Cinema’s First Nasty Women
The Cinema’s First Nasty Women DVD (left) and Blu-ray (right) covers.
The Cinema’s First Nasty Women set is now out! Order your copy from Kino Lorber today!
“A mind-expanding endeavor, the set features 99 mostly comic rarities produced from 1898 to 1926, gleaned from archives and libraries across the globe. It is a triumph of scholarship.” — Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
Announcements
Support Karen Pearlman’s new film Breaking Plates, which is inspired by Cinema’s First Nasty Women. Contribute to the post-production grant here.
Cinema’s First Nasty Women Compilation Soundtrack Vol. 1 is out now! More information below (The CFNW Soundtrack section).
Upcoming Events
Program of CFNW films, Ordway Concert Hall (St. Paul, MN), May 13, 2025. More information to come!
The Project
Cinema’s First Nasty Women is a 4-disc DVD/Blu-ray set featuring rarely-seen silent films about feminist protest, anarchic slapstick destruction, and suggestive gender play. The collection includes 99 European and American silent films, produced from 1898 to 1926, sourced from 13 international film archives and libraries, and spotlighting slapstick comediennes and cross-dressing women of the silent screen. The women included are indeed very “nasty”—they organize labor strikes, bake (and weaponize) inedible desserts, explode out of the chimney, electrocute the police force, and assume a range of identities that gleefully dismantle traditional gender norms and sexual constraints. The films span a range of genres including slapstick comedy, genteel farce, the trick film, cowboy melodrama, and adventure thriller.
Disc Summaries
Disc 1: Disastrous Domestics & Anarchic Tomboys
Laura Bayley in Mary Jane’s Mishap (G.A. Smith, UK, 1903). Courtesy of the BFI.
Vengeful kitchen maids and rambunctious teenagers conspire to leave the domestic sphere in total shambles. Housemaids combust through the chimney, fiancées weaponize their inedible baked goods against the patriarchy, while recalcitrant daughters flood and incinerate their family homes. This disc also spotlights the forgotten films of Léontine, an internationally popular French comedienne character and star of a Pathé Comica series that produced over 21 titles from 1910-1912. (But her identity remains unknown to this day!) It also features anarchic, hilarious performances by Lea Giunchi, Bertha Regustus, Laura Bayley, Florence Lawrence, Berthe Dagmar, Gilbert Saroni, and Lili Zeidner.
Films
Léontine
Léontine deviant trottin [Léontine Becomes an Errand Girl] (France 1910), with Léontine.
Les Ficelles de Léontine [Léontine Pulls the Strings] (France 1910), with Léontine.
La pile électrique de Léontine [Léontine’s Battery] (France 1910), with Léontine.
Léontine en vacances [Léontine on Vacation] (France 1910), with Léontine.
Léontine en apprentissage [Léontine’s Apprenticeship] (France 1910), with Léontine.
Rosalie et Léontine vont au théâtre [Rosalie and Léontine Go to the Theater] (France 1911), with Léontine and Sarah Duhamel.
Ventilateur breveté [The New Air Fan] (France 1911), with Léontine.
Léontine enfant terrible [Léontine, the Troublemaker] (France 1911), with Léontine.
Le bateau de Léontine [Léontine’s Boat] (France 1911), with Léontine.
Un ravalement précipité [A Hasty Renovation] (France 1911), with Léontine and Sarah Duhamel.
Léontine s’envole [Léontine Gets Carried Away] (France 1911), with Léontine.
Les malices de Léontine [Léontine’s Pranks] (France 1912), with Léontine.
Léontine garde la maison [Léontine Keeps House] (France 1912), with Léontine.
Amour et musique [Love and Music] (France 1911), with Léontine.
La peur des ombres [Fear of Shadows] (France 1911), with Léontine.
Lea
Lea sui pattini [Léa on Rollerskates] (Italy 1911), with Lea Giunchi.
Riposo festivo [A Lively Day Off] (Italy 1912), with Lea Giunchi.
Léa bambola [Léa as a Doll] (Italy 1913), with Lea Giunchi.
Catastrophe in the Kitchen
Victoire a ses nerfs [Victoire is on Her Last Nerve] (France 1907).
Finish of Mr. Fresh (US 1899).
The Dairymaid’s Revenge (US 1899).
La grève des bonnes [The Maids’ Strike] (France 1906).
La grève des nourrices [The Nursemaids’ Strike] (France 1907).
La ruse de Miss Plumcake [Miss Plumcake’s Ruse] (France 1911), with Mistinguett.
Her First Biscuits (US 1909), with Florence Lawrence.
How Bridget Served the Salad Undressed (US 1898).
Nora’s 4th of July (US 1901).
How Bridget Made the Fire (US 1900), with Gilbert Saroni.*
The Finish of Bridget McKeen (US 1901).
Mary Jane’s Mishap (UK 1903), with Laura Bayley.
Catastrophe Beyond the Kitchen
Laughing Gas (US 1907), with Bertha Regustus.
Madame fait du sport [Madame is Athletic] (France 1908).
