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For many decades women cinéastes were swept into oblivion. At long last their visual artistry has been brought back to the light, but what would happen if some of their...
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For many decades women cinéastes were swept into oblivion. At long last their visual artistry has been brought back to the light, but what would happen if some of their tattered audio recordings were found? What would each one tell us about her life and work?
The intent of this collection of poems is to give a voice to some female filmmakers of the silent era, 21 like our current century, and to trigger in listeners the desire to find more about them.
Each terza rima poem is introduced with music by a female composer of the same country of the filmmaker, who might have listened to her composition while at work.
Written and recited by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi
Sound editing by Massimo Privitera
(Musicologist, Founding Director of Colonne Sonore magazine, and longtime friend)
mostra meno
The intent of this collection of poems is to give a voice to some female filmmakers of the silent era, 21 like our current century, and to trigger in listeners the desire to find more about them.
Each terza rima poem is introduced with music by a female composer of the same country of the filmmaker, who might have listened to her composition while at work.
Written and recited by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi
Sound editing by Massimo Privitera
(Musicologist, Founding Director of Colonne Sonore magazine, and longtime friend)
Silent Women
Silent Women
27 GEN 2024 · History is defined by the dominant
While other voices have been kept sealed too long
This is why we should have a united front
Nineteenth century France is where I belong
Though I worked and lived also in the U.S.
My passion for moving pictures was so strong
That my first narrative film was a success
The Cabbage Patch Fairy even had sequels
But I must start from my birth to then progress
Emile and Marie Guy were no rebels
I was their fifth child and first wanted to act
Father said it was not meant for demoiselles
My reputation had to be kept intact
It was more bourgeois to learn stenography
My skills working at Gaumont had an impact
I began as a simple secretary
A private screening of the Lumière Brothers
Made me see potential in this artistry
I came up with close-ups, double exposures,
Hand-tinted colours, special effects, split-screens
And synchronised sound amongst many others
French literature inspired some of my scenes
The Passion of Christ and social issues too
I tried to go beyond portraying routines
An African-American cast came through
I discussed planned parenthood and child abuse
Kids are the best performers for how they’re true
I was a working mum while I would produce
Simone and Reginald were on set with me
They watched how I changed the traditions in use
I had men and women swap clothes to be free
Gender role reversals meant males in corsets
The habitual garment for Alice Guy
Blaché I became with marriage and more projects
I fell in love with Herbert, an English man
For him I relinquished Paris and baguettes
We ventured into the New World with a plan
Expanding the magic of motion pictures
Solax my production company began
Fort Lee gave wave to cinematic mixtures
I was thirty three and he was twenty four
All was going according to the scriptures
With the Great War no instant was as before
The licensing fees of Edison to work
Ended East Coast filmmaking forevermore
My husband was spellbound by Hollywood’s perk
His Californian girls led us to divorce
I couldn’t find a job not even as a clerk
Back to France with my children and no remorse
Yet the scene had changed for female directors
The Great Depression deprived me of my force
I depended on my daughter’s job sectors
At the American Embassy posts changed
The two of us became country collectors
In books about cinema I was estranged
My works were credited to male filmmakers
Historians took no care in this exchange
Many hundreds of screenplays I would create
Shooting and editing were all my domain
Even the business plan I could conjugate
Script theft was something I knew how to refrain
I used powder to detect the fingerprints
We were writing the new rules to entertain
The Picture Show provided several glints
One of the mistresses of my former consort
Had her historical title in misprints
Lois Weber was first in the U.S. court
I was the first female filmmaker worldwide
There’s no desire of merit in this report.
