If there was a moment during the sixties, seventies, or eighties that changed the history of the women’s film movement, B. Ruby Rich was there. Part journalistic chronicle, part memoir, and 100% pure cultural historical odyssey, Chick Flicks—with its definitive, the-way-it-was collection of essays—captures the birth and growth of feminist film as no other book has done.

For over three decades Rich has been one of the most important voices in feminist film criticism. Her presence at film festivals (such as Sundance, where she is a member of the selection committee), her film reviews in the Village Voice, Elle, Out, and the Advocate, and her commentaries on the public radio program “The World” have secured her a place as a central figure in the remarkable history of what she deems “cinefeminism.” In the hope that a new generation of feminist film culture might be revitalized by reclaiming its own history, Rich introduces each essay with an autobiographical prologue that describes the intellectual, political, and personal moments from which the work arose. Travel, softball, sex, and voodoo all somehow fit into a book that includes classic Rich articles covering such topics as the antiporn movement, the films of Yvonne Rainer, a Julie Christie visit to Washington, and the historically evocative film Maedchen in Uniform. The result is a volume that traces the development not only of women’s involvement in cinema but of one of its key players as well.

The first book-length work from Rich—whose stature and influence in the world of film criticism and theory continue to grow—Chick Flicks exposes unexplored routes and forgotten byways of a past that’s recent enough to be remembered and far away enough to be memorable.

Brand new copies, still sealed in plastic.

REVIEW

Although the title leads readers to expect a titillating look at Caged Heat-type exploitation films, this book is instead an exploration of "cinefeminism" and autobiography, an attempt to "interrogate changing interests and shifts in popular culture." The author, a cultural critic who has been published in the Village Voice, New York, and Out, ruminates on her experiences working the feminist film society and festival circuit in the heady days of the 1970s, shares her thoughts on the controversial legacy of Nazi documentarian Leni Riefenstahl, and discusses the knotty issues of sex, politics, and pornography in a review of Not a Love Story. Rich also gives her slant on the lesbian classic Maedchen in Uniform (1931), and two chapters describing time spent interviewing and hanging out with Julie Christie are the book's highlight.—Library Journal

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Duke University Press Books; First Edition (September 30, 1998)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0822321211
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0822321217
• Item Weight (incl packaging)‏ : ‎ 2.2 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.88 x 1.13 x 9.25 inches