NYWIFT Blog

The Women’s Film Preservation Fund 2016 Grants are awarded to five groundbreaking works from the 1920s and 1970s

By Ann Deborah Levy

The NYWIFT Women’s Film Preservation Fund’s (WFPF’s) 2016 grants have now been awarded. The films include three shorts from the 1920’s by pioneering filmmaker Angela Murray Gibson and two important films from the 1970’s, SISTERS! by Barbara Hammer and Women’s Happy Time Commune by Sheila Paige. The preserved film elements of the films, all shot on 16mm, will be stored under optimal climatic conditions in archives and digital scans will also be made to provide more projection options for public screenings. When preservation is completed, we will announce preservation premiere screenings.

AngelaMurrayGibson_zpse4de13fa

Angela Murray Gibson behind the camera

Angela Murray Gibson was one of the early “camerawomen” during the silent era. She provided film for Kinograms, and then launched her own Gibson Studios in Casselton, North Dakota. Her studio produced educational, industrial and entertainment films in which she was featured as an actress, in addition to serving as writer, director, producer and camerawoman. Her films were mostly shot in the North Dakota area, and she recruited local townspeople to act in her films. The three Gibson films awarded a WFPF 2016 grant are:

That Ice Ticket: To entice potential suitors, a woman posts a sign offering “Free Ice.” Her young brother, in order to weed out unsuitable potential suitors, replaces it with a “SMALLPOX” sign. (1923) b/w,16mm, silent, running time: 10 minutes.

The Adams’s Boys: The film is based on the poem of the same name by local North Dakota Poet James Foley, which describes the joyful escapades of the young Adams brothers. (1923) b/w,16mm, silent, running time: 12 minutes.

Arrested For Life: Nora Johnson arrives in town to look for work and approaches a local policeman who directs her to prospective employers. She has trouble at work and loses her job. In a case of mistaken identity, a marriage proposal is given to the wrong person, a small chase ensues, and finally all is straightened out. Nora ends up in the employ of the policeman. (1923) b/w,16mm, silent, running time: 21 minutes.

The three films are in the permanent collection of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, the grantee.

The WFPF acknowledges Kino Lorber as a preservation partner in bringing awareness to filmmaker Angela Murray Gibson, some of whose films will be included in their forthcoming First Women Filmmakers DVD collection, funded through their successful Kickstarter campaign last fall.

Still_Sisters_LesbianWomenConference2

A still from SISTERS!

Barbara Hammer, Producer, Director, Editor, is considered a pioneer of queer cinema. A visual artist working primarily in film, she has made over 80 moving image works in a career that spans 40 years, many of which have won awards and screened in prestigious film festivals and film venues internationally. She has been honored in retrospectives at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Tate Modern in London, the Jeu de Paume in Paris, and the Toronto International Film Festival. A recipient of a number grants, she has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Marie Walsh Sharpe artist studio grant. She writes on film and authored the book, Hammer! Making Movies Out of Sex and Life published by The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2010.

SISTERS! This experimental documentary is a celebration and film collage of lesbians, which features footage of the Women’s International Day march in San Francisco and joyous dancing from the last night of the second Lesbian Conference where Family of Woman played as well as images of women doing all types of traditional “men’s” work. The film begins with the following narration: “I had a dream of women where men used to be: building, working, growing strong, building their bodies into strength for self-defense.” (1973) 16mm, b/w and color, sound. Running time: 8 minutes. The film will be archived at the Academy Film Archive, Los Angeles. Barbara Hammer is the grant recipient.

5. WHTC 16mmStrip

Frames from Women’s Happy Time Commune

Sheila Paige, Director. In partnership with Ariel Dougherty, she was co-founder of Women Make Movies, Inc., and co-director from 1972-1975. In addition to Women’s Happy Time Commune, she has produced and directed films and videos and also interactive online theater productions for the Upstage Festivals 2008 and 2009. As a script supervisor, she has worked in the film industry on many major motion pictures, including the notable features King of Comedy and Good Fellas, and on TV movies and series such as Orange is the New Black and Gossip Girl. Currently, she is pursuing a new video project and writing and illustrating children’s books.

Women’s Happy Time Commune: is an improvised comedy/western, in which the Old West becomes the stomping ground for a motley crew of young and middle-aged women who are considering banding together to form a commune. During the course of the film, women discuss a number of subjects, their fantasies, and the idea of a future “happy time” without men. Women’s Happy Time Commune offers a lively immersion into the feminist ferment of the early 1970’s. (1972) 16mm, color, with sound. Running time: 42 minutes. The film will be archived at Anthology Film Archives, New York City. Sheila Paige is the grantee.

2. WHTC_Belle_KEY_Credits copy

A promo for Women’s Happy Time Commune

The WFPF regrets that there were not enough funds available to award grants to all of the important films we would have liked to preserve. Costs of preservation continue to climb and the resources for funding do not keep pace with the increasing and vast number of films needing to be saved.

