Cinema's First Nasty Women: Queens of Destruction
Special Features: Tickets $8!
Cinema's First Nasty Women features rarely seen silent films about feminist protest, anarchic slapstick mayhem and evocative gender play. First presented at the Giornate del Cinema Muto in Pordenone, Italy, 99 films have now been collected into a landmark home video collection by Kino Lorber, of which these three programs represent a carefully curated selection. The program curators have chosen to highlight films that have for too long remained inaccessible, unpreserved, unscored, untranslated and widely unseen. The women included are indeed very "nasty" — they organize labor strikes, engage in rough 'n' tumble slapstick comedy and assume a rogues' gallery of playful identities that joyously dismantle gender binaries and sexual norms.
The selection eschews many of the more famous names from the silent era in the interest of highlighting performers whose recognition is long overdue, including Sarah Duhamel, Bertha Regustus, Lea Giunchi, Berthe Dagmar, Edna "Billy" Foster, Little Chrysia, Ellen Lowe, Minnie Devereaux, Lilian St. Cyr, Tsuru Aoki, Texas Guinan and Fay Tincher, among others. The programs will screen to recorded musical accompaniment, featuring newly commissioned scores in wide a range of styles; nearly all of the composers are women or nonbinary and many are Black, Indigenous and people of color.
Program curators Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak and Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi state: "We launched this project in the midst of anti-feminist whiplash and rising global authoritarianism. We associate the 'nasty women' rallying cry with the archives of early film feminism because of its descriptive accuracy as well as its uncanny relevance to the present-day proliferation of feminist film culture… We hope that our enthusiasm for rediscovering and sharing the gospel of these films will be contagious and will result in more research, teaching, screening and further creative production that far outstrip our own powers of imagination."
This selection of films highlights uproarious, pugnacious, anarchic and unrestrained women on screen; slapstick comedy and comedic destruction abound. Program approx. 88 min.
BETTY'S BOAT [LE BATEAU DE LÉONTINE] | France, 1911, b&w, 5 min.
TILLY'S PARTY | UK, 1911, b&w, 7 min.
LAUGHING GAS | U.S., 1907, b&w, 6 min.
MARY JANE'S MISHAP | UK, 1903, b&w, 4 min.
MADAME PLUMETTE'S FURY [LA FUREUR DE MADAME PLUMETTE] | France, 1912, b&w, 5 min.
ROSALIE AND HER PHONOGRAPH [ROSALIE ET SON PHONOGRAPHE] | France, 1911, b&w, 5 min.
LÉONTINE GETS CARRIED AWAY [LÉONTINE S'ENVOLE] | France, 1911, b&w, 6 min.
CUNÉGONDE THE NASTY WOMAN [CUNÉGONDE FEMME CRAMPON] | France, 1912, b&w, 8 min.
ROSALIE MOVES IN [ROSALIE EMMÉNAGE] | France, 1911, b&w, 6 min.
LÉONTINE KEEPS HOUSE [LÉONTINE GARDE LA MAISON] | France, 1912, b&w, 8 min.
ROWDY ANN | U.S., 1919, b&w, 24 min.
No AFI Member passes accepted.
Run Time: 88 Minutes
Opening Date: Saturday, November 05, 2022
Genre: Silent shorts
