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
Arnold, S.
(2023)
Women in Focus: A Toolkit for Archiving Women's Amateur Film
Johnston K
(2023)
Back into Focus: Women Filmmakers, the Amateur Trade Press and 1960s British Amateur Cinema
in Gender & History
| Title | Flora Kerrigan - Rediscovering a Film Pioneer |
| Description | In partnership with the Irish Film Archive, the project developed and curated a programme of the darkly comedic and idiosyncratic world of Irish animator Flora Kerrigan - presenting this rediscovered "amateur" women filmmaker from Cork. Kerrigan crafted a remarkable collection of silent animation and live-action shorts on 8mm film in the 1960s. The surreal playfulness of her animation belied the painstaking meticulousness of their production and her work earned international accolades and an airing on Irish national television. The live-action films are an equally fascinating treasure trove - featuring friends and family - variously absurd, comedic, macabre and concerned with female sexuality. Kerrigan's work was recently rediscovered through the Women in Focus Film Archives project. This curated programme included a newly commissioned accompaniment by Irish avant-garde free-improvisational pianist, Paul G. Smyth in partnership with the Irish Film Institute. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2024 |
| Impact | This programme premiered in Dublin in December 2024; it has since gone on tour to other silent film festivals, such as Hipp'Fest in Bo'Ness, Scotland. The Dublin screening was widely publicised and well attended. |
| URL | https://ifi.ie/film/cine-concert-a-focus-on-flora-kerrigan/ |
| Title | Philippa Miller: Broadlands Artist |
| Description | This exhibition, created to showcase the work of Norfolk artist Philippa Miller, was co-curated by members of the project team (Paul Frith) in association with project partner East Anglian Film Archive. |
| Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | Impact as noted by The Museum of the Broads curator Nicola Hems: "Using Philippa's films completely changed the Museum's understanding of her work as an artist. We had previously thought of her as an artist of painted pictures... the films gave the Museum curators more justification to concentrate on these other aspects of her artistic life." "The films are one of the first things visitors to the exhibition see - the screen is on the wall facing the entrance. Using moving images in this way has drawn people in, with many staying longer specifically to watch the films the project team provided. It has helped us bring the exhibition "alive" and more attractive to visitors. We have had strong visitor feedback about our use of Philippa's film 'Balloon Adventure' within the exhibition. Visitors have commented on the film's concept, its use of Philippa's dog Puck, and their love of the ending (where Puck bursts the balloon and buries the evidence)." The exhibition had been visited by 5300 visitors by October 2023, with figures expected to rise due to the exhibition being extended through 2024. The project will have contributed directly to a rise in entrance fees for the exhibition and to booklet sales (material in the booklet was provided by PDRA Paul Frith. |
| URL | https://www.museumofthebroads.org.uk/whats-on/annual-exhibition/ |
| Description | Women amateur filmmakers remain overlooked in film & media archive records for a number of reasons: 1. The dominance of traditional cataloguing foci - e.g. geographic locations, historical events - that foregrounded film content over creative labour 2. Overriding patriarchal assumptions about the roles that women could play in amateur filmmaking. This attitude is as true in amateur and non-professional as it was in the mainstream commercial industry 3. Cataloguing standards that prioritise terminology from the commercial film industry (director, producer, cinematographer) and does not account for the varied and shifting roles that many women took on in the amateur film world 4. Cataloguing strategies that overlooked women's contributions that were not readily documented in accessions documentation or donor interview To combat those issues, our feminist approach to metadata has identified key women filmmakers who were engaged in different collaborative roles within amateur film production. The issues we have identified - and the changes we have recommended - to metadata practices allow film archives to raise the profile of women filmmakers in their collections, to better catalogue those collections, and to make accessible a broader level of data for public use. |
| Exploitation Route | These outcomes can help shape new archival practice around the creation of catalogue records for women's film collections Our toolkit can be used to allow archives to better understand and utilise their (current and future) collections, including commercialisation through clip sales Our toolkit can also help archives without specialised knowledge of filmed material to understand their collections and catalogue appropriately. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy Culture Heritage Museums and Collections |
| URL | https://www.uea.ac.uk/web/groups-and-centres/projects/women-in-focus |
| Description | At the end of the project, it is clear that impacts have been on 1) Project partners; 2) Additional film/media archive; 3) Other cultural and archive-based institutions. 1) Project partners: the East Anglian Film Archive and the IFI Irish Film Archive (IFI-IFA) continue to make 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. At the end of the process, both EAFA and IFI-IFA have access to more accurate metadata - and an approach to collecting future metadata and writing catalogue records - than before the project was instigated. 2) Other film & media archive: our feminist-informed toolkit for archiving women's amateur films was adopted for training and development at one other archive in the time frame of the grant: the Wessex Film & Sound Archive (WFSA). Expanding on the work undertaken at EAFA and IFI Film Archive, the project team trained the manager and curator at WSFA in the approach taken by the toolkit and applied it to a new collection from the High Wycombe Film Society. The archive's knowledge of that collection was, in the words of the WFSA Manager, "immeasurably enhanced...We have richer metadata, more complete catalogue records, a better sense of the individuals and filmmaking activities of the society, and a much fuller record of over twenty unique women whose contributions to that society, and the wider amateur film world, would otherwise have been unknown and gone uncelebrated. Your work has ensured that this material will be included in our catalogue records, be accessible to a wider public, and can provide the basis for future screenings and commercial activity." The development and expansion of metadata and catalogue records at all three archives has increased 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. 