Researching Women's Film History

Abstract

Paradoxically, while 1970s/1980s feminist film theory had argued there were no “real” women represented in mainstream cinema, women's film historians have unearthed myriads of “real” women doing pioneering work in all areas of filmmaking, exhibition, and journalism, throughout the world. However, once cinema was established as a major industry of huge economic and cultural significance, women found themselves eased out of key production roles, largely hidden in “below‐the‐line jobs,” and visible only on screen as actresses and stars. Despite the impact of the women's movement on women's independent filmmaking and resulting equality legislation in many countries, the situation remains painfully static even today.Uncovering the history of women's participation in, and contributions to, the emergence and development of cinema offers an important platform for current attempts to redress women's unequal access to filmmaking. Focusing largely on the anglophone experience but highlighting recent investigations of women working in Europe, Latin America, and India, this entry, collectively written by the Women's Film & Television History Network‐UK/Ireland, charts key contributions made by women to the history of cinema, while outlining both institutional obstacles to their participation and the historiographic and critical frameworks that have excluded their work from established film histories. At the same time, the entry reflects on the problems raised by the project to construct a women's film history.