Our guest today is Maggie Hennefeld, McKnight Presidential Fellow and Associate Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, who has co-curated a dvd set of the medium’s early female comedians titled Cinema’s First Nasty Women. Maggie talks us through the current resurgence in interest in silent cinema and the global landscape of festivals, supporters and restoration projects, as well as her own journey of scholarship in the field that led to her collaborating on this important project. All this interest seems long overdue considering the fantastically experimental and entertaining material, which is raucous, varied and vast, often making radical social commentary that still resonates today. Maggie vividly describes several highlights in this comprehensive collection, and the women who were behind and in front of the camera. In addition to assembling, restoring and annotating the films, the team also engaged over 45 mostly female composers to write and perform both traditional and avant-garde scores for each film, and she talks extensively about that process. We also discuss the erasure of this material from the silent film canon, and women from comedy (among many other fields) in general, and how these films both give us a new understanding of comedy in this era, even as they inform our on-going struggles with sexism and racism today, by showing us images of women that are simultaneously empowering and troubling. All films are contextualized with expert commentary, allowing them to be used in classrooms or otherwise as jumping-off points for deeper conversation. Finally, Maggie shares some thoughts from the book she’s currently working on about the notion of “hysterical laughter” and its supposed danger to women.Here are some of the references from this episode, for those who want to dig a little deeper:Cinema’s First Nasty WomenDVD Booklet InsertMaggie Hennefeld’s other publications:Death from Laughter, Female Hysteria and Early CinemaSpecters of Slapstick and Silent Film ComediennesOther Curators of the set:Laura Horak – Girls Will Be BoysElif Rongen-Kaynakçi – EYE filmmuseumHenry Jenkins, What Made Pistachio Nuts?: Early Sound Comedy and the Vaudeville AestheticCharlotte GreenwoodFanny BriceLupe VélezWinnie LightnerAli WongSarah SilvermanWanda SykesJames Agee – “Comedy’s Greatest Era”Charlie Chaplin in Mable’s Strange PredicamentSilent Film CultureWomen and the Silent ScreenNitratevilleSilent LondonEdward Everett HortonSteve Massa and Ben Model – silent comedy Watch PartySilent Film FestivalsPordenone Film FestivalBologna Film FestivalSan Francisco Silent Film FestivalEl Festival Internacional de Cine Silente México Hippodrome film festivalTrump – “Nasty Women”Film ScholarsArigon StarrLiza BlackShelley Stamp Female Filmmakers, Producers, and ComediansAlice Guy-BlachéBertha RegustusDorothy ArznerFay TincherIda LupinoLéontineLois WeberMabel NormandMinnie Devereaux – “Fatty and Minnie He-Haw”Sarah DuhamelTexas GuinanSilent Film MusicDana Reason – ScoreDreamland FacesGonca Feride VarolGuenter BuchwaldJosé María Serralde RuizMeg MorleyNeil BrandSteven HorneTerri Lyne CarringtonNasty Women team on Nitrateville RadioOur previous Episode 30: The forgotten women of early filmmakingHistory of the Tom BoyNancy WalkerPeg Bracken – The I Hate to Housekeep Book / I Hate to Cook BookDaisiesThe UnknownArrest Warrant – Ukranian silent cinemaWhat’s Up Doc?Undercrank Productions (silent film restoration)Online screenings from the Bologna and Pordenone film festivalsZiegfeld FolliesHal Roach StudiosShare your thoughts via Twitter with Henry, Colin and the How Do You Like It So Far? account! You can also email us at howdoyoulikeitsofarpodcast@gmail.com.Music:“In Time” by Dylan Emmett and “Spaceship” by Lesion X.––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––In Time (Instrumental) by Dylan Emmet https://soundcloud.com/dylanemmetSpaceship by Lesion X https://soundcloud.com/lesionxbeatsCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/in-time-instrumentalFree Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/lesion-x-spaceshipMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/AzYoVrMLa1Q–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Share your thoughts via Twitter with Henry, Colin and the How Do You Like It So Far? account! You can also email us at howdoyoulikeitsofarpodcast@gmail.com.Music:“In Time” by Dylan Emmett and “Spaceship” by Lesion X.In Time (Instrumental) by Dylan Emmet https://soundcloud.com/dylanemmetSpaceship by Lesion X https://soundcloud.com/lesionxbeatsCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/...
