Couverture de Silent Women

Silent Women

Silent Women

De : Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi
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 For many decades women cinéastes were swept into oblivion. At long last their visual artistry has been brought back to the light, but what would happen if some of their tattered audio recordings were found? What would each one tell us about her life and work?

The intent of this collection of poems is to give a voice to some female filmmakers of the silent era, 21 like our current century, and to trigger in listeners the desire to find more about them.

Each terza rima poem is introduced with music by a female composer of the same country of the filmmaker, who might have listened to her composition while at work.

Written and recited by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Sound editing by Massimo Privitera
(Musicologist, Founding Director of Colonne Sonore magazine, and longtime friend)Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi Art Musique
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    • Tazuko Sakane, with music by Nobu Kōda

      Tazuko Sakane, with music by Nobu Kōda
      Jan 28 2024
      Films: my Ikigai, my reason for living
      They gave true purpose to this silent lady
      The first the Land of The Rising Sun would bring

      My work ethics were far from being shady
      I was the eldest daughter of six siblings
      In the old capital I was a baby

      Kyoto was Japan’s Hollywood in billings
      My father was tied to the film industry
      The screening room was part of my beginnings

      For us it was a frequent activity
      I was charmed by the yūgen of these pictures
      That fine grace that kept me in captivity

      I loved studying but I had saboteurs
      My stepmother forced me to quit college soon
      She thought it convenient to work indoors

      An educated woman was a buffoon
      It was arranged for me to become a wife
      At twenty-one I had tied the knot to attune

      But four years later I took hold of my life
      My husband betrayed me and I divorced him
      I returned to my parents’ home with no strife

      Finally my Big Bang, it was not a whim
      I no longer was a man’s accessory
      For a high class woman working was not prim

      I pursued my own kind of exemplary
      I was determined to be self-reliant
      Papa helped me find my new trajectory

      I assisted a cinematic giant
      Kenji Mizoguchi was a film master
      With his wife Chieko I was compliant

      With them I learnt how to make movies faster
      Through cinema we expressed Ishin-Denshin
      This unspoken connection was our plaster

      On set I took multiple tasks to begin
      To do so the kimono wasn’t practical
      Therefore I wore trousers while people would grin

      Blending in this male-workplace was tactical
      I joined Mizoguchi’s transfer to Tokyo
      My approach to movies was pragmatical

      My directorial launch was about to glow
      But colleagues got jealous of my ambition
      My promotion was compromised by my foe

      Sabotaging me became their sole mission
      They invented an affair with my Sensei
      I rose from the ashes of opposition

      Back to Kyoto with my mentor was the way
      To direct at last my first film, New Clothing
      Kosugi Tengai’s book became cine-play

      A singular romance I was disclosing
      Between a future geisha and Buddhist priest
      A female film director was imposing

      My private life was slandered to say the least
      I went back to being Mizoguchi’s aide
      The second warfare arrived in the Far East

      Censorship prevailed, but I was not afraid
      I left my guru to form my own project
      Telling the Ainu story was my crusade

      I wanted to express my utter respect
      To this indigenous minority group
      The nation’s policies it did not reflect

      Nihon did not allow you to break the loop
      So, The Manchuria Film Association
      Is where I worked, in the education troop

      Chinese women were target of formation
      During my four years there, fourteen films I made
      For Sino-Japanese appreciation

      Settling in Manchuria I would persuade
      Then came the Asian Pacific War defeat
      Those kind of documentaries had to fade

      At the Chinese Studio I took a seat
      I was a simple cinema craftsperson
      I returned to my homeland with no drumbeat

      I thought it was time for my self-assertion
      It was the autumn of 1946
      I was overpowered by disconcertion

      I could not direct for the new politics
      A college degree was obligatory
      These were the rules of my country I couldn’t fix

      Mizoguchi greeted me with no glory
      Years before I left his team, he had proposed
      I saw it as a mere act of vainglory

      His wife was in hospital and I opposed I
      did not foresee me needing his support
      He was unemotional, yet well-disposed

