Women and the Silent Screen VI – Call For Papers
Bologna, Italy, June 24–26, 2010
Director: Monica Dall’Asta
Sponsored by the Università di Bologna (Dipartimento di Musica e Spettacolo – Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia), Women and Film History International, Regione Emilia-Romagna, Cineteca di Bologna, and the Biblioteca Italiana delle Donne, the Sixth International Women and the Silent Screen Conference will celebrate the diversity of women’s engagement with silent cinemas across the globe through a series of scholarly panels, keynote addresses, and archival film screenings.
Papers and panels are invited not only on the directors, screenwriters, producers, and actors of the era, but also on the role of women in modern mass culture, broadly considered. Continuing the dynamic spirit that characterized previous conferences in Utrecht (1999), Santa Cruz (2001), Montréal (2004), Guadalajara (2006), and Stockholm (2008) the conference will provide an open and friendly atmosphere for the exchange of research and insight into women’s involvement in the first four decades of film history.
Papers and panels might consider:
Words, wordlessness, and bodily expression
Divas and antidivas
Audiences, moviegoers, and fans
Theorists, critics, and writers
Body genres
Serial screen narratives
Motion picture economies and gendered divisions of labor
Global and local exhibition practices
The social realities of World War I
Feminist historiography and the transnational
The modern as period and problematic
Synchronized sound: transition, continuity, and the question of change
The archives: theory, practice, politics
Feminist theory and the silent screen
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Submission Deadline: January 10, 2010
Electronic Submission of Proposals: http://wss2010.wfhi.org
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Saturday 7th November 2009, Women and Silent Britain 2: Women Writing Film, BFI Southbank, London.
Women and Silent Britain: Women Writing Film will include presentations, workshops and screenings of rarities from the BFI National Archive. This year’s theme is ‘women writing’ and will look at women writing for or about film as screenwriters, columnists, critics, publicists, and authors of source novels and plays. Confirmed speakers include Christine Gledhill on screenwriter Lydia Hayward, Laraine Porter on novelist Elizabeth von Arnheim, Alexis Weedon on novelist turned screenwriter/producer/director Elinor Glyn, Matthew Sweet on columnist Nerina Shute and Jane Bryan on the delights of the 1910s fan magazine.
Sarah Street, Luke McKernan, Clare Watson and Nathalie Morris will be participating in a research surgery that explores some of the pleasures and problems of researching women film pioneers, and Amy Sargeant, Nicola Beauman and Laura Marcus will introduce and read from a selection of writings by prominent critics, actors and novelists of the 1920s.
The day will be rounded off with a screening of The Constant Nymph (1928). One of the biggest British films of that year, The Constant Nymph stars Mabel Poulton, and was based on the novel and play by Margaret Kennedy, and adapted for the screen by Alma Reville. Tickets are £10 (day only)/£15 (day event + evening screening of The Constant Nymph) and can be booked via the BFI box office. Full timetable to be posted shortly.
Thanks to Persephone Books who will be hosting a wine reception between 5-6pm. Persephone specialises in re-printing works by forgotten women writers and a selection of their books will be available to purchase on the day.
Plus BFI Collections on Display: Women and Silent Britain, Mezzanine Level, BFI Southbank, 6 October-22 November (tbc) 2009.
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Women and the Silent Screen VI, Bologna, Italy, 24-26 June 2010
Details here
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Please let us know about any other forthcoming events…
PAST EVENTS..
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27 and 28 June
Cinema Museum Open Weekend
The Cinema Museum collection represents cinema’s rich history from the earliest days to the present, containing items relating to film production to film exhibition and the experience of cinema going.
The weekend also features an exhibition of new artwork by Cnidoblasts and Anna Odrich, reconfiguring artefacts from the collection and exploring the mechanics and gestures of silent comedy through sculpture.
Also during weekend: Recipes to the Stars! – an edible talk with Jenny Hammerton. See Jenny’s excellent Silver Screen Suppers site to find out how to make tasty (and not so tasty) recipes
Rescuing Home Movies – a guide by David Cleveland
Classic Silent Comedy Shorts – a film screening with piano accompaniment by Tom Bell
Guided tours of the Museum Collection
Chaplin and the Workhouse exhibition and more!
See www.cinemamuseum.org.uk for updates and more information
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7-8 June 2009, Barbican, London, The Sounds of Early Cinema conference. Papers from academics, archivists and curators plus a screening of Maurice Elvey’s The Flag Lieutenant.
The 12th Silent British Cinema 4-6 June 2009, Barbican, London
This year’s festival promises to be a corker! With a musical theme, look forward to superb accompaniment from world renowned musicians Neil Brand, Gunter Buchwald, Phil Carli, Stephen Horne, and John Sweeney as well as special events including Palais de Dance (1928) with the Barbican Palais Orchestra on Friday 5th, Ukelelescope, a new performance by The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain at BFI Southbank on Saturday 6, and a guided walk of early cinema locations with Professor Ian Christie on Sunday 7.
**Visit the 12th Silent British Cinema Festival Diary page to read about the festival and leave comments
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21-26 April 2009, Frauen Film Festival, Dortmund, Germany
The International Women’s Film Festival held annually in Dortmund and Cologne (on alternate years) features new films and filmmakers as well as silent films with live accompaniment. Please visit the festival website for more information
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March 5-13, 2009, Bird’s Eye View Film Festival, London, England
Includes a retrospective strand focusing on Screen Seductresses: Vamps, Vixen and Femmes Fatales. Silent Screenings include Pandora’s Box.
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Sunday 15 February 2009, 2-5pm, screening of The Life Story of David Lloyd George
Conference Centre, British Library, London
Live accompaniment from Neil Brand and introduced by Dan Snow
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22-25 January 2009, Slapstick, Silent Comedy Festival, Bristol, England.
