Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media. Issue 20: Doing Women's Film and Television History
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Item Alphaville Journal of Film and Screen Media Podcast. Episode 05, Issue 20, ‘Doing Women’s Film and Television History’(Film and Screen Media, University College Cork, 2021) Arnold, Sarah; O'Brien, AnneThis episode features a discussion between the co-editors of the issue: Dr Sarah Arnold, lecturer in Media at Maynooth University, and Dr Anne O'Brien, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Media Studies at Maynooth University. The discussion took place online in January 2021 and introduces the key topics that are covered in Issue 20 of Alphaville: Doing women’s film and television history: Locating women in film and television, past and present.Item General editor's note(Film and Screen Media, University College Cork, 2021) Rascaroli, Laura; Rascaroli, LauraItem Archivally absent? Female filmmakers in the IFI Irish Film Archive(Film and Screen Media, University College Cork, 2021) O'Connell, Kasandra; Arnold, Sarah; O'Brien, AnneThis paper is an initial exploration of women’s contribution to collections of the IFI Irish Film Archive, specifically in the area of amateur film production. It considers two female-created collections in this sphere of practice, the Currivan and Overend Collections, examining the context in which they were created as well as the nature of the films themselves. This article also examines the reasons why women are underrepresented in film production, specifically the extent to which organisational policies and the gendered nature of leadership and employment effect what material is produced and preserved. It concludes by looking at praxis within the IFI Irish Film Archive collections and asking what measures the Irish Film Institute can adopt to improve women’s representation and visibility in its programmes of exhibition and preservation.Item Seeking traces of women in early Irish filmmaking: The O’Mara sisters and the archive(Film and Screen Media, University College Cork, 2021) Johnson, Veronica; Arnold, Sarah; O'Brien, AnneRecent research by Díóg O’Connell and Donna Casella has brought to light the work of Ellen O’Mara Sullivan with the Film Company of Ireland (1916–20). These scholars trace the personal archive of Ellen O’Mara Sullivan’s descendants and use this data to create a trajectory of her role within this first significant Irish film company. While the official record of the Film Company of Ireland is considered limited, there are traces of the company in trade papers, archives and newspapers. In comparison, information about the role of women in this company is difficult to discover as women often slip from the official archive in this period. In the case of Ellen O’Mara Sullivan, she is frequently hidden behind her husband’s record as owner and director of the Film Company of Ireland, or behind her more famous father and brothers, well-connected Republicans, Mayors of Limerick, and successful businessmen. This paper will examine the role of Ellen O’Mara Sullivan and her sister Mary Rynne in the development of the Film Company of Ireland by examining the archival records available and exploring how to find information about these women when they elude the official record. Working in particular on documents found in the Rynne family archive, Special Collections, NUIG, this paper will attempt to trace the financial contribution of Mary Rynne to this film company and to bring to light the role these two sisters played in the development of the early Irish film industry.Item Writing the history of women’s programming at Telifís Éireann: A case study of Home for Tea(Film and Screen Media, University College Cork, 2021) Wait, Morgan; Arnold, Sarah; O'Brien, AnneThe history of women’s programming at the Irish television station Teilifís Éireann has long been neglected within the historiography of Irish television. Seminal studies within the field have focused quite specifically on the institutional history of the Irish station and have not paid much attention to programming. This is particularly true in regards to women’s programmes. This paper addresses this gap in the literature by demonstrating a methodological approach for reconstructing this lost segment of programming using the example of Home for Tea, a women’s magazine programme that ran on TÉ from 1964 to 1966. It was the network’s flagship women’s programme during this period but is completely absent from within the scholarship on Irish television. Drawing on the international literature on the history of women’s programmes this paper utilises press sources to reconstruct the Home for Tea’s content and discourse around it. It argues that, though Home for Tea has been neglected, a reconstruction of the programme illuminates wider themes of the everyday at Teilifís Éireann, such as a middle-class bias and the treatment of its actors. As such, its reconstruction, and that of other similar programmes, are exceptionally important in moving towards a more holistic history of the Irish station.
