Columbia University Seminar & Women’s Film History Network – UK/Ireland
Women and Film History Weekend 11-13 March 2010
Programme
Thursday 11 March 6.30 – 9.30
Introductions: Setting the Scene
6:30 - 7:20 Columbia University Seminar and WFHN (UK/Ireland)
Dinner (New York Thai Grill & Sushi Bar)
7.30 –9.30 Museum of Modern Art, Warner Screening Room
Round-Table: Columbia University Seminar "Cinema and Interdiscipinary Interpretation"
and WFHN-UK/Ireland
Moderator: Drake Stutesman
Christine Gledhill: (10 mins) “Introducing the Women’s Film History Network - UK/Ireland
Bryony Dixon: (15 mins) "Transnational Stories: Women and their films crossing borders - archival and research issues”
Introduction to Daisy Doodad’s Dial
Screening: Daisy Doodad’s Dial (Turner Film Company, 1914). Directed by Florence Turner. Cast: Florence Turner (Daisy Doodad) and Larry Trimble (Husband). (ca. 10 min. si., b&w, 35mm; NFTVA; LOC print.)
Mark Cooper: (15 mins) “Tackling Universal Women as a Research Problem: What historiographic sources do and don’t tell us about ‘gender’ in the silent motion picture studio”
Introduction to Alas and Alack
Screening: Alas & Alack (1915, Universal) Director: Ida May Park. Scenario: Ida May Park. Cast: Cleo Madison, Lon Chaney (ca. 15 min. si., b&w, 35mm; NFTVA; LOC print).
Jane Gaines: (15 mins) “Traveling Women and Silent Era World Film Distribution as Paradigms”
Discussion (30 min.)
WFHN Workshop: Transnationalising Women’s Film History
Friday 12 March - Identifying Problems & Issues
(Columbia University – Morningside, Butler Library Room 523)
9:00 – 10:30 Session 1: Traveling Women: Confronting Problems & Issues
Session Chair: Antonia Lant
Monica Dall’Asta: Challenges of Researching Worldwide Distribution + Pearl White Reception and Frida Kluge as Distributor
Elaine Burrows: Historical overview of NFTVA/BFI collection development policies as they have impacted on gender and nation questions.
Clare Watson: Pursuing Women Publicists from UK to USA
Discussion 45 min.
10:30 – 10:45 Coffee/tea break
10:45 – 12:15 Session 2: Gender and Nation: Trans-nationalising Women’s Film Histories
Session Chair: Christine Gledhill
Antonia Lant: "Women’s writings on cinema and questions of national identity: the discoveries of The Red Velvet Seat"
Emma Sandon: "Reconfiguring British cinema history's national borders: empire, women and filmmaking"
Ruth Barton: "The Daughters of Erin go to Hollywood: occupational mobility, Irish women and transnational cinema"
Discussion 60 min.
12:15 – 1:15 Lunch
1:15 – 2:45 Session 3: Historising the Recent Past: Digitisation. Transnational Practices & Future
Histories
Session Chair: Emma Sandon
Bette Gordon: Changing conditions of women’s indie film/video production and finance from 1970s to today
Drake Stutesman: Preserving the recent past: New York Women in Film and TV’s Preservation Program
Rosanna Maule: Proposal for developing a “virtual archive”: Women Filmmakers and Postfeminism at the Age of Multimedia Reproduction
Discussion 60 min.
