WOMEN BEHIND CAMERA (2007)

Around the world: why do you want to be a Cinematographer?

Women Behind Camera , directed by Alexis Krasilovsky, is a documentary featuring several women whose career option daily implies a close relation with a camera - whether as directors or cinematographers. This film makes it clear that they all have something in common: they love doing what they do. And yes, by the way, they're all women.

Alexis Krasilovsky is a film writer, director, cinematographer, producer and editor. She's also a Professor of Screenwriting and Film Studies in the Department of Cinema and Television Arts at California State University, Northridge. Her close relation with the camera is unmistakable. Her latest project Women Behind Camera , recently completed in February 2007, shows her will to document globally a common passion.

Questioned on what she expects to achieve with this film, Krasilovsky says:

I'm excited that camerawomen's stories from all over the world-Afghanistan, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Senegal, USA and other countries--are coming out with this film. Of course, I want the numbers of women working as Directors of Photography in Hollywood, Bollywood, France and other major film centers to increase. But after six years of documenting the aspirations and obstacles, satisfactions and conflicts, failures and successes of camerawomen throughout the world, I have grown to appreciate the resonance of their stories. Global connectedness has become my obsession. Their stories help us to see how interconnected our lives are as women and as filmmakers, and will empower the next generation to pick up cameras and show us a new world.

30 women agreed on telling their story: the obstacles they had to overcome to work in film industry but also the everyday joy of doing what they do. The differences and similarities between them make this film both a curious anthropological work but also an important historical record on women and Cinematography around the world.

For a quick glance on the film's approach check the official's website galley here http://www.womenbehindthecamera.com/gallery.html .

The book and the film DVD are available to order, from the 29 th of June on, here: www.womenbehindthecamera.com .

Diana Soeiro