The Circuit

by Lisa Nesselson
In the 10 editions of the Vienna International Film Festival this American has attended, there has always been a sidebar or retrospective that illuminates some unjustly obscure corner of Yank filmmaking.  When the programming truly clicks, it feels like a missing nutrient has been added to one's filmgoing diet, the way a dose of magnesium or zinc can repair a listless demeanor.

This year's thematic treat was a retrospective of the low-budget features Stephanie Rothman (the first woman ever to win the Directors Guild of America Fellowship) co-wrote and directed for Roger Corman's New World Pictures and under her own Dimension Pictures banner between 1970  and 1974.

Rothman, trim and dry-humored, read a clever context-tailored speech prior to each screening of "The Student Nurses" (pictured right), "The Velvet Vampire," "Group Marriage" (pictured above, a 1973 opus that almost certainly features the first matter-of-fact betrothal on film of two men), "Terminal Island,"and "The Working Girls," films that proudly incorporate feminist musings into a narrative landscape peppered with gratuitous nudity. Although the films ARE dated (in not-unpleasant ways), Rothman's tuning fork took the then-measure of social and political conflicts with admirable pitch. 

In a time when a woman was more likely to land a job "directing" toddlers not to eat their Play-Doh than directing a full-fledged film crew and a handsome cast, Rothman proved that she could tell a story on film with punch and flair -- and the results made money.  Ironically, where having made celluloid confections that contributed to Corman's coffers worked just fine for the likes of a Martin Scorsese or a John Sayles, exploitation roots (unfairly) proved detrimental to Rothman's subsequent career.