Women pioneers of Essay Filmmaking
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
While the Essay Film Festival takes a break this year, BIMI looks back at the origins of ‘essay filmmaking’ – starting with pioneering works by women filmmakers. Esfir Shub is widely credited with creating the archive compilation with her The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927). But her first sound film in 1932, Komsomol – Leaders of Electrification, also had a revolutionary form, celebrating the energy of young women contributing to the USSR’s Five Year Plan. Four years later, radical artist Helen Biggar joined forces with Norman McLaren to make Hell Unltd, an exposé of the arms race then gathering pace around Europe. And in the midst of WW2, Jill Craigie would make her debut with Out of Chaos, a remarkable study of artists like Henry Moore and Paul Nash contributing to the war effort, as well as the public meeting modern art.
Contact name:
Matthew Barrington