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Thursday 23 October, Trafalgar Square, London
Outdoor screening of High Treason (1929, Maurice Elvey) with live accompaniment by Neil Brand as part of the Times BFI London Film Festival. Click here for more details.
Listen to Neil Brand, Matthew Sweet and Kevin Brownlow discuss High Treason and silent cinema with Francine Stock on the Film Programme (broadcast 17 October 2008).
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4th-11th October, 2008, Pordenone, Italy.
The Pordenone Silent Film Festival/Le Giornate del Cinema Muto
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26th – 28th September 2008, BFI Southbank, London.
Best of the British Silent Cinema Festival
A weekend of highlights from the annual British Silent Cinema Festival, now in its 11th year. Screenings programmes of short and non-fiction films: The Olympic Games on Film 1900-1924, When All Films Were Short and True Crime on Film) and features: The Battle of the Somme (1916), The Lure of Crooning Water (1920), The Triumph of the Rat (1927), The Ware Case (1928) (scripted by Lydia Hayward) and The First Born (1928) (co-scripted by Alma Reville).
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19th September, Filmpodium, Zurich, Germany
Screening of The First Born (1928), directed by and starring Miles Mander, co-scripted by Alma Reville. Stephen Horne accompanies on piano. Click here for further details.
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11th September, Women’s Library, London Metropolitan University
Women Transport Pioneers in the Gaumont Graphic Newsreel (1910-1932)
Illustrated talk by WSBC contributor Jude Cowan Montagu
The Gaumont Graphic, held by ITN Source on behalf of Reuters, is a silent newsreel that played at British cinemas from 1910 to 1932. Using excerpts of footage. This talk looks at some of the pioneers who changed the face of travel and transport. Women featured include actor Dorothy Jordan, aviators Amy Johnson, Mary du Caurroy and Amelia Earhart, and speed boat racers Marin Barbara ‘Betty’ Carstairs and Mrs Victor Bruce.
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11 – 13th June 2008
The Fifth Women and the Silent Screen Conference, Stockholm University, Sweden.
The conference will include archival screenings, as well as keynote addresses and scholarly panels related to women and cinema during the first four decades of film history. The historical and theoretical issues include the roles of women as directors, screenwriters, producers, distributors and actors, but also as filmgoers.
The deadline for proposals has now passed (see CFP). The conference website is now up and running and a copy of the programme can be downloaded here.
We will publish a review of the conference on the WSBC site in due course so please check back to these pages.
In conjunction with the conference organisers, the Nederlands Film Museum has put out a request for help identifying forgotten films and actresses. To download a powerpoint presentation of images please follow this link
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13th – 30th May 2008
The Second Fashion in Film Festival: If Looks Could Kill, BFI Southbank, London.
The festival includes screenings of The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927) on which Alma Reville worked as Assistant Director, and The Rat (1925), based on the 1924 play written by Constance Collier and Ivor Novello. Stephen Horne accompanies The Lodger which is showing on 13th May
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12th April 2008
Cross-Media Co-Operation Between the Publishing, Theatrical and Film Industries: An Interdisciplinary Colloquium, Institute of English Studies, University of London.
This one-day event is an initiative of the University of Bedfordshire’s Cross-Media Collaboration in the 1920s and 1930s project. Papers include ‘Elinor Glyn: The Novelist as Hollywood star’ (Dr. Vince Barnett). A full programme is available on the conference webpage.
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5th April 2008, 11.00 – 13.00
Panel Session on Women and Silent British Cinema. Part of the 11th Silent British Cinema Festival, ‘Rats, Ruffians and Radicals: The Globalisation of Crime and the Silent British Film’, 3-6 April 2008, Nottingham Broadway.
We can now confirm the panel line-up as follows:
Simon Brown, ‘Blanche McIntosh: The First Lady of Screen Crime’
Amy Sargeant, ‘The Return of Mata Hari and A Woman Redeemed‘
Lisa Stead, ‘”It Costs Nothing to Wish!” Fan Writing and Self-Representation in the British Silent Cinema”
Tony Fletcher, ‘Laura Eugenia Smith and the Biokam Films’
Booking forms and the full festival programme can now be downloaded from the festival website.
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7th-13th March 2008
Clowning Glories: Women in Film Comedy Before 1930 is a week-long film festival that celebrates women’s contribution to the development of film comedy internationally. This Birds Eye View event includes a panel discussion, screenings with live musical accompaniment, and a comedy gala featuring comedienne Jo Brand. The festival will showcase the work of pioneering directors such as Alice Guy, Florence Turner and Dorothy Arzner, and films include The Vagabond Queen (1929) starring British screen heroine Betty Balfour.
Allevents will take place at the NFT during the second week of March.
Listen to curators Kelly Robinson and Ingrid Stigsdotter discuss Clowning Glories on BBC4’s Woman’s Hour (originally broadcast 5 March 2008).
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14 – 16th December 2007
Non Solo Dive: Pioniere del cinema italiano (Not Only Divas: Women pioneers of Italian cinema) international conference and retrospective on women and silent cinema, Bologna, Italy.
The event is motivated by the desire to rediscover the part played by women in an area that has for too long been regarded as exclusively male and at the same time to critically investigate the causes that to a certain extent determined this process of “masculinization” of the cinema that began in the early 1920s.
A retrospective of films will run 2-15 December at the Cinema Lumière in Bologna in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna and two new major restorations will feature: Elvira Giallanella’s pacifist film Umanità (1919) and Elvira Notari’s ‘A Santanotte (1921), a Neopolitan melodrama.
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