Gene Walz mentions:
"To give your students a better perspective on women in American film, you
should probably move past the romantic auteurist notion of the film's
director to a more 90s take on the industry--women producers and studio
heads."
 
 
This is a good point.  Gale
Anne Hurd would be an important
producer/"auteur" in this regard.
 
Penelope Spheeris is a particularly interesting case--someone
who has gone from documenting the heavy metal underground music
scene to doing film remakes or film versions of TV shows!
 
Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)
 
----
Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite 
http://www.sa.ua.edu/screensite