Seeing for Ourselves: Women Working in Film

Synopsis: This film, which was made in 1983, addresses the issues surrounding the emergence of a new feminist cinema. It focuses on four film-makers - Joanna Davis, Tina Keane, Annabel Nicolson and Lis Rhodes - who, together with Felicity Sparrow, were involved in the founding of Circles, a women’s distribution, exhibition and research group.

The film presents two examples of work by early women directors - THE SMILING MADAME BEUDET (1922) by Germaine Dulac and A HOUSE DIVIDED (1913) by Alice Guy-Blaché - and shows how their films, like others, have been ignored or misrepresented. Excerpts are also shown from the work of the four women, including Tina Keane’s video performances; Annabel Nicolson’s work -which involves painting directly on to the film strip - and her film/performance work made in relation to events at Greenham Common; OFTEN DURING THE DAY (1978) by Joanna Davis: Lis Rhodes’ LIGHT READING (1979) and PICTURES ON PINK PAPER (1983).

The film-makers describe their methods and aims, and are seen discussing their work with each other.
Language: English
Country: Great Britain
Year of release: 1983
Subjects: Film studies; Women’s studies
Keywords: feminism; Guy-Blaché, Alice; women in cinema; Dulac, Germaine

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Notes: A long-established, not-for-profit organisation with a large collection DVDs, specialising in the sectors of general and mental health, child care, race relations, war and peace, addictions, the third world, ecology, civil rights, personal relationships, educational issues, and social work training. Concord also handles titles made for the Graves Medical Audio-visual Library. Sale on DVD. Formerly known as Concord Video and Film Council. In 2014 Concord began to offer selected films as Video on Demand, via Vimeo.

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