Happy Women’s Day! Trail blazers in film history:
– Women like Alice Guy-Blaché is regarded as the first female director, starting as a secretary and was only allowed to film films in her lunch break. This was in the late 1800’s and set the path for using a plot, colour and music in films. Her 1912 film A Fool and His Money is also notable for being one of the first films with an all African-American cast.
– Lois Weber, another famous woman director, has 138 films to her name and it was said that “She was a very vocal advocate for cinema’s ability to portray complex social issues in a popular narrative form.” Like capital punishment, urban poverty and birth control as an example. Once the 1920’s entered the stage, the females were gradually pushed out and the film industry was considered more of a mans work.
– Anne V. Coates, a legendary woman editor in film, cut together many of the most famous films in cinema history, including Lawrence of Arabia. She wanted to be a director but at the time females mostly held editing jobs as it had the reputation of being similar to sewing. She accidently created the famous match cut scene in Lawrence of Arabia while editing 53km of film.
– Verna Fields, another driving force in cutting together films for many famous names, such as Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. She was really setting the way for the Modern Hollywood, and pioneered many styles and techniques, but perhaps her greatest contribution was the simple, yet jarring, “wipe by cut” technique, made famous in her film Jaws.
Once editing became more digital, men started to dominate the cutting room, as computer work had the reputation of being male orientated. It’s cool to see the legacies of the women who have helped shape the modern landscape of cinema. We’ve got a great deal to learn from their courage, perseverance and creative freedoms.