Women and Film History International

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.

Word is out!!! The curators of Cinema's First Nasty Women -- Elif Kaynakci, @hennefem.bsky.social, @laurah.bsky.social -- will co-deliver the UCLA Copley on Silent Cinema & Costume Design at the Giornate del Cinema Muto this year. 👒☔🌪️

📍 Thursday 9th October, Teatro Verdi in Pordenone
Save the date!

Iris Barry on Radio 4 Where would we be without Iris Barry? Where would all the films be, more to the point? Iris Barry was a pioneering film critic and film preservationist whose life is every bit as interesting as the…

Iris Barry on Radio 4! silentlondon.co.uk/2025/09/18/i...

We've reactivated WFHI's listserv!!

You can join here:
lists.simplelists.com/WFHINetwork/...

We look forward to exchanging feminist film historiographical research (and research questions), relevant scholarly and archival news and events, resources, and more with you all!

Silent reading: Summer 2025 book reviews Let Me Dream Again: Essays on the Moving Image, by Luke McKernan Sticking Place Books, September 2025, In case there could be anyone reading this site who doesn’t know, Luke McKernan is a media his…

Looking for a new beach read? We have you covered silentlondon.co.uk/2025/08/20/s...

🤩 🤩🤩

Our Treasurer @tanyagoldman.bsky.social is talented!

Yuliya Solntseva in THE CIGARETTE GIRL OF MOSSELPROM (1924). She was married to Aleksandr Dovzhenko and co-directed with him, going solo after his death.

She won Best Director at Cannes for CHRONICLE OF FLAMING YEARS (1961), the first (and, for decades, only) woman to do so.

On Friday, July 18, Dr. Veronica Johnson will give an online presentation on the history of the Film Company of Ireland, and its co-founder Nell O’Mara Sullivan. Hosted by San Francisco Film Preserve, this event is not to be missed!

Register here: filmpreserve.org/event/online...

Sold out screening of THE RED KIMONA (1925) at #IlCinemaRitrovato with brilliant intro by @shelleystamp.bsky.social & sizzling catalog notes by @katesac.bsky.social & live accomplishment by Meg Morley!!! 🎞️🎶🤩 festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/proiezion...

Some great silent screenings at @cineredis.bsky.social this year, chiefly two films starring the wonderful Anna May Wong!

Don't miss the BREAKING PLATES screening on Sunday afternoon at Il Cinema Ritrovato! It's sure to be a smash with @hennefem.bsky.social, @karenpearlman.bsky.social, @richardjamesallen.bsky.social, and Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi on stage 😀

festival.ilcinemaritrovato.it/en/proiezion...

Catching trains, raising riots and trashing the kitchen: travels in feminist cinema “Is this really what you want to learn from the past?” – Breaking Plates (Karen Pearlman, 2025) Let the train take the strain they say, and so I did, curating my own idiosyncratic, mostly silent, t…

Read about how much fun we just had at the Women and Silent Screen conference in Brussels/Antwerp from the one and only @pamhutch.bsky.social Many thanks to the organizers and @wfhinetwork.bsky.social who created this vital space for feminist scholarship & mayhem!
silentlondon.co.uk/2025/06/15/c...

My head is spinning after all the *brilliant* presentations and screenings today at Women & the Silent Screen!!! 🎞️📚❤️ @wfhinetwork.bsky.social @aurspiers.bsky.social @clarasilentfilms.bsky.social @rutuja.bsky.social

#IWD2025

Brilliant interview with @karenpearlman.bsky.social about her ecstatic new feminist archival doc, BREAKING PLATES, on the @nitrateville.bsky.social podcast!!! 🎞️🎶

nitrateville.com/viewtopic.ph...

BREAKING PLATES & SMASHING THE PATRIARCHY is coming to a rep cinema near you, watch out!!! 🍽️🧨

*Breaking Plates is produced by @richardjamesallen.bsky.social for the @physicaltv.bsky.social Co.! For event updates check out our @wfpproject.bsky.social webpage: wfpp.columbia.edu/cinemas-firs...

Stella F. Simon – Women Film Pioneers Project Women Film Pioneers Project is a scholarly resource exploring women’s global involvement at all levels of film production during the silent film era.

Stella F. Simon was a widowed mother of 3 when she moved to NYC to study photography from 1923 to 1925. A year later, she went to Berlin to study filmmaking.
https://buff.ly/4jGUKyu

#BOTD

Brilliant line-up for this year's 2025 edition of HippFest -- Scotland's first & only silent film festival in the beautiful Hippodrome Cinema of Bo'Ness!!!

www.hippodromecinema.co.uk/hippfest/

*The full schedule is now live*--including many online screenings & talks! 🎞️🎶😍 #SilentFilm

"Breaking Plates is metalepsis unbound .... Breaking plates, smashing frames, bursting out of constraints"‼️

adrianmartinfilmcritic.com/reviews/b/br...

Thank you @adrianpmartin.bsky.social for this beautiful review of @karenpearlman.bsky.social's brilliant new film, BREAKING PLATES (2023)!! 🎞️🍽️🌪️

Notifications regarding Women and the Silent Screen XII submissions will be sent out slightly later than planned. Please expect to hear back around mid-February.

The conference committee apologizes for any inconvenience that this delay may cause!

Incomplete by Alix Beeston, Stefan Solomon - 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 @alixbeeston.bsky.social and @stefansolomon.bsky.social whose *phenomenal* collection INCOMPLETE won Best Edited Collection at this year’s @scmstudies.bsky.social Book Awards!! Proud to have it in my Feminist Media Histories series @ucpress.bsky.social
www.ucpress.edu/books/incomp...

Stretching the Archives Toward a Global Women’s Film Heritage - Archive Books — Stretching the Archives Toward a Global Women’s Film Heritage is the result of two years of networking, workshops, and conferences that aimed to bring together scholars, archivists, and filmmakers...

New Open Access book on Archives and Global Women’s Film Heritage, edited by Lizelle Bisschoff, Ana Grgić and Stefanie Van de Peer

Stretching the Archives: Toward a Global Women’s Film Heritage
www.archivebooks.org/stretching-t...

Vote, vote!!

The Silent London Poll of 2024: vote for your winners now Season’s greetings Silent Londoners. It has been a whirlwind of a year. How much do you remember? Personally, I watched silent movies on three different continents this year, so I have some g…

As it stand, we sadly don't have enough votes in this year's poll. If we don't get a few more surveys completed, it wouldn't be fair to name any winners – so please vote! silentlondon.co.uk/2024/12/22/t...

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (Jan. 30-Feb. 9) has a "Focus on Katja Raganelli" section.

Silent-era programs include: “Katja Raganelli Meets Alice Guy,” “Katja Raganelli Meets Lotte Reiniger,” and “Katja Raganelli Meets Margery Wilson."

iffr.com/en/iffr/2025...

Criterion Channel image for "Sara Gómez's Revolutionary Cuba"

Holy cow! Do. Not. Miss. This.

Excited to be heading to the Netherlands Silent Film Festival tomorrow! 🎞️ 🎶

On Saturday, Anke Brouwers and I will present our program "Nice Work (if You Can Get It)," which is dedicated to women at work and working women of various kinds!