High Heels And Ground Glass: Pioneering Women Photographers; The Southern Sex

Two new releases from Filmmaker's Library take a look at both early women shutterbugs and at Southern belles. High Heels and Ground Glass profiles five professional women photographers who made their marks during the 1930s and 1940s. Louise Dahl-Wolf, a fashion photographer best known for her work in Harpers Bazaar recalls the aggravation of food photography which, because of her perfectionism, required her to re-position the food over and over until she was satisfied. Eiko Yamazawa, an artist photographer, finds no joy in taking pictures of the ready made; she creates her subjects and "sees" at an impressively detailed level ("a wet brick is nothing like a dry brick"). Maurine Loomis, a Hollywood photographer, recalls the pensive look in David Niven's face during their shoot on the day America entered WWII. Reporter-photographer Gisele Freund taped her negatives to her body as she fled Nazi Germany. And, Lisette Model, teacher of Diane Arbus, tells the cameraperson (whom we don't see) what she would choose to photograph about him or her (it's a weird reversal of subject and photographer and the film's most interesting scene). Overall though, for a documentary about such a highly visual subject as photography, High Heels and Ground Glass is quite uncreative in its filmic approach, offering straight talking-head shots and not nearly enough examples of the women's photographs. An interesting piece, but one that doesn't really reach out and grab you the way an excellent documentary would.The Southern Sex, on the other hand, is a refreshingly visual look at the myths of the Southern belle and coal miner's daughter and how closely they come to the realities of today's women in Kentucky. After showing a few humorous clips from film and television which assert the myths, Christine Fugate and Eren McGinnis's playful slice-of-life documentary talks to real women. In response to questions about marriage, birthing babies, keeping the home spic and span, and standing by your man, these ladies might respond with the very un-Scarlett or un-Daisy Mae like retort "why have a husband?" And they don't mean that in a rhetorical sense. Jennie Leavell, who devotes her time and life to publishing a literary magazine, says that a college education in New York probably ruined her chances for a stereotypical housewife's life, while poet Laverne Zabielski, wearing widow's black, plops a sheet music stand in the middle of a field and begins her tale of man troubles like so: "sometimes I think you can be too enlightened. Like the young Kentucky girls just entering college with hopes of marriage, children, and a loving home, the women interviewed in The Southern Sex might have begun their journeys into early adulthood as helpmates to men. But today some of them are on equal footing with their spouses, and others have dropped their excess baggage. All of them are making successful solo careers in politics, music, journalism, and the restaurant business, among other professions. Although The Southern Sex is more real people interviewing than probing documentary, it's still a very fun film with a zippy style and a light mischievous air.High Heels and Ground Glass is an optional purchase. The Southern Sex is enthusiastically recommended for larger collections. (Available from: Flicker's Library, 124 East 40th St., New York, NY 10016; (212) 808-4980.)