AFI Catalog of Feature Films: Women They Talk About
FAIN: PW-264252-19
American Film Institute (Los Angeles, CA 90027-1625)
Sarah Blankfort Clothier (Project Director: July 2018 to July 2023)
The enhancement of 6,000 records in the AFI
Catalog of Feature Films, for silent films released from 1910 to 1930, as well
as the upgrading of the catalog database to identify 500,000 name credits by
gender, covering the first one hundred years of film history from 1893 to 1993.
The American Film Institute
(AFI) upholds the first tenet of its mission -- to preserve the history of the
motion picture -- through the AFI Catalog of Feature Films, an authoritative
online resource documenting the first century of American film (1893-1993). AFI
respectfully requests a three-year $350,000 grant from the National Endowment
for the Humanities in support of a landmark project to enhance documentation
for 6,000 films released from 1910 to 1930, completing the historic record of
the silent era in the AFI Catalog, and, in the process, expanding scholarly and
public understanding of women’s foundational role in the creation of the
cinematic art form. The initiative will also include technological upgrades
making possible the evaluation of the database’s 500,000 personal name credits
by gender, providing previously unavailable data to inaugurate a cardinal study
of gender parity in the first century of American film.
Associated Products
Below the Line: Establishing Inclusionary Cataloging Practices for Equity and Cultural Competence in Moving-Image Collections (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Below the Line: Establishing Inclusionary Cataloging Practices for Equity and Cultural Competence in Moving-Image Collections
Author: Sarah Clothier
Author: Maya Montanez Smuckler
Author: Annette Doss
Author: Leeroy Kang
Author: Mark Williams
Abstract: Historically, the formal cataloging of film production and the acquisition of moving-image
archives has reflected the Anglo, heteronormative, patriarchal culture of the film industry with an
emphasis on works financed by robust Western production cultures. The result has been the
marginalization of films/filmmakers outside these criteria, which in turn keeps scholars unaware
of vital collection holdings and production data. This roundtable brings together representatives
from moving-image catalogs and archives to discuss efforts in systematically altering the way
collections are organized, accessed, and acquired. The AFI Catalog “Women They Talk About”
project repurposes the database’s uniquely comprehensive, academic assets to support
unprecedented empirical research about the role of gender throughout the American film
industry. The Academy Film Archive’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Project, headed by the
Cataloging and Public Access departments, is conducting an investigation of the Archive’s
holdings as related to underrepresented communities to better serve the needs of Academy staff
and researchers. At UCLA Film & Television Archive ongoing efforts between Cataloging and
Outreach departments to design staff-curated webpages, collection profiles, inventory lists and
public programs connecting patrons with diverse collection materials. The Media Ecology Project is developing NEH-funded collaborations with professional catalogers and critical race studies scholars to augment vocabularies and keywords that identify and describe archival civil rights newsfilm.
Date: 3/21/21
Primary URL: N/A
Conference Name: Society of Cinema and Media Studies
In Her Shoes: Lois Weber and the Female Filmmakers Who Shaped Early Hollywood (Course or Curricular Material)Title: In Her Shoes: Lois Weber and the Female Filmmakers Who Shaped Early Hollywood
Author: Sarah Clothier
Author: Shelley Stamp
Author: Jill Beale
Abstract: This curriculum has three objectives: for students to develop research skills by using the AFI catalog and other online databases; for students to critically analyze the film “Shoes” by Lois Weber (1916); and for students to explore the important role that women played in the development of the motion picture industry.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: Not yet available
Audience: K - 12
Women They Talk About: Discovering America's Female Film Pioneers (Web Resource)Title: Women They Talk About: Discovering America's Female Film Pioneers
Author: Crystal Johnson
Author: Stephanie Nye
Author: Sarah Blankfort Clothier
Abstract: Women They Talk About: Discovering America's Female Film Pioneers is a website located at AFI.com. It reflects a culmination of the work accomplished over the three years of the Women They Talk About project and includes: links to blog posts about women in early cinema; links to documentation on films written and directed by women in the silent and early sound eras; curricular resources and study guides for grades 9-12; data reports and statistical information on the role of gender in silent cinema; and links to biographical essays about female filmmakers on the Women Film Pioneers Project website.
Year: 2023
Primary URL:
https://aficatalog.afi.com/wtta/Primary URL Description: Women They Talk About project website
Breakthroughs: What Can Digital Humanities Tell Us That We Didn't Know? (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Breakthroughs: What Can Digital Humanities Tell Us That We Didn't Know?
