The Invisible Women - Developing a Feminist Approach to Film Archive Metadata and Cataloguing
Lead Research Organisation:
University of East Anglia
Department Name: Art, Media and American Studies
Abstract
Our project, "The Invisible Women - Developing a Feminist Approach to Film Archive Metadata and Cataloguing" intends to explore how film archives can take practical action to update, enhance and improve catalogue metadata via feminist research methodologies. By using this approach, we will reveal the hidden heritage related to women's creativity.
Digital metadata and catalogue records are a crucial element of how different archives represent the collections and materials they hold. Recent research has shown how existing assumptions can lead to key absences within data sets, with different groups being overlooked and hidden, including women. Within film archives records and cataloguing guidelines, for instance, international metadata schemas make women's contributions invisible by not identifying the gender of individuals. The absence of a feminist-informed approach to digital curation within existing film archive metadata systems has meant that women's creative labour is not fully acknowledged within catalogue records, which can lead to their creativity being invisible within national and regional film collections.
This project expands out from a pilot study of catalogue records from six UK regional archives conducted in 2019 which revealed the current paucity of detailed catalogue metadata relating to women filmmakers. Working with film archives, many of which are aware of the practical difficulties in converting a commitment to women filmmakers into practical actions and the limitations of recognised archival standards, wee will focus on two key aspects:
a) Offering practical interventions to qualify and expand existing and new metadata within film archives (and other archival practices)
b) Exploring the cataloguing of women amateur filmmakers across two national collections: the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers at the East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA) and the collections of the IFI Irish Film Archive (IIFA).
Women's filmmaking labour has been historically underrepresented and unacknowledged, in the world of film archives as much as in other aspects of creative work and cultural heritage. We will focus here on women within amateur filmmaking - an alternative arena of creative production that has given voice to women's creativity, interests, and concerns for almost a century. Yet amateur films have been a low priority for cataloguing or digitisation, which means there is limited metadata relating to the women filmmakers involved: records that tend to reduce or overlook women's creative labour, particularly in multiple-authored work.
By combining a focus on hidden women's creativity, the world of the women amateur filmmakers in the UK and Ireland, and the practical steps that archives can take to deepen and enrich existing and new catalogue metadata, we intend to make visible what is currently invisible. This will include creating newly digitised films by these innovative women, offering fuller catalogue records, and the practical application of our research with our partners EAFA and IIFA.
Digital metadata and catalogue records are a crucial element of how different archives represent the collections and materials they hold. Recent research has shown how existing assumptions can lead to key absences within data sets, with different groups being overlooked and hidden, including women. Within film archives records and cataloguing guidelines, for instance, international metadata schemas make women's contributions invisible by not identifying the gender of individuals. The absence of a feminist-informed approach to digital curation within existing film archive metadata systems has meant that women's creative labour is not fully acknowledged within catalogue records, which can lead to their creativity being invisible within national and regional film collections.
This project expands out from a pilot study of catalogue records from six UK regional archives conducted in 2019 which revealed the current paucity of detailed catalogue metadata relating to women filmmakers. Working with film archives, many of which are aware of the practical difficulties in converting a commitment to women filmmakers into practical actions and the limitations of recognised archival standards, wee will focus on two key aspects:
a) Offering practical interventions to qualify and expand existing and new metadata within film archives (and other archival practices)
b) Exploring the cataloguing of women amateur filmmakers across two national collections: the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers at the East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA) and the collections of the IFI Irish Film Archive (IIFA).
Women's filmmaking labour has been historically underrepresented and unacknowledged, in the world of film archives as much as in other aspects of creative work and cultural heritage. We will focus here on women within amateur filmmaking - an alternative arena of creative production that has given voice to women's creativity, interests, and concerns for almost a century. Yet amateur films have been a low priority for cataloguing or digitisation, which means there is limited metadata relating to the women filmmakers involved: records that tend to reduce or overlook women's creative labour, particularly in multiple-authored work.
