Early Women Filmmakers

EARLY WOMEN FILMMAKERS : AN INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY

More women worked in film during its first two decades than any time since. Unfortunately, many early women filmmakers have been largely written out of film history, their contributions undervalued.  This necessary and timely collection highlights the work of 14 of early cinema's most innovative and influential women directors, rewriting and celebrating their rightful place in film history.

International in scope, this collection features over 10 hours of material, comprised of 25 films spanning 1902-1943, including many rare titles not widely available until now, from shorts to feature films, live-action to animation, commercial narratives to experimental works. Directors include Alice Guy Blaché, Lois Weber, Mabel Normand, Madeline Brandeis, Germaine Dulac, Olga Preobrazhenskaia, Marie-Louise Iribe, Lotte Reiniger, Claire Parker, Mrs. Wallace Reid (Dorothy Davenport), Leni Riefenstahl, Mary Ellen Bute, Dorothy Arzner, and Maya Deren.

These women were technically and stylistically innovative, pushing the boundaries of narrative, aesthetics, and genre. Going back to the beginning of cinema, this collection makes visible the tremendous directorial contributions women made all around the world. Restored in high definition, Early Women Filmmakers features new scores by Sergei Dreznin, Frederick Hodges, Tamar Muskal, Judith Rosenberg, and Rodney Sauer and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

This anthology is dedicated to the memory of David Shepard (1940-2017), without whom these films - along with countless others - would simply not have been made available in such beautifully-restored editions. The collection represents one of David's final produced works, completed in collaboration with several film archives, including the French National Center for Cinematography and the Moving Image (CNC), the Film Studies Center at the University of Chicago, and the Library of Congress.
 

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Format: Blu-ray-DVD Dual Format Edition  Region A/Region 1

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A landmark Blu-ray/DVD collection of newly restored films by early cinema's groundbreaking women directors.

Click here to see a complete list of titles for this 6 Disc collection.

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Total Running Time: 11:27:00 (6 Discs)

Language: English intertitles

Musical Score: Sergei Dreznin, Frederick Hodges, Tamar Muskal, Judith Rosenberg, and Rodney Sauer and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra

Audio Commentary by: Shelley Stamp, for Lois Weber's "The Blot", author, professor, and expert on women and early film culture, courtesy of Milestone Film and Video.

Booklet Text: Kate Saccone, Film historian and Women Film Pioneers Project Manager (27 pages)

Published By: Flicker Alley

Institutional Price: $700 (plus shipping)

To order call: 212.280.8654 or click here for information on ordering by fax, e-mail or post.