Refocus: The Films of Doris Wishman - (Refocus: The American Directors) by Alicia Kozma & Farrah Freibert (Paperback)

About the Book

ReFocus: The Films of Doris Wishman positions Wishman as a significant and overlooked force in American independent film.

Book Synopsis

Producer, distributor, and director Doris Wishman (1912-2002) was a pioneering woman in the film industry, leaving a body of work almost 30 films strong. Largely overlooked by critical and cultural analysis, Wishman worked in the normatively neglected film genre of sexploitation and adult film, but works like Hideout in the Sun (1960), Bad Girls Go To Hell (1965), Double Agent 73 (1974) and Each Time I Kill (2007) demonstrate an interest in complicated, ideological and often troubling social performances of the contemporary human condition.
ReFocus: The Films of Doris Wishman positions Wishman as a significant and overlooked force in American independent film, with an impact on how we currently understand the categories of cult, exploitation, horror, experimental and avant-garde cinema.

From the Back Cover

Producer, distributor, and director Doris Wishman (1912-2002) was a pioneering woman in the film industry, leaving a body of work almost 30 films strong. Largely overlooked by critical and cultural analysis, Wishman worked in the normatively neglected film genre of sexploitation and adult film, but works like Hideout in the Sun (1960), Bad Girls Go To Hell (1965), Double Agent 73 (1974) and Each Time I Kill (2007) demonstrate an interest in complicated, ideological and often troubling social performances of the contemporary human condition. ReFocus: The Films of Doris Wishman positions Wishman as a significant and overlooked force in American independent film, with an impact on how we currently understand the categories of cult, exploitation, horror, experimental and avant-garde cinema. Alicia Kozma is Chair and Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Washington College. Finely Freibert is a part-time Senior Lecturer in Comparative Humanities at the University of Louisville and an adjunct Lecturer at the Kentucky College of Art and Design.

Review Quotes

This book is a must for scholars in a range of different areas. The collection explores the sexual politics of Wishman's films and provoke fascinating questions about our understanding of genre. It also explores what it means to consider Wishman an "artist" and, in the process, explores her relationship to other filmmakers and film movements. In short, this book is much more than a study of a fascinating figure: it provides a fascinating take on film history in particular, and cultural history more generally, that demands to be read by those who have never heard of Wishman and who may consider themselves uninterested in lowbrow culture more generally.-- "Mark Jancovich, University of East Anglia"

About the Author

Dr Alicia Kozma is Chair and Assistant Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Washington College.

Dr Finley Freibert is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies in the School of Media Arts at Southern Illinois University. He is co-editor with Alicia Kozma of Refocus: The Films of Doris Wishman (EUP, 2021).