American working-class cinema exists – but it’s by and about women

A still from American Honey, starring Sasha Lane, Shia LaBeouf, and Riley Keough. ‘American cinema – albeit independent – is narrating a range of working-class lives’ writes Dr Sophie Mayer. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Paul Mason (How will the movie industry respond to the Trump era?, 15 November) might like to watch, for starters, Frozen River (Courtney Hunt), Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik), Middle of Nowhere (Ava DuVernay), Amreeka (Cherien Dabis), Drunktown’s Finest (Sydney Freeland), Tangerine (Sean Baker), American Honey (Andrea Arnold) and Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt) to get a fuller picture of how American cinema – albeit independent – is narrating a range of working-class lives. Yes, the protagonists – and directors – are predominantly women. Perhaps, beyond chastising the money-chasing studios, it’s more pertinent to insist that the media amplify these powerful, award-winning films that already exist, so that audiences can find and see them. Could it be, as Laura Dern’s character says in Certain Women, that no one is paying attention to them because they are (by and about) women?
Dr Sophie Mayer
Author, Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema

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