"Judy Chicago & the California Girls" is a lively and engaging documentary on a significant moment in the history of feminist art and pedagogy. Filmmaker Judith Dancoff gets lots of credit for recognizing and preserving a unique moment in the history of American art.
"Judy Chicago & the California Girls" is a vivid cinema-verité on feminist art in the early 1970s. It works both as an historical document and an intellectual study--long overdue for rediscovery.
"Judy Chicago & the California Girls" is now available for purchase on DVD or video. An important document of the art and ideas of early '70s feminism, the film explores the day-to-day life of Chicago's first all-woman art program at Fresno State College. Highlights include a visit by feminist theorist Ti-Grace Atkinson, Chicago's early performance pieces the "Cock Cunt Play" and the "Cunt Cheer", and the beginning of the philosophy that shaped the artist's later work. Some of Chicago's students who appear in the film and went on to become important artists in their own right include Faith Wilding, Suzanne Lacy, Nancy Youdelman and Vanalyne Green.
Awards, Fesitvals, Screenings and Collections:
- Los Angeles International Film Festival, Whitney Museum, Armand Hammer Museum, National Museum of Women in the Arts, California Institute for the Arts, Otis College of Art & Design, the University of Southern California, Princeton University, Stanford University, the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe, the University of Chicago, the University of California, the University of Capetown, South Africa, and numerous other institutions.