DWFH - Full Programme and Papers

DOING WOMEN’S FILM HISTORY: REFRAMING CINEMA PAST & FUTURE

13-15 April 2011

Hosted by the Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies, University of Sunderland,

in association with Women's Film History Network-UK/Ireland

We dedicate this conference

To the memory of
Miriam Hansen (1949-2011)
whose development of new ways of
doing film history was so sensitive to
the relationship between
women and cinema

PROGRAMME

In order to make an archival record of the Conference - which we hope will be remembered as an important historical event - and to share the proceedings with a wider audience, some contributions are now available in pdf form by clicking on paper titles where these are underlined and appear in brown. Please note that, unless otherwise stated, these papers largely comprise notes from which presenters spoke for their brief allotted time. They represent work in progress, not fully worked essays, and are therefore not for quotation.

WEDNESDAY 13 APRIL

10.00 -10.30 Welcome & Introduction

Peter Strike, Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Sunderland

Shaun Moores, Center for Research in Media & Cultural Studies

10.30-11.30

Keynote 1: 40 Years and Counting … The Challenges & Joys of Distributing Women's Films

Debra Zimmerman, Executive Director, Women Make Movies, USA

Chair: Julia Knight (University of Sunderland)

11.30 -11.50 Tea/Coffee (Prospect Building)

11.50 - 1.35 PANELS 1

STRAND A. WOMEN’S FILM HISTORIOGRAPHY

PANEL A 1: Historiography: Women In & Out Of The Archives
Chair: Shelley Stamp (Univ. UC, Santa Cruz)

A1:1 ANNETTE FÖRSTER (Independent Scholar)
Rosa Porten and Feminist Film Historical Research

A1:2. NATHALIE MORRIS (Special Collections, BFI)
Women in BFI Special Collections

A1:3. DEBASHREE MUKHERJEE (New York Univ.)
Notes on a Scandal: Writing Women's Film History Against an Absent Archive

SCREENING 15 mins

STRAND B. NEGOTIATIONS & RESISTANCES

PANEL B 1: Negotiating Feminism, Film History & Hollywood
Chair: Kay Armatage (Univ. Toronto)

B1:1 ISABEL ARREDONDO (SUNY, Plattsburgh)
'My Films Are Not Feminist': Relationships between Feminist History and Women’s History in the Case of Third-Wave Mexican Women Filmmakers

B1:2 EYLEM ATAKAV (Univ. East Anglia)
Feminism & Women's Film History in Turkey: The 1980s

B1:3 DAWN HALL (Western Kentucky Univ.)
Opening a Space for the Female Filmmaker: Risk-Taking in Deepa Mehta’s Fire and Sally Potter’s Yes

B1:4 KATARZYNA PASZKIEWICZ (Univ. Barcelona)
Hollywood Transgressor or Hollywood Transvestite: The Reception of Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker (2008)

STRAND C. FORMS & AESTHETICS

PANEL C 1: Hysteriography
Chair: Julia Knight(Univ. Sunderland)

C1:1 LUCY REYNOLDS (Independent Filmmaker)
Resistant Forms: Situating Women's Experimental Cinema

C1:2 SARAH TURNER (Independent Filmmaker)
‘Perestroika’

C1:3 HELENA BLAKER (Independent Scholar)
Performance in Film: Life, Politics, Medium

SCREENING: 15 Minute Extract from Perestroika (Sarah Turner, 2009)

STRAND D. WOMEN IN & OUT OF THE STUDIOS

PANEL D1: Women’s Production Roles In Context
Chair: Angela Werndly (Univ. Sunderland)

D1:1 KERRIE WELSH (New York Univ.)
Louise Tiranoff, The Women’s Movement, and The Archive In My Closet

D1:2 VICKY BALL & MELANIE BELL (Univs. Sunderland & Newcastle)
Women at Work in the British Film & Television Industries

D1:3 MELANIE WILLIAMS (Univ. East Anglia)
Considering Continuity: A Case Study of Barbara Cole and Maggie Unsworths' Work with David Lean

D1:4 FRANCES TEMPEST (Univ. Bournemouth)
The Feminisation of the Costume Department in the British Film and Television Industry

1.35 - 2.35 Lunch (Prospect Building)

2.35 - 4.10 PANELS 2

STRAND A. WOMEN’S FILM HISTORIOGRAPHY

PANEL A 2: Rewriting Film Histories
Chair: Laraine Porter (De Montfort Univ.)