27 GEN 2024 · I came to the world during a spring drizzle
My family was middle-class and Christian
Toiling young in missions became my chisel
For social justice in my work of fiction
They called it an unladylike profession
The craft of moving picture composition
Before that music was my one obsession
I was a pianist, organist and singer
When I reached New York I made the progression
The musical comedies made me linger
In the company of dear Philips Smalley
He became my husband, the perfect dinger
Our work-love companionship was so jolly
Being hired at Gaumont was so life-changing
One short film every week was quite a folly
With Madame and Monsieur Blaché mentoring
I was remodeled to auteur filmmaker
It was a grand cinematic beginning
Motherhood did not turn out to be my sector
The loss of Phoebe made me focus on film
My world became the screen and the projector
Making pictures in the West Coast was less dim
Universal City chose me as its mayor
My stories were fruit of conscience not of whim
Of progressive goals I became the conveyor
Birth control, addiction, eugenics and more
I captured on film and was called soothsayer
Structural complexity I would explore
The first U.S. feature by a woman was mine
Lois Weber Productions had so much in store
People would say I was ahead of my time
I enjoyed empowering female workmates
After the Twenties nothing was as before
Ladies’ brains were ignored, their bodies were baits
The wings they had creatively flapped were now clipped
The only sway was in their dresses and gaits
My film about gender politics was ripped
I had to abandon the Land of the Free
To the Old Continent and Orient we tripped
With Philips it was no longer meant to be
I returned to the New World and was divorced
Yet love had not at all given up on me
My need for a new life was therefore reinforced
With Captain Harry Gantz we set up a Ranch
All that was left of my fortune he outsourced
I tried to claim my cinematic revanche
But censorship smothered artistic freedom
Defeat tumbled upon me like an avalanche
I made one talkie, no spectator had come
I ultimately found delight in teaching
Movies act as a kinetic museum
I supplanted the black board with a screening
Despite this industry left me penniless
It must not discourage female pioneering.
27 GEN 2024 · Have you ever wondered how it can feel like
To handle filmmaking through a non-white lens?
For women like myself there was no Klondike
I later achieved endurance through my friends
I was born in the South East, in Kentucky
Robert and Leuvenia were loving parents
When we moved to Kansas we all felt lucky
But rainbows were different for those like us
A darker shade of pale was seen as mucky
Black migrants as my kin were Exodusters
Quite soon though the two took their separate ways
I now stood on my own as Tressie Souders
African American life was a maze
Our aspirations could not be ambitious
After high school I started off my work phase
Being a maid turned out to be propitious
Mr. Nelson and his family were kind
I became an observer, never vicious
To the sharing of stories I was inclined
Since I performed in a morality play
Depicting lives on stage developed my mind
Film allowed me to advance in a new way
By shattering the stereotypes on Blacks
A Woman’s Error truly marked my heyday
Grand it could be in the era of Imax
I then chose to seek fortune in Hollywood
Yet domestic jobs remained my endorsed acts
I met Oscar and ended my maidenhood
My husband was in charge of a billiard hall
But my status as his Mrs. was no good
In San Francisco I no longer felt small
Madame C. J. Walker took me in her home
As a woman of colour she had it all
She was self-made thanks to hair products and foam
And proved that dreams can be a reality
No limitations should come from a genome.
27 GEN 2024 · Cinematography was boundless for me
I defied conventions of motion pictures
I went from Britain to the Adriatic Sea
The Ottoman and Balkan troops were hotspurs
I captured the war on a plate camera
Mr. Newman made it for my bold transfers
My Papa was General in Rumelia
Uncle and aunt were newspaper editors
I was a war reporter of my era
I was armed to shield myself from predators
It was not all fun and games, yet feats were swell
By chance I was brought to meet some prisoners
I also had my tripod smashed by a shell
In a Vlach town I improvised a dark room
Creating out of wool rugs a tiny cell
In Adrianople some locals would assume
I could cure cholera with my camera
But it was back home in England I would fume
When a projectionist made a disaster
He was incompetent during a lecture
I lost the case in Court to this wreck master
But joy came from the Fitzrovia Prefecture
The Scala Theatre showed my celluloid
The Arctic was next with my new conjecture
A healing colony I would have deployed
But in Spitsbergen I only hunted seals
And farmed reindeer before my dream was destroyed
The Great War arrived and firmly changed the deals
I got wounded as an ambulance worker
The Belgian Corps rewarded my ideals
I shaped my life like my toil as a sculptor
I could be Jessica Borthwick or Nell Foy
Plus I had a factory of dolls galore
Whitechapel Art Gallery showed my toy
In South Kensington pipe smoking was an art
While experimenting I was never coy
For the images on home screens I took part
Through the British Broadcasting Corporation
Showing Russian performers singing with heart.
