Four Women (1975 film) explained

Four Women
Director:	Julie Dash
Producer:	Winfred Tennison
Cinematography:	Robert Maxwell
Starring:	Linda Martina Young
Music:	Nina Simone
Runtime:	8 minutes
Country:	United States

Four Women is a 1975 short experimental film produced and directed by Julie Dash featuring music by Nina Simone.^[1]

Summary

Dancer Linda Martina Young captures the spirit of four women: Aunt Sarah, Saffronia, Sweet Thing and Peaches to the Nina Simone ballad Four Women.^{[2] [3]} The women represent stereotypes of black women as they attempt to survive in America.^[4]

Production

Linda Martina Young choreographed the dance performance, which Dash refers to as a "choreopoem".^[5]

The film is celebrated as one of the first experimental films by a black woman filmmaker. The film, unlike others that portrayed the positive aspects of black womanhood, explored the negative realities many black women face in America.^[6]

Restoration

In addition to the original 16mm rolls, a new print was created from the color negative A/B rolls and original track negative.^[7]

Screenings

• Cinema Remixed and Reloaded Exhibit, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, 2007
• One Way or Another: Black Women's Cinema, BAMcinematek, 2016
• L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema Exhibit^[8]
• We Wanted a Revolution: :Black Radical Women, 1965-1985, Brooklyn Museum, 2017.^[9]

Notes and References

1. Book: Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. Women Film Directors: An International Bio-critical Dictionary. registration. 99. four women.. 1995. Greenwood Publishing Group. 9780313289729. en.
2. Web site: Four Women UCLA Film & Television Archive. www.cinema.ucla.edu.
3. Web site: May 2, 2017 – Saltwater Stories.
4. Web site:

   cinenova catalogue:: detail for Four Women

   . www.cinenova.org. en.
5. Web site: Julie Dash The HistoryMakers. www.thehistorymakers.org.
6. Dozier. Ayanna. No happy returns: aesthetics, labor, and affect in Julie Dash's experimental short film, Four Women (1975). Feminist Media Studies. 17. 4. 616–629. 10.1080/14680777.2017.1326561. 4 July 2017. 148678504.
7. Web site: Four Women UCLA Film & Television Archive. www.cinema.ucla.edu.
8. Web site: Four Women. www.twn.org.
9. Web site: Brooklyn Museum: Julie Dash Film Marathon April 2017. www.brooklynmuseum.org.