Arnold, Sarah and Madden, Carolann (2024) Hidden in Plain Sight: Attending to Women’s Amateur Filmmaking Histories at the Irish Film Archive. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 44 (2). pp. 300-318. ISSN 0143-9685
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Abstract
This article aims to identify various ways in which women’s amateur filmmaking becomes obscured in both film archives and in the academic scholarship on film and filmmaking. Recognising that amateur film is marginalised and undervalued in relation to commercial and professional filmmaking, the article uses the case study of one Irish amateur filmmaker to identify the processes and practices that have resulted in her work being obscured and overlooked. The filmmaker, Sr Maureen MacMahon, was practicing amateur filmmaking from the 1960s to the 1970s and her work is held at the Irish Film Archive. Investigation of Sr Maureen’s filmmaking drew from a variety of sources including the films and film materials, film metadata recorded at the archive, newspaper archives, an archive held at Sr Maureen’s religious order and an interview with Sr Maureen. Analyses of these materials has resulted in three findings: firstly, the dispersal of materials and information pertaining to Sr Maureen across multiple sites posed challenges for our construction of a coherent narrative about her; secondly, Sr Maureen turned her hand to many creative and pedagogic activities beyond filmmaking, and, in her own estimation, she was an arts educator more than a filmmaker; and, finally, the films are not easily categorised as they are generically and stylistically diverse, making auteurist approaches difficult. Drawing from these findings we discuss the challenges that this creates for foregrounding women’s contributions to film.
Item Type: | Article |
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Keywords: | Women’s Amateur Filmmaking; Histories; Irish Film Archive; |
Academic Unit: | Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > School of English, Media & Theatre Studies > Media Studies |
Item ID: | 19615 |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/01439685.2023.2296233 |
Depositing User: | Sarah Arnold |
Date Deposited: | 27 Mar 2025 11:39 |
Journal or Publication Title: | Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television |
Publisher: | Taylor & Francis (Routledge) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Related URLs: | |
URI: | https://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/id/eprint/19615 |
Use Licence: | This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here |
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