Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema — Season 1, Episode 11: Tension, Stasis, Leave Out

Episode synopsis

"Tension". Thrillers, and so much more. We look at gripping scenes in films as diverse as Joel DeMott's documentary Demon Lover Diary, Kathryn Bigelow's Blue Steel, Carol Morley's Dreams of a Life, Mimi Leder's The Peacemaker, and Marleen Gorris's remarkable A Question of Silence. "Stasis". Cinema is an action art, isn't it? Or is it? Directors Angela Schanelec, Nanouk Leopold, Kira Muratova, Chantal Akerman, Sharon Lockhart, and Sabiha Sumar, among others, show us the pleasures and beauties of the held moment. "Leave Out". Movies show us the world, but what happens when they don't show something? In this chapter, some of the great filmmakers from around the world withhold a moment or a scene, and their films are better for it.

About Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema

As told through clips from 183 female directors, this epic history of the cinema focuses on women's integral role in the development of film art. Using almost a thousand film extracts from thirteen decades and five continents, Mark Cousins asks how films are made, shot and edited; how stories are shaped and how movies depict life, love, politics, humour and death, all through the compelling lens of some of the world's greatest filmmakers -- all of them women.

More episodes from Season 1

• E1Openings, Tone
• E2Believability, Introducing Character, Meet Cute
• E3Conversation, Framing, Tracking
• E4Staging, Journey, Discovery
• E5Adult/Child, Economy, Editing
• E6POV, Close-up, Dream
• E7Bodies, Sex
• E8Home, Religion, Work
• E9Politics, Gear Change, Comedy
• E10Melodrama, Sci-Fi, Horror & Hell
• E12Reveal, Memory, Time
• E13Life Inside, The Meaning of Life, Love