Women & Film: The First Feminist Film Magazine

This short essay provides an introduction to the short-lived but influential magazine Women & Film, published in California between 1972 and 1975. Two graduate students, Siew-Hwa Beh (b. 1945) and Saundra Salyer (b. 1946), from the University of California, Los Angeles, and San Francisco State, respectively, were the founders of this pioneering publication devoted entirely to providing a feminist perspective on film. They set up the magazine in response to a collision between their radical leftist and feminist politics and their cinephilia. This essay contextualizes some examples, which are reproduced here, of the first issue's contents. It also sheds light on the eclectic and impassioned approach adopted by the magazine's editors and contributors, bolstered by accompanying excerpts and images.