The Booksmith is thrilled to be welcoming Kevin Smokler back to The Booksmith for Break the Frame: Conversations with Women Filmmakers on May 22 at 7pm. He'll be in-conversation with filmmaker Tiffany Shlain. Please join us! RSVP is not required, but appreciated. Seats are limited and can be guaranteed with the purchase of a book.

See you at the shop!

About the book

A diverse group of women filmmakers speak for themselves about their careers and their work

In the twenty-first century alone, women filmmakers have succeeded at directing every size, genre, and style of motion picture. Their movies have won Oscars (Free Solo), made actors into household names (Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone), received induction into the Library of Congress's National Film Registry (Real Women Have Curves), and become worldwide box office phenomena (Captain Marvel, Deep Impact). Nevertheless in 2023, the year of Barbie, women directed only 12% of the top 250 movies in America. demonstrating how far moviemaking remains from gender parity. When women filmmakers succeed, they do so against these odds.

Break the Frame is a collection of 24 career-spanning interviews with America's celebrated, reigning, and rising women filmmakers. Each conversation considers the director's complete filmography as a map of their evolving artistry and evidence of their unassailable contributions to a historically misogynist industry. Author Kevin Smokler listens as women filmmakers speak to the struggle and triumphs of developing and directing movies that are shaping how the film business sees women in the director's chair, and how their audiences see themselves and each other. This book is both an opportunity and invitation to devote one's time, admiration and enthusiasm to movies directed by women.

About the authors

Kevin Smokler is the author of 3 books on pop culture including Brat Pack America: A Love Letter to 80s Teen Movies (2016) and Practical Classics: 50 Reasons to Reread 50 Books you Haven't Touched Since High School (2013) and the co-director of the award winning 2022 documentary film Vinyl Nation. He lives in San Francisco with his wife and many books, vinyl records and movies directed by women. 

Honored by Newsweek as one of the "Women Shaping the 21st Century," Tiffany Shlain is an multidisciplinary artist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, national bestselling author, and the founder of the Webby Awards. Working across mediums, Shlain's work explores ideas in feminism, philosophy, technology, neuroscience, and nature. Her work has been shown at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Sundance Film Festival and US embassies globally.

Her sculpture Dendrofemonology A Feminist History Tree Ring, was installed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. and was in Madison Square Park in NYC for a Mobilization for Women's Rights and the Planet, to kick off Climate Week Sept 2024. 

Her films have received over 65 awards, and have multiple premiers at Sundance. Shlain’s national bestselling book, 24/6: Giving up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection, received the Marshall McLuhan Outstanding Book Award. Her recent film on neuroscience The Teen Brain was just released and is executive produced by Goldie Hawn and the MindUP program. She has been writing a monthly newsletter Breakfast @ Tiffany Shlain's for over 28 years.

About the bookstore

The Booksmith is an independent bookstore located in the Haight Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco since 1976.