Wonder Woman and The Hooded Utilitarian

Last month I went to see a documentary film in a cozy loft called Chicago Filmmakers. I had never been there before and saw with interest that the movie-viewing area was just 30 feet by 30 feet with low ceilings, and about 50 of the 70 seats were filled that evening.

The film was about Wonder Woman more than anything else but, on occasion, it drifted from that centerpoint to examine feminist issues in greater generality. Gloria Steinem was interviewed on screen and talked about her choice to feature WW on the 1972 cover of Ms. Magazine #1 (as wonderfully drawn by Murphy Anderson). Also Gail Simone and Lynda Carter were in there and, in the scene where Trina Robbins was interviewed in her studio we got to see that her comics spinner rack is filled with Little Lulu and Barbie comics (of course I showed you my spinner back here). The film took still images from some WW comics and animated them in visually interesting ways and I especially liked what they did with a locomotive on a 1940s Sensation Comics cover.

An introduction before the screening and a panel discussion afterward were moderated Noah Berlatsky, the blogger who runs the Hooded Utilitarian site (and whom I wrote about back here). Noah did not particularly care for the animations in the film but he told the audience that he is writing a book about the Golden Age Wonder Woman.

The website for Wonder Women: The Untold Story of American Superheroines is over here and on it you can view a four-minute trailer for the movie.