The Camera Is Ours: Women Documentary Filmmakers

Most leading documentary filmmakers in Britain today are women - a stark contrast with feature film directors who, despite some progress in recent years, are still overwhelmingly male. But prominence in documentary wasn't handed to women on a plate: a debt of thanks is due to the determination and resourcefulness of previous generations of women to seize the camera and film their own stories. Women have been pivotal to British documentary filmmaking since the 1930s. It might be a man, John Grierson, who is remembered as 'the father of documentary', but the movement he founded made (some) space for women too, including two of his sisters, Ruby and Marion, who told her brother, 'The trouble with you is that you look at things as though they were in a goldfish bowl. I'm going to break your goldfish bowl.' Marion went on to do just that, alongside others of her generation, such as Jill Craigie. This collection focuses on what we could call a 'second generation' of women documentary filmmakers who emerged from the 1970s and 80s. Notable among them is Kim Longinotto, one of Britain's most prolific and accomplished documentarists whose work over more than 40 years, has explored women's experiences in unfamiliar contexts and cultures. Also featured are the work of collectives and workshops such as the Sheffield Film Co-op who, with the help of more affordable and easy-to-use video equipment, sought to extend the tools and skills of filmmaking to women who would never otherwise have had such opportunities. The resulting films highlight how their practical feminism brought new voices, perspectives and approaches to documentary, and told new stories with fire, wit and humanity.