Les femmes cochers [The Coachwomen] (France 1907).
Fille de bain indiscrète [The Indiscreet Bathroom Maid] (France 1902).
Eugénie, redresse-toi! [Eugénie, Stand Up Straight!] (France 1911), with Brunin.*
A Bad (K)night (US 1899).
Le ménage Dranem [The Dranems] (France 1912).
Le Rembrandt de la rue Lepic [The Rembrandt in Rue Lepic] (France 1911), with Berthe Dagmar and Gaston Modot.*
Mixed Babies (US 1908).
Rivalinder [Female Rivals] (Denmark 1906).
Mannekängen [The Mannequin] {fragment} (Sweden 1913), with Lili Zeidner.
* An asterisk indicates a male actor who cross dresses to play a nasty woman.
Disc 2: Queens of Destruction
Unknown performer in La Fureur de Madame Plumette (Eclipse, France, 1912). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Queens of Destruction take up the mantle of their rebellious teen predecessors. They demolish the home, tyrannize their spouses, and wage feminist revolution in the streets. This disc features three French comedienne characters, Cunégonde (Little Chrysia) and Rosalie and Pétronille (both played by Sarah Duhamel). The actress who appeared as Cunégonde was recently identified by Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi as Little Chrysia, a traveling stage performer and prolific film comedienne who also starred in the Cunégonde spinoff series Arabella and Zoé. Duhamel’s films similarly embrace the joy of social protest and anarchic physical destruction, exemplified by Rosalie Has Sleeping Sickness, Rosalie and Her Phonograph, and Pétronille Wins the Big Race. Duhamel’s body is a force of nature and absolutely anything is possible in the world of her films. This disc also includes a curated selection of films on “Tyranny at Home,” turning Hannah Arendt’s warning on its head with the feisty antics of Florence Turner, Alma Taylor, Chrissie White, and Indigenous actress Minnie Devereaux.
Films
Cunégonde
Cunégonde trop curieuse [Cunégonde is Too Curious] (France 1912), with Little Chrysia.
Cunégonde ramoneur [Cunégonde the Chimney Sweep] (France 1912), with Little Chrysia.
Cunégonde femme cochère [Cunégonde the Coachwoman] (France 1913), with Little Chrysia.
Cunégonde femme du monde [Cunégonde is a Woman of the World] (France 1912), with Little Chrysia
Cunégonde femme crampon [Cunégonde the Nasty Woman] (France 1912), with Little Chrysia.
Cunégonde aime son maître [Cunégonde Loves Her Employer] (France 1912), with Little Chrysia.
Cunégonde jalouse [Cunégonde is Jealous] (France 1912), with Little Chrysia.
Cunégonde membre de la SPA [Cunégonde is a Member of the SPCA] (France 1912), with Little Chrysia.
Gisèle a manqué le train [Gisèle Missed Her Train] (France 1912), with Little Chrysia.
Zoé a la main malheureuse [Zoé the Unfortunate Housemaid] (France 1913), with Little Chrysia.
Zoé et le parapluie miraculeux [Zoé and the Miraculous Umbrella] (France 1913), with Little Chrysia.
Rosalie
Rosalie et son phonographe [Rosalie and Her Phonograph] (France 1911), with Sarah Duhamel.
Rosalie emménage [Rosalie Moves In] (France 1911), with Sarah Duhamel.
Rosalie a la maladie du sommeil [Rosalie Has Sleeping Sickness] (France 1911), with Sarah Duhamel.
Rosalie et ses meubles fidèles [Rosalie and Her Faithful Furniture] (France 1911), with Sarah Duhamel.
Little Moritz demande Rosalie en mariage [Little Moritz Wants to Marry Rosalie] (France 1911), with Sarah Duhamel.
Little Moritz enlève Rosalie [Little Moritz Runs Away With Rosalie] (France 1911), with Sarah Duhamel.
C’est la faute à Rosalie [It’s Rosalie’s Fault!] (France 1912), with Sarah Duhamel.
Pétronille
Le singe de Pétronille [Pétronille’s Monkey] (France 1913), with Sarah Duhamel.
Pétronille gagne le grand steeple [Pétronille Wins the Grand Steeple Chase] (France 1913), with Sarah Duhamel.
Patouillard a une femme jalouse [Patouillard Has a Jealous Wife] (France 1912), with Sarah Duhamel.
Gavroche à Luna-Park [Gavroche at Luna Park] (France 1912), with Sarah Duhamel.
Le désespoir de Pétronille [Pétronille’s Despair] (France 1914), with Sarah Duhamel.
Tyranny at Home
La fureur de Mme Plumette [Madame Plumette’s Fury] (France 1912).
Fatty and Minnie He-Haw (US 1914), with Minnie Devereaux.
Daisy Doodad’s Dial (UK 1914), with Florence Turner.
Hypnotizing the Hypnotist (US 1911), with Florence Turner.
Tilly’s Party (UK 1911), with Alma Taylor and Chrissie White.
Marie est trop obéissante [Marie is Too Obedient] (France 1912).
