Film Series
Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers
In the Wild West days of early filmmaking—before Hollywood hardened into an assembly-line behemoth and boys’ club—talented women worked regularly as writers, producers, and directors, instrumental in shaping the very language of cinema as we know it. Nevertheless, figures like Alice Guy Blaché and Lois Weber are known today primarily by aficionados, and artists like Nell Shipman, Grace Cunard, and Marion E. Wong remain woefully obscure. Bringing together dozens of essential new restorations, this series spotlights the daring, innovative, and trailblazing work of the first female filmmakers and restores their centrality to the creation of cinema itself.
Presented in partnership with Kino Lorber and the Library of Congress
Dynamic writer-producer-director Nell Shipman stars in this rugged Arctic adventure saga.
Thematically daring, formally innovative works from one of cinema history’s first auteurs.
Thematically daring, formally innovative works from one of cinema history’s first auteurs.
Essential slices of film history from the very first female director.
Hard-hitting, socially-conscious dramas that confront the exploitation of women.
Features rare footage shot by Zora Neale Hurston and the first Chinese-American film.
A striking backwoods melodrama and an early treatment of racial prejudice.
The first western made by a woman screens with an action-adventure short.
The ebullient director-comedian in films co-starring Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle
Alla Nazimova’s delirious, decadent, Art Nouveau-meets-camp spectacle.