film, free and open to the public, will be screened at 7 p.m. Friday, March 16, in the university’s Armer Theater, Manzanita Hall.

All told, 50 interviews with camerawomen will inhabit the screen, introducing women who "were the first to film in war zones, from helicopters, underwater and on Hollywood sets" despite long separations from their children, injuries during filming and other hardships.

The idea for the film germinated in Krasilovsky’s early days as an independent filmmaker, when she was not able to get enough work to make a living despite membership in two industry unions. "The trauma of sex discrimination and harassment was so discouraging," she said, "that I needed to make this film as a healing activity, a means of breaking down barriers for women directors of photography."

Based on Krasilovsky’s successful book of the same title, "Women Behind the Camera" is a case study in collegial support. CSUN’s Office of Research and Sponsored Projects, its China Institute and the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication stepped up time and again as the filmmaker struggled to bring to fruition a project that ran to more than $200,000 in cash, in-kind services and Krasilovsky’s own money.

With the university’s help, Krasilovsky flew to Mexico, Paris and finally to India, where she filmed camerawomen helping their communities survive "by picking up digital cameras and influencing policy makers."

Documentary unit producer Jalni Haria, a CSUN graduate student, and volunteer Mei Wu provided invaluable translation services for footage filmed abroad. "You can imagine making a film with eight different languages!" Krasilovsky said.

Colleague Elizabeth Sellers, a composer and CSUN music professor, contributed the film’s score, and art graduate student Mona Hasri helped secure an interview with Iranian camerawoman Rozette Ghaderi. "We sneaked the interview out the very week that feminism was declared illegal in Iran," Krasilovsky said.

For more information about the preview, call CSUN Cinematheque program director John Schultheiss at (818) 677-3193.