R-Rated Radical – The Films of Stephanie Rothman

In exploitation cinema, she is a first, and she stands out: Stephanie Rothman is the first female director to work for Roger Corman at the newly founded studio New World Pictures. She depicts men as frequently naked as women. And she uses the freedoms that the genre allows, beyond the requirements of sex and violence, to portray her female characters as independent and emancipated. With film projects that are often thematically simplistic, low budgets, and tight deadlines, Rothman’s creativity unfolds, not least as a contribution to the genre. Corman’s fears that her style would alienate the predominantly male audience are countered by her argument that the topics and discussions sparked by the Women’s Liberation movement would also lead to a shift in the young audience’s demand. She was proven right: “THE STUDENT NURSES” became a box office success and consolidated Corman’s production company. The film also triggered an entire Student Nurse cycle, which continued in a Student Teacher cycle. Stephanie Rothman’s cinema was style-defining: a prison film that ends in a utopia, unemployed working girls with academic training and without a happy-marriage ending, or a “sex film” in which open relationships are institutionally integrated. Rothman also repeatedly integrated current social issues: the abortion debate, the Chicano underground movement, the discussion about the abolition of the death penalty… The label “feminist exploitation studio,” with which Corman and his New World were soon labeled by critics, was thanks to her.

R-Rated Radical. The films of Stephanie Rothman showcases five feature films by the director, most of them as analog copies. With films by Barbara Peeters, Christina Hornisher, Amy Holden Jones, and Katt Shea, the program contextualizes Rothman’s film work with that of other female directors who also made exploitation films. The work of Filipino director and producer Cirio H. Santiago highlights how the exploitation film market, driven by commercial interests, advanced international connections. Santiago co-produced various films with New World as well as with Dimension Pictures. At Dimension, Rothman worked with her husband Charles S. Swartz after her time with Corman.

A retrospective by the Kinothek Asta Nielsen e.V. in collaboration with the cinema of the DFF.

Curated by Gaby Babić, Andreas Beilharz, and Verena Mund

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