      I was part of the past, no future consort
      He had a mistress and someone like a spouse
      Being his script clerk was my only passport

      To return actively in the movie house
      At forty-two this fate was my kintsugi
      The golden repair was this abrupt rehouse

      I retired from that life eventually
      In my fifties I was freelancing with bliss
      I kept the tradition of rice and green tea

      But some societal norms I did dismiss
      Tazuko Sakane embraced queerness freely
      I helped feminism rise from Japan’s abyss

      Until 1953 I was surely
      The only woman to direct in Nippon
      When Tanaka Kinuyo began shyly

      I feel close to the cinephiles who move on
      I sense aidagara through motion pictures
      We are united by the film reel proton.
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      7 min
    • Xie Caizhen, with music by Xiao Shuxian

      Xie Caizhen, with music by Xiao Shuxian
      Jan 28 2024
      Nǐhǎo from this first time female director
      Who actually made movies in China
      Marion E. Wong shared my descent and sector

      Her pictures were made in California
      To Americans our culture she unveiled
      While I shaped the cinema form in Zhongguo

      The Shanghai Shadow Play Company I nailed
      It was founded by Dan Duyu, my mentor
      Working as one of his actresses prevailed

      The Shen Bao press praised my expressive ardour
      Working for Li Jiran truly changed my fate
      The Nanxing Film Company was my harbour

      From their I set sail to my directing state
      An Orphan’s Cry made in 1925
      Was my feature that the public defined great

      Dysfunctional families it would revive
      Glimpsing women from the working-class endure
      The extras I hired were at least forty-five

      The biggest set was the banquet scene for sure
      The complex storyline surprised everyone
      The female-directed drama had allure

      My movie in theatres had a longer run
      Eight days as opposed to the usual three
      The box office sales it had smashingly won

      My brother Yonglan, film co-star and carefree
      Moved onto a prolific acting career
      He appeared in fifty films of high degree

      Meanwhile my film craft was stuck in second gear
      I was asked to join a new project to act
      But it did not evolve into a premiere

      However, Xie Caizhen did have an impact
      I was far from being a paper tiger
      I roared through moving images, that’s a fact.
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      4 min
    • Fatma Begum, with music by Jaddanbai Hussain

      Fatma Begum, with music by Jaddanbai Hussain
      Jan 28 2024
      The first female director in Bollywood
      Is how I’ll be known when I’m with the resters
      Our industry began before Hollywood

      In 1899 we had The Wrestlers
      In Old California arrived much later
      I was with the Indian cinema settlers

      I pursued a career path as a dream maker
      I was from an Urdu-Muslim family
      I was very hardworking, not a faker

      They tried to tie my name to some calumny
      Claiming I married the Sachin State ruler
      No records of this exist actually

      What is certain is I was a proud mother
      My Zubeida, Sultana, and Shehzadi
      Were the top actresses one could discover

      My great-grandchildren were in this industry
      I suppose motion pictures ran in our veins
      From the stage I shifted to screen imagery

      Veer Abhimanyu captured me in film frames
      Usually men played the role of women
      I liberated the system from these chains

      With me the female actor was unhidden
      For my fair complexion I used dark make-up
      That suited the sepia reel exhibition

      My pretty onscreen face wanted to shake up
      So I launched my own production house promptly
      In 1926 Fatma Films came up

      Bulbul-e-Paristan, my first fantasy
      Marked my directorial debut with grandeur
      Many lakhs of rupees were used tactfully

      For this high budget picture show of allure
      I was the Georges Méliès of my populace
      In 1928 I was in galore

      My company changed name and grew in success
      Victoria-Fatima Films thrived, as I
      My trick photography was quite a progress

      For special effects I developed a keen eye
      Writing, directing, producing were my craft
      For acting jobs, with bliss, I would still apply

      Working at Kohinoor Studios was a blast
      Namaste to the Imperial Studios too
      Goddess of Luck was the film I shot for last

      I acted in Duniya Kya Hai? and was through
      After sixteen years in film I was content
      Fatma Begum shaped cinematics anew.
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      4 min
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