By combining a focus on hidden women's creativity, the world of the women amateur filmmakers in the UK and Ireland, and the practical steps that archives can take to deepen and enrich existing and new catalogue metadata, we intend to make visible what is currently invisible. This will include creating newly digitised films by these innovative women, offering fuller catalogue records, and the practical application of our research with our partners EAFA and IIFA.
Publications
Arnold S
(2024)
Hidden in Plain Sight: Attending to Women's Amateur Filmmaking Histories at the Irish Film Archive
in Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
Johnston K
(2023)
Back into Focus: Women Filmmakers, the Amateur Trade Press and 1960s British Amateur Cinema
in Gender & History
| Description | Women filmmakers remain overlooked in archive records due to the dominance of traditional cataloguing foci - e.g. location, film content Our feminist approach to metadata has identified key women filmmakers who were engaged in different collaborative roles within amateur film production Changes to metadata practices have been identified that will allow film archives to raise the profile of women filmmakers in their collections |
| Exploitation Route | There is potential for these outcomes to shape new archival practice around the creation of catalogue records for women's film collections There is potential for our toolkit to allow archives to better understand and utilise their (current and future) collections, including commercialisation through clip sales |
| Sectors | Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://www.uea.ac.uk/web/groups-and-centres/projects/women-in-focus |
| Description | Although we are still during the lifetime of the project, initial impact has occured on project partners the East Anglian Film Archive and the Irish Film Archive. Both partner archives are in the process of making updates to their existing catalogue records: in some instances this includes making corrections to records based on project research findings. In others, it has led to project research informing the creation of entirely new catalogue records and associated metadata. The expansion of detailed catalogue records at both archive increases their contribution to ongoing cultural heritage requirements for archives, allowing them to demonstrate clear links with local, regional and nationally important filmmaking collections. The identification of a large set of (mostly) unknown women filmmakers within archival collections - and the accessibility of more digitised films for wider audiences via websites - allows these archives to demonstrate their commitment to EDI initiatives within their sector, and opens up routes to future commercialisation of the films and filmmakers via clip sales and documentary programming. Outside of the two project archives, our work has already influenced the content of the Amateur Movie Database. This online catalogue of international amateur filmmaking has updated its content based on research published on the Women in Focus project website (launched in January 2023). The international reach of this website has given more global prominence to the project. The Wessex Film and Sound Archive has also asked the UK project team to consult on the cataloguing of a new collection of films from a cine club. This work will take place during spring 2023 and will include a significant impact on the metadata and collections knowledge of this regional archive. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2022 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Economic |
| Description | East Anglian Film Archive |
| Organisation | University of East Anglia |
| Department | East Anglian Film Archive |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We are expanding the existing catalogue metadata for up to 300 titles; contributing cataloguing metadata for new films not previously digitised or catalogue. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We have been given unique access to existing catalogue records, databased, and content management software - this has included over 650 film titles to date. We have also been given access to original films in the archive and the opportunity to digitise material and benefit from both technical and curatorial staff at the archive. |
| Impact | Enhanced cataloguing metadata being added to EAFA CMS. |
| Start Year | 2014 |
| Description | Irish Film Archive |
| Organisation | Irish Film Institute (IFI) |
| Country | Ireland |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | We are expanding the existing catalogue metadata for up to 300 titles; contributing cataloguing metadata for new films not previously digitised or catalogue. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We have been given unique access to existing catalogue records and databases - this has included over 300 film titles to date. We have also been given access to original films in the archive and the opportunity to digitise material and benefit from both technical and curatorial staff at the archive. |
