SILENT WOMEN: PIONEERS OF CINEMA

Silent Women: Pioneers of Cinema Paperback – April 26, 2016 by Cheryl Robson (Author), Kevin Brownlow (Author), Shelley Stamp (Author), Karen Day (Author), Maria Giese (Author), Dr Pieter Aquilia (Author), Dr Patricia di Risio (Author), Melody Bridges (Editor), Bryony Dixon (Foreword)

It now emerges that more women were working at every level in the first 20 years of the film industry in the USA than at any point since. Early pioneers, such as Alice Guy Blache, directed hundreds of films, invented techniques, ran businesses and set up distribution but with the rise of the male-dominated studio system, their significant contribution to the dawn of the movies has long been forgotten.

With chapters on the writers, directors, producers, stars, film editors, designers and camera women of the silent era this book acknowledges and celebrates the many talented women who were significantly involved in the rise of the industry and explains why the coming of the talkies and big business led to the inequality which exists today. Voted the best book published about silent cinema in THE SILENT LONDON POLL OF 2016 #1 Amazon Best Seller: Silent Film Named one of the Best Film Books of the Year by Huffington Post Covers the hidden history of cinema’s diverse beginnings including American, European and African-American female filmmakers, cinematographers, editors, critics and screenwriters. With a never-before published interview with legendary director Dorothy Arzner. Essential reading for students of film studies, media, culture and gender/women studies. Taps into the current debate about discrimination within the media and creative industries. Concludes with a chapter by activist and film director Maria Giese, who instigated the Civil Liberties investigation into sexism in Hollywood, on the current status of women behind the camera in Hollywood today.

About the Author
Cheryl Robson trained in filmmaking at BBC and has directed and produced several documentaries including the award-winning music doc 'Rock n Roll Island' which won 4 awards at film festivals, aired on BBC4 and was named a Sunday Times Critics Choice programme. In 2019 she was a finalist in the ITV National diversity awards and has previously won the Croydon Warehouse International Playwriting Competition and been shortlisted for the Marsh Award for Children's Literature in translation.

is a British film historian, television documentary-maker, filmmaker, author, and film editor. He is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era, having become interested in silent film at the age of 11. This interest grew into a career spent documenting and restoring film. Brownlow has rescued many silent films and their history. His initiative in interviewing many largely forgotten, elderly film pioneers in the 1960s and 1970s preserved a legacy of early mass-entertainment cinema. He received an Academy Honorary Award at the 2nd Annual Governors Awards given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on 13 November 2010. This was the first occasion on which an Academy Honorary Award was given to a film preservationist.

Shelley is an expert on women and early film culture and recently published a book on Lois Weber, one of Hollywood’s top filmmakers during the silent era. She is currently at work on a comprehensive history of Women and the Silent Screen in America, co-written with Anne Morey and am curating a DVD box set on First Women Filmmakers for Kino-Lorber. My entry on “Women and the Silent Screen” was recently published in Oxford Bibliographies Online.

As a writer, photographer, television producer and filmmaker, Karen focuses on humanitarian issues in exotic locales that will never host a Club Med. Afghanistan, Cuba, Myanmar, pre-war Iraq, pre-Madonna Malawi, Hollywood and Washington DC have offered her excellent scenery and exciting opportunities to dodge bullets and write for national publications like MORE magazine, “O,” the Los Angeles Times and The Pentagon. NBC Nightly News featured her lunch date with Dr. Anthrax in Baghdad. A perversely lucky journalist, she has slept in the home of the Dalai Lama’s mother and a refugee camp outside of Kabul. She says that her job is to chronicle human nature and for better or worse, she’ll never run out of challenging assignments.

Maria Giese is an American feature film director and screenwriter. A member of the Directors Guild of America, and an activist for parity for women directors in Hollywood, she writes and lectures about the under-representation of women filmmakers in the United States.

Product details
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Supernova Books (April 26, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0956632998
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0956632999
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 10.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1 x 7.75 inches