27 GEN 2024 · I come from the country of film Neorealism
I used that style before those male filmmakers
Some say my work was a sort of activism
First Italian female cineaste of shakers
Actress, writer, producer, distributor
I most preferred non-professional actors
My scenes portrayed the humble, mundane factor
Village festivals, iris shots, cross-fades
I also recreated deviant behaviour
Form and reverie came from the female gaze
Why should a lady settle for one suitor?
Ardent ‘sceneggiata’ drama was my craze
Neapolitan songs too, I liked to secure
Piedigrotta helped our record industry
With the film press connections I held allure
I handled posters in synchronicity
A spectator once tried to kill a villain
Those were effects of my authenticity
My modest background had a studious fill-in
As a milliner I first started working
A passion that thrived in my films deep within
As Elvira Coda I was hardworking
When I was wed to Nicola Notari
I found him ever so dearly supporting
Our film production company was glary
It was named after our sweet daughter Dora
It was really evolutionary
We built a stage set, or ‘teatro di posa’
We braved the crisis of the Giolitti Age
My spouse was the camera, I the aura
Eduardo or Gennariello on stage
Our son played the ‘scugnizzo,’ the street urchin
He even went through the ‘guaglione ‘e core’ stage
He was a good-hearted kid without a sin
I was the ‘Marescialla,’ the General
My harsh attitude allowed no underpin
True emotions made acting so empyreal
I banned glycerin for artificial tears
I had marvellous performers on my reel
Tina Pica and Capannelle for years
Dora Film also arrived in Manhattan
Gennaro Capuano was in high gears
Little Italy folks our films would demand
I felt the urge to create an Acting School
To enter the characters’ minds and expand
I was told by someone with a time capsule
That later on, child-actor Enzo Staiola
Used my cognitive method as acting tool
It was in a film about a bicycle…
Times change, and the arts succumb to politics
The return of dictators is cyclical
My strong heroines went against their optics
The Fascist Regime was for the patriarchy
I was censored and could no longer pull tricks
To them my work was absolute anarchy
Women could only be angels of the hearth
America showed my films clandestinely
Cinema was centralised to Rome
henceforth I tried to adapt to Hollywood style
Our film company perished with no rebirth
Eduardo tried Great Britain for a while
But soon returned to the Parthenopean land
With Nicola we then kept a low profile
Cava de’ Tirreni became our dreamland
Far from the horrors of the war I wondered
Will this Cinema Mamma in future stand?
