passion fruit

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif[/img] Hi there,

Does anyone know the name of the first ever british female director, the name of her first ever film, and the genre of her first ever film?
I've been trying to find this piece of information for ages, but haven't found it yet! I'd really appreciate it if someone could please help as I need this info to start my media project.

Any help much appreciated! Thanks: <span style="color:#663366">Passion fruit </span> [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

AndrewLA

I don't know if she was the first ever woman director, but I'll start the ball rolling by tossing out the name of Jill Craigie, in 1948, with THE WAY WE LIVE, a semi-documentary with actors for Rank and Two Cities that went out as a second feature.

JamesM

It might be The Old Maid's Valentine which was a comedy most allegedly directed by Laura Bayley (Mrs George Albert Smith), in 1900. I have a feeling your media project might not be what you anticipated.

Hugo

Try looking at Women in Film on the BFI website here :-http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/824060/index.html

plasticjock

Mary Field was certainly one of the earliest directors. She was co-directing and editing educational and natural history films in the early twenties. Her first feature, a talkie, 'Strictly Business', co-directed with Jaqueline Logan, an American, was released in 1932.

Here is a review from Hal Erickson's All Movie Guide:
An early -- and surprisingly forgotten -- entry in the field of the feminist cinema, Strictly Business was written and co-directed by former Hollywood leading lady Jacqueline Logan (she played Mary Magdalene in DeMille's King of Kings). A very young Molly Lamont stars as a London pushcart girl, forced to sell her wares in the streets by her layabout father. Lamont proves her loyalty to her dad by saving him from a blackmailer, but in the process her reputation as a "nice girl" is placed in doubt. Disowned by her father, Lamont is saved from disgrace by her fiance, even though she seems (and is) perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Alas, Strictly Business was a box-office flop, though this can't be blamed on the incisive direction of Jacqueline Logan and Mary Field.

A comprehensive list of worldwide women film directors, albeit a few years out-of-date can be found here:
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~pm9k.../fwfdindx.html

passion fruit

Thank you so much for all your help. I'll look into all of your suggestions.

what made you think that? [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif[/img]

The thing is (in reference to JamesM's comment) for my project, I obviously need to narrow my research, and at the moment I'm having difficulty in choosing a specific genre. I need to be able to explain why I chose a certain genre to examine the relationship between women and film. The relationship can be anything-- women directors to producers to writers...--- but, I thought it would probably be best to stick to women directors, as a lot can be said about their acceptance and how their contribution is influenced by gender... so I would have more to look into and analyse, which is a key element of this project.

That's why I asked if anyone could help me identify the first female british director, so that once I identify the director and the genre of her first film, I can focus on the genre of her film.

(hope all of what I've just written makes sense)!

penfold

Quite probably...she was an experienced stage actress when Hubby went into this animated photographs lark...and she most definitely was the first british female film comedy star - if you get the chance to see 'Mary Jane's Mishap' (1903) you'll see why... a real communication with the audience - she even winks at us down the decades, and a really expressive face. As she was the kissee in Smiths 'A Kiss in the tunnel'(1899) she might also be described as Britain's first mainstream erotic actress....'The Old Maid's Valentine' stars her sister Eva, by the way....there is no doubt she was a very important early figure...
Her entry - by eminent historian David Robinson - in the Pordenone catalogue for 2002 is as follows...
"The wife of the director GA Smith, Laura Eugenia Bayley was one of four talented sisters - the others were Eva, Blanche and Florence - who were active in the theatrical life of Brighton. All the sisters seem to have worked in Smith's films, and Laura certainly directed some pictures and is said to have been involved in making cameras. Laura's uninhibited performance in this comic-macabre little film[Mary-Jane's Mishap] gives her, along with her sisters the distinction of being Britain's first 'Funny Ladies"
According to Smiths' own records, Laura was responsible for and directed his company's 'facials', ie, comedies relying on exaggerated expressions caught in close-up, as popular a comedy genre at the time (1899-1903) as the 'chase' films that ten years later developed into the Keystone Kops style of film.

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

passion fruit

Thank you Penfold [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif[/img] But if I look into Laura Bayley's work, and focus on the comedy genre, do you think a lot could be said about women directors directing comedy, and how their portrayal of characters has changed-women shown stronger/weaker [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/huh.gif[/img] : basically, would I be able to put an argument forward as to how her work/contribution to the film industry is influenced by her gender? would the comedy genre be a good genre to look into? or would it perhaps be better if I looked into a better genre (in relation to my project)? any suggestions greatly appreciated.

AndrewLA

If you'd like to focus on comedy, you might think about Wendy Toye. Obviously, not the first British woman director, but one of the more successful ones in the 50s. RAISING A RIOT, ALL FOR MARY, TRUE AS A TURTLE. There's a good interview with her in "Voices from Twentieth Century Cinema," by Wheeler Winston Dixon. If she's still alive (?), you could even ask her questions yourself. She says here that she was never a feminist, preferring to set an example by "doing something and getting on with it and not being a crashing bore about things."

And, just to mention Jill Craigie again, her story is quite significant inasmuch it touches on the British film industry's brush with social realism in the late 40s, and (in part because of John Davis' opposition to her as director) then pulling away from it. There's a new bio of Craigie (haven't read it), which must have many details of that part of her life.

Good luck.

penfold

If I were to give any advice (As someone who has just seen and read about an awful lot of films from over the decades, attended papers, but never written a media project in my life) is that if you really want to explore the influence of women in the making of films, don't make the mistake of limiting your attention purely to the women directors. Despite what auteur theory dictates, film-making is a hugely collaborative process; sometimes the director is the one with the greatest self-promotional skills. For instance, the most influential woman in British cinema history never directed a picture; her name was Alma Reville, and without her skills as scenarist, scriptwriter, editor and assistant director, usually but not always uncredited, you may never have heard of the unknown she took under her wing at the studios, and married; a man with plenty of self-promotional skills; Alfred Hitchcock. He never - in his entire career - made a script into a film that Alma hadn't read and blue-pencilled first. Try and find a copy of a film she scripted (But Hitch did not film himself) called The Passing Of The Third Floor Back, from the mid-30's...someone on the forum should be able to help. Full of 'Hitchcockian' elements...the beautiful blonde in peril, the innocent man wrongly accused, etc...then compare it to the original one-act play by Jerome K.Jerome which had none of these....and ask yourself; who was actually responsible for 'Hitchcockianness' in the films he did direct - Alfred, or Mrs Hitchcock??

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

passion fruit

Thanks for your help AndrewLA and penfold and everyone else who have contributed [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif[/img] . hmm... I'm going to need to look into all you've said and do some vigorous research [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/huh.gif[/img] , but thanks for giving me a starting point. If I have any questions/queries/further help, I'll just put up a post. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

AndrewLA

Brilliant.

JamesM

What I meant by my statement was that the films of Laura Bayley and Mrs Cecil Hepwoth were very short subjects and that there might not be much material to work on. They probably only ended up working on these films by default, assisting their husbands. Dealing with Mary Field and the film Strictly Business may be more apt as she was perhaps one of the first established British female directors and this may be the first British feature film not to be directed by a man.

Another early British female director was Ida Lupino, but all her directorial work was performed in the states. Wendy Toye and Kay Mander stil survive, Margaret Thomson passed away last year, aged 95, if you looking for people to interview.

passion fruit

Thanks!! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/happy.gif[/img] that will be really useful for my project (interviewing women directors)-- do you reckon I could probably get their contact details from their home pages?