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TCM Website
March 14, 2000
Restorations of THE SCARLET LETTER and CLEOPATRA
and Original Documentary Headline Women Film Pioneers on TCM
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Turner Classic Movies has unveiled plans for an extensive month-long tribute to the women who helped shape the early years of American cinema. As part of TCM's unprecedented August line-up featuring more than 30 films written, directed or produced by females, Women Film Pioneers will include the world premiere of an original documentary and several new film restorations.
Women Film Pioneers begins August 3 at 8 p.m. ET with the world premiere of Without Lying Down, a TCM original documentary that explores the life and career of Frances Marion, the highest-paid screen writer in Hollywood for nearly three decades and first female writer to win an Oscar®. The documentary will include interviews with leading women in entertainment today, film historians and many of Marion's friends and associates, including author Cari Beauchamp, preeminent silent film historian Kevin Brownlow, film critic Leonard Maltin, chief curator for the film department at the Museum of Modern Art Mary Lea Bandy and Oscar®-nominated former child star Jackie Cooper.
The world premieres of two TCM restorations, complete with original music scores - Marion's THE SCARLET LETTER (1926) and Helen Gardner's CLEOPATRA (1912), one of the first feature film s ever produced - will also highlight the tribute to influential women in early film.
The comprehensive collection of rarely or never-before broadcast films and footage will showcase the works of female directors, writers, producers and actresses-turned-producers, including Marion, Alice Guy Blache, Lois Weber, Ida Lupino, Mary Pickford, Nell Shipman and Dorothy Arzner, among others. This is the most ambitious programming event on the subject to date, as TCM recognizes the more than 100 women who wrote or directed films during the silent era and countless others who contributed as actors, producers and technicians.
"Women film pioneers are an integral part of our American cinema heritage, yet they have never been given proper recognition," said Tom Karsch, executive vice president and general manager of TCM. "TCM's initiative reaches beyond showcasing the work of these women to include educational outreach and contributions to the restoration efforts of works that shaped the development of cinema."
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