3) Other cultural and archive organisations: Amateur Movie Database (AMDB). Our work has influenced the content of the AMDB, an online catalogue of international amateur filmmaking. The site updated its content based on the research and advocacy of the Women in Focus project. As Dr Charles Tepperman, head of the AMDB, notes, 'The contributions from [Keith] Johnston and his team are already playing a key role in those elements of our work, offering a more than 16% increase in the data available... [and] has also has an influence on AMDB's approach to equality and metadata. The Women in Focus team... have been key advocates for AMDB to introduce more gender-specific listings and search functions. We have already adopted their key recommendation - rolling out the introduction of a #womenfilmmakers tag across our cataloguing metadata... This will ensure that AMDB searches can now better identify relevant work from the women filmmakers already included on that site. It is now AMDB policy to include that tag on all new records; and, through continued engagement with the Women in Focus team, it will be added to existing historic records as well." 3) Other cultural and archive organisations: The Museum of the Broads We worked in partnership with this regional museum on an exhibition about Philippa Miller, an artist whose films we investigated as part of our work at EAFA. As the Museum curator notes: "Using Philippa's films completely changed the Museum's understanding of her work as an artist. We had previously thought of her as an artist of painted pictures... the films gave the Museum curators more justification to concentrate on these other aspects of her artistic life. The films were made almost 60 years ago, but their subject matter and the filming of them seem contemporary... The films are one of the first things visitors to the exhibition see - the screen is on the wall facing the entrance. Using moving images in this way has drawn people in, with many staying longer specifically to watch the films the project team provided. It has helped us bring the exhibition "alive" and more attractive to visitors. We have had strong visitor feedback about our use of Philippa's film Balloon Adventure within the exhibition. Visitors have commented on the film's concept, its use of Philippa's dog Puck, and their love of the ending (where Puck bursts the balloon and buries the evidence)." In this way, the project is having significant impact across different archive settings, from film archives to museum collections to online resources. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2023 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural Economic |
| Description | Written submission to the Broadcasting (Amendment) Bill 2023 on best practices for film archives. |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Description | Empowering Archivists: Applying New Tools and Approaches for Better Representation of Women in Audio-Visual Collections |
| Amount | £116,010 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | AH/Y007328/1 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2023 |
| End | 10/2024 |
| Description | East Anglian Film Archive |
| Organisation | University of East Anglia |
| Department | East Anglian Film Archive |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have expanded the existing catalogue metadata for approx. 300 titles; we have contributed cataloguing metadata for 22 new films not previously digitised or catalogued; we have increased public awareness of the Archive (and collections) via public events and additional partnerships. |
| 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 | 2021 |
| 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 catalogued. This work has also involved advocating for new collections of women filmmakers in Ireland (discovered through project research and archive engagement) to be accessioned into the Irish Film Archive. |
| 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. The staff have also worked closely with the project team on accessioning new material (such as the Flora Kerrigan collection) and expanding records based on project recommendations and data. From 2024 onwards, project research and digitised films are being added to the Irish Film Archive Player - this collection was started with films from five filmmakers (Margaret Currivan; Agnes Heron; Flora Kerrigan; Beres Laidlaw; and Sister Maureen MacMahon) and is expected to expand. |
| Impact | Enhanced information and cataloguing metadata being added to IFA database. New collections being added to the archive. A curated programme of films being made available on the Irish Film Archive Player. A curated programme of Flora Kerrigan's films being produced, with a Dublin premiere (with live accompaniement) and then subsequent showings at silent film festivals (such as Hipp'Fest in Scotland). |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | 'Women in Focus' presentation and screening (of 9 project films) at Southampton Film Week |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A screening of 9 films related to the project, with an introduction from PI Keith M. Johnston |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://southamptonfilmweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/SFW23-digital-programme-1.pdf |
| 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 | Dublin Festival of History, showcase of project at IFI to academic, archivists, historians and public |
| 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 | Irish project colleageus (Sarah Arnold, Carolann Madden, Kasandra O'Connell) showcased the work of the project at the Dublin Festival of History. These activities introduced a good sized audience of academics, archivists, historians and the general public to ideas of moving image archive and the hidden histories of women. The Festival of History was pleased with the response and level of attendance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| 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 | Heritage Week workshops at Kerry Writer's Museum, including project-specific workshops on 1) amateur filmmaking and 2) audiovisual preservation and metadata |
| 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 | Around 70-100 people attended a series of events across Kerry's Heritage Week, which reached a wide audience across the city. The specific project sessions held at the Writer's Museum raised questions around the archiving of amateur film, how cataloguing works, and the place of women in those processes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.heritageweek.ie/event-listings/any-old-film-in-the-attic-managing-personal-collections-o... |
