Kudos to everyone at Kino Lorber for bringing about this vitally important set. Here is the official press release:
New
York, NY -- November 13, 2018 -- Kino Classics is proud to announce the Blu-ray
and DVD release of Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, a monumental 6-disc
collection, curated by Shelley Stamp (author of Lois Weber in Early Hollywood)
and executive produced by Illeana Douglas, celebrating the ground-breaking
early female directors of American cinema who helped shape the language of
film.
Pioneers:
First Women Filmmakers will become available on Blu-ray and DVD November 20,
2018, with a SRP of $99.95 for the Blu-ray and $79.95 for the DVD. The films in
this collection are accompanied by music scores composed by Renee C. Baker, The
Berklee Silent Film Orchestra, Makia Matsumura, Maud Nelissen, Dana Reason,
Aleksandra Vrebalov, and others. Special Features include an 80-page booklet
with essays and photos, eight short documentaries featuring Interviews with
historians and archivists, and audio commentaries for select films.
Funded
by a successful Kickstarter campaign, Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers
continues the legacy begun by Pioneers of African-American Cinema, equally
ambitious in scale, and every bit as historically significant. Presented in
association with the Library of Congress (and drawing from the collections of
other world-renowned film archives), Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers is the
largest commercially-released video collection of films by women directors,
focusing on American films made between 1911 and 1929 -- a crucial chapter of
our cultural history.
Featuring
2K and 4K restorations of more than 50 films, including features, shorts and
fragments, this collection includes more than 25 hours of material, not only
showcasing the work of these under-appreciated filmmakers, but also
illuminating the gradual changes in how women directors were perceived (and
treated) by the Hollywood establishment. Included are films by such pioneering
filmmakers as Ruth Ann Baldwin ('49-'17), Grace Cunard (The Purple Mask),
Dorothy Davenport (Linda, The Red Kimona), Alice Guy-Blaché (Algie the Miner,
The Little Rangers, Matrimony's Speed Limit, The Ocean Waif), Zora Neale
Hurston (ethnographic films), Cleo Madison (Eleanor's Catch), Frances Marion
(The Song of Love), Alla Nazimova (Salome), Mabel Normand (Caught in a Cabaret,
Mabel's Blunder), Ida May Park (Bread), Nell Shipman (Back to God's Country),
Lois Weber (Hypocrites, Suspense, Scandal, Where Are My Children?), Elsie Jane
Wilson (The Dream Lady), Marion E. Wong (The Curse of Quon Gwon), and many
more.
By
showcasing the ambitious, inventive films from the golden age of women
directors, we can get a sense of what was lost by the marginalization of women
to "support roles" within the film industry.
"The
names Alice Guy-Blaché, Lois Weber, Dorothy Davenport Reid, and other
significant female directors deserve to have their names celebrated next to
DeMille's, and Griffith's as the early pioneers of Hollywood," said
Illeana Douglas. "Just as these woman told powerful stories to raise
awareness and educate, we must do the same! I am honored to be a part of
Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, so that these films, and filmmakers, can be
put in the pantheon of cinema where they belong."
"Women
played an extraordinary role in early filmmaking, but this history has been
largely forgotten," said Shelley Stamp, author of Lois Weber in Early
Hollywood. "I'm so thrilled that these films have been restored and
re-scored so that contemporary audiences will have a chance to see what female
filmmakers were up to 100 years ago."
In
the early decades of cinema, some of the most innovative and celebrated
filmmakers in America were women. Alice Guy-Blaché helped establish the basics
of cinematic language, while others boldly continued its development: slapstick
queen Mabel Normand (who taught Charlie Chaplin the craft of directing), action
star Grace Cunard, and LGBTQ icon Alla Nazimova. Unafraid of controversy,
filmmakers such as Lois Weber and Dorothy Davenport Reid tackled explosive
issues such as birth control, abortion, and prostitution. This crucial chapter
of film history comes alive through the presentation of a wide assortment of
films, carefully curated, meticulously restored in 2K and 4K from archival
sources, and presented with new musical scores.
"The
Library of Congress is honored to partner with Kino Lorber on this landmark and
timely celebration of early women filmmakers whose contributions to the
evolution of narrative cinema can now be properly placed in their historical
context," said Mike Mashon, Head of the Moving Image Section of the
Library of Congress.
The
collection is presented in association with the Library of Congress, New York
Women in Film & Television, George Eastman Museum, UCLA Film &
Television Archive, Lobster Films / Film Preservation Associates, the British
Film Institute, Archives Canada, the Academy Film Library, Cinémathèque de
Toulouse, State Historical Society of North Dakota, and The Film Foundation.
PIONEERS:
FIRST WOMEN FILMMAKERS
Blu-ray
and DVD Street Date: November 20, 2018
Blu-ray
SRP: $99.95
DVD
SRP: $79.95
1911
- 1929 | U.S. | 1920x1080p (Blu-ray) | 1.33:1 | Silent with English intertitles
|
Total
Running Time: Approx. 1,710 minutes
Special
Features:
Special
Features: 80-page booklet with essays and photos
Eight
Short Documentaries featuring Interviews with Historians and Archivists
Audio
commentaries for select films
Curator:
Shelley Stamp
Producer:
Bret Wood
Executive
Producer: Illeana Douglas
Full
List of Films Included in the Collection:
Disc
One: Alice Guy-Blaché (Approx. 301 mins.)