A2:1 KIM TOMADJOGLOU (Independent Curator, Washington DC)
Her Great Adventure - Alice Guy Blaché

A2:2 ROSANNA MAULE (Concordia Univ. Montreal)
Female, Singular: Women in French Cinephilia

A2:3 SHELLEY STAMP (Univ. UC, Santa Cruz)
Women’s Labor, Creative Control, and 'Independence' in Early Hollywood; or, the Price of a Good Time

STRAND B. NEGOTIATIONS & RESISTANCES

PANEL B 2: Producer/Director Relations with Stars & Performers
Chair: Martin Shingler (Univ. Sunderland)

B2:1 FEDERICO VITELLA (Univ. Florence)
Moulding A Modern Star: Monica Vitti in Antonioni's L'avventura (1960).pdf

B2:2 JOHN AYRES (Univ. Manchester)
Producing Outside the Box: Betty E. Box and Post-War British Cinema

B2: 3 CHRISTINE ETHERINGTON-WRIGHT (Univ. Portsmouth)
Mike Leigh's Female Protagonists: Exploring Agency and Performance in the Actor/Director Relationship

STRAND C. FORMS & AESTHETICS

PANEL C 2: Rethinking Cinema’s Appeals for Women
Chair: Sofia Bull (Univ. Stockholm)

C2:1 ESTHER SONNET (Univ. Portsmouth)
Revisioning Hollywood Crime & Gangster Film History in the 1930s

C2: 2 HELEN HANSON (Univ. Exeter)
'B' for Blane and 'B' for Budget: Female Adventures and Industry Strategies in the Hollywood Series Film

C2: 3 SARAH STREET (Univ. Bristol)
Women and Colour Cinema

STRAND D. WOMEN IN & OUT OF THE STUDIOS

PANEL D 2: Researching Audiences & Movie-Going
Chair: Shaun Moores (Univ. Sunderland)

D2:1 LISA STEAD (Univ. Exeter)
‘Carried away from this workaday world and its troubles:’ Working Girl Female Audiences of British Silent Cinema

D2:2 LESLIE MIDKIFF DEBAUCHE (Univ. Wisconsin, Stevens Point)
Why Bertha Glennon Went to the Strand

D2:3 CHERYL ROBERTS (Univ. Brighton)
Dispelling the Myth: The Influence of Cinema on the Fashion of Young, Working-Class Women in the 1930s.

4.10 - 4.30 Tea/Coffee (Prospect Building)

4.30- 5.45

Round Table 1: Now We’re Film History: Reviewing Women & Cinema from Second Wave Feminism to Now

Christine Geraghty (University of Glasgow)
Laura Mulvey (Birkbeck College, University of London)
Felicity Sparrow (Circles; Central St Martins College of Art & Design)

Chair: Yvonne Tasker (University of East Anglia)

5.50 - 6.50

Special Event 1: Film Curation: Screenings as History

Karola Gramann (Kinothek Asta Nielsen, Frankfurt)

6.50 - 7.30 Free

7.30 - 8.45 Conference Reception and Buffet Supper (Prospect Building)

9.00 -10.00

Goodnight Screenings

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THURSDAY 14 APRIL

9.00 - 10.45 PANELS 3

STRAND A. WOMEN’S FILM HISTORIOGRAPHY

PANEL A3:Restoring Women Filmmakers To National Cinema Histories – 1
Chair: Leslie Midkiff DeBauche (Univ. Wisconsin, Stevens Point)

A3:1 ANA CATARINA PEREIRA (Univ, Beira, Portugal)
Female directors in the History of Portuguese Cinema

A3:2 URSULA- HELEN KASSAVETI (Univ. Athens)
Searching for Greek 'Women's' Cinema in the 60s: The Case of Maria Plyta

A3:3 SOMAYEH GHAZIZADEH (Univ. Iran)
Post-Revolutionary Iranian Women Filmmakers and Feminism

A3:4 KIRSTIE IMBER (Royal College of Art)
Unveiling the Voice: The Use of Sound and Vocality in the Films of Shirin Neshat

STRAND B. NEGOTIATIONS & RESISTANCES

PANEL B 3: Women’s Cultural Practices v. Repressive Regimes
Chair: Angela Werndly (Univ. Sunderland)

B3:1 VERONICA PRAVADELLI (Univ. Rome)
The Politics of Female Friendship in Contemporary Women's Cinema: The Case of Mediterranean Women Filmmakers

B3:2 ELIZABETH RAMIREZ (Univ. Warwick)
Texturing the Past: Women Documentary Makers and the Narration of Pinochet Dictatorship

B3:3 SUSANNE SKLEPEK (Univ. Nottingham)
Vera Chytilova: A Woman's Take on the CSSR

STRAND C. FORMS & AESTHETICS

PANEL C 3: Aesthetics of Women’s Avant-Garde Practices
Chair: Annette Kuhn (Queen Mary, Univ. London)

C3:1 CAMILLA PETERS (Univ. Falmouth)
Margaret Tait: A Woman is Speaking (1918-1999)

