Deck, Megan Elizabeth2019-11-072019-11-072019https://hdl.handle.net/1794/2501029 pagesThis thesis was inspired by my passion for women filmmakers and my curiosity about how a filmmaker’s gender identity informs how women are represented in films. I investigated the complicated history of women’s role in Hollywood to learn why there are few female directors and writers working in Hollywood presently. I examined how the male-dominated film industry affects the representation of women on-screen using the concepts of the male gaze and the Bechdel test. I argued that if men create a distinctly male point of view in their filmmaking, women therefore create a female point of view, also known as the female gaze. I found that having men or women in creative production roles (directing, writing, cinematography, or producing) strongly affects how women in a film are portrayed in Hollywood films. To put theory into practice, I wrote, directed, and edited a short film with a female protagonist and recruited a film crew of all women to help me construct the female gaze.en-USCreative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-USCinema StudiesFilmFilmmakerGazeMale GazeFemale GazeThesis/Dissertation