Pioneers : first women filmmakers

Author

Roscoe Arbuckle

Call Numbers

• DVD 791.430233 P6625 DISC 1 (CEN)
• DVD 791.430233 P6625 DISC 2 (CEN)
• DVD 791.430233 P6625 DISC 3 (CEN)
• DVD 791.430233 P6625 DISCS 4 & 5 (CEN)
• DVD 791.430233 P6625 DISC 6 (CEN)

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Languages

Silent with English intertitles and score.

Publication Information

New York, NY : Kino Classics, [2018]

Physical Description

6 videodiscs (approximately 1320 minutes) : sound, black & white ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 booklet (76 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 18 cm)

Audience

Not rated.

Summary

"In the early decades of cinema, some of the most innovative and celebrated filmmakers in America were women. Alice Guy-Blaché helped establish the basics of cinematic language, while others boldly continued its development: slapstick queen Mabel Normand (who taught Charlie Chaplin the craft of directing), action star Grace Cunard, and LGBTQ icon Alla Nazimova. Unafraid of controversy, filmmakers such as Lois Weber and Dorothy Davenport Reid tackled explosive issues such as birth control, abortion, and prostitution. This crucial chapter of film history comes alive through the presentation of a wide assortment of films, carefully curated, meticulously restored in 2K and 4K from archival sources, and presented with new musical scores."--Container.

Notes

Idle wives based on the novel by James Oppenheim; '49 -'17 based on a story by William Wallace Cook; Where are my children? based on a story by Lucy Payton and Franklin Hall; The dream lady based on the novel Why not? by Margaret Widdemer; The risky road based on the story "Her fling" by Katherine Leiser Robbins; Bread based on a story by Evelyn Campbell; Salomé based on the play by Oscar Wilde; Back to God's country based on the novel Wapi, the walrus by James Oliver Curwood; The song of love based on a novel by Margaret Peterson.

Originally released as individual motion pictures from 1911-1929.

Accompanying booklet (76 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 18 cm) comprises program notes, bibliographical references, and essays by Illeana Douglas, Shelley Stamp, Bret Wood, Arthur Dong, Charles "Buckey" Grimm, Kristen Larvick, and Deborah Levy.

Special features: Audio commentaries by Alison McMahan (for Algie the miner, Falling leaves, Canned harmony, A fool and his money, and Matrimony speed limit) ; An introduction (documentary short) ; Alice Guy-Blaché (documentary short) ; About the restorations (documentary short) ; Lois Weber (documentary short) ; Mabel Normand (documentary short) ; Serial queens (documentary short) ; Social commentary (documentary short) ; commentary tracks: Bread (Anthony Slide), Salomé (Gaylyn Studlar), The red kimona (Anthony Slide) ; The end of an era (documentary short).

Contents

• Alice Guy-Blaché: Mixed pets / Tramp strategy / Greater love hath no man / Algie the miner / Falling leaves / The little rangers (fragment) Canned harmony / A fool and his money / The high cost of living / Matrimony's speed limit / The ocean waif / The colleen bawn / On the brink (fragment)

• Lois Weber: From death to life / Fine feathers / The rosary / Suspense / Lost by a hair (fragment) / Hypocrites / Sunshine Molly (fragment) / Idle wives (fragment) / What do men want? (fragment)

• Pioneers of genre: The hazards of Helen. Episode 13, The escape on the fast freight / The hazards of Helen. Episode 26, The wild engine / The purple mask. Episode 12, The vault of mystery / The purple mask. Episode 13 reel 1, The leap / A daughter of "the law" / Eleanor's catch / '49 - '17 / Caught in a cabaret / Mabel's blunder / Mabel and Fatty's wash day / That ice ticket / Ethnographic films

• Social commentary 1: Where are my children? / Her defiance / When little Lindy sang / The curse of Quon Gwon : when the Far East mingles with the West / Scandal / The dream lady

• Social commentary 2: The risky road (fragment) / Bread (fragment) / Salomé / The red kimona / Linda

• The feature film: The call of the Cumberlands / Back to God's country / The song of love