Onésime et la toilette de mademoiselle Badinois [Onésime and Mademoiselle Badinois’ Outfit] (France 1912), with Ellen Lowe.
Non! Tu ne sortiras pas sans moi! [No! You’re Not Going Anywhere Without Me!] (France 1911), with Ernest Bourbon.*
Lucky Jim (US 1909), with Marion Leonard.
Nellie, the Beautiful Housemaid {fragment} (US 1908).
* An asterisk indicates a male actor who cross dresses to play a nasty woman.
Disc 3: Gender Rebels
A Range Romance (Bison, USA, 1911). Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Gender Rebels celebrate the porousness of gender in American silent film, from cross-dressing girl spies to the gender hijinks of the wild West and frozen North. This disc includes the surviving films from writer/director/actor Gene Gauntier’s girl spy series and the best of Edna “Billy” Foster’s work at Biograph, where the young assigned-female actor played almost exclusively male roles. On the Western frontier, young women disguise themselves as boys to seek their fortune; other films show the rambunctious gun-toting femininity cultivated out West. This disc also spotlights performances by actor-producer Texas Guinan, Indigenous star Lillian St. Cyr (Winnebago), lesbian comedian Fay Tincher, and Japanese-American sensation Tsuru Aoki.
Films
The Girl Spy
The Girl Spy: An Incident of the Civil War (US 1909), with Gene Gauntier.
The Further Adventures of the Girl Spy (US 1910), with Gene Gauntier.
The Girl Spy Before Vicksburg (US 1910), with Gene Gauntier.
Edna “Billy” Foster
A Country Cupid (US 1911), with Edna “Billy” Foster.
The Adventures of Billy (US 1911), with Edna “Billy” Foster.
A Terrible Discovery (US 1911), with Edna “Billy” Foster.
The Baby and the Stork (US 1912), with Edna “Billy” Foster.
Gender Frontiers
The Red Girl and the Child (US 1910), with Lilian St. Cyr (Red Wing).
An Up-to-Date Squ*w (US 1911).
The Death Mask (US 1914), with Tsuru Aoki.
A Range Romance (US 1911).
Making a Man of Her (US 1912), with Louise Glaum.
The Planter’s Wife (US 1908), with Claire McDowell and Florence Lawrence.
Dollars and Sense (US 1916), with Ora Carew.
Rowdy Ann (US 1919), with Fay Tincher.
The Night Rider (US 1920), with Texas Guinan.
Disc 4: Female Tricksters
What’s the World Coming To? (Hal Roach, USA, 1926), starring Katherine Grant.
This disc sets out the perils and pleasures of boyish and boisterous young women in urban and modern spaces. Cross-dressing provides myriad opportunities for accidental same-sex attraction, and women look to male attire to brave the mean streets of the early 20th century metropolis. Evelyn Greeley moonlights as both Sapphic dancer and male Latin professor in Phil-for-Short, while theater star Mabel Taliaferro plays a headstrong society girl who disguises herself as a boy to win her father’s land from a “woman-hating” French trapper in the frontier BDSM fantasy, Snowbird. Other films play with the rapid changes to gender and sexuality unfolding at this time, from a topsy-turvy comedy set 100 years in the future when “men are like women” and “women are like men” to the disorienting rituals, masquerades, and mistaken identities unleashed by a sorority initiation in She’s A Prince. It also features hilarious performances by Renée Sylvaire, Dorothy Bernard, Louise Glaum, and Alice Ardell.
Films
Don’t Believe Your Eyes
The Boy Detective (US 1908).
Pranks (US 1909), with Marion Leonard.
Taming a Husband (US 1910), with Elinor Kershaw and Dorothy Bernard.
Amour et science [Love and Science] (France 1912), with Renée Sylvaire.
Mr. Smith, Barber (US 1912), with Anne Taylor.
Romance in Disguise
The Snowbird (US 1916), with Mabel Taliaferro.
Phil for Short (US 1919), with Evelyn Greeley.
Topsy Turvy Gender Madness
She’s a Prince (US 1926), with Alice Ardell.
What’s the World Coming To? (US 1926), with Katherine Grant and Laura de Cardi.
