REEL MODELS: THE FIRST WOMEN OF FILM (2000) 60m

From AMC: American Movie Classics Magazine, written by Doris Cornell: "We talk about women and filmmaking as a relatively new concept. In reality, though, women flourished in cinema a century ago. Back then, the profession wasn't deemed 'serious' and no one, male or female, had any expertise. As a result, all aspects of the motion picture --- acting, directing, screenwriting, editing --- were open to the fair sex.

"This overlooked, fascinating era of film history colors Reel Models: The First Women of Film.... An AMC special made along with Barwood Films, Barbra Streisand's production company, it chronicles four pioneers: in a more just world, their names would be as famous as DeMille or Griffith.

"Take France's Alice Guy-Blache, who, in 1896, became the world's first female director. She started as a secretary at the Gaumont Company, a French camera manufacturer turned production house, only to ascend to the head of its filmmaking division. In 1910, after moving to the States with her cameraman husband, she became America's first female studio head when the couple founded the East Coast's Solax Company.

"Her feats there are astounding: Guy-Blache shot 300 films and was the first to use close-ups. Her shadowy The Sewer (1913) presages film noir by 40 years while 1912's Algie, The Miner ... broached the forbidden topic of homosexual love.

"One of Guy-Blache's most promising employees was the director Lois Weber, who signed on to the U.S. division of Gaumont as a girl Friday when her husband, who forbade her to work, was away on business. The Pennsylvanian later joined Universal Studios, at a then-hefty $5,000 a week, and before long became known as the highest-salaried woman director in the world. A bona fide auteur, she'd go on to create some 100 films, often on incendiary topics about social change: Most notably, she appeared fully nude as 'The Naked Truth' in 1915's The Hypocrites (which she also wrote and directed), and tackled such taboo topics as birth control and abortion in 1916's Where Are My Children? In 1915, Weber opened the door for the screenwriter Frances Marion. A reporter in her native San Francisco and one of the few women to cover WWI battles overseas, Marion arrived in Tinseltown with a newshound's curiosity. Weber taught Marion editing, costuming, a full range of cinematic tasks. Such breadth served her well: By 1917, this ever-witty scribe became the top-paid screenwriter in Hollywood --- male or female.

"Some 150 films are credited to Marion, many with her cherished friend Mary Pickford (1917's Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm). Other hits include Dinner at Eight (1933) and Camille (1937), while The Big House (1930) and The Champ (1931) earned her Oscars. All in all, Marion was, as George Cukor raved, 'a Holy Wonder.'

"Another holy wonder, surely, was the director Dorothy Arzner, who met Hollywood's cognoscenti by waiting tables at her father's cafe. In 1919, William DeMille hired her as a typist at Famous Players Studio, and she later rose to film cutter and editor. Her splicing of the bullfight scenes in Valentino's Blood and Sand (1922) was so astute, it landed her bigger films to edit, and that caught the eye of the Paramount director James Cruze. They teamed on several projects and she later aced her first solo directorial job, 1927's Fashions for Women. Arzner's oeuvre was marked by a winning combination of empathy and smarts; witness Christopher Strong (1933), Craig's Wife (1936) and that feminist fave, Dance, Girl, Dance (1940).

"So why are these women obscure? Perhaps because, with the advent of the talkies, film suddenly became culturally significant --- and fabulously lucrative. In other words, it was now a man's job. Galling, yes. But we can take heart: In Alice Guy-Blache's 1913 sci-fi film, In the Year 2000, it's women who rule the world."

For more about early women filmmakers, also watch WITHOUT LYING DOWN.