Films by UMass Amherst Professor Chosen for Preservation by New York Women in Film & Television

June 24, 2008

Contact:

Liane Brandon 617/782-9148

AMHERST, Mass. – Two early films by Liane Brandon, professor emeritus of education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, have been selected for restoration and preservation by the New York Women in Film & Television’s Women’s Film Preservation Fund.

Brandon, who was one of the first independent women filmmakers to emerge from Boston during the early women’s movement, says the funding will be used to restore “Anything You Want to Be,” released in 1971, and “Betty Tells Her Story,” which came out a year later. Brandon estimates that restoring and preserving the two films will cost about $7,000 to $10,000.

The New York Women in Film & Television’s Women’s Film Preservation Fund is the first and only program dedicated to identifying, preserving and restoring films in which women have had significant creative roles.

At the time Brandon started making films, there were few women making independent films and even fewer who were dealing specifically with women’s political issues. Her films demonstrated that women had an important role to play in the predominantly male independent film movement. Both titles have become milestones in the women’s movement, have been screened extensively in festivals around the world, and continue to be used in school and university film and social studies curricula.

Released in 1971, “Anything You Want to Be” became a landmark in both the women’s and political film movements. It features a bright high school girl who is repeatedly told that she can be “anything you want to be” but who repeatedly, and humorously, collides with sex-role stereotypes. It was one of the first motion pictures to examine the external pressures and the more subtle, internal pressures a girl faces in finding her identity.

“Betty Tells Her Story” is a 1972 documentary about contemporary culture’s emphasis on female beauty. Betty tells of her search for the perfect dress. She tells the story twice, the first time describing in delightful detail the saga of her search, and the second time revealing her sadness and vulnerability at what happened afterward. The contrast between the two stories is haunting. “Betty Tells Her Story” was one of the earliest non-fiction films to give voice to an individual (not famous or glamorous) woman.

“Betty Tells Her Story” received national recognition a year later when critic Gene Siskel wrote about it in the Chicago Tribune and invited Brandon to discuss it with him on his nationally syndicated radio program. He liked the film so much that he programmed it at a screening in Chicago with Jack Nicholson’s “Drive He Said” as his two favorite films of the year.

Brandon, who is also a photographer, taught in the UMass Amherst School of Education from 1973 until her retirement in 2004. She is a co-founder of New Day Films, a nationally known feminist/social issue cooperative that has pioneered the distribution of films and videos about women, and a founding member of FilmWomen of Boston, and Boston Film/Video Foundation.

Her films have been featured on HBO, The Learning Channel, USA Cable and Cinemax, and have been presented at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum and the Chicago Art Institute. They have twice received Blue Ribbons at the American Film Festival. Her other films include “How to Prevent A Nuclear War,” “Sometimes I Wonder Who I Am” and “Once Upon a Choice.” They are distributed by New Day Films.

The Women’s Film Preservation Fund was founded in 1995 in association with the Museum of Modern Art. The goal of the WFPF is to ensure that the contributions of women to film history are not forgotten. WFPF has preserved more than 75 films including Barbara Koppel’s “Harlan County USA” (1976), Cinda Firestone’s “Attica” (1974) and works by pioneering film directors Lois Weber and Alice Guy-Blache.

New York Women in Film & Television is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to helping women reach the highest levels of achievement in film, television and new media. It is part of a network of 40 chapters representing 10,000 women and men around the world.

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