Women and Film History International

February’s riveting edition of ONLINE WITH SFFP is now streaming!
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Image of man and woman holding film camera. Caption: Elaine Basil and Leo Seltzer, at work on 16mm. productions for use in schools, museums, health centres, hospitals, etc. At present they are making a three-reel 35mm. sound film for the New York Civil Service Commission, which also will be released as a 16mm. Photo by Sid Friend. Source: AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, November 1939. https://archive.org/details/americancinemato20unse/page/514/mode/2up

Meet Elaine Basil (pictured here with better-known documentarian Leo Seltzer)! Directed/co-directed at least three nonfiction films in late 1930s and ‘40s, including FROM HAND TO MOUTH for WPA. Naturally, I want to drop everything else I’m doing and learn more about her.

archive.org/details/amer...

Book Launch: Women in Hollywood’s Dream Factory A virtual launch of Women in Hollywood’s Dream Factory: Tales of Inequality, Abuse, and Resistance edited by Karen McNally.

Delighted to be hosting a book launch for the new edited collection WOMEN IN HOLLYWOOD’S DREAM FACTORY: TALES OF INEQUALITY, ABUSE & RESISTANCE. Join us March 18. 📚
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launc...

To Be an Actress by Yiman Wang - Paper Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.

Congrats to @hahumiaomiao.bsky.social!!
Her book To Be an Actress: Labor & Performance in Anna May Wong's Cross-Media World won Honorable Mention in the Media, Performance & Visual Studies category of the 2026 Assoc for Asian American Studies Book Awards!!
www.ucpress.edu/books/to-be-...

In “Doing More with Less: Informed Speculation as Method,” Allyson Nadia Field embraces the forms of imaginative, creative, and experimental writing of film/media history while at the same time urging rigorous and responsible scholarship

Download for free and hold it close— doi.org/10.1525/fmh....

The 2026 Schedule at a Glance | Socially Relevant FF This is a list of the films at our Rejoice Resist: BIPOC Films Program, March 12 & 13, and at Cinema Village from March 14-16. They are the documentaries, the narrative features, and one block of shor...

Hey NYC nasty women!!! We're overjoyed to announce that Karen Pearlman's brilliant archival doc BREAKING PLATES will screen in NYC at Cinema Village on March 15 in the 2026 Socially Relevant Film Festival. 🍽️🌪️📽️

*Please spread the word and don't miss the film! ❤️*

www.ratedsrfilms.org/the-schedule...

Even though I was late today, was still inspiring to attend @aurspiers.bsky.social’s book talk @wfhinetwork.bsky.social event. Her work and the community of attendees virtually gathered to discuss is much needed during these challenging times!

Coming in April from @criterion.bsky.social! FINALLY! 🎉
@wfhinetwork.bsky.social

www.criterion.com/boxsets/8685...

Join us this Friday for a fascinating dive into silent-era style.

When films didn’t speak, fashion did.
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Moviemaking Before Men | Playgirl Elinor Glyn, June Mathis, Alice Guy-Blaché, Lois Weber: The many women who achieved dazzling success in the first years of Hollywood.

Great piece by WFPP contributor @laurah.bsky.social!

playgirl.com/entertainmen...

Congrats to the indomitable @aurspiers.bsky.social on official publication of ARCHIVING THE PAST. Go to @ucpress.bsky.social to order your copy! @wfhinetwork.bsky.social is proud to be hosting virtual members-only book talk w/ Aurore later this month. To join WFHI...
www.ucpress.edu/books/archiv...

Wien: Retrospektive und Ausstellung “First Action Heroes”

🎬 Wien: Vom 16. Januar bis 04. Februar 2026 zeigen das Filmarchiv Austria und das Filmmuseum Düsseldorf die Retrospektive “First Action Heroes”. Spielort ist das Metro Kinokulturhaus: www.stummfilm-magazin.de/aktuelles/ar...
#stummfilmmagazin #filmmuseumdüsseldorf #filmarchivaustria #wien

www.wfhi.org/join

The Silent London Poll of 2025: vote for your winners now Happy holiday Silent Londoners! They say that if you remember 2025, then you weren’t watching enough silent movies. How much do you recall? For myself I sure watched a lot of silent films, cl…

Time to vote, vote, vote in the annual Silent London Poll of silent film excellence! silentlondon.co.uk/2025/12/21/t...