Still from La grève des bonnes (1906)
Project Credits
Project Directors: Laura Horak (Carleton University) and Maggie Hennefeld (University of Minnesota)
Co-Curators: Laura Horak, Maggie Hennefeld, and Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi (Eye Filmmuseum)
Producer: Bret Wood (Kino Lorber)
Music Supervisor: Dana Reason (Oregon State University)
Music Coordinator: Rachel Loewen (Carleton University/University of Warwick)
Project Coordinator: Kate Higginson (Carleton University)
Agreements Officer: Asli Eran (Carleton University)
Booklet Editors: Laura Horak, Maggie Hennefeld, Alana Skwarok (Carleton University)
Film Metadata Researcher: Daniel Aufmann (University of Minnesota)
Research Assistants: Vanessa Cambier (University of Minnesota), Gabriela Llerena (University of Minnesota), Aurore Spiers (University of Chicago), Clara Auclair (University of Rochester/Université Paris Cité), Russell Zych (UCLA)
Translators: Daniel Aufmann, Enrique Moreno Ceballos (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México), Aurore Spiers (University of Chicago)
Anti-Racism Advisory Panel: Renée C. Baker (The Chicago Modern Orchestra Project), Liza Black (Indiana University), Charlene Regester (University of North Carolina), Jan Michael Looking Wolf Reibach (Oregon State University), Enrique Moreno Ceballos, Cecilia Ramírez Morales (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México)
Video Introductions: Liza Black, Thirza Cuthand, Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak, Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi, Dana Reason, Arigon Starr, Susan Stryker, Kyla Wazana Tompkins (Pomona College)
Audio Commentaries: Jennifer Bean (University of Washington), Liza Black, Enrique Moreno Ceballos, Liz Clarke (Brock University), Bryony Dixon (British Film Institute), Jane Gaines (Columbia University), Rosa María Licea Garibay (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México), Joanna Hearne (University of Oklahoma), Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak, Pamela Hutchinson (Silent London), Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi, Mariann Lewinsky (Cineteca di Bologna), Katharina Loew (University of Massachusetts Boston), Cecilia Ramírez Morales, Dana Reason, Ana Belén Recoder (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México), Lluvia Soto Rodríguez (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México), Aurore Spiers, Shelley Stamp (University of California, Santa Cruz), Alejandra Calleja Toxqui (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México), Kristen Anderson Wagner (University of Southern California), Laetitia Vigneron (Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México), Yiman Wang (University of California, Santa Cruz)
Booklet contributors: Daniel Aufmann, Jennifer Bean, Liza Black, Liz Clarke, Joanna Hearne, Maggie Hennefeld, Laura Horak, Pamela Hutchinson, Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi, Katharina Loew, Dana Reason, Charlene Regester, Alana Skwarok, Aurore Spiers, Shelley Stamp
Project Partners: Giornate del Cinema Muto (Jay Weissberg), Women Film Pioneers Project (Kate Saccone and Jane Gaines), Carleton University, Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México (Enrique Moreno Ceballos and Cecilia Ramírez Morales)
Participating Archives: EYE Filmmuseum, Library of Congress, Jérome Seydoux Pathé Foundation, GP Archives, British Film Institute, Blackhawk Films, George Eastman Museum, Library and Archives Canada, National Library of Norway, Swedish Film Institute, San Francisco Silent Film Festival, Museum of Modern Art, Harvard Film Archive, Princeton University Library
Composers and Performers: Alicia Svigals, Amy Denio, Annelise Zamula, Ayi Solomon, Bill Noertker, Camila Cortina Bello, Carolina Hengstenberg, Carolyn Swartz, Catherine Lee, Christina Rusnak, Coco Bender, Dana Reason, Daniel Muschinsky, Dave Mihaly, David Borgo, Dianthe (Dee) Spencer, Don Ross, Dreamland Faces (Karen Majewicz, Andy McCormick, Julie Johnson, Gail Olszewski, Ryan Billig, Elaine Evans, Rachel Rogness, Philip Potyondy, Chris Hepola, and Christa Schneider), Edmar Colon, Eliot Britton, Elizabeth (Liz) Magnes, Elizabeth-Jane Baldry, Ellen Weller, Esin Aydingoz, Eunice Martins, Fabio Rojas, Frank Bockius, Gay Pearson, Gerson Lazo-Quiroga, Gonca Feride Varol, Guenter Buchwald, Harold Charon, Indiana University Orchestra (Daniel Whitworth, Tyler Readinger, Miriam Tung, Calvin Sall, Allison Dettloff, Clara Manzano, Yoav Hayut, Achille Vocat, John Heo, Em Singleton, Ilina Ilieva, Thomas Shaw, Eion Lyons, Teresa Labuda, and Gus Brown), Ivanna Cuesta Gonzalez, Jan Michael Looking Wolf Reibach, Jana King, Jane Gardner, John Lockwood, Jose Ignacio Santo Aquino,José María Serralde Ruiz, Karl Soukoup, Kevin Harris, Kinnie Starr, Kristor Brødsgaard, Leslie Dukes, Libby Meyer, Lillian Henley, Lorena Ruiz Trejo, María Fernanda García Solar, Mark Weaver, Martha Mooke, Meg Morley, Michael Dessen, Nadia Citlali Cano Castañeda, Naomi Greena Nakanishi, Nate Hubbard, Niclas Compagno, Peter Valsamis, Phil McGowan, Renée C. Baker, Renée T. Coulombe, Roella Oloro, Santiago Bertel, Sara Ontaneda, Sean Sonderegger, Steven Montecucco, Terri Lyne Carrington, Tracy McMullen, Veronica Leahy, Violin/Noir (Rebecca Sabine and Aaron Ramsey), Yael Acher “KAT” Modiano
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women” is supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
Past Events
“From the New Woman to the It Girl on the Silent Screen,” Cinemapolis (Ithaca, NY) October, 19, 2024. Includes Le Ménage Dranem (1912).