C3:2 SU ANSELL (De Montfort Univ.)
Mining Poetic Connection with Moving Image Practice

C3:3 ROSE HEPWORTH (Univ. Cambridge)
Female and Filmic ‘Formlessness’

C3:4 CECILE CHICH (Univ. Paris)
Maria Klonaris & Katerina Thomadaki's Cinema of The Body: a Critical Contribution to Cinema

STRAND D. WOMEN IN & OUT OF THE STUDIOS

PANEL D 3: Questions of Power: Women Screenwriters
Chair: Sarah Street (Univ. Bristol)

D3:1 GIULIANA MUSCIO (Univ. Padova, Italy)
American Women Screenwriters of the 1920s

D3:2 MICHELE TORRE (Southern Illinois Univ.)
Not Just the Wife of the Studio Head: Antonina Khanzhonkova, Writer, Editor and Decision-Maker

D3:3 JILL NELMES (Univ. East London)
Screenwriter - Muriel Box

10.45 -11.05 Tea/Coffee (Prospect Building)

11.05- 12.05

Keynote 2: The Philosophy of Women's Film History

Monica Dall’Asta and Jane Gaines (University of Bologna and Columbia University)

Chair: Martin Shingler (University of Sunderland)

12.15 - 1.30

Round Table 2: Film & Television as Women's Work

Debbie Horsfield, Theatre/TV Writer & Producer
Nadine Marsh-Edwards, Film/TV Producer
Kate Kinninmont, Chief Executive, WiFT (UK)

Co-Chairs: Vicky Ball (Univ. Sunderland) & Melanie Bell (Univ. Newcastle)

1.30 - 2.30 Lunch (Prospect Building)

2.30 - 4.15 PANELS 4

STRAND A. WOMEN’S FILM HISTORIOGRAPHY

PANEL A 4: Restoring Women Filmmakers To National Cinema Histories – 2
Chair: Drake Stutesman (Women's Film Preservation Fund, NYC)

A4:1 SI DA (Univ. Peking)
Changing the Images of Woman in Contemporary Chinese Cinemas: An Analysis based on Li Yu’s Four Films

A4:2 MONA MINGXIA LI (Univ. Western Scotland)
A Female Filmmaker of the 'Fifth Generation' in China: Li Shaohong’s Work and her Feminine Consciousness

A4:3 MICHAEL SMITH (Univ. Leeds)
Tanaka Kinuyo – Women’s Filmmaker or Woman Making Films?

A4:4 RASHMI SAWHNEY (Dublin Institute of Technology)
Women Undoing 'National Histories' Through Regional Cinema: A 1980s Perspective on Gender and Reform in Colonial India

STRAND B. NEGOTIATIONS & RESISTANCES

PANEL B4: New Women, Cinema & Modernity
Chair: Jane Gaines (Columbia Univ.)

B4:1 CANAN BALAN (Istanbul Sehir Univ.)
Ottoman Women as Movie-Goers in 1910s-1920s

B4:2 ELIZA ANNA DELVEROUDI (Univ. Crete)
Film Critics International: Women, Cinema and Modernity through the Eyes of a Greek Film Critic in the 1920s

B4:3 RANITA CHATTERJEE (Univ. Westminster)
Distant Voices: Women and Film in 1920s and 1930s Calcutta

B4:4 EMILIANA LOSMA (Univ. Turin, Italy)
Women Directors In Italy: Indifference, Prejudice And Hostility

STRAND C. FORMS & AESTHETICS

PANEL C 4: Women & Documentary: The Neglected Field
Chair: Melanie Williams (Univ. East Anglia)

C4:1 SARAH EASEN & TOBY HAGGITH (ITN Source Television Archive/Imperial War Museum)
British Women Filmmakers in the Non-Fiction Sector 1930-1960

C4:2 BARBARA EVANS (York Univ., Toronto)
Invisible Griersonians – Women in the British Documentary Film Movement of the 1930s

C4:3 JO FOX (Univ. Durham, UK)
Women in British and Canadian Non-Fiction Film Production, 1939-45

SCREENINGS 15 Mins

STRAND D. WOMEN IN &OUT OF THE STUDIOS

PANEL D 4: Women/Writing/Cinema
Chair: Melanie Bell (Univ. Newcastle)

D4:1 AMY SARGEANT (Univ. London, Queen Mary)
Dorothy L. Sayers Before Dante

D4:2 FIONA PHILIP (Univ. Leeds)
Resisting the ‘tinned products of Hollywood’: Bryher’s Queer Feminist Film Criticism

D4:3 PER VESTERLUND (Univ. Gavle, Sweden)
Elsa Brita Marcussen and Gerd Osten - Two Leading Film Critics in Post-war Sweden

SCREENINGS 15 Mins

4.15 - 4.35 Tea/Coffee (Prospect Building)

