Unsung Auteurs: American Female Filmmakers of 1930s-1940s

Cinema Studies PhD students Tanya Goldman and Rochelle Miller and MIAP alum Kimberly Tarr (Media Preservation Unit Head, NYU Libraries) explore the creative work of three women operating in very different spheres of filmmaking during the 1930s and 40s. 

Lee Dick owned her own production company, made the landmark labor advocacy film Men and Dust (1940) and supervised nursing education shorts during World War II. Hollywood trailblazer Virginia Van Upp worked as an executive producer and screenwriter, generating an impressive body of work over her 45-year career that includes noir classic Gilda (1946). Philanthropist and amateur filmmaker Adelaide Pearson traveled the world, documenting remote communities from Algeria to Guatemala. Drawing on rarely seen clips from their films, this presentation highlights the underexamined careers of three diverse female filmmakers, all of whom exercised historically rare degrees of control in translating their visions to the screen.

Moderated by Dan Streible (NYU Cinema Studies)

This event is free and open to the public.