“Women Make Film,” Mark Cousins’ mega-documentary exploring women’s impact on cinema, will soon be available to U.S. audiences. Two years after an early version first premiered at Venice Film Fest, the project will bow on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). It will air in 14 parts, beginning in September.
Each weekly installment will focus on a different theme or aspect of filmmaking, and will precede a selection of women-made films that touch upon or relate to the episode’s point. Overall, the project will showcase 100 films from 100 female directors, spanning 44 countries and 12 decades.
The “Women Make Film” schedule will feature women filmmakers from past and present. Trailblazers such as Dorothy Arzner (“Merrily We Go To Hell,” 1932) and Alice Guy-Blaché (“The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ,” 1906) will be recognized, as will auteurs such as Chantal Akerman (“Je tu il elle,” 1974) and Agnes Varda (“Le Bonheur,” 1965). Household names from modern history, including Ava DuVernay (“Middle of Nowhere,” 2012), Jane Campion (“An Angel at My Table,” 1990), and Mira Nair (“Salaam Bombay!,” 1988), are also among the lineup. Rediscovered gems like Cheryl Dunye’s “The Watermelon Woman” (1995) and Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust” (1991) will be celebrated as well.
“Women Make Film” has screened at TIFF, Telluride Film Festival, Göteborg Film Festival, and MoMA Documentary Fortnight. It first made headlines when it was selected for Venice Film Fest 2018, the same edition in which only one woman-directed film, Jennifer Kent’s “The Nightingale,” screened in Competition.
“Women Make Film” premieres September 1. Check out the full schedule on TCM’s website.
