Invitation to join the Women’s Film and Television History Network

The Women’s Film and Television History Network is a group of researchers, teachers, archivists, collections managers, students, professionals, and enthusiasts engaged in exploring the contributions women have made to the emergence and development of film and television.

We have come together to form the Women’s Film & Television History Network-UK/Ireland as a means of encouraging, supporting and disseminating research into women’s participation in screen media, and exploring their wide range roles, including: scriptwriting; producing; directing; designing costumes, sets, props; acting; dancing; singing; cinematography; sound design & recording; editing; music; distributing; trade reviewing; exhibition & cinema managing; audiences & fans; journalism, criticism.

By raising the visibility of women’s present and past relationship to cinema and television we aim to:
▪    ensure women’s work is recognised in the writing of screen histories.
▪    make a case for the preservation and availability of women’s films and television programmes
▪    increase programming choice in film theatres, television channels, DVD outlets
▪    encourage new approaches to film and television that are sensitive to gender, class and race
▪    impact on the teaching of screen media in schools and colleges
▪    raise the aspirations of young women who might seek careers in the media.

WFTHN focuses on British and Irish women working in the UK/Ireland or abroad and on overseas women working here. It is affiliated to Women & Film History International and encourages British and Irish contributions to international initiatives such as the Women Film Pioneers Database, the biennial international Women and Silent Screen conferences and the women’s television conference, Consoling Passions.

WFTHN is not based in a single institution but collaborates with a range of professional and academic organizations, archival collections and websites relevant to women’s filmmaking and television production such as the Women and Silent British Cinema (WSBC) website, Screenonline, the British Film Institute, The Women’s Library, WiFT (UK) and so on.

We warmly welcome new members and membership is open to anyone committed to contributing to the development of women’s film and television history, such as academic researchers, professionals, enthusiasts, or local historians.
Subscribing to the WFTHN’s mailing list establishes membership. There is no membership fee at present:

WFTHN mailing list: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=WFThn

Our website can be found at: http://womensfilmandtelevisionhistory.wordpress.com

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We are currently looking for contributions that relate to our research interests for our website, including blogs, reviews and previews of events/films/programmes, etc. Anyone interested in telling the Network more about their research should contact Angela Martin (amartin200@yahoo.co.uk).

Read Professor Christine Gledhill’s Viewfinder profile of the Network here.