In March, GME Celebrated Pioneering Women In Film
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On the occasion of March being Women’s History Month, GME spotlighted numerous works by women filmmakers that we distribute on DSL, DVD, and/or Blu-Ray to universities in North America for library acquisition and teaching purposes; more than 100 women filmmakers are represented in our distribution library. Most recently, GME has welcomed films by Ida Lupino, Alexandra Dean, and Suzan Pitt to our collection.
Lupino, who was a major star during the Golden Age of Hollywood, began producing and directing her own films in the late 1940s through The Filmmakers, the production company she started with her husband, Collier Young. Her work dealt with often-taboo social issues of the time, including rape, murder, illness, and out-of-wedlock birth. Her 1949 drama NEVER FEAR was directly inspired by her childhood experiences with polio, while her 1953 noir THE HITCH-HIKER was drawn from the real-life killing spree of serial murderer Billy Cook. In these films, Lupino took familiar tropes and genres and infused them with a social consciousness and sensitivity often lacking in the work of her male contemporaries.
Dean has dedicated much of her work as a documentary producer and filmmaker to exploring the careers of women in show business, not unlike Lupino. Most notably, her 2017 documentary BOMBSHELL: THE HEDY LAMARR STORY, chronicles the life and achievements of Hedy Lamarr, one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1940s and ‘50s, who created a radio guidance system for the Allies in World War II that used frequency-hopping and spread spectrum technology — a groundbreaking invention without which WiFi couldn’t exist today.
Pitt’s breakthrough as an animator came in 1977, when her surreal, psychosexual horror short ASPARAGUS was selected to play on a double bill with David Lynch’s now-classic feature-length debut ERASERHEAD. Combining her interior world with influences ranging from classic Betty Boop cartoons to the work of Winsor McCay and Leonora Carrington, Pitt “put her undiluted, unadulterated, uncensored dreams on screen,” and carved a new path for women in animation in the process. Key works from her impressive filmography are highlighted in the new collection SUZAN PITT: ANIMATED FILMS.
Of course, many women have blazed trails in the world of cinema outside of being directors. One such woman, Adrienne Mancia, revolutionized the job of the film curator by championing the work of first-time, independent, and international filmmakers while working as a programmer at The Museum of Modern Art in the 1970s and ‘80s, thereby reshaping film culture in New York City (and beyond) by introducing such neoteric work to American audiences in the age before video or Internet. Mancia worked with GME President Jon Gartenberg for many years at MoMA and remained a close friend of his until her death in December 2022, at the age of 95. This past month, Gartenberg shared his personal tribute to Mancia on GME’s Curator’s Corner; click here to read it in full.