27 GEN 2024 · I came into this world as Aloisia Veltée
My home was enveloped by the mountainous zone
Do not envision me within a relais
I lived in the city were Klimt’s kiss was blown
The Hofburg, the Philarmonic and Demel
Are parts of my dear hometown that are well-known
But the Stadtpanoptikum was just as well
My father was the founder of this Kohlmarkt
Where people could see living pictures and dwell
I helped as I could, at the cashier I worked
I felt the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
Patriotism in my films was clear, not lurked
Three men in my life, for my craft, were the key:
My brother Claudius, Anton Kolm and Jakob Fleck
We were a fine motion pictures crew, us three
All of the steps of filmmaking I would check
With Kolm and Fleck we founded Wiener Kunstfilm
I enjoyed working also at the splicing deck
We began shooting some Dokumentarfilm
In the Prater with its hustle and bustle
The foreign competition was strong in film
But our Habsburg storytelling had muscle
Our goal was shaping highbrow entertainment
We wanted our work to make noise, not rustle
Adapting literary texts was frequent
Social drama, criminal genre, comedy
Are all the styles I used to represent
Rape, abortion, impotence, with honesty
I went from Hosenrollenfilme with trousers
To motherland propaganda policy
I was the mightiest of Österreich espousers
The aftermath of World War I was a mess
The financial crisis was breeding grousers
We dissolved the company to avoid stress
My husband Anton fell ill and passed away
My bond with Jakob led to a wedding dress
I was one through my two spouses from that day
Luise Kolm-Fleck moved to Berlin to work again
Forty films were made, but success did not stay
Something happened, it was Hitler and his men
My consort was Jewish, so trouble began
His films were signed under my son Walter’s pen
But circumstances got much worse for my man:
Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps
Friends prevented him from being a deadman
They made us flee to Shanghai with many thanks
In China our craft truly grew with Fei Mu
Yet World War II obliged us to break these ranks
Intentions of expats were a misconstrue
We left the South East with hope in our pockets
Austria’s post-war film studio had come through
We dreamt to work wonders again on film sets
The world and cinema around us had changed
However I felt blest and hold no regrets.
27 GEN 2024 · I created magic with scissors, some say
Silhouette animation was my bailiwick
Black-cut characters emerged in shadow play
I mastered how to scherenschnitte real quick
In youth I was Charlotte from Charlottenburg
At my open-air school I never got sick
Tuberculosis had recently occurred
Thus, the best therapy was sun-kissed fresh air
Hence, my inspiration took flight like a bird
Chinese shadow puppetry made me aware
Of the potential of these cut-out figures
I first longed to be an actress anywhere
My family shows were early transmitters
Of the technique I would then use for film
Georges Méliès and Paul Wegener were my mentors
My silhouette storytelling was fluidly prim
Stop-motion animation was its kindred
Working for Max Reinhardt’s stagings was no whim
Even the title-cards I made elated
The Institut für Kulturforschung then followed
By avantgardists I was fascinated
There, my relationship with Carl Koch took hold
We tied the knot and my love grew each day more
Meanwhile with my animated art I showed
Fable-like wonder and ancient myths galore
First, The Ornament Of The Enamoured Heart
That short film, other work requests would procure
I got a knack for the advertising art
I made a falcon dream sequence for Fritz Lang
Then came financier Louis Haggin’s support
He banked on my work and my praises he sang
The Adventures of Prince Achmed were much desired
This feature debut came out with a huge bang
One Thousand And One Night tales had it inspired
Enchantment was brought by Wolfgang Zeller’s score
The queer experience I fully inquired
To destigmatise homosexual amour
But distribution censored this objective
My dark shaped craft was lauded by Jean Renoir
I possessed fairy hands in his perspective
I contrived the first multi-plane camera
Planes of glass to the eyes were deceptive
My tricktisch surprises were a plethora
Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks later used them
My characters emerged through an aurora
I even ventured in the live-action realm
Our left-wing ideas made us flee Berlin
In Germany the Nazi were at the helm
We were not given visas to our chagrin
Much of the Thirties through Europe we wandered
In Greece with Karagiozis I would begin
In London GPO Film Unit I conquered
Opera influenced our work immensely
With kind Luchino Visconti we bonded
My Mama’s health made us return home swiftly
After a few years Great Britain claimed us back
Citizenship came and work with BBC
Projects came pouring in, almost without track
Telecasting America hired me too
Then my Carl left me after a heart attack
Now I felt my life had nothing left to do
When I then re-emerged from my seclusion
Three final short films I managed to pursue
Order of Merits for my contribution
I, Lotte Reiniger received with gratitude
And pondered if it was just an illusion
I peeked in the Eighties and its attitude
At this point the quiver was full of arrows
Animated films had reached their magnitude
So will my legacy stay in the shadows?