| 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 | Invited speaker at joint academic-archive event, Centenary of Amateur Cinema |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | This was an invited presentation to a group of approx. 80-100 international archivists, gathered in Barcelona for an international symposium on amateur film archives. I was invited as part of the Women in Focus / Empowering Archivists project team to present on our toolkit, its application, and the ongoing training initiatives we have been runnning. The aim was to increase awareness of the project and toolkit to wider European and international audience and grow more training leads for the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Online workshop for iCAN members on audiovisual preservation, women and metadata |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Invited talk to promote the toolkit to a non-specialist archive audience; the talk raised significant discussion points and questions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| 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 about project research and findings at the Eye Filmmuseum, Amsterdam |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A talk at the prestigious Eye Conference (held at Eye Film Museum, Amsterdam). This conference was attended by over 100 film/media archivists from all over the world - Global North and Global South - and our presentation was a chance to communicate the status of our research and explore its potential impact on archive practice. The presentation featured talks on site from project Co-PI Keith M. Johnston, PDRA Paul Frith, with Co-I Lorna Richardson presenting remotely due to health issues. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/programme/eye-international-conference-2023/839379 |
| 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 | Presentation of "Widening the lens- Female Filmmakers at the IFI Irish Film Archive and the Women in Focus Project" at Hidden Archives: Marginalised and Alternative Collections and Practices, IAMHIST event, January 30th 2024. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Project Co-PI Sarah Arnold and partner Kasandra O'Connell (from Irish Film Archive) gave a presentation to an audience of academics, general public, and archive professionals at the IAMHIST event, Hidden Archives: Marginalised and Alternative Collections and Practices. This generated good responses and follow-up enquiries about our project - and its impact on archive practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Presentation on Archival Interventions: Embedding Feminist Praxis in Audiovisual Archive Metadata, FIAF Congress, Mexico City, April 17th 2023. |
| 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 | Co-PI Sarah Arnold and partner Kasandra O'Connell delivered a workshop on the findings of the project to an audience of media archive professionals. This raised useful debates around the role of gender within archiving practices and has led to follow-up conversations about the potential for future training. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| 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 |
| Description | Roundtable and panel at Doing Women's Film and Television History conference, University of Sussex, June 14-16 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Roundtable organised and chaired by Sarah Arnold. Locating Women's Television Histories/Locating Archives. DWFTH6, University of Sussex, June 14-16 2023. Panel with Sarah Arnold, Melanie Williams and Sharon Webb. Archiving Interventions: Embedding feminist praxis in audiovisual archive metadata. DWFTH6, University of Sussex, June 14-16 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Screening Irish Women's Amateur Filmmaking programme at Film Restored Festival, Berlin. 26th October 2023 |
| 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 a screening of new films digitised by the project. Introduced by project Co-PI Sarah Arnold it reached an audience of academic and media archive professionals - and allowed us to expand the scope of our potential impact to European media archives.. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Screening of the films of Flora Kerrigan at Cork International Film Festival, November 12th 2023. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a screening of the films of Flora Kerrigan - a filmmaker "rediscovered" as a result of the project research. Introduced by Sarah Arnold, Carolann Madden and Sunniva O'Flynn, this was a chance to reach a general audience via the popular Cork International Film Festival, November 12th 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-41264455.html |
| Description | Symposium: AI and Archives: Explorations, Possibilities and Challenges. University of Sussex. |
| 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 | Symposium organised by Sharon Webb and Sarah Arnold. AI and Archives: Explorations, Possibilities and Challenges. University of Sussex. Collaboration between Full Stack Feminism Project and Women in Focus, both funded through the Digital Humanities Award, April 27th 2023. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Talk by PDRA Carolann Madden, "Irish Women's Early Amateur Filmmaking: Three Case Studies from 1930-1970" at American Conference for Irish Studies, San Jose State University, California. June 7th 2023 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | A talk to a mostly academic audience and some archive-related professionals at a high-renowned conference. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Toolkit launch event (online) - in association with the British Association of Film, Television & Screen Studies (BAFTSS) |
| 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 event to "launch" the Women in Focus toolkit (and promote the Empowering Archivists follow-on training initiative), this was a chance for us to explore and explain the structure of the toolkit and respond to audience questions about its value and application to the world of film archive cataloguing and metadata. Good feedback afterwards and a few new pathways to explore. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Wicklow Archival Film Project |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Working with the Wicklow Audio Visual Archive, as part of the Archive Film Project, Carolann Madden and Sarah Arnold were asked to present on the research project and toolkit, advising the Archive on different approaches it could take when developing metadata standards and creating new catalogue records. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |