Bette Gordon

Gordon began making films in the mid-1970s in the Midwestern United States, including in Chicago, Illinois and Madison, Wisconsin. These short films were experimental, dealing with movement through place, sexuality, culture, and structure.{{Cite web|title=BETTE GORDON: THE ARTIST THAT PAINTS IMAGES WITH LIGHT – desistfilm|url=https://desistfilm.com/bette-gordon-the-artist-that-paints-images-with-light/|access-date=2022-01-21|language=en-US}} She cites French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard as a major inspiration to her as an artist and a filmmaker saying, "Having grown up through the '70s, I could not have found a more appropriate mentor. His radical approach to the use of sound and image helped shape me as much as the questions he asked the viewer to consider, most importantly, the relationship between truth and fiction."{{Cite web|title = Filmmaker Interview: Bette Gordon Digs Into "Handsome Harry"|url = http://www.indiewire.com/article/filmmaker_interview_bette_gordon_digs_into_handsome_harry|website = Indiewire|access-date = 2016-02-05|last = Indiewire| date=15 April 2010 }} She also lists Wong Kar Wai's In the Mood for Love, R.W. Fassbinder, John Cassavetes and films like The Last Picture Show and Midnight Cowboy as inspirational for their portrayal of relationships and love. She considers the time she spent in New York in the early 1980s instrumental to her career because she was able to collaborate with new artists for the sake of creating art rather than making money.{{Cite web|title = Tribeca Takes: Bette Gordon on Handsome Harry {{!}} Tribeca|url = https://tribecafilm.com/stories/512c13751c7d76d9a9000874-tribeca-takes-bette-gordo|website = Tribeca|access-date = 2016-02-05}} At that period, she also shifted to making more feature-length films.{{Cite web|title=Film Professor Bette Gordon: Retrospective at Anthology Film Archives April 14–17|url=http://arts.columbia.edu/film-professor-bette-gordon-retrospective-anthology-film-archives-april-14-17|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160213222703/http://arts.columbia.edu/film-professor-bette-gordon-retrospective-anthology-film-archives-april-14-17|archive-date=2016-02-13|access-date=2016-02-05|website=arts.columbia.edu}} She is a friend of actor Steve Buscemi and cast him in her film Handsome Harry because she felt as though it was a role unlike any he had ever played before. Gordon married Australian filmmaker Tim Burns and they have one daughter, Lili Burns.

In December 2023, alongside 50 other filmmakers, Gordon signed an open letter published in Libération demanding a ceasefire and an end to the killing of civilians amid the 2023 Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, and for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to be established for humanitarian aid, and the release of hostages.{{cite news|date=28 December 2023|title=Gaza : des cinéastes du monde entier demandent un cessez-le-feu immédiat|url=https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/tribunes/gaza-des-cineastes-du-monde-entier-demandent-un-cessez-le-feu-immediat-20231228_WMAUSVJVLFEBNK4ME4XU3ZRU3M/|newspaper=Libération|language=fr|access-date=24 January 2024}}{{cite web|url=https://thefilmstage.com/claire-denis-ryusuke-hamaguchi-kiyoshi-kurosawa-christian-petzold-apichatpong-weerasethakul-more-sign-demand-for-ceasefire-in-gaza/|title=Claire Denis, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Christian Petzold, Apichatpong Weerasethakul & More Sign Demand for Ceasefire in Gaza|last=Newman|first=Nick|date=29 December 2023|website=The Film Stage|access-date=24 January 2024}}{{cite news|date=31 December 2023|title=Directors of cinema sign petition for immediate ceasefire|url=https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-780176|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post|access-date=24 January 2024}}

Gordon is said to be "known for her bold explorations of themes related to sexuality, violence and power."{{Cite web|title = Bette Gordon|url = http://arts.columbia.edu/film/faculty/bette-gordon|website = arts.columbia.edu|access-date = 2016-02-08|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160214014305/http://arts.columbia.edu/film/faculty/bette-gordon|archive-date = 2016-02-14|url-status = dead}} Her film Variety explores the relationship between women, pornography and voyeurism. The title character of the film "turns the tables on men"{{Cite journal

| last = Gaines

| first = Jane

| date = Winter 1995

| title = Feminist Heterosexuality and Its Politically Incorrect Pleasures

| url =

| journal = Critical Inquiry

| volume = 21

| issue = 2

| pages = 382–410

| doi = 10.1086/448757

| pmid =

| s2cid = 161480523

}} by renegotiating the historically exploitative relationship between men and women with respect to pornographic films. She says, "My films have always focused on the visual aspects of storytelling. I've been drawn to stories in which color, texture and mood are as central to the narrative as character and plot."{{Cite web|title = Filmmaker Interview: Bette Gordon Digs Into "Handsome Harry"|url = http://www.indiewire.com/article/filmmaker_interview_bette_gordon_digs_into_handsome_harry|website = Indiewire|access-date = 2016-02-08|last = Indiewire| date=15 April 2010 }} Though much of her work is focused on women and the female experience, some of her recent work - most notably Handsome Harry - examines the social constraints placed on men and tensions between hetero-normative masculinity and homosexuality.{{Cite news|title = Jamey Sheridan Stars in Bette Gordon's New Film|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/16/movies/16handsome.html|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 2010-04-15|access-date = 2016-02-08|issn = 0362-4331|first = Stephen|last = Holden}} In the film, described as "relentless" by a review in The New York Times, the main character is struggling to confront the emotional and physical trauma he and his friends inflicted on a homosexual friend while in the Navy many years prior.

Gordon holds a BA, MA, and MFA from The University of Wisconsin–Madison and is now a part of the film department of Columbia University School of the Arts.{{Cite web|title = Film Professor Bette Gordon: Retrospective at Anthology Film Archives April 14–17|url = http://arts.columbia.edu/film-professor-bette-gordon-retrospective-anthology-film-archives-april-14-17|website = arts.columbia.edu|access-date = 2016-02-08|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160213222703/http://arts.columbia.edu/film-professor-bette-gordon-retrospective-anthology-film-archives-april-14-17|archive-date = 2016-02-13|url-status = dead}} Some of her films are now a part of permanent collections in several different museums including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

• 1974: Michigan Avenue (short)
• 1974: I-94 (short)
• 1975: United States of America (short; co-directed with James Benning)
• 1976: An Algorithm (short)
• 1978: Exchanges (short)
• 1980: Empty Suitcases (short)
• 1981: Anybody's Woman
• 1983: Variety
• 1986: Greed - Pay to Play (short)
• 1998: Luminous Motion
• 2003: Life on the Line (TV Movie)
• 2009: Handsome Harry
• 2016: The Drowning

• {{IMDb name | 0330028 }}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Bette}}

Category:Film directors from Massachusetts

Category:American women film directors

Category:Living people

Category:1950 births

Category:American film editors

Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni

Category:Columbia University faculty