| Impact | Enhanced information and cataloguing metadata being added to IFA database |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Academic talk, Maynooth University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Over 70 people at Maynooth University (largely academic staff and students) attended 'Maynooth Sparks', an event designed to promote and explore current research projects. We outlined the project activities to date and responded to questions from the audience. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Curation and screening of the IAC World Tour film package at Le Giornate del cinema muto (Pordenone Silent Film Festival) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 90 film festival attendees watched a screening of 7 newly digitised amateur films (from the UK, Austria, Japan, and Spain), including 2 women filmmakers researched as part of this project. The audience had a very positive response to the films, with several questions and a discussion after the screening and via social media afterwards. The curator of te Le Giornate del Cinema Muto also commended the project on finding and presenting these films. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Exhibition of artist and filmmaker Phillipa Miller at the Museum of the Broads |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We were invited to include newly digitised films by Norfolk artist Phillipa Miller in a new free exhibition at the Museum of the Broads. Miller was a filmmaker discovered through our project research - the Museum had previously been unaware of her films and were eager to show examples alongside her artwork in this exhibition. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Global Women's Film Heritage networking event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was an initial networking event of academic, archive partners and film restoration technicians from around the world, aiming to map out neglected global women's film heritage. The network's aims include: decentring film history, ensuring more coverage of neglected filmmakers from outside Europe and the US, develop and reactive existing alliances. Key to this is making more visible the role of women and the films held in global film archive. Irish PI Dr Sarah Arnold presented on the first few months of our project, discussing our objectives and their potential overlap with the different audiences and interests present. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Interview on national radio Spirit FM (Ireland) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited to talk on Irish national radio station Spirit FM about the aims and content of the project research. Total listenership on the station is around 15,000, general public, with a focus on religious programmes. The talk covered the whole project but mentioned the women amateur filmmaker Sister Maureen MacMahon, a Dominican nun whose films are held at the Irish Film Archive. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Panel discussion and screening of female filmmaker at HippFest (Scottish silent film festival) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A panel event, audience Q&A, and film screening devoted to a 1935 "World Tour" of 7 amateur films. The panel event was a 90-minute discussion in front of a general paying audience at the Bo'Ness Hippodrome, in Scotland. The panel consisted of project UK PI Professor Keith M Johnston and UK PDRA Dr Paul Frith. Part of the discussion and audience Q&A focused on filmmaker Ruth Stuart - one of the case studies in the project - and her 1932 film, "To Egypt and Back with Imperial Airways", which was then screened afterwards as part of a separate 90-minute screening session. The discussion and screening focused other women filmmakers discovered in the film archives, including Mrs J Thubron whose co-authored film "Transport" was also part of the "World Tour" screening. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | https://www.hippodromecinema.co.uk/silent-film-festival/programme/ |
| Description | Presentation and screening of 9.5mm films made by women amateur filmmakers |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | An online presentation of project research on women amateur filmmakers working in the 9.5mm film gauge and an online screening of one film rediscovered through project engagement with our partner East Anglian Film Archive. Both the project's UK PI (Professor Keith M. Johnston) and UK Post-Doctoral Research Associate (Dr Paul Frith) presented on different aspects of the project research and introduced the film and the relevant filmmakers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Presentation and screening of selected 9.5mm archive films (including project-related women filmmakers) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a presentation and screening of archive films made in the 9.5mm film gauge at the Norwich Science Festival in February 2023 - the event took place at the Millennium Library and drew an audience of around 45 people, with ages ranging from 3 through 70. Organised by project partner, the East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA), Professor Keith M. Johnston was invited to give an introduction to the screening. This introduction contextualised 9.5mm filmmaking in Britain, explained the role of the film archive in preserving these films, commented on the range of films produced by amateur filmmakers, and highlight the specific contributions made by women amateur filmmakers to films screened. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation and screening of the IAC World Tour film package at London Silent Film Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A screening of 7 newly digitised amateur films (including 2 women filmmakers / 3 films researched via this project) to an audience at the London Cinema Museum during a weekend of silent film screenings. This screening was a direct result of two previous engagement activities - at HippFest (March 2022) and Pordenone (October 2022) - and was a chance to introduce a new audience to these films and the archiving of amateur film. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | Public facing website highlighting research findings |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Launched in January 2023 this project website has produced biographies of largely unknown women filmmakers whose work we discovered during our research. It offers a unique chance to shine a light on their creative work and amateur film career. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.uea.ac.uk/web/groups-and-centres/projects/women-in-focus |