Suspense (Lois Weber & Smalley, 1913)
Recent histories of cinema highlight evidence that female creators played a significant role in the silent era. Write a short essay discussing that evidence. Who were influential or representative women in filmmaking of the 1910s and 20s?
In addition to directors, you may consider producers, writers, or editors. Rather than simply making a list of names and film titles, select one major figure to discuss in detail. Contextualize: what was the scope and impact of the work? Conclude by more briefly (perhaps a paragraph) acknowledging a second filmmaker whose work is distinctive from the first (even if they are less well-known).
You can look through the resources (and is preferred that information from there is used) that I provide in the additional materials section to help reference. Please reference the rise of the 'New Woman' within the cinema scene.
For the filmmaker, Mabel Normand may be easy as there is a lot of content about her in the resources I provide (especially Why Women in Hollywood Had More Power in 1916 Than They Do Now) or Lois Weber (info about her in Why Women in Hollywood Had More Power in 1916 Than They Do Now and Stamp_Lois_Weber_bio).
The https://wfpp.columbia.edu also has detailed information on women in cinema then.
Additionally here is a list of women featured in cinema in the 1920s which may be useful to reference.
Suspense (Lois Weber & Smalley, 1913)
Fatty and Mabel’s Wash Day (Arbuckle & Normand, 1914-15)
Hypocrites (Lois Weber, 1915)
Shoes (Lois Weber, 1916)
When Little Lindy Sang(Lule Warrenton, 1916)
Unmasked(Grace Cunard & Francis Ford, 1917) re-release of The Black Masks (1913)
The Little American (DeMille, 1917) Mary Pickford (star, producer); sc: Jeanie Macpherson
Bread (Ida May Park, 1918) 19 min. fragment survives
Angela Murray Gibson excerpts(1921-24)
The Curse of Quon Gwon (Marion Wong, 1917)
The Glass Eye (Lilya Brik & V. Zhemchuzhnyi, USSR, 1929)
Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov & Elizaveta Svilova, USSR, 1929)