The First In-depth Historical Study of a Trailblazing Filmmaker and Feminist

“Tami Williams has produced a monumental, extraordinarily well-researched, highly readable portrait of one of the most significant figures in the history of cinema. . . . There is, quite literally, no other book like it anywhere, in any language.”
— Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, author of To Desire Differently: Feminism and the French Cinema

Tami Williams’ book “Germaine Dulac: A Cinema of Sensations” was published in August 2014 by the University of Illinois Press. In the book, “Tami makes unprecedented use of the filmmaker’s personal papers, production files, and archival film prints to produce the first critical biography and full-length historical study of Dulac. Williams’s analysis explores the artistic and sociopolitical currents that shaped Dulac’s approach to cinema while interrogating the ground breaking techniques and strategies she used to critique conservative notions of gender and sexuality. Moving beyond the director’s work of the 1920s, Williams examines Dulac’s largely ignored 1930s documentaries and newsreels establishing important links with the more experimental impressionist and
abstract works of her early period.

“This vivid, interdisciplinary portrait will be of interest to general readers, as well as scholars of cinema, visual culture (music, theater, dance), French history, women’s studies, and queer cinema.