Women Film Pioneers Project

Muriel Box and the Truth About Women Directors Professor Melanie Williams presents her current research on the work of film director Muriel Box and her 1957 film The Truth About Women

Very pleased to be doing this upcoming online research seminar
for University of Reading's Film, Theatre & TV department: Wednesday 25 February, 14.00 - 15.30, "Muriel Box, 'The Truth About Women', and the truth about women directors" www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/muriel-box...

In “Doing More with Less: Informed Speculation as Method,” Allyson Nadia Field embraces the forms of imaginative, creative, and experimental writing of film/media history while at the same time urging rigorous and responsible scholarship

Download for free and hold it close— doi.org/10.1525/fmh....

The 2026 Schedule at a Glance | Socially Relevant FF This is a list of the films at our Rejoice Resist: BIPOC Films Program, March 12 & 13, and at Cinema Village from March 14-16. They are the documentaries, the narrative features, and one block of shor...

Hey NYC nasty women!!! We're overjoyed to announce that Karen Pearlman's brilliant archival doc BREAKING PLATES will screen in NYC at Cinema Village on March 15 in the 2026 Socially Relevant Film Festival. 🍽️🌪️📽️

*Please spread the word and don't miss the film! ❤️*

www.ratedsrfilms.org/the-schedule...

Coming in April from @criterion.bsky.social! FINALLY! 🎉
@wfhinetwork.bsky.social

www.criterion.com/boxsets/8685...

Moviemaking Before Men | Playgirl Elinor Glyn, June Mathis, Alice Guy-Blaché, Lois Weber: The many women who achieved dazzling success in the first years of Hollywood.

Great piece by WFPP contributor @laurah.bsky.social!

playgirl.com/entertainmen...

Congrats to the indomitable @aurspiers.bsky.social on official publication of ARCHIVING THE PAST. Go to @ucpress.bsky.social to order your copy! @wfhinetwork.bsky.social is proud to be hosting virtual members-only book talk w/ Aurore later this month. To join WFHI...
www.ucpress.edu/books/archiv...

Wien: Retrospektive und Ausstellung “First Action Heroes”

🎬 Wien: Vom 16. Januar bis 04. Februar 2026 zeigen das Filmarchiv Austria und das Filmmuseum Düsseldorf die Retrospektive “First Action Heroes”. Spielort ist das Metro Kinokulturhaus: www.stummfilm-magazin.de/aktuelles/ar...
#stummfilmmagazin #filmmuseumdüsseldorf #filmarchivaustria #wien

The Silent London Poll of 2025: vote for your winners now Happy holiday Silent Londoners! They say that if you remember 2025, then you weren’t watching enough silent movies. How much do you recall? For myself I sure watched a lot of silent films, cl…

Time to vote, vote, vote in the annual Silent London Poll of silent film excellence! silentlondon.co.uk/2025/12/21/t...

It's here! Go and pre-order a copy of ARCHIVING THE PAST for yourself and for your library! The book uncovers the story of women in France who, from the 1920s–1970s, played critical roles in the production of global cinema's history, as archivists, witnesses, and activists. @ucpress.bsky.social

It was a joy to write this festival report on Il Cinema Ritrovato '25 in Bologna!! (Highlights include contortionist snake ladies 🐍 & smashing the patriarchy! 🔨) FREE to read via @ucpress.bsky.social in the sizzling new issue of @filmquarterly.bsky.social 🎞️🎊 !!

online.ucpress.edu/fq/article/7...

Torn is the Curtain: Early Film Cultures in Istanbul | Berghahn Books Independent Publishing since 1994

Check out former WFHI steering committee member Canan Balan's new book "Torn is the Curtain: Early Film Cultures in Istanbul."

www.berghahnbooks.com/title/BalanT...

Elin Wägner – 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: Dagmar Brunow on Swedish writer and screenwriter Elin Wägner!

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.