Will my paper-cut silhouettes be forgotten?
Or will they ensorcell unforeseen hallows?
27 GEN 2024 · I was a critic before I made my pictures
My family was of classe moyenne supérieur
We were quite close to Jules Verne’s infrastructures
Our genealogy was Saisset-Schneider
I left Amiens for Paris with my granny
Journalism I confronted with great ardeur
Writing about feminism was uncanny
For others, but it was my bread and butter
I loved covering cinematography
I was an assertive dàme, not a nutter
La Française and La Fronde were my outlets
I described women’s skills shoved in the gutter
Some things were seen unfit for the weaker sex
Practicing law or physics were just a few
Still and moving pictures were not seen as threats
It was early, the medium was still new
Stacia Napierkowska led me to this realm
I joined her in Italy with her film crew
Her act for the camera could overwhelm
I was so conquered by this creative form
Of my own studio I was at the helm
Irène Hillel-Erlanger wrote scripts in norm
Our D.H. Films company had the support
Of my apt husband who worked in land reform
Louis-Albert Dulac my art did escort
And held no contempt when our marriage ended
My style wanted to be a means of transport
For the mind to fluctuate when suspended
La Souriante Madame Beudet allowed me
To explore beyond what was comprehended
It was seen as the first sisterhood movie
A woman sought escape from a grim wedlock
I applied Impressionism, it was groovy
My Surrealist touch was defined poppycock
La Coquille et le Clergyman was the film
That was inspired by Antonin Artaud’s work
But the use of this expression in cine-film
Credited the men of Un chien andalou
It was a sensory trip on micro-film
My work was received with a boisterous boo
I was no Luis Buñuel or Salvador Dalí
I was called ‘vache’ for my anti-sexist point of view
It did not block me, after all c’est la vie
Cinema affected me in many ways
Germaine Dulac was still my identity
After divorce I moved away from clichés
Marie-Anne Colson-Malleville I loved
Our romance was meant for the rest of our days
Two spouses were destined to my beloved
Our liaison was way more profound than these ties
My professional progress she never shoved
Artsy or mainstream I made no compromise
Cinéma pur was my first and foremost mission
Above literature and stage it would rise
Emotion and abstraction was my vision
Using dolly shots and lens distortions too
And dynamic cutting to cause elision
The sequential Kuleshov effect I knew
The flow of apperception was my focus
From Charles Baudelaire inspiration I drew
Invitation au voyage was no bogus
I was freeing my Dada vitality
Helping young talents was my magnum opus
The Fédération des ciné-clubs I would oversee
I taught courses at the École Technique
I received the Légion d’Honneur with utmost glee
Sound film did not agree at all with my streak
So I plunged in Pathé and Gaumont newsreels
Howbeit I feel my craft will thrive as unique.
27 GEN 2024 · I was born in a revue company stage
My family worked in the theatre always
I sang and performed from a very young age
I was quite determined, never in a daze
The Netherlands was my place of expression
My life was articulate in many ways
Three husbands, some kids, and show-biz accession
I even lived in Pretoria for a time
I enjoyed an effective working session
Eureka, the movie company, was mine
My son André was at the head of management
Lien, my daughter, any task she could align
My films were all about Bet, the corpulent
She was bossy with her henpecked husband Hein
Their physical imbalance caused amusement
It could be compared to the Nursery Rhyme
Where Jack ate no fat and his wife ate no lean
The comedic buildup was utterly prime
Since betwixt them both they licked the platter clean
My screen character debuted in variétée
She made people laugh in every vaudeville scene
Thus, I brought my Jordaan-genre to the ciné
It mocked some locals from the Dutch Capital
It was about the Jordaan neighborhood cliché
My acting style was somehow biographical
It was a tribute to Lion, my brother
He took his own life and it was tragical
Art can transform pain into something other
The Adriënne Solser hallmark was social farce
Constructive satire I would never smother
My live-act in synch with the screen was a force
I adored the multidisciplinary
My fiction had a pragmatical discourse
My method was close to documentary
Since I was often shooting on location
In the midst, life’s joys were transitionary
On one end I got my standing ovation
On the other I lost my son suddenly
Pneumonia hit him and left no salvation
My grief made me plunge into work entirely
In my film, Bet trained for the Olympic Game
It was in 1928 precisely
That my city, Amsterdam, hosted the flame
Women were allowed to join for the first time
I was at the height of my success and fame
Later on, my jubilee was so sublime
For my sixty years in the performing arts
I felt swept away by my own pantomime
It was 1943 in fits and starts
But later that year I was pushed off a train
It was like being tossed from some high ramparts
I went to hospital for a femur sprain
Doetinchem is where I was stationed to mend
Alas, how I longed for a glass of champagne.
