films at the beginning of the twentieth century and how that changed starting in the 1970s. You’ll also note how it’s not until the 1990s that I include a female director of color, and how many of these filmmakers only made one feature film. There are also quite a few directors who eschew the modifier of “female” or who have rejected the notion of their films being called “feminist.” And the quotes used from critics and authors mainly come from white men. All of this demonstrates how female filmmakers (and our experiences of film as a whole, including who has historically written about film) have been limited by the barriers of gender, race, and sexual orientation.
It can be frustrating to wonder what kinds of stories we might have experienced if a wider variety of people had been allowed to tell them. But it’s important to celebrate what we do have, because despite the odds, women have been making movies from the beginning of cinema itself. And there is much more to discover than what I have included. My selection here represents only a small sample of the many wonderful movies that have been directed by female filmmakers. I capped the list at fifty-two in case you wanted to watch a film a week for a year and use this book as part of the #52FilmsByWomen challenge started by the Women in Film organization. But of course, you can simply dip in and out of this collection at your own pace and use this guide to explore those titles that most take your fancy.
Above all, my wish is that this book provides you with a valuable starting point: a concise and engaging list of my favorite films made by women. From here, I hope you take it upon yourself to explore these and other filmmaking gems more deeply. Enjoy!
The Consequences of Feminism
(Les Résultants du Féminisme)
Gaumont Studio, 1906, France | Black & White, 7 minutes, Comedy
A gender role reversal comedy set in a fictional world where men are the ones being objectified.
Director: Alice Guy
Producer: Gaumont Studios
Cinematography: Unknown
Screenplay: Alice Guy
Starring: Unknown
“There is nothing connected with the staging of a motion picture that a woman cannot do as easily as a man.”
—Alice Guy-Blaché
It is difficult to believe that a film called The Consequences of Feminism was made back in 1906. This is a title which might even be controversial if it were used today. And yet, it exists—a black-and-white silent movie made by the first female director in movie history, set in a world where gender roles have been reversed.
This is apparent from the very first scene in The Consequences of Feminism. The film opens inside a shop where a group of men are occupied with making hats. Suddenly, a woman strides through the door, pointing with her cane at the hat she wants. While waiting, she looks appreciatively at the working men, reaching out to touch the chin of one, who immediately shies away from her hand. After she leaves, another man is tasked with delivering the hat, and he pauses in front of the mirror to apply his makeup. Outside, he is immediately pounced on by a woman who places her hands all over him. He is saved by another woman, who seems kind and gentle as she leads him to a park bench. But before long, she too is forcing herself on him. A couple of women walking by see what is happening and quickly scurry away.
The film continues in this manner for the rest of its seven-minute duration, with later scenes set inside a house and at a women-only establishment. In all cases, the women are clearly in charge, with the men relegated to the positions of workers, housemaids, and caretakers for the children. All the women in this film are pushy, and they objectify, sexually harass, and abuse the men. The men resist as best they can, but eventually give in.
Finally, the men have had enough of their treatment, and they band together to take back their dominant position in society and reestablish the “correct” social order. This is where the true brilliance of this little satire lies. To accept the ending is to admit that half of the world’s population is currently subject to a raw deal.
Nothing has been changed about the appearance of the characters: all the women in the film wear dresses of the period, while the men are in suits. It is only the behavior that is different. Guy has swapped both the power structure of society and the general traits of the genders for comedic effect. The film does not imagine what exactly might happen if we lived in a matriarchal society—that women would sexually harass men—but it shows quite plainly what it is like to live in a patriarchal one.
Of course, we can’t know for sure what statement Guy wanted to make with this film or if her intention was simply to entertain the audience by showing men acting like women. But the title suggests there is more to her vision, that perhaps it is a parody of what people feared would happen if women were to gain more rights. And by showing the men fighting together at the film’s conclusion, Guy seems to be stating why feminism is necessary.
The Consequences of Feminism was made during what we now call the “first wave” of feminism. At the time the use of that word was quite new—“feminism” was only coined in the late 1800s in France, as “féminisme.” Of course, women had been speaking up for themselves long before then, but it was in the 1860s that a more formal movement started to take shape focused on winning the right to vote. By 1906, many filmgoers would have indeed been thinking about the consequences of this new movement.
The premise of the film plays comedically into the fears some people still nurse about feminism—that its true goal is not equality of the sexes (as is the very definition of the term) but that it is instead about waging war on men. This is an irrational fear which supposes that women want to take power away from men to the point where men become the oppressed and women the oppressors.
All of this is the baggage modern audiences inevitably bring to watching The Consequences of Feminism. Viewing this short silent film, it is almost impossible not to think about current conversations about gender and assault. So much is said here without a single piece of dialogue or even a title card being used. It is a movie that was well ahead of its time—and that is ahead of our time, too.
This was also true of the director. Alice Guy was arguably one of the most important figures in the history of cinema. Not only was she the very first female filmmaker, but she was one of the first film directors in the world, whether male or female. And yet few in the industry know her name. Her story is rarely taught in film classes or mentioned in books. And for many decades her work was lost, or incorrectly attributed to male colleagues.
Alice Guy was born in 1873 and started her film career in the late 1800s while working as a secretary at a photography company in Paris, France. Her boss, Léon Gaumont, had been developing a 60mm motion picture camera. He allowed Guy to borrow it on the agreed-upon condition that it wouldn’t interfere with her other work. The first film she made was in 1896, when she was just twenty-three years old. It was a short called The Cabbage Fairy, and was one of the first narrative movies in the world.
From there, her list of achievements is remarkable. She was the first person to direct a movie with synchronized sound, using a Léon Gaumont invention called the Chronophone decades before the mainstream sound revolution
