Through women's eyes

Abstract

Through Women's Eyes includes a 22-minute documentary film about wives of military veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The stories of the women are told in an intimate and emotional way. Employing this type of visual storytelling, the filmmaker aims to draw people's attention to narratives that are overlooked in the media and to invite the audience to engage in discussion about the struggles of military veterans' spouses. The project advances not only professional but also academic conversation about documentary filmmaking. The scholarly research focuses on American female independent documentary filmmakers. Based on feminist epistemology and previous research, the study looks into how female professionals consider the role of gender in the industry. Four filmmakers were interviewed and data was analyzed using grounded theory method. The study concludes that gender plays an important role in documentary filmmaking and works as an advantage in some situations while raising challenges in others. Numbers show that more and more women are entering the field of non-fiction video storytelling, and, thus, discussion about women's work in the industry becomes crucial. This study offers important concepts and ideas for future research.