Women's Film History Network - UK/Ireland
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sunderland
Department Name: Arts and Design
Abstract
Traditionally film history has paid little attention to the contribution of women to film history - other than as actresses. But from its beginning women have been active in and around cinema as directors, scriptwriters, designers, cinema owners, distributors, publicists, reviewers, audiences, campaigners and so on. Consequently in the late 1990s an International Women Film Pioneers Project was initiated in America to address this gap in historical knowledge. This is now based in the Film Division at Columbia University, New York, and is paralleled by a biennial 'Women and Silent Screen Congress,' staged in different countries since 2000. These initiatives are supported by Women and Film History International through a new website going live in June 2009.
Till recently this work has had little impact in Britain, and seen little British contribution to international fora. The interdisciplinary and internationally connected Women's Film History Network - UK/Ireland has therefore been initiated to promote and support research into women's filmmaking history in UK/Ireland, from the silent period to the present. The Network collaborates with the American based initiatives in order both to draw from their world-wide connections, research sources, and expertise - especially Columbia University's Center for Digital Research and Scholarship - and to contribute to the internationalising of research.
Through the first of four proposed Workshops, the Network will focus on issues posed by its experts in women's history, literary and cross-media studies in order to identify the new perspectives, sources and avenues of investigation through which women's film histories can be researched. The second Workshop, held in collaboration with the Film Division of Columbia University, will draw on the concentration of Women's film-based and media agencies in New York and the Women and Film History International association's European collaborators to address conceptual and practical issues arising from the international dimensions of film production, including the resulting problems of archiving, circulation and exhibition of women's work and potential digital solutions. Workshop three will bring network members from HEIs together with those representing archives, libraries, exhibition activities in UK/Ireland in order to identify problems and solutions for database construction and sharing. Drawing together the results from all three workshops, the fourth will construct a constitution and organisational foundation for the continuance of the Network post-AHRC funding. This will include devising a brief for a digital designer to develop web-based and databasing support to link future researchers and users, for which further funds will be sought. Thus the Network will extend knowledge gained through its support for research into women's film histories to educators, women's professional media organisations, film and festival programmers, in order to enhance the visibility of women's film and media work, raise the aspirations of girls and young women as potential entrants to screen media professions and increase the availability of women's films and television programming for general public enjoyment.
Till recently this work has had little impact in Britain, and seen little British contribution to international fora. The interdisciplinary and internationally connected Women's Film History Network - UK/Ireland has therefore been initiated to promote and support research into women's filmmaking history in UK/Ireland, from the silent period to the present. The Network collaborates with the American based initiatives in order both to draw from their world-wide connections, research sources, and expertise - especially Columbia University's Center for Digital Research and Scholarship - and to contribute to the internationalising of research.
Through the first of four proposed Workshops, the Network will focus on issues posed by its experts in women's history, literary and cross-media studies in order to identify the new perspectives, sources and avenues of investigation through which women's film histories can be researched. The second Workshop, held in collaboration with the Film Division of Columbia University, will draw on the concentration of Women's film-based and media agencies in New York and the Women and Film History International association's European collaborators to address conceptual and practical issues arising from the international dimensions of film production, including the resulting problems of archiving, circulation and exhibition of women's work and potential digital solutions. Workshop three will bring network members from HEIs together with those representing archives, libraries, exhibition activities in UK/Ireland in order to identify problems and solutions for database construction and sharing. Drawing together the results from all three workshops, the fourth will construct a constitution and organisational foundation for the continuance of the Network post-AHRC funding. This will include devising a brief for a digital designer to develop web-based and databasing support to link future researchers and users, for which further funds will be sought. Thus the Network will extend knowledge gained through its support for research into women's film histories to educators, women's professional media organisations, film and festival programmers, in order to enhance the visibility of women's film and media work, raise the aspirations of girls and young women as potential entrants to screen media professions and increase the availability of women's films and television programming for general public enjoyment.
Planned Impact
Women's Film History Network - UK/Ireland aims to establish a sustainable network for the production of knowledge about women's work in and around the British and Irish film industries, about British and Irish women who crossed national boundaries to make or contribute to the making and circulation of films abroad and about the women who came to work within our shores.