“Weimar Germany’s First Nasty Women,” online event with CFNW co-curators Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi and Maggie Hennefeld and WFPP project manager Kate Saccone, Weimar Film Network, September 25, 2024. Register here.
A selection of CFNW films will play throughout the Sound of Silents festival in Warsaw, Poland, September 13-15, 2024.
Phil for Short (1919), Eye Filmmuseum, August 18, 2024.
“Queens of Destruction,” Overture Center for the Arts (Madison, WI), June 1, 2024.
“Raging Silent Film Pioneers,” short film program, The International Women’s Film Festival in Dortmund/Cologne (Germany), April 19, 2024. The program contains a few of cinema’s first nasty women.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women: Queens of Destruction – UK, US, France,” Eckerd College (St. Petersburg, Florida), April 19, 2024. Laura Horak will be there in person for an introduction and discussion.
“Queens of Destruction,” University of Michigan, April 4, 2024. Maggie Hennefeld will be there in person.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women” program, University of New Hampshire (as part of Il Cinema Ritrovato on Tour), April 2, 2024. Introduction by Maggie Hennefeld.
“Queens of Destruction,” The Brattle (Cambridge, MA), March 30, 2024. Maggie Hennefeld will introduce the program via Zoom.
“Queens of Destruction,” University of Iowa, March 29, 2024. Maggie Hennefeld will be there in person.
Cinema’s First Nasty Women Ciné-concert, Cité de la Musique/Philharmonie de Paris, March 24, 2024.
“Queens of Destruction,” The Ottawa International Film Festival, March 22, 2024.
“Contagious Revenge,” Il Cinema Ritrovato on Tour, Brown University, March 15, 2024. Maggie Hennefeld will introduce the program via Zoom.
“Framing the Archive: A Past that Leads to Us,” Panel discussion on women and film history organized by IFFF Dortmund+Köln at the Berlinale, February 20, 2024. Co-curator Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi will participate.
Patouillard Has a Jealous Wife (1912), Il Cinema Ritrovato On Tour, The Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul, February 15, 2024.
Patouillard Has a Jealous Wife (1912), Il Cinema Ritrovato On Tour, The Film Society of Minneapolis St. Paul, February 15, 2024.
“Gender Rebels” (contains several CFNW films) and CFNW program “Queens of Destruction,” Das Stummfilmfestival (Zurich), February 5 and January 30 (respectively), 2024.
“Slapstick Saturday“, Nederlands Silent Film Festival (Eindhoven), January 13, 2024. A short film from CFNW will be included in the program.
“Queens of Destruction,” Filmmuseum Potsdam, December 29, 2023.
What’s the World Coming To? (1926) and Daisy Doodad’s Dial (1914), Arte TV, December 26, 2023. For more information, visit the Arte TV website.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” film program during Feminist Elsewheres festival, Kino Arsenal (Berlin), November 12, 2023. Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi will be there in person.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women” presentation with Maggie Hennefeld, Hollins University, November 9, 2023.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women” program and hybrid seminar event, FIC-Silente Mexico (Peubla, Mexico), November 9 (screening) and November 11 (hybrid seminar with co-curators Laura Horak and Maggie Hennefeld). More information here.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women” program, SPACE (Portland, ME), November 6, 2023. Guest Artists: Dana Reason (Oregon State University) & Tracy McMullen (Bowdoin)
The Girl Spy Before Vicksburg (1910), The Museum of Modern Art, October 29 and November 7, 2023, as part of the WFPP anniversary series “After Alice, Beyond Lois: Mining the Archive with the Women Film Pioneers Project.”
Daisy Doodad’s Dial (1914), The Museum of Modern Art, October 30 and November 6, 2023, as part of the WFPP anniversary series “After Alice, Beyond Lois: Mining the Archive with the Women Film Pioneers Project.”
Phil for Short (1919), The Museum of Modern Art, October 27 and November 1, 2023, as part of the WFPP anniversary series “After Alice, Beyond Lois: Mining the Archive with the Women Film Pioneers Project.”
“Silent Shorts,” program featuring CFNW films, Cinemapolis (Ithaca, NY), October 22, 2023.
Cinema’s First Nasty Women program, Loyola Marymount University, as part of its Il Cinema Ritrovato on Tour program, October 18, 2023.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” STOM! Festival van de Stille Film Brugge (Brugge, Belgium), October 1, 2023. Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi will be there in person.
Sneak preview screening of Karen Pearlman’s short film Breaking Plates, Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Melbourne), September 30, 2023.
“Curating Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” talk with co-curator Maggie Hennefeld, Macalester College, September 28, 2023.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women” program, The Sounds of Silents festival, Muranów Cinema (Warsaw, Poland), September 16, 2023. The festival runs September 15-17, 2023.
The Death Mask (1914), Kobe Film Museum (Kobe, Japan), September 16, 2023.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” Carolina Theatre (Durham, N.C.), September 13, 2023.
“An Evening of Nasty Women,” The Decatur Public Library (Decatur, IL), July 11, 2023.
Special screening about Société LUX by Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi, featuring films with Little Chrysia and Sarah Duhamel, Il Cinema Ritrovato, June 26, 2023.
“Looking for Léontine,” Chapter Arts Centre (Cardiff, Wales), June 18, 2023. Screening and conversation with Maggie Hennefeld and Alix Beeston.
The Impossible Image (Karen Pearlman, 2023), Eye Filmmuseum (as part of the “Meet the Archive” section of the Eye International Conference, June 3, 2023. Pearlman’s short film uses images from the CFNW archive.
Cinema’s First Nasty Women DVD presentation, Eye Filmmuseum (as part of the “Meet the Archive” section of the Eye International Conference, June 3, 2023. Presentation by Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi.
The Snowbird (1916), Darkside Theatre (Corvallis, OR), May 25, 2023. Screening with new original score by Dana Reason, who will also be on hand for a post-screening discussion.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” Filmoteca de Catalunya (Spain), May 24, 2023. Elif Rongen-Kaynakci will be there in person.
Cinema’s First Nasty Women, The Silent Comedy Watch Party (online), May 7, 2023. A recording of the live stream is available via the link provided.
A selection of Cinema’s First Nasty Women titles will screen at the IFFF International Women’s Film Festival-Dortmund + Köln (Germany), April 22 & 23, 2023. Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi will be there in person to present the films.
Virtual seminar and discussion of Cinema’s First Nasty Women with Maggie Hennefeld, Princeton Garden Theatre, April 18, 2023. Register here.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women” screening, Galeria Ewa Opałka / Fundacja Razem Pamoja (Warsaw, Poland), April 7, 2023.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women: Silent Cinema Shorts with Live Music Featuring Dreamland Faces,” Northrop Theater, University of Minnesota, in-person on April 4, 2023 (livestream on-demand through April 9, 2023.
“Queens of Destruction,” University of New Hampshire, March 28, 2023. Maggie Hennefeld will introduce the screening over Zoom.
“Queens of Destruction,” The Palace Cinema (Broadstairs, Kent, UK), March 26, 2023.
“Queens of Destruction,” Princeton Garden Theatre (Princeton, NJ), March 22, 2023.
“Gender Adventures,” The International Film Festival of Ottawa (IFFO), The Mayfair Cinema, March 18, 2023. The program will feature live musical accompaniment by pianist Dana Reason and percussionist Peter Valsalmis and co-curator Laura Horak will give an introduction.
What’s the World Coming To? (1926) screening, Filmmuseum Potsdam, March 18, 2023.
“Queens of Destruction,” Proctors Theatre (Schenectady, NY), March 16, 2023.
“Queens of Destruction,” The County Theater (Doylestown, PA), March 8, 2023.
“Queens of Destruction,” Philadelphia Film Society, March 2 & 4, 2023.
Screening of selected CFNW films and panel discussion, Berklee College of Music, February 27, 2023. The panel discussion will feature CFNW music supervisor Dana Reason among others.
“Onscreen Wonder Women,” Slapstick Festival 2023 (Bristol, UK), February 15, 2023.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” Screening, Colgate University, January 24, 2023. Read a review of the screening in the Colgate Maroon-News.
“Nasty Women” film program, Nederlands Silent Film Festival (Eindhoven), January 14, 2023.
“Queens of Destruction,” The Michigan State University Film Collective, December 1, 2022.
“You Don’t Own Me,” the film program from the 2022 Domitor conference, streaming online on the Cinémathèque française’s platform HENRI, September 21-November 29, 2022
“Queens of Destruction,” Cleveland Cinematheque, November 26, 2022
A selection of films from Cinema’s First Nasty Women, Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México (Puebla, Mexico), November 25, 2022. More information to come!
Three Cinema’s First Nasty Women programs, AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center (Silver Spring, MD), November 5-23, 2022. Part of the venue’s Silent Cinema Showcase.
“Queens of Destruction,” Philipps-Universität Marburg, as part of the Doing Digital Film History conference, November 18, 2022.
“Queens of Destruction,” Devlin Hall 101, Boston College, November 14, 2022. Presented by co-curator Maggie Hennefeld.
“Gender Adventures,” The Cinema Museum (London), as part of the Kennington Bioscope’s Silent Film Weekend, November 5, 2022.
“Queens of Destruction,” Hanko Film Festival (Finland), November 4, 2022. More information to come!
“Gender Adventures,” Grand Cinema (Tacoma, WA), November 3, 2022
Phil For Short (1919) screening, Grand Cinema (Tacoma, WA), November 1, 2022
“Hysteria, Hypnosis, and Hallucination: Silent Cinema Shorts with Live Music Featuring Dreamland Faces,” Northrop Theater, University of Minnesota, October 18-31. In-person event on October 18 + livestream (on demand until October 31).
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” Beykoz Kundura (İstanbul, Turkey), Special screening for World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, October 30, 2022
Cinema’s First Nasty Women screening with live musical performance by Dana Reason & Renée T. Coulombe, Funkhaus Berlin, October 28, 2022 (part of the 2022 Signals Festival).
“Queens of Destruction,” Yorkshire Silent Film Festival (Sheffield, England), October 23, 2022.
“Queens of Destruction,” Grand Cinema (Tacoma, WA), October 14, 2022.
“Queens of Destruction,” Vermont International Film Festival (Burlington), October 6, 2022.
Female Slapstick Comics, Swedish Film Institute (Stockholm), September 30, 2022.
“Doubles and Doppelgängers,” Indiana University Cinema, September 29, 2022.
“Doubles and Doppelgängers,” Grand Cinema (Tacoma, WA), September 27, 2022.
“Queens of Destruction,” Trylon Cinema, Minneapolis, Minnesota, August 25, 2022.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” film series at UCLA Film & Television Archive, Los Angeles, California, August 12-21, 2022.
“Queens of Destruction: A Selection of Films from Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” The Museum of the Moving Image (Astoria, Queens), August 20 + 21, 2022.
Screening of What’s the World Coming To? (1926) at Internationale Bonner Stummfilmtage, Bonn, Germany, August 14, 2022.
Phil-for-Short (1919) screening, British Film Institute, London, July 17, 2022. Introduction by BFI curator Bryony Dixon.
“Portrait-Profile Little Chrysia,” Presentation by Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi and screening, Il Cinema Ritrovato (Bologna, Italy), June 29, 2022. Followed by a presentation of the Cinema’s First Nasty Women DVD/Blu-ray box set with Laura Horak and Maggie Hennefeld.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women Feminist Shorts,” Screening at Nitehawk Cinema, Brooklyn, New York. June 29, 2022.
“You Don’t Own Me”: Copy/Rights and Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” online film program, Kennington Bioscope YouTube channel, June 8-26, 2022. In collaboration with the 2022 Domitor conference.
Screening, Cinema’s First Nasty Women, Orphans 2022: Counter-Archives (Montreal), June 15-18, 2022.
“Gender Rebels!” double bill, Yorkshire Silent Film Festival, June 13, 2022.
“You Don’t Own ME”: Copy/Rights and Cinema’s First Nasty Women.” Domitor conference screening day, Columbia University (New York), June 6, 2022.
Panel on scoring Cinema’s First Nasty Women, featuring CFNW music supervisor Dana Reason, Kendra Preston Leonard (Silent Film Sound and Music Archive), Deborah Saidel (Independent), Migiwa Miyajima (Independent), International Alliance for Women in Music Conference, Oregon State University, June 3, 2022.
“Curating Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” roundtable discussion, Women & the Silent Screen conference, Columbia University (New York), June 2, 2022.
“The Nasty Women of Cinema II,” Film Program at Beykoz Kundura (İstanbul, Turkey), March 27 & April 16, 2022.
“The Nasty Women of Silent Cinema,” University of Toronto, Cinema Studies Institute, April 14, 2022. Speakers: co-curators Laura Horak and Maggie Hennefeld.
“Gender Rebels,” Nasty Women double-bill program at The Hippodrome Silent Film Festival (Bo’Ness, Scotland), March 18, 2022. Introduction by Pamela Hutchinson.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” Film Program at Eye Filmmuseum (Amsterdam), March 8, 2022. Introduced by co-curator Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi.
Phil-For-Short (1919) screening at the Indiana University Cinema (Bloomington, Indiana), February 22, 2022.
Nasty Women panel, Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México (Puebla, Mexico), Tuesday, November 23, 20
“Nasty Women 3,” Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone, Italy), October 2-9, 2021.
“Nasty Women: A Comic Tribute,” British Film Institute, Sept. 26, 2021.
“Nasty Women: Short Films,” Colgate University, Sept. 3, 2021. Post-screening discussion with co-curators Laura Horak and Maggie Hennefeld.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” Sneak Peek Online Film Program, Beykoz Kundura (İstanbul, Turkey) March 8-28, 2021.
“Feminist Laughter,” Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México (Puebla, Mexico), November 2019.
“Nasty Women,” Day of Silent Cinema (Indiana University Cinema), October 2019.
“Nasty Women 2,” Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone, Italy), October 2019.
“Nasty Women,” Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone, Italy), October 2017.
“Girls Will Be Boys,”Giornate del Cinema Muto (Pordenone, Italy), October 2015.
The CFNW Soundtrack
Cinema’s First Nasty Women Compilation Soundtrack Vol. 1 is out now!
Cinema’s First Nasty Women Soundtrack Compilation Vol. 1 features original music by 18+ smashing and diverse women film composers. Produced by the Grammy award winning musician Terri Lyne Carrington and Dana Reason, CFNW music supervisor.
Cinema’s First Nasty Women Soundtrack Compilation Vol. 1 cover.
“Cinema’s First Nasty Women Compilation Soundtrack Vol. 1 is a selection of the brilliant, all-new pieces that accompany the films in this important Kino Lorber collection. Drawing on the practices of the women who created the music for these films when they were new, composers including project leads Dana Reason and Terri Lyne Carrington, Naomi Nakanishi, Gonca F. Varol, Alicia Svigals, and many others have created thoughtful and clever scores for movies about women rightfully disrupting the status quo.” (Kendra Preston Leonard, August 2023)
“The recordings are fantastic!” (Kendra Preston Leonard, August 2023)
Publications
Hennefeld, Maggie and Laura Horak, eds. “Curating Feminist Film Archives,” issue of Feminist Media Histories vol. 10, no. 2-3 (Spring/Summer 2024). https://online.ucpress.edu/fmh/issue/10/2-3. See the table of contents here.
