Women Film Pioneers Project

Together with Annie van den Oever, I was honored to interview Jane Gaines for NECSUS. Come for the history of Visible Evidence & @wfpproject.bsky.social; stay for the reflections on speculative historiography, Fredric Jameson's legacy & current attacks on higher ed.

necsus-ejms.org/the-historic...

New issue alert!! I was chuffed to write this short piece on Ossi Oswalda for FILMBLATT -- *many thanks* to Philipp Stiasny for translating to German. 🎞️

www.filmblatt.de/2025/11/22/f...

Lots of gems in here by @mharrabin.bsky.social et al + gorgeous images courtesy of @blomamsterdam.bsky.social!

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."

Archiving the Past by Aurore Spiers - 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.

Advance copies of this beaut arrived today! Congrats to author @aurspiers.bsky.social!! Can’t wait for you all to read it.

www.ucpress.edu/books/archiv...

Image of devil from Hell-Bound Train (James & Eloyce Gist, 1930)

Image of drinking youth from Hell-Bound Train (James & Eloyce Gist, 1930)

Image of devil from Hell-Bound Train (James & Eloyce Gist, 1930)

Image of young robber in a mask and holding a pistol from Hell-Bound Train (James & Eloyce Gist, 1930)

Horror ppl should watch Hell-Bound Train (James & Eloyce Gist, 1930) on @criterionchannl.bsky.social. The Gists were Black evangelists & amateur filmmakers who used their films in their sermons. This film is a catalogue of sins. Even w/ no budget, it has surprisingly haunting moments throughout.

Tildy Winks – 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.

New to WFPP: Richard Abel on film reviewer and writer Tildy Winks!

The woman using this catchy nom de plume, unfortunately, remains unknown, unlike earlier "girl reporters" or concurrent film reviewers.

🎬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

A Virgin's Sacrifice (1922) is now streaming on the NFPF site with new music by Michael Mortilla. Starring Corinne Griffith, this snowbound tale was preserved photochemically by @eastmanmuseum.bsky.social and is available for home viewing for the first time.

www.filmpreservation.org/preserved-fi...

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....

Must-see melodrama alert. Next Sunday, one of the best films in the BFI Melodrama season, the silent 1925 STELLA DALLAS, screens in NFT1 with the incredible orchestral score by Stephen Horne – who also introduces the screening. whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/defau...

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

Casting Shadows: Women’s Work at the Projection Department of Maison de la Bonne Presse (1895-1920) – 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.

𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐖𝐅𝐏𝐏: Bart G. Moens's overview essay "Casting Shadows: Women’s Work at the Projection Department of Maison de la Bonne Presse (1895-1920)."

Emilie Sannom – 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.

Happy Birthday to Danish actress/stuntwoman/screenwriter Emilie Sannom!

Mrs. George Randolph Chester – 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.

"For Lillian Chester, who wrote under the name Mrs. George Randolph Chester, the experience of 'collaboration' guided not only her encounter with the Hollywood industry, but almost every facet of her professional and personal life." wfpp.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-...

#BOTD

Ruth Stonehouse – 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.

"Acting in hundreds of early comic films, writing six and directing ten of these, Ruth Stonehouse was involved in film production from a very early date." wfpp.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-... #BOTD

Adriana and Dolores Ehlers – 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.

With her sister, Adriana Ehlers (b. Sept. 28, 1894) worked in film labs, sold projection equipment, shot documentaries and more.

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.

Beatrice Maude Tildesley – 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.

Beatrice Maude Tildesley "was one of very few Australian intellectuals to write seriously on the cinema and can lay claim to being the country’s foremost independent film critic and commentator for a decade beginning in the mid-1920s."

Julienne Mathieu – 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.

New to WFPP: Mercedes Álvarez San Román on animator, film actress, and trick specialist Julienne Mathieu!

Josephine Rector – 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.

"Josephine Rector’s career in cinema as a scenario writer and actress is closely associated with Essanay." wfpp.columbia.edu/pioneer/ccp-... #BOTD

Esther Eng – 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.

#Bornonthisday in 1914: filmmaker Esther Eng!

Renée Deliot – 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.

Happy Birthday to Italian screenwriter Renée Deliot!

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!

Hazel Burnett – 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.

"Hazel Burnett, as she was primarily known, was a theater accompanist who performed in Texas’s biggest motion picture palaces in the 1910s and 1920s." wfpp.columbia.edu/pioneer/haze... #bornonthisday

Asta Nielsen – 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.

Happy Birthday to Asta Nielsen!

Fatma Begum – 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.

𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐖𝐅𝐏𝐏: Z. Rubi S. Lozoya on Indian director, screenwriter, and producer Fatma Begum!

Tsuru Aoki – 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.

Happy Birthday to Tsuru Aoki (born September 9, 1892)!