Building Reputations: The Careers of Mary Field, Margaret Thomson and Kay Mander

Abstract

Film historians have generally concentrated their research of British non-fiction film-making on the male directors and producers of the British documentary movement. This has resulted in the marginalisation of those operating in other non-fiction genres, in particular the many women documentarists who worked on educational, instructional, travel, commercial, government and industrial films from the 1930s to the 1970s. This article examines the histories of three women documentary film-makers to assess why women are frequently missing from the established accounts of the genre and argue for their inclusion. It provides an overview of women in British documentary histories, followed by case studies of three women who worked in the sector: Mary Field, Margaret Thomson and Kay Mander. It investigates their collegial networks and considers the impact of gender discrimination on their careers in order to understand why they have received so little recognition in histories of the British documentary film movement.