Francine Parker
Encyclopedia
Francine Parker was an American
television and film director
, who was one of the first female members of the Directors Guild of America
. Parker was best known for her controversial documentary
, FTA
, which chronicled the antiwar entertainers tour, Free The Army tour
(FTA), during the Vietnam War
. The FTA tour and its documentary featured anti-Vietnam War celebrities Jane Fonda
and Donald Sutherland
interacting very frankly with American soldiers. Parker's film, which was released in 1972, was pulled from theaters within weeks of its release due to heavy criticism. It has been rarely viewed since 1972.
as Francine Schoenholtz on December 18, 1925. She received her bachelor's degree
from Smith College
and her master's degree
in theater directing from Yale School of Drama
. Parker first arrived in Los Angeles
in 1950.
condensed weeks worth of footage and traveling into a ninety minute film. This film did feature anti-war celebrities, such as Jane Fonda, but much of the screen time was also devoted to the reactions disillusioned American servicemen. Parker filmed F.T.A.
as she traveled with the tour onto American military bases in the eastern Pacific. Like the tour, FTA stood for Free The Army, though the thousands of soldiers featured in the film and the tour often used profanities when repeating the title. The film was co-produced
by Francine Parker, Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland.
Parker's film debuted in 1972, the same week that actress Jane Fonda
controversially visited Hanoi
, the capital of North Vietnam
. However, the film was pulled from theaters by American International Pictures
just weeks later under what fellow filmmaker David Zeiger
called "questionable circumstances."
F.T.A. was screened years later at a Directors Guild of America screening
in 2005. At the screening, director Oliver Stone
said that Francine Parker had concluded that "calls were made from high up in Washington
, possibly from the Nixon White House
, and the film just disappeared." Jane Fonda also commented after viewing the film in 2005 that, "I must say, looking at it now, it's no wonder," that the film was pulled from theaters.
Director David Zeiger incoprorated footage
from Parker's film into his own 2005 film, Sir! No Sir!, which explored the anti-war movement spearheaded by soldiers in the 1960s and 1970s. Zeiger called Parker's film "a lost classic that has real resonance today."
F.T.A. was screened again at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam
on November 22, 2007. Francine Parker had been scheduled to attend before her death earlier in the same month.
of the early 1960s television show What's My Line?
asked her to appear on the show because they were sure that the panelists would never believe that a woman would be a television director. However, the show was canceled by the network before Parker could appear.
Parker produced a series of one-hour play
s for PBS called "Jews and History" in 1966. The film series explored the contributions of Jews to the arts throughout history. In a review of Jews and History the Los Angeles Times
seemed astounded of the, "odds of a female producer selling anthologized culture on television."
Parker was the eleventh woman to join the Directors Guild of America
when she was inducted as a member in 1971. She taught film directing at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, for 18 years.
She helped found and became president of the Women for Equality in Media. As president, she led 1971 a march on the American Film Institute
for its lack of women in AFI programs that were partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
. The AFI responded. The number of women admitted to the AFI's Center for Advance Film Studies rose from zero in 1969 to seven women by 1973.
in Los Angeles
, aged 81.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television and film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
, who was one of the first female members of the Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
. Parker was best known for her controversial documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, FTA
FTA
FTA may stand for:* The Faery Tale Adventure, a computer game* Freight Transport Association* Failure to appear, a legal term* Fault tree analysis, a systems engineering term* Federación de Trabajadores Arubanos, the Aruban Workers' Federation...
, which chronicled the antiwar entertainers tour, Free The Army tour
Free The Army tour
The FTA Tour , a play on the troop expression "Fuck The Army", which in turn was a play on the army slogan "Fun, Travel and Adventure") was an anti-Vietnam War road show designed as a response to Bob Hope's USO tour....
(FTA), during the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. The FTA tour and its documentary featured anti-Vietnam War celebrities Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
and Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
interacting very frankly with American soldiers. Parker's film, which was released in 1972, was pulled from theaters within weeks of its release due to heavy criticism. It has been rarely viewed since 1972.
Early life
Francine Parker was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
as Francine Schoenholtz on December 18, 1925. She received her bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
from Smith College
Smith College
Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
and her master's degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in theater directing from Yale School of Drama
Yale School of Drama
The Yale School of Drama is a graduate professional school of Yale University providing training in every discipline of the theatre: acting, design , directing, dramaturgy and dramatic criticism, playwriting, stage management, sound design, technical design and production, and theater...
. Parker first arrived in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
in 1950.
F.T.A.
Francine Parker's documentary of the Free The Army tourFree The Army tour
The FTA Tour , a play on the troop expression "Fuck The Army", which in turn was a play on the army slogan "Fun, Travel and Adventure") was an anti-Vietnam War road show designed as a response to Bob Hope's USO tour....
condensed weeks worth of footage and traveling into a ninety minute film. This film did feature anti-war celebrities, such as Jane Fonda, but much of the screen time was also devoted to the reactions disillusioned American servicemen. Parker filmed F.T.A.
