Modern Languages Professor Editing Anthology on 1920s-30s European Women in Film

At this point, Muelsch and Youngblood are soliciting essays for the collection.

Call for Articles

The two decades following World War I were tumultuous ones in European cinemas, as filmmakers across the continent faced not only aesthetic and technological transformations, but also economic and political cataclysms that were pronounced by the late 1920s, continuing into the 1930s.

This era of challenges had a profound effect on pioneering women filmmakers, not only well-known directors like Dulac, Musidora, Riefenstahl, Shub and Solser, but also on the women scriptwriters, editors, costume designers, etc., whose contributions deserve research and recognition for continuing the path-breaking efforts of early women film critics like Suzanne Chantal, editor-in-chief of Cinémonde until 1934.

A marked change took place at the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s when silent film transitioned to sound. Fewer women seemed to be able to ascend to or keep positions as directors and producers; they were increasingly relegated to less prominent jobs in the film industry, often serving as script writers, cutters and sometimes instructors at film schools. As the film industry expanded into a lucrative industry and became a significant tool to reinforce political beliefs and ideologies, executive positions were almost exclusively awarded to men.

Our research approach is based on the premise that women filmmakers of the interwar years were cognizant of their importance within the industry, despite a growing gender-bias. In the envisioned book project, we aim at submitting convincing evidence that these filmmakers were acutely aware of the significant cinematic contributions they had made and continued to make to the seventh art. This comes to light, for example, in the fact that younger female filmmakers were inspired by the cinematic work of their precursors, whose filming and editing techniques they referenced in their own films.

Furthermore, fully aware of film’s ability to influence the masses, interwar female filmmakers did not only seek to revolutionize the seventh art, but to also provoke societal change. They strove to express an inclusive feminist agenda intended to encourage their young female audiences in their emancipatory aspirations. Finally, we seek to explore the contributions of women across Europe, including the constituent Soviet republics, not only focusing on “dominant” European cinemas.

We are therefore soliciting articles on:

• Lesser-known female film directors, editors, scriptwriters, and costume and set designers of the interwar period (including articles on uncredited women who contributed and influenced the work of their male partners)
• Female film directors of this period whose work can be related to filming and montage techniques of other female film directors
• Female filmmakers whose work was influential across national boundaries
• Female filmmakers in their roles as instructors at film schools (focusing on the way their cinematic knowledge influenced the next generation of filmmakers)
• Trans and non-binary filmmakers who challenged traditional gender roles in their work.

Submit a 750-word abstract in English, along with a short CV, to the editors at emuelsch@angelo.edu and denise.youngblood@uvm.edu by Nov. 1, 2024. Invitations to submit full-length articles in English (6,000-8,000 words) will be sent out by Dec. 1, 2024, accompanied by a style sheet. The final manuscript will be due by June 1, 2025.

*Please note that the editors have received expressions of interest in this project from two leading academic publishers in film studies.