2:45 – 3:00 Coffee/tea break
3:00 – 4:50 Session 4: Resources for Women’s Film History: Current Progress and Future Development
Session Chair: Nancy Friedland
Jane Gaines and Risa Karaviotis: (15 mins) "Unveiling the Women Film Pioneers On-line Project: scope and design + meeting challenges of scholarship across national borders"
Radha Vatsal: (10 mins) "Women Film Pioneers On-Line: New challenge of digital research and “publication” for scholars"
Clare Watson: (10 mins) "Women and Silent British Cinema Website"
Workshop deliberation (30 mins)
Jenny Horne and Mark Cooper: (15 mins) "Women and Film History International: Future Challenges"
Workshop deliberation (25 mins)
4.55 – 5.50 Travel from Columbia to MOMA
5:50 – 9:00 Museum of Modern Art, Warner Screening Room
Chair/Moderator: Jennifer Horne
Screenings: Curse of the Quon Gwon (Mandarin Film Co. 1916) Dir/prod/writer, Marion E. Wong. AMPAS Archive. Introduced by Chi Li
The Red Lantern (Nazimova Productions 1919) Dir. Albert Capellani, cas.: Alla Nazimova, si, b&w. 35mm. Archive: BEB. Introduced by Dolores McElroy
9:00 Dinner (Bombay Palace)
Saturday 13 March - Solutions and Implementation
(Columbia University – Morningside, Butler Library Room 523)
9:00 – 10:45 Session 5: Policies and Practices 1: Internationalising Research Resources & Knowledge Sharing
Session Chair: Laraine Porter
Nancy Goldman: "The FIAF Treasures Database - interpreting "gender" and "nation": challenges of classification and credits"
Kim Tomadjoglou: "Challenges to archival standards in age of multiple formats, and where we stand on copyright"
Bryony Dixon: "Strategies for linking national archives and WFH international organizations"
10:45 –11:00 Coffee/tea break
11:00 - 1:00 Session 6: Policies and Practices 2: Distribution, Exhibition & Education
Session Chair: Nancy Goldman
Jenni Ramme and Eva Kietzmann: "Introduction to Bildwechsel with a focus on building up networks"
Laraine Porter: "On the category “women” and the future of festivals and retrospectives"
Jennifer Horne: "Past and future work of SCMS SIG (Special Interest Groups) and challenges to canon, curriculuar change along lines of gender and nation"
1:00 - 2:00 Lunch
Public Event - Graduate Student Conference
(Maison Française East Gallery, Columbia University - 2.00-6.15 )
Moderator: Linnéa Hussein
2:00 – 2:30 "Politics of Archival Work"
Weihong Bao (Moderator) and Jim Cheng
2:30 – 3:30 "Asian Archives"
Ti-Kai Chang, Chi Li
3:30 - 3:45 Coffee/tea break
3:45 – 4:45 "Spanish Language Archives"
José Palacios (Moderator), Veronica Spratley, Bruno Guaraná
4:45 – 5:45 "Russian & European Archives"
Alessandra Luciano (Moderator), Oxana Chefrenova, Viktoria Paranyuk
5:45 – 6:15 "General Archival Issues and Conference Summary"
Discussion chair: Jane Gaines
6:15 – 7:20 Dinner
(Maison Française (Buell Hall), 2nd Floor, Columbia University)
Public Event: “Alice Guy Blaché: After the Exhibition”
Maison Française, lst floor lecture room, Columbia University: 7:30 – 10.30
Joan Simon (curator, Alice Guy Blaché Exhibition, Whitney Museum) "Overview of Whitney Exhibition"
Screenings: Family Melodrama
La Marâtre/The Stepmother (Gaumont, 1906)
Falling Leaves (Solax, 1912)
Panel
Moderator: Antonia Lant (NYU)
Alan Williams (Rutgers University)
Kim Tomadjoglou (Co-curator, Alice Guy Blaché Exhibition)
Charles Musser (Yale University)
Screenings: Cross-Dressing Comedy
La Femme collante/The Sticky Woman (Gaumont, 1906)
La Matelas alcoolique/The Drunken Mattress (Gaumont, 1906)
Officer Henderson (Solax, 1913) NTSC vhs (A.W.)
Screenings: Alice Guy’s Ambiguous Politics
Le Résultats du féminisme/The Results of Feminism (1906, Gaumont)
The Strike (Solax, 1911)
Sunday 14 March: Debriefing: Next Actions
(at Maison Française, 2nd fl. seminar room)
8:30 am – Working Breakfast for Columbia Workshop organizers and WFHN-UK/Ireland Steering Group: Jane Gaines, Christine Gledhill, Bryony Dixon, Ruth Barton, Laraine Porter, Elaine Burrows, Emma Sandon, Eva Kietzmann
USEFUL READING
Kay Armatage, "The Women's Film History Project and Women and the Silent Screen." Screen, 48.4 (Winter 2008): 462-467 (attached.)
Inderpal Grewal: Transnational America (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005) – especially Introduction and Chapter 3
Jan-Christopher Horak: ‘The Gap Between 1 and 0: Digital Video and the Omissions of Film History,’ Spectator 27.1, Sprint 2007: 29-41
Jane Mills: Loving and Hating Hollywood: Reframing Local and Global Cinemas (Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2009)
Joan W. Scott: ‘AHR Forum: Unanswered Questions: Revisiting Gender,’ American Historical Review, December 2008.
Paul Willemen: ‘The National Revisited’ in Valentina Vitali and Paul Willemen (eds.), Theorising National Cinema (London: BFI, 2006).
