
Movie Workers
The Women Who Made British Cinema
Melanie Bell(Author)
University of Illinois Press
Published on 6. July 2021
Book
Hardback
288 pages
978-0-252-04387-1 (ISBN)
Description
Winner of the Theatre Library Association's Richard Wall Memorial Award Special Jury Prize for an exemplary work in the field of recorded performance
After the advent of sound, women in the British film industry formed an essential corps of below-the-line workers, laboring in positions from animation artist to negative cutter to costume designer. Melanie Bell maps the work of these women decade-by-decade, examining their far-ranging economic and creative contributions against the backdrop of the discrimination that constrained their careers. Her use of oral histories and trade union records presents a vivid counter-narrative to film history, one that focuses not only on women in a male-dominated business, but on the innumerable types of physical and emotional labor required to make a motion picture. Bell's feminist analysis looks at women's jobs in film at important historical junctures while situating the work in the context of changing expectations around women and gender roles. Illuminating and astute, Movie Workers is a first-of-its-kind examination of the unsung women whose invisible work brought British filmmaking to the screen.
After the advent of sound, women in the British film industry formed an essential corps of below-the-line workers, laboring in positions from animation artist to negative cutter to costume designer. Melanie Bell maps the work of these women decade-by-decade, examining their far-ranging economic and creative contributions against the backdrop of the discrimination that constrained their careers. Her use of oral histories and trade union records presents a vivid counter-narrative to film history, one that focuses not only on women in a male-dominated business, but on the innumerable types of physical and emotional labor required to make a motion picture. Bell's feminist analysis looks at women's jobs in film at important historical junctures while situating the work in the context of changing expectations around women and gender roles. Illuminating and astute, Movie Workers is a first-of-its-kind examination of the unsung women whose invisible work brought British filmmaking to the screen.
Reviews / Votes
"A much-needed critical volume. Movie Workers fills a major gap in scholarly and popular film history, presenting a meticulous and engaging analysis of a wealth of fascinating new data and case studies." --Technology and Culture"This is a very important book. It is no exaggeration to say that it totally re-writes the labour history of the British film industry. . . . Methodologically precise." --Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
"This important study acts as a political weapon, a much-needed act of recovery and a revision of British film history." --Times Literary Supplement
More details
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Baltimore
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Illustrations
19 black & white photographs, 12 charts
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
626 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-252-04387-1 (9780252043871)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Melanie Bell is a professor of film history in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds. Her books include Julie Christie: Stardom and Cultural Production and Femininity in Frame: Women and 1950s British Popular Cinema.
Content
CoverTitleCopyrightContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction. Women's Work in Film Production: Concepts, Materials, and Methods1. Organizing Work: Gender and the Film Trade Union2. The 1930s: Modernizing Production3. The 1940s: Wartime Opportunities4. The 1950s: Rebuilding Britain5. The 1960s: The New Pioneers6. The 1970s and 1980s: Working with FeminismEpilogue: Legacies and New BeginningsAppendix A: Application Form for Membership in the Association of CineTechnicians (circa 1930s)Appendix B: ACT Job Levels, 1947Appendix C: Film Technicians: Numbers and Percentage by Gender, Decade, and Production CategoryNotesSelect GlossaryIndexBack cover