Author: Kate Saccone
Author: Sarah-Mai Dang
Author: Jeffrey Klenotic
Author: Sarah Blankfort Clothier
Abstract: This presentation was part of the Women and the Silent Screen Entr'acte program held online from June 4-6, 2021. Sarah Blankfort Clothier shared early results from the gender study of the AFI Catalog's person records, particularly focusing on women filmmakers in the silent era.
Date: 6/5/2021
Conference Name: Women and the Silent Screen Entr'acte
Women They Talk About: Bringing Female Film Pioneers into the Vernacular with Linked Data from "Sister" Institutions (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Women They Talk About: Bringing Female Film Pioneers into the Vernacular with Linked Data from "Sister" Institutions
Author: Sarah Blankfort Clothier
Abstract: AFI Catalog of Feature Films has commenced “Women They Talk About,” a project to repurpose its uniquely comprehensive, academic data to support unprecedented empirical research about gender throughout the first century of the American film industry. Named after a 1928 feature, the initiative aims to secure women in the canon through search functionality, reporting, and data visualizations. For example, scholars can evaluate actual numbers to contextualize theories that women represented 50% of silent era writers, as well as to identify names, roles and trends yet to be discovered.
Although AFI data provides the project’s foundation, its success critically depends on interconnectivity with “sister” institutions—including linked data with Columbia University’s Women Film Pioneers Project, BFI, the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and the Geena Davis Institute. Are the semantic implications of using a feminine word (“sister”) for an inanimate object (“institutions”) compelling as we shift from an individualistic, hierarchical model of information production, generated by a single source (AFI), to a collaborative system of data sharing across different platforms?
Date: 5/27/2019
Conference Name: Women and the Silent Screen
Women They Talk About: Using Data as a Narrative Tool to Bring Female Film Pioneers Into the Vernacular at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Women They Talk About: Using Data as a Narrative Tool to Bring Female Film Pioneers Into the Vernacular at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
Author: Sarah Blankfort Clothier
Abstract: In 2018, the AFI Catalog of Feature Films established “Women They Talk About,” a project to repurpose its uniquely comprehensive, academic data to support unprecedented empirical research about the role of gender throughout the first century of the American film industry, 1893-1993. Named after the 1928 feature film, “Women They Talk About” is specifically designed to secure early female filmmakers in the historical canon by using data as a narrative tool to engender the true story of women as forerunners in the industry. User-generated and application-driven reports will be presented with data visualizations on the AFI Catalog homepage and at AFI.com to illustrate, and authenticate, women’s contributions, as well as to position gender parity as a foundational element of cultural, economic and labor history. As AFI pursues funding to underwrite software development, AFI Catalog researchers are revisiting records for pre-1930 releases to enhance documentation and add previously uncredited names to be integrated in report outcomes. For example, scholars will be able to evaluate actual data for the first time about widely circulated but unsubstantiated theories that women represented 50% of silent era story and scenario writers. “Women They Talk About” aims to open doors beyond these immediate applications and prompt discoveries yet to be imagined; however, its success is dependent on partnerships with other institutions represented at the Film Librarian’s Conference.
Date: 5/16/2019
Conference Name: Film Librarians Conference
Women They Talk About: Using Data as a Narrative Tool to Bring Female Film Pioneers Into the Vernacular at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films (Conference Paper/Presentation)Title: Women They Talk About: Using Data as a Narrative Tool to Bring Female Film Pioneers Into the Vernacular at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
Author: Sarah Blankfort Clothier
Abstract: The AFI Catalog of Feature Films has recently initiated “Women They Talk About,” a project to repurpose its uniquely comprehensive, academic data to support unprecedented empirical research about the role of gender throughout the first century of the American film industry, 1893-1993. Named after the 1928 feature film, “Women They Talk About” is specifically designed to secure early female filmmakers in the historical canon by using data as a narrative tool to engender the true story of women as forerunners in the industry. User-generated and application-driven reports will be presented with data visualizations on the AFI Catalog homepage and at AFI.com to illustrate, and authenticate, women’s contributions, as well as to position gender parity as a foundational element of cultural, economic and labor history. With generous grant funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Lovell Foundation, AFI Catalog researchers are revisiting records for pre-1930 releases to enhance documentation and add previously uncredited names to be integrated in report outcomes. Concurrently, AFI Catalog developers are creating database upgrades specifically for gender research. For example, scholars will be able to evaluate actual data for the first time about widely circulated but unsubstantiated theories that women represented 50% of silent era story and scenario writers. “Women They Talk About” aims to open doors beyond these immediate applications and prompt discoveries yet to be imagined; however, its success is critically dependent on collaboration with other institutions and academics represented at the Doing Women’s Film and TV History conference.
Date: 7/10/2021
Conference Name: Doing Women's Film and Television History