It's here! Go and pre-order a copy of ARCHIVING THE PAST for yourself and for your library! The book uncovers the story of women in France who, from the 1920s–1970s, played critical roles in the production of global cinema's history, as archivists, witnesses, and activists. @ucpress.bsky.social

FUEL THE ADVOCACY THAT SAFEGUARDS CINEMA’S PAST 🎞️

Advocacy is a core part of San Francisco Film Preserve’s mission. Your support helps elevate the essential work of moving image preservation—here in the Bay Area and across the global film heritage community. #FilmSky
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It was a joy to write this festival report on Il Cinema Ritrovato '25 in Bologna!! (Highlights include contortionist snake ladies 🐍 & smashing the patriarchy! 🔨) FREE to read via @ucpress.bsky.social in the sizzling new issue of @filmquarterly.bsky.social 🎞️🎊 !!

online.ucpress.edu/fq/article/7...

Hot off the press!!! "Smashing the Patriarchy in Bologna: A Feminist Dispatch from Il Cinema Ritrovato" by CFNW co-curator @hennefem.bsky.social is now *live* and FREE to read in the new issue of Film Quarterly!! 🎞️😍 @filmquarterly.bsky.social

online.ucpress.edu/fq/article/7...

• GRANTS AND PRIZES
SFFP sponsors two annual travel grants to enable young professionals to attend the Association of Moving Image Archivists conference. We also support the @wfhinetwork.bsky.social student essay prize.
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"Offering a feminist history of cinema at the edges of empire and the nation-state, this book explores how gender, class, and ethno-religious divisions were projected, performed, and entangled."

Torn is the Curtain: Early Film Cultures in Istanbul | Berghahn Books Independent Publishing since 1994

Check out former WFHI steering committee member Canan Balan's new book "Torn is the Curtain: Early Film Cultures in Istanbul."

www.berghahnbooks.com/title/BalanT...

Found by a student of my colleague Eli Boonin-Vail’s at SUNY Albany:

New Rochelle, NY: theater taken over by Thanhouser star Fan Bourke in 1916. She says: “I think that a woman is as well qualified, if not better qualified, to run a neighborhood motion picture theatre, than a man."

🎬Our interview series "Data Practices, Provenance, and Categorizations in Film History" is out now! 👉 doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Our #DAVIF project partners discuss how data practices and institutional and theoretical frameworks shape film-historical #metadata.

#digitalfilmhistory #culturalheritage

Volume 11 Issue 4 | Feminist Media Histories | University of California Press

I find it v difficult to put into words how honored and lucky i feel to have edited this issue on feminist historical methods, to have had so many important pieces of writing and thinking entrusted to me over these last few years. 1/
online.ucpress.edu/fmh/issue/11/4

Our Fall 2025 issue "Notes on Historical Methods" is now live! In her introduction, Katherine Groo reflects on the voices of historical writing, the long history of feminist methods, and the guiding concept and structure of the "note" itself.

Open access for a limited time:
doi.org/10.1525/fmh....

Exciting new documentary entering circulation! ELVIRA NOTARI: BEYOND SILENCE about Italy’s first woman director + journey to bring her work back to life. Trailer (w/ English subs) here. First learned of Notari via Giuliana Bruno’s classic monograph STREETWALKING ON A RUINED MAP
vimeo.com/1125241996

We actively are seeking hosts for future Women and the Silent Screen conferences, including WSS 2027!

A helpful potential host info sheet & the application form can be found here: www.wfhi.org/about-wss.

If you are interested in hosting WSS 2027, please submit a proposal by 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟕, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓.

Great line-up for the Silent Film Festival in Bruges this week!!! Including guest intros by @wfhinetwork.bsky.social Prez @katesac.bsky.social & live music by Maud Nelissen, Hilde Nash, Daan van den Hurk, & Kabir Khan. 😍🎶🎞️

lumiere-brugge.be/stom2025/

Friendly reminder, gentle colleagues. Propose !
Save the dates.