Gwendolyn Audrey Foster facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Gwendolyn Audrey Foster
Born	1960 (age 64–65) United States
Education	Rutgers University (B.A. English, 1983) University of Nebraska–Lincoln (M.A., 1992; Ph.D., 1995) Douglass College
Occupation	Scholar, filmmaker
Known for	Women Who Made the Movies
Partner(s)	Wheeler Winston Dixon
Awards	1998 AAUW Emerging Scholar 2004 College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Gwendolyn Audrey Foster is a talented filmmaker, artist, and author. She used to be a special professor of Film Studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Her work often explores important topics like gender, race, and how people interact with the environment. She also looks at how different social groups are shown in movies and art.

From 1999 to 2014, she helped edit a magazine called Quarterly Review of Film and Video. She retired from teaching in 2020.

Becoming a Scholar and Filmmaker

Gwendolyn Foster studied English at Douglass College, which is part of Rutgers University, and earned her first degree in 1983. She then continued her studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where she earned her master's degree in 1992 and her doctorate degree in English in 1995.

Her Work and Creations

Gwendolyn Foster taught many different courses at the university. These included classes on how movies are made, films by women directors, and how movies show different cultures and social groups. She also taught about environmental themes in films and TV.

She has written many books and articles about film. Her writings cover topics like movies made by women, films that explore environmental issues, and how movies reflect society.

Foster is also a filmmaker. She made a documentary in 1991 called Women Who Made the Movies. She also directed a feature film called Squatters in 1994. More recently, she has created short experimental films. These include the Gaia Triptych series from 2016, which are short films about the environment. Some of her other short films have interesting titles like Earth TV and The Passenger.

Gwendolyn Foster and Wheeler Winston Dixon wrote a popular textbook together called A Short History of Film. They also help edit several book series about movies and popular culture. These books offer new ideas and perspectives on films from around the world.

Her films have been shown at many famous places and festivals. These include Outfest LA, The Nederlands Filmmuseum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her work has been seen by audiences in many countries, from the United States to India, Korea, and Sweden.

In 2018, a special show of her video art was held in Poland. She also presented her videos in Texas and Amsterdam that year. Her film Self Portrait [Détournement] was shown at the Anthology Film Archives in New York. Her experimental films were also shown on TV in the Netherlands.

Personal Life

Gwendolyn Foster's partner is Wheeler Winston Dixon, who is also a well-known film scholar.

Books She Has Written

Gwendolyn Foster has written or co-written many books about film and culture. Here are some of them:

• Disruptive Feminisms: Raced, Gendered, and Classed Bodies in Film (2016)
• Hoarders, Doomsday Preppers, and the Culture of Apocalypse (2014)
• 21st Century Hollywood: Movies in the Era of Transformation, with Wheeler Winston Dixon (2011)
• A Short History of Film, with Wheeler Winston Dixon (2008, updated in 2018)
• Class-Passing: Performing Social Mobility in Film and Popular Culture (2005)
• Performing Whiteness: Postmodern Re/Constructions (2003)
• Experimental Cinema: the Film Reader, co-edited with Wheeler Winston Dixon (2002)
• Troping the Body: Etiquette, Conduct and Dialogic Performance (2000)
• Captive Bodies: Postcolonialism in the Cinema (1999)
• Women Filmmakers of the African and Asian Diaspora: Decolonizing the Gaze, Locating Subjectivity (1997)
• Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary (1995)
• Identity and Memory: The Films of Chantal Akerman (2003)

Films She Has Directed

Here is a film Gwendolyn Foster directed: