The Silent Feminists: America's First Women Directors

A profile of women directors from the early decades of our century, The Silent Feminists, narrated by Jane Wyatt, focuses on a handful of women directors at Universal Studios, including the renowned Lois Weber. Historian Anthony Slide and filmmaker Jeffrey Goodman present several film clips bookended by vital statistics on the directors, as well as interviews with the late director Margery Wilson (whose budget-minded claim of "I didn't build a single set" will surely never be heard again), and silent screen star Esther Ralston (whose remembrance of her rocky relationship with director Dorothy Arzner--who apparently had rather amorous feelings toward Ralston--is the hands-down highlight). The interviews outshine the rest of the program which seems bent on including all of the applicable names (without the actual stories) and running old film clips, many of which appear without narration and are far too long. Film historians are likely to enjoy this tribute, and university cinema studies programs may want to consider; for others, it's not a necessary purchase. (R. Pitman)