Hennefeld, Maggie and Laura Horak, eds. Cinema’s First Nasty Women booklet (New York: Kino Lorber, 2022).
Hennefeld, Maggie, “Hysteria, Hypnosis, and Hallucination in the Archives of Silent Cinema.” Caligari no. 5 (2022). https://caligaripress.com/Maggie-Hennefeld-Hysteria-Hypnosis-and-Hallucination
Hennefeld, Maggie, Laura Horak, and Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi. “Gender and the Nasty Women of history.” Early Popular Visual Culture vol. 19, no. 1 (June 1 2022). https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17460654.2021.2074962.
Hennefeld, Maggie. “Cinema’s First Nasty Women (Or, How to Record a Celebrity Video Intro).” FLOW, May 16, 2022. https://www.flowjournal.org/2022/05/cinemas-first-nasty-women/.
Hennefeld, Maggie, Laura Horak, and Elif Rongen-Kaynakçi. “Feminist Catastrophe Against Disaster Patriarchy: Curating Cinema’s First Nasty Women.” Modernism/modernity, July 28, 2021.
Related Scholarship
For related scholarship and further resources see the Nasty Women Bibliography!
The CFNW Webshop
Visit the CFNW webshop! Currently two beautiful T-shirts are for sale, featuring Léontine and Texas Guinan. All the credit for the wonderful artwork goes to Valeria Kriletich.
Related Media Coverage
For online articles and interviews about our project and related events see our expanding list of Nasty Women press coverage.
Image Gallery
Unknown performer [Léontine] in Bateau de Léontine (Pathé Comica, France, 1911). Courtesy of EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection (left). Texas Guinan publicity still, 1919. Courtesy of the Guinan Family Archives, Stayton, OR (right).
Émile Dehelly and Renée Sylvaire in Amour et Science (Éclair, France, 1912). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Unknown performer [Léontine] in Amour et Musique (Pathé Comica, France, 1911). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Unknown performer [Léontine] in Bateau de Léontine (Pathé Comica, France, 1911). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Little Chrysia in Cunégonde Femme Cochère (Lux, France, 1912). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Little Chrysia in Cunégonde Femme Crampon (Lux, France, 1912). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Little Chrysia in Cunégonde Femme du Monde (Lux, France, 1912). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Little Chrysia in Cunégonde Jalouse (Lux, France, 1912). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Little Chrysia in Cunégonde Trop Curieuse (Lux, France, 1912). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Cunégonde in action. Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Florence Turner in Daisy Doodad’s Dial (Florence Turner Productions, UK, 1914). Courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Sarah Duhamel in Le Désespoir de Pétronille (Éclair, France, 1914). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Bertha Regustus in Laughing Gas (Edison, USA, 1907). Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Lea Giunchi in Lea Bambola (Cines, Italy, 1913). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Sarah Duhamel in Little Moritz Demande Rosalie en Mariage (Pathé Comica, France, 1911). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Making a Man of Her (Nestor, USA, 1912) starring Louise Glaum. Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Louise Glaum in Making a Man of Her (Nestor, USA, 1912). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Ellen Lowe (maid) in La Fureur de Madame Plumette (Eclipse, France, 1912). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Sarah Duhamel in Patouillard A Une Femme Jalouse (Lux, France, 1912). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Sarah Duhamel in Patouillard A Une Femme Jalouse (Lux, France, 1912). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Sarah Duhamel in Pétronille Gagne le Grand Steeple-Chase (Éclair, France, 1913). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Unknown performer [Léontine] in La Peur Des Ombres (Pathé Comica, France, 1911). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Unknown performer in La Peur Des Ombres (Pathé Comica, France, 1911). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Lea Giunchi and Fernanda Negri-Pouget in Riposo Festivo (Cines, Italy, 1912). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Lea Giunchi and Fernanda Negri-Pouget in Riposo Festivo (Cines, Italy, 1912). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Minnie Devereaux in Fatty and Minnie He Haw (1914). Courtesy of the Academy Film Archive.
Sarah Duhamel in Rosalie et son Phonographe (Pathé Comica, France, 1911). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Sarah Duhamel in Rosalie et son Phonographe (Pathé Comica, France, 1911). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Sarah Duhamel in Le Singe de Pétronille (Éclair, France, 1914). Courtesy of the EYE Filmmuseum/Desmet Collection.
Sarah Duhamel and unknown performer [Léontine] in Rosalie et Léontine vont au Théatre (Pathé Comica, France, 1911). Courtesy of the BFI.
Sarah Duhamel and unknown performer [Léontine] in Rosalie et Léontine vont au Théatre (Pathé Comica, France, 1911). Courtesy of the BFI.