Women Behind the Camera

As this Photoplay magazine cover from October 1916 points out, the new "style" in cameramen is women. Or so it seemed. These were the days before Hollywood became the all-profit zero-originality billion dollar mens club that it is today. But what do i know? I'm just a blogging film fan stuck in a small town. Nevertheless, it's my personal mission to seek out the unusual, the obscure, those unfamiliar works from the crevices of cinematic history and present them to my small local audience. All because I love the craft of film and it's a hell of alot of fun to do it.
Not sure how to best format this entry, so i'll just start with a filmmaker and go from there.
Alice Guy-Blaché(1873-1968). that's where we'll begin.
Believed to be the first to direct a narrative film, she began as a secretary for Léon Gaumont, borrowed a camera to make a short film and within a year became head of film production for Gaumont. She had, amazingly, produced over 400 short films by the time she emigrated the the US in 1907. a statistic that makes me feel absurdly lazy and unproductive when it comes to film production.
In America, she formed her own film studio, Solax, where she oversaw production of over 300 films. In other words, she was there from the inception of narrative film, produced a ton of work and no one has heard of her. That's why i'm so excited to have Cecile Starr as a special guest film curator on Tuesday. among other short works (all produced by women), we'll feature Guy-Blaché's A HOUSE DIVIDED(1913), a domestic comedy that deals with the mutual suspicions of unfaithfulness.

Other films will span the history of women making short films, the latest of which will be Deanna Morse's CHARLESTOWN HOME MOVIE (1980).

all presented in beautiful 16mm. Don't miss it.