Make More Noise: Suffragettes in Silent Film

[swo17]

Nov 23

MAKE MORE NOISE: SUFFRAGETTES IN SILENT FILM (DVD)

Complementing the release of Sarah Gavron's Suffragette, this selection of silent films from the BFI National Archive shows how suffragettes were portrayed on the cinema screen while their battles were still been waged on the streets outside.

The suffragettes tactic was to stand up at every public event and cry votes for women! As leader Emmeline Pankhurst said in her legendary speech of November 1913: You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else, you have to fill all the papers more than anybody else. In fact you have to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under.

And that meant film too: cinema was born just as the campaign was gathering momentum and the suffragettes made it their business to get in front of the cameras! This fascinating compilation of short films with a specially commissioned score by Lillian Henley combines newsreels and documentaries with early comedies. Some offer grotesque parodies of female militants (often played by men in drag), but others feature unruly female children who wreak havoc and still have the last laugh... These gloriously anarchic comedies reveal as much about young women's aspirations as do the newsreels of demonstrations, arson attacks and other dramatic provocations.

Special features

•TBC

[MichaelB]

Now this could be absolutely fascinating. I've seen quite a few of these films when I worked on Screenonline, and the range is enormous: everything from on-the-spot newsreels to propagandist reporting that makes Fox News seem balanced (suffragettes were blamed for almost every act of vandalism that occurred in early 20th-century Britain, it seemed) to anti-suffragette "comedies", a genre that has inexplicably died out.

[Adam]

Check out Melies's 1912 Conquest of the Pole and the representation and fate of a suffragette in it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtrELhltAwo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[MichaelB]

Full specs announced:

Make More Noise!
Suffragettes in Silent Film
Music composed and performed by Lillian Henley

Bad behaviour, noise, clamour and violence are not usually traits associated with British women – but for the first 15 years of the twentieth century, fearless females fought with the authorities, and society at large, to make themselves heard.

This fascinating selection of over 20 films from the BFI National Archive, released on DVD on 23 November 2015, combines documentary, newsreel and comedy to show how suffragettes were portrayed on the screen during the period when their battles were being waged on the streets.

With cinema becoming established as a dominant art form, the suffragettes made it their business to get in front of the cameras. This set brilliantly complements Sarah Gavron’s feature film Suffragette (2015), showing the real women and real battles of history.

Highlights include the wild antics of Tilly’s Party (1911), the harsh lessons of Wife the Weaker Vessel (1915) and the poignancy of Miss Davison’s Funeral (1913). In addition it contains another 12 rarely seen films and clips from the period, and an illustrated booklet.

Special features
• Suffragette Demonstration in London (1910, 3 mins): newsreel of an early suffragette mass march
• Tilly the Tomboy Visits the Poor (1910, 6 mins): the Tilly girls star in this mischievous comedy
• London Factory Girls on Strike in Camden Town (1911, 27 secs): newsreel footage of the strikers
• Suffragette Pageant in London (1911, 1 min): footage of the Women’s Coronation Procession
• London Church Completely Destroyed by Fire (1913, 1 min): newsreel of an arson attack
• St Leonards Outrage (1913, 1 min): footage of an arson attack on an MP’s home
• Suffragette Derby of 1913 (1913, 5 mins): Gaumont’s footage of the 1913 Derby
• ‘Law Abiding’ Suffragists in Hyde Park (1913, 1 min): a mass NUWSS meeting
• Suffragettes Again (1913, 1 min): newsreel of an arson attack in Plymouth
• Trafalgar Square Meeting (1916, 1 min): Mrs Pankhurst and Mrs Dacre Fox address the crowd
• Labour’s First Woman MP (1922, 14 secs): short clip of Susan Lawrence
• Lady Astor (Conservative) in Again for Plymouth (1923, 13 secs): the first female MP celebrates another win
• Illustrated booklet with essays by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Bryony Dixon and Lillian Henley, film notes and credits

Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIV2057 / Cert E
UK / 1899 – 1917 / black and white / silent with music / 72 mins / DVD9 / Original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / Dolby Digital 5.1 (448kbps) and 2.0 (192Kbps)

...and you can see the BFI's Silent Film Curator Bryony Dixon discussing the films (with clips) here.

[Gregory]

I'll watch for reviews but so far I don't quite understand which films are included. The 2nd paragraph says "over 20 films," but then below that only 15 films are listed. The BFI Player category "Suffragettes on Film" includes 26 films from the 1909-17 era, but it looks like this collection goes back as far as 1899 and may or may not include all of the 26 on BFI Player. Maybe some of what's on BFI Player isn't considered worth to include in a DVD collection. "Tilly and the Fire Engines," for example, only survives in a very incomplete state, but I'd still like to see what there is of it.

Trying not to be disappointed by the 72-minute runtime, having been spoiled by other BFI documentary collections that put 2-3 hours on each DVD. It'd be hard to do that when most of the surviving films of this vintage may be less than 5 minutes each.

[antnield]

The 15 films listed are the bonus titles. I'm assuming the main programme is identical to that which has been touring UK cinemas. You can find a PDF listing of those here (including Tilly and the Fire Engines).

[MichaelB]

Yes, the press release wasn't very clear about this - but you are indeed getting 33 films in total.

In chronological order:

• Women's Rights (1899, 1 min)
• Scenes from Suffragette Demonstration in Newcastle (1909, 35 secs)
• London. Suffragette Riots at Westminster (1910, 1 min)
• Mass Meeting of Suffragettes (1910, 44 secs)
• Suffragette Demonstration in London (1910, 3 mins)
• Tilly the Tomboy Visits the Poor (1910, 6 mins)
• London Factory Girls on Strike in Camden Town (1911, 27 secs)
• Suffragette Pageant in London (1911, 1 min)
• Tilly and the Fire Engines (1911, 6 mins)
• Tilly's Party (1911)
• Did'ums Diddles the P'liceman (1912, 7 mins)
• London. The Suffragette Election (1912, 1 min)
• Bolton Election Result (1912, 1 min)
• Scenes Outside the House of Commons (1913, 35 secs)
• Milling the Militants: A Comical Absurdity (1913, 7 mins)
• The Suffragette Derby (1913, 5 mins) - Topical Budget coverage
• Suffragette Derby of 1913 (1913, 5 mins) - Gaumont coverage
• Miss Davison's Funeral (1913, 2 mins)
• Trafalgar Square Riot (1913, 1 min)
• London Church Completely Destroyed by Fire (1913, 1 min)
• St Leonards Outrage (1913, 1 min)
• ‘Law Abiding’ Suffragists in Hyde Park (1913, 1 min)
• Suffragettes Again (1913, 1 min)
• Suffragettes? Yarmouth Pier and Pavilion Burnt Down (1914, 37 secs)
• Palace Pandemonium (1914, 1 min)
• Wife the Weaker Vessel (1915, 8 mins)
• Women's March Through (1915, 1 min)
• Trafalgar Square Meeting (1916, 1 min)
• A Day in the Life of a Munitions Worker (1917, 10 mins)
• Scottish Women's Hospital (NUWSS) (1917, 7 mins)
• Will There Be Women MPs (1917, 1 min)
• Labour’s First Woman MP (1922, 14 secs)
• Lady Astor (Conservative) in Again for Plymouth (1923, 13 secs)

So that's 33 films in total, with a predictably massive overlap with the BFI Player's 25-strong collection - as far as I can see the only omissions are Finding His Counterpart (1914) and Howway the Lasses (1977).

It also wouldn't surprise me at all if this was close to the entirety of the BFI's suffragette holdings, at least as far as the 1899-1923 period is concerned.