F.T.A.
F.T.A. is a 1972 American documentary film starring Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland and directed by Francine Parker.-Overview:Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and a collection of performers and musicians put together a touring satirical revue to perform at coffeehouses and parks near American army...
as she traveled with the tour onto American military bases in the eastern Pacific. Like the tour, FTA stood for Free The Army, though the thousands of soldiers featured in the film and the tour often used profanities when repeating the title. The film was co-produced
Film producer
A film producer oversees and delivers a film project to all relevant parties while preserving the integrity, voice and vision of the film. They will also often take on some financial risk by using their own money, especially during the pre-production period, before a film is fully financed.The...
by Francine Parker, Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland.
Parker's film debuted in 1972, the same week that actress Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda
Jane Fonda is an American actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model, and fitness guru. She rose to fame in the 1960s with films such as Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She has won two Academy Awards and received several other movie awards and nominations during more than 50 years as an...
controversially visited Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
, the capital of North Vietnam
North Vietnam
The Democratic Republic of Vietnam , was a communist state that ruled the northern half of Vietnam from 1954 until 1976 following the Geneva Conference and laid claim to all of Vietnam from 1945 to 1954 during the First Indochina War, during which they controlled pockets of territory throughout...
. However, the film was pulled from theaters by American International Pictures
American International Pictures
American International Pictures was a film production company formed in April 1956 from American Releasing Corporation by James H. Nicholson, former Sales Manager of Realart Pictures, and Samuel Z. Arkoff, an entertainment lawyer...
just weeks later under what fellow filmmaker David Zeiger
David Zeiger
David Zeiger is an American film director and producer.Zeiger is best known for directing the documentary Sir! No Sir! and the PBS documentary series Senior Year, Displaced in the New South, which inspired The Indigo Girls song Shame on You, and The Band.-External links:...
called "questionable circumstances."
F.T.A. was screened years later at a Directors Guild of America screening
Film screening
A film screening is the displaying of a motion picture or film, generally referring to a special showing as part of a film's production and release cycle...
in 2005. At the screening, director Oliver Stone
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. Stone became well known in the late 1980s and the early 1990s for directing a series of films about the Vietnam War, for which he had previously participated as an infantry soldier. His work frequently focuses on...
said that Francine Parker had concluded that "calls were made from high up in Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, possibly from the Nixon White House
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
, and the film just disappeared." Jane Fonda also commented after viewing the film in 2005 that, "I must say, looking at it now, it's no wonder," that the film was pulled from theaters.
Director David Zeiger incoprorated footage
Footage
In filmmaking and video production, footage is the raw, unedited material as it had been originally filmed by movie camera or recorded by a video camera which usually must be edited to create a motion picture, video clip, television show or similar completed work...
from Parker's film into his own 2005 film, Sir! No Sir!, which explored the anti-war movement spearheaded by soldiers in the 1960s and 1970s. Zeiger called Parker's film "a lost classic that has real resonance today."
F.T.A. was screened again at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam
International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam....
on November 22, 2007. Francine Parker had been scheduled to attend before her death earlier in the same month.
Career
Francine Parker was considered an anomaly when she began her career, because there were so few female film directors working in the industry. She was considered such a novelty that producersTelevision producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
of the early 1960s television show What's My Line?
What's My Line?
What's My Line? is a panel game show which originally ran in the United States on the CBS Television Network from 1950 to 1967, with several international versions and subsequent U.S. revivals. The game tasked celebrity panelists with questioning contestants in order to determine their occupations....
asked her to appear on the show because they were sure that the panelists would never believe that a woman would be a television director. However, the show was canceled by the network before Parker could appear.
Parker produced a series of one-hour play
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
s for PBS called "Jews and History" in 1966. The film series explored the contributions of Jews to the arts throughout history. In a review of Jews and History the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
seemed astounded of the, "odds of a female producer selling anthologized culture on television."
Parker was the eleventh woman to join the Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
when she was inducted as a member in 1971. She taught film directing at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, for 18 years.
She helped found and became president of the Women for Equality in Media. As president, she led 1971 a march on the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
for its lack of women in AFI programs that were partially funded by the National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
. The AFI responded. The number of women admitted to the AFI's Center for Advance Film Studies rose from zero in 1969 to seven women by 1973.
Death
Francine Parker died of heart failure on November 8, 2007, at Cedars-Sinai Medical CenterCedars-Sinai Medical Center
Originally established as Kaspare Cohn Hospital in 1902, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a non-profit, tertiary 958-bed hospital and multi-specialty academic health science centre located in Los Angeles, California, US. Part of the Cedars-Sinai Health System, the hospital employs a staff of over...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, aged 81.