Introduction:
Here we want to include research projects which are presently ongoing, arranged in reverse chronological order (i.e. the latest first) of project date range, then by subject/title, so that potential researchers can check what is underway and, if appropriate, share findings between similar projects. With this in mind, we encourage new researchers to log information about their projects under the heads given in template following this introduction.
Below we give details of the only currently on-going research project which we know of–Women Film Pioneers Project–which is designed to expand research indefinitely and invites entries for UK and Irish women filmmakers in the silent period. We also list titles of projects which are now completed, providing where appropriate links to the Publications page or to the individual project websites.
We are always looking for expansion of this page, so if you have any additions please scroll down to the form below where you can log any new items that would be appropriate to the page.
Research Projects–Current
2013 Onwards
U.K. Entries for International Women Film Pioneers Project Database
Women Film Pioneers Project “is a scholarly resource exploring women’s global involvement at all levels of film production during the silent film era,” directed by Professor Jane M. Gaines at Center for Digital Research and Scholarship, Columbia University Libraries. The Project began with the first Women and Silent Screen conference, held in Utrecht in 1999, which brought together numerous international researchers in women’s film history, whose work began to reveal the unanticipated presence of women in cinema’s early days, in a wide range of roles–from company ownership to producing, scripting, directing and more–as well as the involvement of women in emerging filmmaking centres around the world.
Initially planned as a comprehensive two-volume encyclopedia, the ongoing nature of the research and consequently changing histories and perspectives led to the digital solution of a website, which was inaugurated in 2013 and is continually growing. Materials include commissioned overview essays, individual entries, as well as information about availability, and can be searched in four ways: by named woman, by role, by genre, and by country.
There is a slim number of entries under United Kingdom, and under Ireland, and the Project is keen to expand entries on the numerous women in Britain and Ireland who are as yet unresearched
Visit Project website http://wfpp.columbia.edu/. For further information about missing British women contact christine.gledhill@gmail.com.
Research Projects–Completed
2015-2019
Calling the Shots: Women in Contemporary U.K. Film Culture
Shelley Cobb & Linda Ruth Williams (both University of Southampton)
Visit the project website (via Wayback Machine) or womencallingtheshots.com.
Outputs: See the first report here and Calling the Shots|University of Southampton You Tube
Publication: See Publications page under Cobb, Shelley (2020), Cobb, Shelley and Linda Ruth Williams (2020) and Cobb, Shelley and Nathalie Wreyford (2017).
January 2014 to June 2017
Women’s Work in British Film and Television
Melanie Bell (Newcastle University) & Vicky Ball (De Montfort University)
Contact: Melanie.Bell@newcastle.ac.uk, vicky.ball@dmu.ac.uk.
Outputs: Learning on Screen database and web resource at https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/womenswork
Publication: See publications page under Melanie Bell (2021)
Is there a tradition of women’s independent moving image practice?
Naomi Bolser (University of Leeds)
Contact: nbolser@harrogate.ac.uk.
Feminist Archives, Feminist Futures
Kate Dossett (University of Leeds)
Visit the project website.
Contact: K.M.Dossett@leeds.ac.uk.
Women in the Power Sphere of Film & Television Production in Ireland
Geraldine Creed (Institute of Art, Design + Technology – IADT)
Visit the project website (via Wayback Machine)
Contact: creed.geraldine@gmail.com.
To submit the details of a research project, please use the contact form below.
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