Beyond gender inclusivity: Susanne Bier, feminism and female authorship

Abstract

This article explores women directors’ conditional inclusivity within male-dominated filmmaking spaces, taking as an example Susanne Bier’s successful engagement with Dogme 95, an internationally renowned Danish film movement that has often been considered favourable to women. Focusing on Bier’s performance of authorship in interviews following the release of Open Hearts (2002), I analyse Bier’s resistance to the domineering discourses she encountered in the process of establishing her international auteur presence. Bier’s selective commitment to the movement’s ‘Vow of Chastity’ suggests a ‘creative promiscuity’ that challenges the generic and geographical borders that circumscribe women’s filmmaking. Such an analysis can provide the necessary qualitative data to illuminate reports commissioned by national film industries as they confront persisting inequalities. It can thus counter discourses that use individual women’s successes as ostensible proof that feminism is unnecessary and promote an understanding of the cultural changes needed to progress from conditional inclusivity to real equality.