This is an especially important time for women’s voices to be heard and to create greater awareness of their legacy in film by giving these films even greater visibility. Please consider making a contribution of any amount to support our work so that we can preserve more of these unique and significant films and get them out in the world once again.

To make a contribution online or by check, please click here.

See more information on the WFPF. Email us at wfpf@nywift.org, and follow us on Facebook.

Ann Deborah Levy is Co-Chair of the Women’s Film Preservation Fund Steering Committee and makes experimental films. For more information on her films and videos, please visit: www.resonantimages.com

PUBLISHED BY

womens film preservation fund

womens film preservation fund The Women's Film Preservation Fund (WFPF) is the only program in the world dedicated to preserving the cultural legacy of women in the industry through preserving American-made films by women. Founded in 1995 by New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT) in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), WFPF has preserved nearly 150 American films in which women have played key creative roles.

View all posts by womens film preservation fund

1 Comment

christinakotlar317764428

Love to see the latest happening and upcoming events that the preservation fund had such a hand in saving! Brava.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*

*

Related Posts

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Aisha Amin

Welcome to NYWIFT, Aisha Amin! Aisha is an NYC-based writer and director. As a director, her work expands across narrative, documentary, and experimental forms to tell authentic stories built from real experiences. Her past film projects have explored and highlighted overlooked communities particularly in New York City, including formerly incarcerated mothers and communities struggling with the presence of gentrification in their neighborhoods. Amongst her directing, Aisha is an emerging screenwriting and was selected to participate in Cine Qua Non’s 2022 Screenwriting Lab. She is a 2022 recipient of NYFA’s Tomorrowland Grant and a 2021 recipient of the NYFA Women's Fund grant. She was a recipient of the 2019-2020 Sally Burns Shenkman Woman Filmmaker Fellowship at the Jacob Burns Film Center where she directed two short documentaries. She is also a recipient of The Shed's Open Call Fellowship where she expanded her film practice to installation art. Aisha spoke to us about her favorite styles of storytelling, the intersection of narrative and documentary, and her latest projects.

READ MORE

Meet the New NYWIFT Member: Lorena R. Valencia

Welcome to NYWIFT, Lorena R. Valenica! Lorena R. Valencia is a Mexican writer-director based in New York. Her directorial debut and MFA thesis film, Cuanacaquilitl (Dandelion), received the 2022 National Board of Review Student Award and is an Official Selection in several international film festivals, including the Morelia International Film Festival, the Atlanta Film Festival, the New York Latino Film Festival, and the NewFilmmakers Los Angeles Film Festival. Lorena is passionate about both narrative and documentary storytelling and is interested in addressing issues such as reproductive rights, identity, and belonging. Currently, she is directing Mi Ranchito, a documentary short film that explores resilience and love for the land, while she is developing her debut feature film, Mayahuel. Lorena spoke to us about inspiring empathy through storytelling, the overlap of narrative and documentary filmmaking, and her latest projects.

READ MORE

NYWIFT at DOC NYC: In Conversation with Elivia Shaw

NYWIFT Member Elivia Shaw is a producer and co-editor of the fascinating new documentary How to Have an American Baby, which just make its New York Premiere at DOC NYC 2023. The film is a a nuanced, behind-the-scenes look into the booming shadow economy catering to pregnant Chinese tourists who travel to America to give birth in order to obtain U.S. citizenship for their babies. Told through a series of observational vignettes, and with extraordinary access to the maternity hotel industry and their clients, the film outlines the invisible contours of the underground birth tourism industry and its unexpected actors in the U.S. and China, while probing deeply into the lives of several protagonists caught up in the phenomenon. What results is an intimate and compassionate portrait of women’s reproductive journeys, family, traditions, and capitalist desires.  Shaw spoke to us about her collaboration with director Leslie Tai and the unique joys and challenges of the project.

READ MORE

NYWIFT at DOC NYC: In Conversation with Emily Sheskin

NYWIFT Member Emily Sheskin’s return to DOC NYC 2023 is particularly meaningful. In 2017, she attended the festival with her short film Girl Boxer, about a 10-year-old champion female boxer and her adoring father. Six years later, Sheskin returns with a feature-length film following the same family, now facing an entirely new set of challenges. In Jesszilla, New Jersey’s own Jesselyn Silva, a three-time national boxing champion, is on her way to superstardom, dominating the junior ranks at the age of 15. With her every step of the way is her father, Pedro, a single parent who helps her navigate coaches, training schedules, and the angst of teenage life. When a devastating diagnosis threatens the father-daughter tandem, the pair turn to each other to fight their greatest opponent yet: cancer. Director and Executive Producer Emily Sheskin spoke to us about her unique journey following this family.

READ MORE
JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER
css.php