La storia delle donne nella storia del cinema

The essay offers an introduction to the Women Film Pioneers Project, a collaborative research launched about the end of last century and now involving contributions by several dozens of scholars across the world. Three key methodological issues are examined: periodization and the choice to focus on silent cinema, the adoption of a transnational approach, and the project’s orientation toward a concept of social history. In this frame, the ongoing investigation concerning the work of Italian women film pioneers is presented as a valuable contribution to a deeper appreciation of the global phenomenon of women’s participation into the film industries and cultures of early XXth century.