Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers – Official Trailer

This follow-up to Kino Lorber's award-winning Pioneers of African-American Cinema box set shines a light on the contributions of women filmmakers in shaping the language of early cinema. Presented with the Library of Congress and featuring work by Lois Weber, Alice Guy-Blaché, Zora Neale Hurston, and more.

Select films screen July 20-26 at BAMcinématek in New York, July 27-29 at American Cinematheque in Los Angeles, and at LACMA in August in Los Angeles, before touring select cities. Box set will be released in November 2018.

In the Wild West days of early filmmaking—before Hollywood hardened into an assembly-line behemoth and boys’ club—talented women worked regularly as writers, producers, and directors, instrumental in shaping the very language of cinema as we know it. Nevertheless, figures like Alice Guy Blaché and Lois Weber are known today primarily by aficionados, and artists like Nell Shipman, Grace Cunard, and Marion E. Wong remain woefully obscure. Bringing together dozens of essential new restorations, this series spotlights the daring, innovative, and trailblazing work of the first female filmmakers and restores their centrality to the creation of cinema itself. – BAMcinématek