Barbara Zecchi (UMass Amherst) is the author of Desenfocadas. Cineastas españolas y discursos de género, published in the Mujeres y culturas series (Icaria, 2014). This volume proposes an analysis of about a hundred Spanish films which have in common having been directed by women, a corpus which Zecchi designates as "ginocinema". With the notion of authorship as a guiding principle, Desenfocadas analyzes four generations of female film-makers: the pioneers in film direction during the times of silent cinema, the women directors during the first stages of sound, the "mothers" during the Transition period and their "hereisses", the film directors of today. From the forerunners such as Carmen Pisano, Anaïs Napoleón and Rosario Pi Brujas, to Isabel Coixet and Icíar Bollaín, Zecchi aims at rescuing female film directors from the shadows and oblivion of the masculine world which constitutes the film industry.
