Running Time: 90 minutesCountry: US, France, Iran, Afghanistan, India, China...
Cast: Agnes Varda [France], Ellen Kuras, Celiana Cardenas, Emiko Omori, Mona Kasra, Rosette Ghaderi [Iran], Ariana Delawari, Shakiba Adil, Marie Ayub, Meenakshi Shedde, Ashok Mehta...
Director: Alexis Krasilovsky
This made-by-women-for-women documentary, based upon Alexis Krasilovsky’s book of the same name, connects globally, exploring the lives of camerawomen in Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Mexico, Russia, Senegal, and other countries in a way never seen before. From the secret films by camerawomen of Taliban beating Afghani women, to historic footage by China’s first camerawomen of Mao’s travels through the Chinese countryside… From the playful narrative of a Russian filmmaker who learned the art from her father, her choice of career told as a love story, to rural India, where subsistence-level women are taught camerawork as a means of empowerment, to the glowing young Senegalese camerawoman willing to climb onto a man’s shoulders – literally – to get her subject, Professor Krasilovsky shows us a world of beauty, courage and technical skill.
Rosette Ghaderi, one of Iran's first female Directors of Photography, studied cinematography at the University of Tehran. She says that there is no support for women cinematographers and DP's in Iran, but nevertheless, by demonstrating her skill, speed and talent, she was able to shoot her first film in Iraqi Kurdistan and has also directed a short film (as well as shooting it) called "Parhoodeh," set in the forests of Northern Iran. 
Alexis Krasilovsky Director
Alexis Krasilovsky's "Women Behind the Camera" is based on her book, "Women Behind the Camera" (Praeger 1997), the first in-depth look at the lives of camerawomen and their struggles to succeed in a male-dominated field. After studying film history at Yale University, Alexis Krasilovsky embarked on a career as a n indpendent filmmaker and holographer. Krasilovsky was the first to include the film techniques of zooming and dissolving in a motion pictures hologram, "Created and Consumed by Light" (1975). Her pro-choice Hologram, "Childbirth Dream," was exhibited at the Georges Pompidou Center, Paris and other museums and festivals here and abroad. She later received an MFA in Film/Video from Cal Arts. As head of her own production company, Rafael Film (New York and Los Angeles), Krasilovsky has written, directed, produced and shot numerous documentaries, video-poems and art films, including "End of the Art World," "Beale Street," "Exile," "What Memphis Needs" and "Blood."Alexis is currently a professor in the Department of Cinema and Television Arts at California State University, Northridge, where she has taught film production, screenwriting and film studies. She and her son live in Los Angeles, where she continues to make her own movies.
