Reel Jersey Girls Rock

photo credit Donna Brennan

On Saturday, March 24, programming celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Garden State Film Festival, rocked with a Fort Lee Film Commission (FLFC) presentation of a Reel Jersey Girls symposium: a Century of Women Filmmakers held at the Shore Institute of Contemporary Art (SICA) in Asbury Park, New Jersey.

Introductions by Nelson Page, Chairman of FLFC followed by Tom Meyers, Executive Director of FLFC extolled the work of first woman filmmaker Alice Guy Blache and the century since the start of her film studio Solax Company built for $100, 000 in 1912 in Fort Lee, New Jersey, birthplace of the motion picture industry. Fort Lee Film Commission continually champions this historical declaration for early cinema history.

Emerging at the end of the nineteenth century, it wasn’t immediately clear whether cinema would be a viable and sustainable industry beyond the sideshow attraction it was purported to be; however, Alice Guy saw it differently and asked persmission of her employer at the time, Leon Gaumont, to pursue filmmaking. He agreed as long as it didn’t interfere with her secretarial duties. From her first film in 1896, The Cabbage Fairy, to 1906, Alice Guy became head of Gaumont’s film production department and made almost 400 films, experimenting with special effects, including colorization and sound synchronization. Solax studio’s contribution to the economic growth and development of Fort Lee is still evident in a place where women played a prominent role in early cinema history.

The symposium began with an Alice Guy Blache-directed short film, Algie, the Miner (1912) produced at Solax in Fort Lee. An introduction by Robert Osborne of TCM, explained the film’s despiction of a gay stereotype as coming out of the “celluloid closet”
whereas afterwards, the present panelists had an oportunity to comment on the “celluloid ceiling” still going on in the filmmaking industry of today.

Panelists included Kimberly Skyrme, casting director, producer and board chairperson of Women in Film & Television International; Vicki Vasilopoulos, director, producer of Men of the Cloth, a documentary on Italian master tailors; Ann Lewinson, film critic and member of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists; Beth Rosen, actor, writer, producer, best selling author and insolvency corporate lawyer; Nancy O’Mallon, filmmaker and CEO of About Harvest, LLC. The panel was moderated by me, Christina Kotlar, a writer, producer and founder of Film Festival reViews.

Comparing and contrasting then and now, the discussions were lively in points of views from all of the panelists who experienced firsthand the frustrations as well as the exhilirations of making their films a reality. Ann Lewinson, brought out the statistics compiled in an annual Celluloid Ceiling report by Martha Lauzen, PhD that analyzes the gender breakdown of positions employed by top grossing productions in the U.S. Appallingly low numbers in all areas: directors, producers, writers, editors and cinematographers.

Questions and audience commentary contributed to an outstanding exchange between the filmmakers who understand an industry still dominated by men. It doesn’t stop women from making their films, but just as it was a century ago, it still is not easy. The numbers can be seen in film festival lineups where first time filmmakers whose submissions are accepted as premieres. There are always more men than women accepted.

Garden State Film Festival is one of the few and most prominent in New Jersey, celebrating its 10th year under the guidance of Diane Raver, executive director and founder, who includes as many women-made, women-centric films in the line up as possible. Consistent and uplifting for women filmmakers, Garden State Film Festival includes the celebration of a century of women in film and the filmmaking industry honoring in this way, first woman filmmaker, Alice Guy Blache. Rock on, Reel Jersey Girls.