The Status of Women in Filmand

Advanced Production

The Senior Project for the CIS Individual Major: Cinematic Studies

and Film Production

Leon Gaumont

George Melies

Lumiere Bros

DW Griffith

Lois WeberDirector, Writer,

Producer

Dorothy Arzner

Director, Writer

Mary PickfordActress and

Producer

Silent Film Industry• 1890’s-1920’s• 20-25% of directors were women

Still from Alice Guy Blaché’s La Fée aux Choux(2013)

• http://vimeo.com/70380930

Alice Guy

• Born in 1873 in Paris• First Female Filmmaker• Arguably first fiction

filmmaker ever• Head of Production of

Gaumont Film Company from 1896-1906

• 1907: Married Herbert Blaché and moved to America

• 1910: Created The Solax Company, largest pre-Hollywood studio ever

• She was enormously successful with over 1000 films

• Active until 1922

Alice Guy Blaché

So What Happened?

Cover image from Prof. Alison McMahan’s “Alice Guy Blaché: Lost Visionary of Cinema (2003)

So What About Now?

Promotional Image from The Avengers (2012)

Statistics from The Women’s Center of Film and Television at San Diego State University

Graphics from New York Film Academy

Statistics from The Women’s Center of Film and Television at San Diego State

Graphics from New York Film Academy

The Problem is Money

Still from Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

It’s All About Representation

Promotional Image from American Hustle (2013)

Statistics from The Women’s Center of Film and Television at San Diego State

Graphics from New York Film Academy

Statistics from The Women’s Center of Film and Television at San Diego State

Graphics from New York Film Academy

Laura Mulvey and the Male Gaze

Promotional Image from The Great Gatsby (2013)

The Bechdel Test

Selection from Alison Bechdel’s Comic Dykes to Watch Out For (1985)

Still from Midnight in Paris (2012)

Promotional Image from Gravity (2013)

The Future?

Bibliography