Women Who Made the Movies

A film by Gwendolyn Foster and Wheeler Dixon

1992 | 55 minutes | Color/BW | DVD | Order No. 99055

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SYNOPSIS

From the very beginnings of motion picture history, women have played prominent roles in front of the camera. But little is known about the major roles women played behind the camera as directors, writers, editors and other creative roles. Women were making films of great importance at the same time that better known male directors such as Edwin S. Porter and D.W. Griffith were monopolizing cinema history. Until recently, many of their contributions have been forgotten or ignored.

WOMEN WHO MADE THE MOVIES traces the careers and films of directors such as Alice Guy Blaché, arguably the first person to direct a film with a plot in 1896, "La Fée Aux Choux," who also experimented with color, synchronized sound, and films that gradually became more and more ambitious in length and subject matter. Others documented in this film include Ida Lupino, who also had a long career as an actor; Ruth Ann Baldwin, who directed numerous early westerns; Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler's film propagandist; as well as Dorothy Davenport Reid, Lois Weber, Kathlyn Williams, Germaine Dulac, Cleo Madison and many other women who made a lasting contribution to film history.

WOMEN WHO MADE THE MOVIES features film clips, stills and other archival materials, bringing to life the work of these essential and often neglected filmmakers.

PRESS

"Infuriates and exhilarates all at once-infuriating that such film giants have been shunned by history, exhilarating to have them discovered and put in their proper perspective."

Ally Acker Author, Reel Women

SCREENING HIGHLIGHTS AND AWARDS

Chicago Filmmakers FF

ABOUT FILMMAKER(S)

Wheeler Dixon

Wheeler Winston Dixon is the James Ryan Professor of Film Studies, Coordinator of the Film Studies Program, Professor of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and, with Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, co-editor of the new book series Quick Takes: Movies and Popular Culture for Rutgers University Press. He is the author of more than thirty books on film history, theory and criticism, as well as more than 100 articles in various academic journals. In addition, he is active as an experimental film and video artist. Dixon's films have been screened at The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Anthology Film Archives, Filmhuis Cavia (Amsterdam), Studio 44 (Stockholm), La Lumière Collective (Montreal), The BWA Katowice Museum (Poland), The Microscope Gallery, The National Film Theatre (UK), The Jewish Museum, The Millennium Film Workshop, The San Francisco Cinematheque, The New Arts Lab, The Collective for Living Cinema, The Kitchen, The Filmmakers Cinematheque, Film Forum, Experimental Response Cinema and elsewhere.

In 2003, Dixon was honored with a retrospective of his films at The Museum of Modern Art, and his films were acquired for the permanent collection of the Museum, in both print and original format. His recent books include Black & White Cinema: A Short History (2015); Streaming: Movies, Media and Instant Access (2013); and Death of the Moguls: The End of Classical Hollywood (2012). Dixon's textbook A Short History of Film (2008, co-authored with Gwendolyn Audrey Foster) has just been published in a third edition in 2018. (7/19)

Gwendolyn Foster

Gwendolyn Audrey Foster is the Willa Cather Endowed Professor of English and Film Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she teaches courses specializing in film, class, race and gender studies, as well as eco-critical approaches to film and popular culture. In addition, she is the co-editor of the new book series Quick Takes: Movies and Popular Culture for Rutgers University Press. Her many books include such titles as A Short History of Film (Rutgers University Press, co-written with Wheeler Winston Dixon, second edition 2013; third edition 2018); Class-Passing: Social Mobility in Film and Popular Culture (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005); Performing Whiteness: Postmodern Re/Constructions (State University of New York Press, 2003); and Identity and Memory: The Films of Chantal Akerman (Southern Illinois University Press, 2003).

As a filmmaker, Foster's work has been screened at Outfest (LA), Bi Arts Festival (Toronto), Anthology Film Archives (NYC), Nederlands Filmmuseum, Rice Museum, Collective for Living Cinema, Swedish Cinemateket, National Museum of Women in the Arts (DC), Bibliotheque Cantonale (Switzerland), International Film Festival of Kerala (India), Films de Femmes (Creteil), Women's Film Festival (Madrid), Kyobo Center, (Korea), Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), UniversitÃ© Laval (Quebec), Forum Yokohama (Japan), Amos Eno Gallery (NYC), SLA 307 Art Space (NYC), Maryland Institute College of Art, Studio 44 (Stockholm), Museum of the Future (Berlin), X-12 Festival (UK), BWA Contemporary Art Museum (Poland), Filmhuis Cavia (Amsterdam), nGKB gallery (Berlin), Chimeres Space (Athens), Engauge Festival (Seattle), and many other venues and festivals around the world. (07/19)

Subject Areas

Film History History

Filming Desire:

“In this bold documentary Marie Mandy asks the question: how do women directors film love, desire, and, especially, sexuality? In rare interviews with many of the leading women directors working in the world today – including Sally Potter, Agnès Varda, Catherine Breillat, Doris Dörrie, Deepa Mehta, Moufida Tlatli, Safi Faye, and Jane Campion – FILMING DESIRE: A JOURNEY THROUGH WOMEN'S CINEMA directly engages the sexual politics of cinematographic choice. Powerfully illustrated with film clips from their own work, the directors discuss the reality of an explicit women’s point of view, the possibility of a women’s cinematic language, and the desire in their films to ‘fantasize and dream a new image of themselves’. While discussing how their depictions of sexuality and relationships are correctives, they also reflect on the sexual differences in selection of image, shot, and story. The film also provides a virtual anthology of the debates about the body, sexuality, power, and passion one sees in contemporary feminist and film theory: the body in representation and image; as a subject of censorship; as the vehicle of desire and love; as the contested ground of cinematic production; and as part of women’s identity and voice. Explicit, funny and beautifully edited, FILMING DESIRE weaves an intriguing essay that is international in scope and reflective of the great diversity of women filmmakers. Essential viewing for classes in women’s studies, film studies, sexuality, body image, and feminist theory.” – Joseph Boles, Visiting Scholar, Center for Visual Culture, Bryn Mawr

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Golden Gate Girls

In GOLDEN GATE GIRLS author and professor S. Louisa Wei tells the story of filmmaker Esther Eng, the first woman to direct Chinese-language film in the US, and the most prominent woman director in Hong Kong in the 1930’s. A San Francisco native and open lesbian, her contribution to film history is sadly overlooked – her 11 feature films mostly lost. After the retirement of director Dorothy Arzner in 1943 and before Ida Lupino began directing in 1949, Eng was the only woman directing feature length films in the US. Wei’s documentary paints a fascinating picture of how Eng’s career in filmmaking broke through gender and racial boundaries in Hollywood and Hong Kong, at a time when opportunities for Chinese women in the industry were few and far between. With a captivating archive of newly discovered images and interviews with those who knew her, Wei uncovers a rich chapter of film history that challenges both gender hierarchies and national narratives. Essential viewing for Cinema Studies and Asian American Studies.

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Girl From God’s Country: The History of Women in Film and Other War Stories

GIRL FROM GOD'S COUNTRY is the untold story of the first female independent filmmaker and action-adventure heroine, Nell Shipman (1892-1970), who left Hollywood to make her films in Idaho.

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