Image: Still via Vimeo
For decades, Star Wars has been treated as a series for boys — but ever since 1977, girls and women all over the world have loved the saga too. A new documentary plans to speak to those female fans to see what inspired their relationship with the galaxy far, far, away, and the heartwarming trailer is worth a watch.
Shot at the recent Star Wars Celebration event in Orlando, Florida, Annalise Ophelian’s Looking for Leia has a simple premise: ask female fans about why they love Star Wars, and how it’s helped them survive in the landscape of popular culture fandom, something that has a rocky history with marginalizing minority and female voices.
Speaking to the Verge, Ophelian says the documentary — which is still in the process of filming and interviewing fans — speaks not just to the ways Star Wars has inspired legions of women for the past four decades, and united women of all ages through that shared love, but also the ways female fandom reflects the issues of sexism that still exist throughout their lives:
The perception of male dominance in fandom is, I think, accurate, and a reflection of how sexism functions in the world. I think women’s fandom is in many ways a reflection of how women have always navigated that sexism.
Ophelian expects Looking for Leia to release in Summer 2018, and you can find out more about the project at the link below.
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5 responses to “A Beautiful New Documentary Highlights The Women Who Love Star Wars”
Looks good.
“For decades, Star Wars has been treated as a series for boys”, ha. Haha, hahahahahahahahahaha.
Growing up in the 80s and 90s there’s was barely a female fandom. 6 films, only 2 female characters, loads of male characters, the recent backlash about 2 new female protagonists and Rae didn’t event get an action figure to begin with. While I wouldn’t say it was anti-female, there’s no way up until the last 15ish years i would consider it to be targeted equally at male and female audiences.
Why does it have to be targeted equally? Why should things have to be changed if there is an already established fanbase?
Wait I know the answer to this one…. money