In 1926 Iris Barry wrote enthusiastically in the Daily Mail about the new opportunities cinema opened up not only for women workers, but as an expanding sphere of public and artistic influence for women. Nearing 100 years later, we find an extremely modest uptake of production roles by women in an industry still largely controlled by men and a film history that hardly acknowledges the roles they have played for lack of terms through which to perceive and describe them. This history is therefore unavailable as a source of career or personal aspiration for young women who notoriously regard technology as the province of men. The Network aims to establish sustainable mechanisms that will facilitate research into, increase understanding of, and provide public access to digital records of women's participation and achievements in UK/Irish film production or abroad. Foregrounding and revaluing women's work in casting, in script and costume departments, in story conferences, as assistant producers and on the studio floor will open out not only perception of wider career opportunities, but a broader understanding of the possibilities of inter-gender creative work. This is central to the British government's commitment to equality and diversity agendas; to educators of girls concerned to raise their career and life-long learning aspirations; to the media as employers ever seeking new talent; to international initiatives making visible different cultural histories of women's participation in cinema; and to the general public in that rediscovering, preserving and circulating women's work in film and media expands the range of entertainments and artistic experiences available in our film theatres, arts centres, television and new media outlets - to the greater economic productivity, well-being and international understanding of the populace as a whole.
Changing the narrowly gendered perceptions of the media industries and media educators is a long-term project. To realise equality and diversity policies in terms of women's film history requires re-orientating archiving, preservation and exhibition practices. To this end the proposed Workshops involve archivists, preservationists, programmers, librarians and IT specialists in order to establish how best to achieve the recording and accessibility to women's history as filmmakers together with their films. Although the first priority of the Network is to determine, within the limited budget available, the institutional structure and digital mechanisms that will facilitate and support both research and its dissemination, once established on a secure and sustainable basis the Network will function as a forum for the exchange of knowledge, ideas and needs between researchers, educators, cultural facilitators, media practitioners and employers. It will function as a gateway to existing and new resources and a stimulus to and support for conferences, publication, film & video seasons, and curriculum developments at all levels of the education system. As a gateway to women's history, visual materials and film availability, the Network will contribute to gender sensitive programming in film theatres and other TV, media and new media outlets, increasing the cultural diversity of entertainments offered to the public at large.
In 1926 Iris Barry wrote enthusiastically in the Daily Mail about the new opportunities cinema opened up not only for women workers, but as an expanding sphere of public and artistic influence for women. Nearing 100 years later, we find an extremely modest uptake of production roles by women in an industry still largely controlled by men and a film history that hardly acknowledges the roles they have played for lack of terms through which to perceive and describe them. This history is therefore unavailable as a source of career or personal aspiration for young women who notoriously regard technology as the province of men. The Network aims to establish sustainable mechanisms that will facilitate research into, increase understanding of, and provide public access to digital records of women's participation and achievements in UK/Irish film production or abroad. Foregrounding and revaluing women's work in casting, in script and costume departments, in story conferences, as assistant producers and on the studio floor will open out not only perception of wider career opportunities, but a broader understanding of the possibilities of inter-gender creative work. This is central to the British government's commitment to equality and diversity agendas; to educators of girls concerned to raise their career and life-long learning aspirations; to the media as employers ever seeking new talent; to international initiatives making visible different cultural histories of women's participation in cinema; and to the general public in that rediscovering, preserving and circulating women's work in film and media expands the range of entertainments and artistic experiences available in our film theatres, arts centres, television and new media outlets - to the greater economic productivity, well-being and international understanding of the populace as a whole.
Changing the narrowly gendered perceptions of the media industries and media educators is a long-term project. To realise equality and diversity policies in terms of women's film history requires re-orientating archiving, preservation and exhibition practices. To this end the proposed Workshops involve archivists, preservationists, programmers, librarians and IT specialists in order to establish how best to achieve the recording and accessibility to women's history as filmmakers together with their films. Although the first priority of the Network is to determine, within the limited budget available, the institutional structure and digital mechanisms that will facilitate and support both research and its dissemination, once established on a secure and sustainable basis the Network will function as a forum for the exchange of knowledge, ideas and needs between researchers, educators, cultural facilitators, media practitioners and employers. It will function as a gateway to existing and new resources and a stimulus to and support for conferences, publication, film & video seasons, and curriculum developments at all levels of the education system. As a gateway to women's history, visual materials and film availability, the Network will contribute to gender sensitive programming in film theatres and other TV, media and new media outlets, increasing the cultural diversity of entertainments offered to the public at large.