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Tamra Davis: Draft

Career

At the beginning of her career, Tamra Davis started producing music videos. Davis first shot a film using a super 8 mm camera during her time at Los Angeles City College which caught the attention of MTV. Davis started working with MTV soon after her video. During her career, Davis ended up directing over 155 music videos. MTV encouraged her empathy towards multicultural and feminist issues. Christina Lane stated in her book Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break that as a person who was knowledgeable towards feminist politics, Tamra Davis wanted to empower young women to feel good about their sexuality. She used her platform to voice feminist ideas and empower girls. .

The Polygram Video’s program called No Alternative: A benefit for AIDS, education and relief had a section in their program where they had multiple independent film directors create a series of short films. Tamra Davis directed a short film in this series called No Alternative Girls which discussed gender inequality.

In 1992 Tamra Davis directed Guncrazy (1992), a film which starred actor Drew Barrymore. This film was a remake of the 50s film Gun Crazy. Many books and articles have stated that her film had similar elements to Bonnie and Clyde. There were mixed reviews for her film, some saying it was too violent and others said the violence was necessary for the story she was telling. When asked about the violence of the film Tamra Davis said she did it because she wanted a strong emotional reaction from the audience. In the book, Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break, it was expressed that Davis was not cautious when it came to her audiences’ emotions. Davis stated, “I wanted to say something about how our society abuses people and yet gives them violent possibilities to turn that abuse back onto society.”. Before the production of the film, Davis researched reactions teenagers had to sexual abuse. Davis said that she also looked at how a teenage girl’s everyday life, such as, social life, changed after the abuse.

By 1993 Davis directed another film called CB4 (1993). Originally, director Rupert Wainwright was asked to direct the film. Davis was their second choice after Wainwright turned the project down. According to Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, the comedy made fun of the seriousness and sexism of rap music videos while also taking a look at how Hollywood has misused African-American culture in the industry. Foster also examined that Davis was not part of the writing of this film. However, it was noted that she did add her own knowledge of music videos, rap, and politics into the film. The book Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break discussed difficulties Davis had with the production of the film. These difficulties included a limited time to film, the filming conditions due to the heat was difficult, and the script was changed often. The book Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break also mentioned that Tamra Davis speaks highly of her time working on CB4. Foster wrote in her book, Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary that this film proved Davis’ skills as a comedy director.

According to an article in the New York Times, Tamra Davis had trouble finding a good location for the Western for the film she was originally supposed to direct, Bad Girls (1994).

In the books Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break and Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary state the studio disagreed with the feminist approach of the film Bad Girls (1994). According to multiple sources, many producers were in disagreement with what Davis wanted within the film. The book Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break discussed the budget given was not enough to provide Davis with the equipment she needed. In the end, Davis was replaced with director Jonathan Kaplan. With the new director, the script was rewritten and the earlier footage was scraped.

Filmography

Bad Girls (“removed from production during filming; footage scrapped”) (1994)

No Alternative Girls

References

Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey. Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995.

Lane, Christina. Feminist Hollywood: From Born in Flames to Point Break.Contemporary Film and Television Series. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000

Levy, Emanuel. Cinema of Outsiders: The Rise of American Independent Film.New York: New York University Press, 1999

Weinraub, Bernard. "Hollywood Recycles the Western to Offer New Heroes: Women.” New York Times (1923-Current File), May 03, 1993