4.35 - 5.35

Keynote 3: View from an Overhanging Cliff

Margo Harkin, Producer/Director, Besom Productions Ltd

Chair: Ruth Barton (Trinity College, Dublin)

5.45 - 6.45

Special Event 2: Music for Women’s Silents

Natural Causes

6.45 - 7.30 Free/Bar (Throwing Stones Restaurant, National Glass Centre)

7.30 -10.00 Conference Dinner (Throwing Stones Restaurant, NGC)

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FRIDAY 15 APRIL

9.00 - 10.00

Wake-Up Screenings

10.00 -11.15

Round Table 3: Starting from Elsewhere: Questions of Transnational, Cross-Cultural Historiography

Sue Harper (University of Portsmouth)
Neepa Majumdar (University of Pittsburgh)
Heide Schlüpmann (Goethe Universität, Frankfurt)
Karen Alexander (Royal College of Art)

Chair: Monica Dall' Asta (University of Bologna)

11.15 - 11.30 Tea/Coffee (Prospect Building)

11.30 - 1.00 PANELS 5

STRAND A. WOMEN’S FILM HISTORIOGRAPHY

PANEL A 5: Performing Women: Re-Envisioning Film History
Chair: Clarissa Smith (Univ. Sunderland)

A5:1 ELISA UFFREDUZZI (Univ. Florence)
Salome, Modern Dance and Liberation of the Female Body in Early Cinema

A5:2 VERA RYSHIK (Univ. St Andrews)
The Silent v. Sound Actress: Gloria Swanson (1928) and Joan Crawford (1932) perform W. Somerset Maugham’s Sadie Thompson

A5:3 GILLIAN MURRAY (Univ. Leicester)
Women’s ‘Dual Role’ in Post-War Britain: Work and Pleasure in Moving Images

STRAND B. NEGOTIATIONS & RESISTANCES

PANEL B 5: Adaptation, Female Authors & the Future of the Woman’s Film
Chair: Helen Hanson (Univ. Exeter)

B5:1 ALEXIS WEEDON (Univ. Bedfordshire)
Adaptation & the Book as a System: Elinor Glyn & Other Authors Between the Wars my talk.doc

B5:2 SHELLEY COBB (Univ. Southampton)
Adapting Feminist Filmmaking: Women Directors, Literary Adaptations and the Postfeminist 1990s

B5:3 SARAH-MAI DANG (Univ. Berlin)
Emma, Elle & Elizabeth: The Contemporary ‘Woman’s Film’ as Aesthetic Modality of Experience

STRAND C. FORMS & AESTHETICS

PANEL C 5: Our Place, Our Space: Exhibition Sites & Creation of New Forms
Chair: Vicky Ball (Univ. Sunderland)

C5:1 KARINA AVEYARD (Griffith Univ., Brisbane, Australia)
'Our Place:' Women at the Cinema in Rural Australia

C5:2 KAY ARMATAGE (Univ. Toronto, Canada)
Making History: Directorial Authorship in the Met HD Broadcasts

C5:3 EVELIN STERMITZ (Univ. Ljubljana)
ArtFem.TV: Art and Feminism ITV

STRAND D. WOMEN IN & OUT OF THE STUDIOS

PANEL D 5: The Challenges of Circulating Women’s Films: Past & Future
Chair: Karen Alexander (Royal College of Art)

D5:1 JULIA KNIGHT (Univ. Sunderland)
The Challenges of Theatrical Releases: the Example of Cinema of Women

D5:2 DRAKE STUTESMAN (Women’s Film Preservation Fund, New York)
Strategies for Archiving, Preservation & Exhibition of Women’s Films

D5:3 LEZLI-AN BARRETT (Curtin Univ. Australia: DVD & Skype)
Making an Exhibition of Ourselves: Charting Journeys through Feminist Cinema Exhibition and Distribution into the Digital Age

1.00 - 2.00 Lunch

2.00 - 3.00

Keynote 4: Gossip, Labor and Female Stardom in Pre-Independence Indian Cinema

Neepa Majumdar (University of Pittsburgh)

Chair: Christine Gledhill (University of Sunderland)

3.00 - 3.45

Special Event 3: Introducing SP-ARK: Interactive Archive

Clare Holden, Adventure Pictures/SP-ARK (Sally Potter Archive)

3.45 - 4.05 Tea

4.05 - 5.30

Concluding Plenary: Conference Outcomes & Discussion of Blueprint for Women’s Film History Network- UK/Ireland

Introduction and Co-Chairs: Christine Gledhill & Julia Knight (University of Sunderland)

5.30 CLOSE

To download a pdf of this programme DWFH PROG for Wiki.pdf

Click this link for notes on the screenings DWFH Screening Notes.doc

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