A New Old Master
Alice Guy Blaché Vol. 1: The Gaumont Years (1897-1907), Vol. 2: The Solax Years (1911-1914), USA; Kino Lorber
The Intrigue: The Films of Julia Crawford Ivers, USA, 1915-1916; Kino Lorber
FEW DIGITAL COMPILATIONS HAVE HAD AS REVELATORY AN effect on American film history as the six-disc box set , curated by feminist film, and a small selection of the films are available on Netflix. The amazing box set includes films by 20 female directors, many of whom also wrote, produced, and starred in their own features, series, and shorts. Alice Guy-Blaché, whose directing career began in 1896 and whose technological innovations in sound rivaled Edison’s, and Lois Weber, whose heroines have a self-reliance that makes Griffith’s Victorian damsels all the more ridiculous, receive one disc apiece. And the range of female directors and the genres they tackled make the other four discs even more astounding. There’s the wildly adventurous filmmaker and actor Nell Shipman; the expert comedian Mabel Normand directing herself Charlie Chaplin; Zora Neale Hurston’s intimate studies of African-American children playing games and dancing; Marion E. Wong’s , the first film with an all Chinese-American cast; and much more.
