Karyn Kusama: A Feminist Filmmaker
Today's presentation focused on three major factors of Kusama's filmmaking career: Her versatility in playing with different genres, her love of the horror industry, and her experiences working in studio vs. independently. 
Kusama has a widespread filmography genre wise. Most of her films play with multiple genres at once in order to challenge her skills, as well as make the film itself more intriguing to the audience. This keeps things fresh. Her first film Girl Fight is a mix of a sports movie with dramatic undertones. Her films Jennifer's Body and the Invitation both share a horror genre, but include other aspects to the films as well. She has even dabbled in sci-fi and action.
The horror industry is one that Karyn particularly loves, as it arises feelings in ideas to not only the audience, but the creators of the films too. She thinks that a horror film can take taboo topics or areas of society that aren't talked about enough and bring them into the conversation in an intriguing and horrific way. She definitely explores this in her movies Jennifer's Body and the Invitation, when she talks about feeling as though she can identify with the protagonists via their experiences, especially in a way a male cannot due to the inherent experiences a female is given.
Unfortunately, Kusama has dealt with the trials and tribulations of being a successful filmmaker. This includes being overrules by big production studios, where her voice and opinion is drowned out by people with money. She says that she recommends people who are especially passionate about their storytelling to go independent as there is less risk for your story to be manipulated to a simplified version to be more palatable to the audience. She also feels as though this is something that occurs more regularly to female filmmakers because they aren't as trust as men in the industry when it comes to budgets, creative control, and overall respect.
Kusama on Independent Filmmaking
https://maifeminism.com/mai-interview-with-karyn-kusama/
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0476201/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karyn_Kusama
image credit: TheLily
The horror industry is one that Karyn particularly loves, as it arises feelings in ideas to not only the audience, but the creators of the films too. She thinks that a horror film can take taboo topics or areas of society that aren't talked about enough and bring them into the conversation in an intriguing and horrific way. She definitely explores this in her movies Jennifer's Body and the Invitation, when she talks about feeling as though she can identify with the protagonists via their experiences, especially in a way a male cannot due to the inherent experiences a female is given.
Unfortunately, Kusama has dealt with the trials and tribulations of being a successful filmmaker. This includes being overrules by big production studios, where her voice and opinion is drowned out by people with money. She says that she recommends people who are especially passionate about their storytelling to go independent as there is less risk for your story to be manipulated to a simplified version to be more palatable to the audience. She also feels as though this is something that occurs more regularly to female filmmakers because they aren't as trust as men in the industry when it comes to budgets, creative control, and overall respect.
Kusama on Independent Filmmaking
Kusama on Women in Horror
Citations:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0476201/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karyn_Kusama
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