Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers

Crew

Directed by Alice Guy-Blaché Lois Weber , Helen Holmes, Mabel Normand , Grace Cunard and Dorothy Davenport Reid

In the Wild West days of early filmmaking—before Hollywood hardened into an assembly-line behemoth and boys’ club—talented women worked regularly as writers, producers, and directors, instrumental in shaping the very language of cinema as we know it. Nevertheless, figures like Alice Guy Blaché and Lois Weber are known today primarily by aficionados, and artists like Nell Shipman, Grace Cunard, and Marion E. Wong remain woefully obscure. Bringing together dozens of essential new restorations, this series spotlights the daring, innovative, and trailblazing work of the first female filmmakers and restores their centrality to the creation of cinema itself. – BAMCinematek

Box set out November 2018. Produced in collaboration with the Library of Congress.