If you are looking for a simple way to celebrate Support Women Artists Now Day next Saturday by yourself or with friends, think about watching a film written or directed by a woman at a theatre or on DVD.  If you want advice about picking a film, you can consult a handy new guide written by SWAN Day co-founder, Jan Lisa Huttner.

Huttner, also known as the Hot Pink Pen, writes reviews for WomenArts of films written or directed by women.  You can find her recent reviews on our website at: www.WomenArts.org/reviews or on her website at www.thehotpinkpen.com.  She has recently compiled her reviews of her favorite 50 movies from the past ten years in a convenient book: Penny’s Picks: 50 Movies by Women Filmmakers 2002 – 2011.  The book is available on Amazon.com in paper or Kindle formats.

Huttner is an iconclast with a great sense of humor, so whether you agree with her or not, her reviews are always a lot of fun to read. Her unabashed feminist perspective is a refreshing change of pace from the reviews by men that dominate the mainstream press. Since many of the films she has written about are now available on DVD or streaming video, the book is a great way to find films by women that you can watch at home. The book also includes a brief chronology of SWAN Day and its predecessor, WITASWAN (Women in the Audience Supporting Women Artists Now), as well as a preface by WomenArts Executive Director Martha Richards.

WomenArts has an additional page of helpful websites about women in film on our website at: www.WomenArts.org/news/film_viewer_resources.htm

As Huttner has pointed out in countless blogs and lectures, women have a lot of untapped box office power. Hollywood is driven by profits and if we can show that there is a large, paying audience for films by and about women, then producers will be interested in making more of those films. You can help by watching films written or directed by women on SWAN Day and throughout the year.  Tell your friends to do the same.  Together we can make a difference!