A Brief History of Early Women Directors + My Hope for the Future
On January 23, 2024, it felt like a gasp could be heard around the world as people read the Oscar nomination list and failed to find Greta Gerwig’s name under the category of “Best Director”. Once again, the Academy has failed to give credit where credit is due. As sad as it may be, I wasn’t shocked to see that Gerwig was left out of the running. This isn’t anything new: Women’s achievements have been ignored in the film industry for DECADES. But maybe that doesn’t have to be the case forever…
As a self-proclaimed cinema buff, I was extremely anxious to enroll in a Women Directors course at my university this semester. On the first day of class, we were asked to write down the name of every woman director we could think of. As much as I hate to admit it, the list I created had two names: Greta Gerwig and Sofia Coppola. My list was almost identical to most of my classmates, each having only two or three names of current directors popular in the media. Instead of shaming us, my professor explained that our lists reflect an attitude of society and are the very reason this course exists. Women directors (or women in any role in film, actually) have gone uncredited and underappreciated for far too long. This occurrence sparked a curiosity in me to find any and all information about the women in history who changed the world of cinema in some way, shape, or form. Although I could write forever about women’s contributions to film, I chose to introduce you to two trailblazing women who changed the game of cinema forever.
The first female director on record (and my personal favorite) is Alice Guy-Blaché. At just 23 years old, Blaché directed the world’s first narrative film titled La Fée aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy) in 1896. She went on to direct 22 feature-length films and roughly 1,000 short films in her 24-year career. After her death in 1968, the world seemed to forget about Blachè. She was literally written out of film history. How can the world just forget the woman who made the FIRST. NARRATIVE. FILM. EVER? All it takes is a few careless journalists to credit her work to the men who worked for Blaché for everyone to forget she ever existed. Blaché’s groundbreaking contributions to the film industry were lost in history until the documentary Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché premiered in 2018. Pamela B. Green, the documentary director, traveled the world to unfold a web of information on Blaché’s work and personal life. This film shows the importance of keeping people’s legacy alive, and I highly recommend checking it out. You know what they say; you don’t know what you don’t know until someone tells you!
Similar to her mentor Blaché, Lois Weber is often considered one of the most talented directors in the silent era of film. Weber was born in 1879 in small-town Pennsylvania but moved to Hollywood in 1912 to pursue a directorial career with Universal Studios. She became the first woman in America to direct a feature-length film with the creation of The Merchant of Venice (1914). Her films were more than silly stories, and they had deep meanings that she hoped would inspire social and political change. Weber is proof that women were more than capable of occupying jobs in the film industry. In fact, Weber showed the world that women could do the same thing men could in the world of cinema, but better. I think that is what scared people. Weber died in 1939, with most of her films being credited to her ex-husband, Phillips Smalley.
So no, I wasn’t surprised to see Greta Gerwig left off the nominee list and Ryan Gosling being praised by the Academy. Don’t get me wrong, Gosling did great, but without Gerwig, Barbie, the Academy Award nominee for Best Picture, wouldn’t exist. I’m glad to see so many people voicing their opinions on this situation, and I only hope that our generation doesn’t make the same mistakes as those in the early 1900s. Give women the credit they deserve in the world of cinema (and everywhere else, too).Â