27 GEN 2024 · I shaped my craft in the coldest of nations
And became its first female director
My art was declined by various creations
The passion for acting at first was greater
I tread on several stages as a thespian
I studied at the Moscow Art Theatre
My repertoire covered all that was Russian
The Keys To Happiness was my screen debut
My directorial shift triggered discussion
In 1916 I had a big breakthrough
My film was praised, unlike my identity
My name: masculinised in every review
Yet I continued my path incessantly
I directed fourteen films and went beyond
Academia was another specialty
My support towards newcomers was headstrong
Also through the Gerasimov Institute
I, Olga Preobrazhenskaya, always stood strong
I was tackling a medium that was mute
My plight was shared by a brilliant sisterhood
That could write, perform, edit and of course, shoot
It was a mission, not just a livelihood
Esfir Shub I admired considerably
Her montage of archival reel was so good
In The Fall Of The Romanov Dynasty
Facts were everything, fiction she would withhold
Her work was a visual book of history
Aleksandra Khokhlova was also bold
The intelligentsia came from family
But her artistic path she alone controlled
She did not succumb to wicked calumny
She was told she did not have the looks to act
So she took control of filming skillfully
Margarita Barskaya made a huge impact
Of both silent films and talkies she took hold
Whilst the Brumberg Sisters had properly tracked
The new animation technique to behold
We were Russian female filmmakers
Trying to leave a solid mark in the world
We were dreamy artists, not mischief-makers
Thus, I was granted the title of Honour
I was approved by the policy-makers
I was a step away from the embalmer
Will recognition come for all at ninety?
Good Luck Soviet Female cinema d’auteur!
For many decades women cinéastes were swept into oblivion. At long last their visual artistry has been brought back to the light, but what would happen if some of their...
mostra di più
For many decades women cinéastes were swept into oblivion. At long last their visual artistry has been brought back to the light, but what would happen if some of their tattered audio recordings were found? What would each one tell us about her life and work?
The intent of this collection of poems is to give a voice to some female filmmakers of the silent era, 21 like our current century, and to trigger in listeners the desire to find more about them.
Each terza rima poem is introduced with music by a female composer of the same country of the filmmaker, who might have listened to her composition while at work.
Written and recited by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi
Sound editing by Massimo Privitera
(Musicologist, Founding Director of Colonne Sonore magazine, and longtime friend)
mostra meno
The intent of this collection of poems is to give a voice to some female filmmakers of the silent era, 21 like our current century, and to trigger in listeners the desire to find more about them.
Each terza rima poem is introduced with music by a female composer of the same country of the filmmaker, who might have listened to her composition while at work.
Written and recited by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi
Sound editing by Massimo Privitera
(Musicologist, Founding Director of Colonne Sonore magazine, and longtime friend)
Informazioni
Autore | Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi |
Organizzazione | Chiara Isabella Spagnoli Gabar |
Categorie | Storia del cinema , Storia della musica |
Sito | - |
chiaraisabellaspagnoligabardi@gmail.com |
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