Mixed
Pets (1911, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché)
Tramp
Strategy (1911, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché)
Greater
Love Hath No Man (1911, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché)
Algie
the Miner (1912, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché)
Falling
Leaves (1912, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché)
The
Little Rangers (1912, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché)
Canned
Harmony (1912, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché)
A
Fool and His Money (1912, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché)
The
High Cost of Living (1912, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché)
The
Coming of Sunbeam (1913, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché) -- Blu-ray only
Burstup
Homes' Murder Case (1913, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché) -- Blu-ray only
A
House Divided (1913, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché) -- Blu-ray only
Matrimony's
Speed Limit (1913, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché)
The
Ocean Waif (1916, dir. Alice Guy-Blaché)
The
Colleen Bawn (1911, script by Gene Gauntier)
On
the Brink (1911, dir. Lois Weber)
The
Cricket (1917, dir. Elsie Jane wilson) -- Blu-ray only
Introduction
to Series (Documentary)
Alice
Guy-Blache (Documentary)
About
the Restorations (Documentary)
Disc
Two: Lois Weber (Approx. 273 mins.)
From
Death to Life (1912, dir. Lois Weber)
Fine
Feathers (1912, dir. Lois Weber)
The
Rosary (1913, dir. Lois Weber)
Suspense
(1913, dir. Lois Weber)
Lost
By a Hair (1915, dir. Lois Weber)
Hypocrites
(1912, dir. Lois Weber)
Sunshine
Molly (1915, dir. Lois Weber)
Idle
Wives (1916, dir. Lois Weber)
Too
Wise Wives (1921, dir. Lois Weber) -- Blu-ray only
What
Do Men Want? (1921, dir. Lois Weber)
Lois
Weber (Documentary)
Disc
Three: Genre Pioneers (Approx. 284 mins.)
Hazards
of Helen Ep. 09: Leap From the Water Tower (1915, dir. Helen Holmes) -- Blu-ray
only
Hazards
of Helen Ep.13: The Escape on the Fast Freight (1915, dir. Helen Holmes)
The
Hazards of Helen Ep. 26: Wild Engine (1915, dir. Helen Holmes)
Purple
Mask, The; Episode 5, Part 1 (1917, dir. Grace Cunard)
Purple
Mask, The: Episode 12 (Vault of Mystery) (1917, dir. Grace Cunard)
Purple
Mask, The; Episode 13, Part 1 (The Leap) (1917, dir. Grace Cunard)
A
Daughter of "The Law" (1921, dir. Grace Cunard)
Eleanor's
Catch (1916, dir. Cleo Madison)
49
- '17 (1917, dir. Ruth Ann Baldwin)
Caught
in a Cabaret (1914, dir. Mabel Normand)
Mabel's
Blunder (1914, dir. Mabel Normand)
Mabel
and Fatty's Wash Day (1916, dir. Mabel Normand)
Mabel
Lost and Won (1915, dir. Mabel Normand) -- Blu-ray only
That
Ice Ticket (1923, dir. Angela Murray Gibson)
Ethnographic
Films (1929, dir. Zora Neale Hurston)
Mabel
Normand (Documentary)
Serial
Queens (Documentary)
Disc
Four: Social Commentary 1 (Approx. 288 mins.)
Where
Are My Children? (1916, dir. Lois Weber)
Her
Defiance (1916, dir. Cleo Madison)
When
Little Lindy Sang (1916, dir. Lule Warrenton)
Curse
of Quon Gwon: When the Far East Mingle with the West (1916, dir. Marion E.
Wong)
Scandal
(aka Scandal Mongers) (1916, dir. Lois Weber)
The
Dream Lady (1918, dir. Elsie Jane Wilson)
Something
New (1920, dir. Nell Shipman) -- Blu-ray only
Social
Commentary (Documentary)
Disc
Five: Social Commentary 2 (Approx. 299 mins.)
The
Risky Road (1918, dir. Ida May Park)
Bread
(1918, dir. Ida May Park)
Salome
(1923, dir. Alla Nazimova)
The
Red Kimona (1925, dir. Dorotht Davenport Reid)
Motherhood:
Life's Greatest Miracle (1925, dir. Lita Lawrence) -- Blu-ray only
Linda
(1929, dir. Dorothy Davenport Reid)
Disc
Six: The Feature Film (Approx. 289 mins.)
The
Call of the Cumberlands (1916, dir. Julia Crawford Ivers)
Broadway
Love (1918, dir. Ida May Park) -- Blu-ray only
Back
to God's Country (1919, dir. Nell Shipman)
The
Song of Love (1923, dir. Frances Marion)
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