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Breaking Plates - recognising the agency and expertise of women in early silent film

Impact: Culture impacts

Purpose of research project *

Misapprehensions about women's participation in the development of film form (1895-1925) underpin pervasive mythologies about film authorship. These myths, which favour directors (usually male and white) as authors not only occlude the ingenuity of historical performers, they obstruct many ways of working that could be differently productive or creative.

This project puts the slapstick comediennes and cross-dressed cowgirls of early silent cinema into conversation with women in the present by using creative practice methods to make direct juxtapositions of moves and ideas. We don't just ask 'what can we learn from women in the past' we enact their methods and learn by doing to take agency and break through the barriers that constrain us.

Who has, is or will benefit *

Beneficiaries include:
Film history programs, students and scholars who have gained new access to a more diverse and accurate story of film.
Filmmakers, especially young women filmmakers, who are introduced to new ways of storytelling and new forms of making feminist film that are as joyous as they are rebellious.
Audiences seeing the film respond with excitement and benefit from its empowering and liberating message.

Description of impact *

100% of respondents to a survey taken at the Art Gallery of NSW screening of 'Breaking Plates' confirmed that the film "enhanced, complemented or deepened my previous understanding" or "fundamentally changed how I understand the work of women in early film"

'Breaking Plates' has screened at dozens of film festivals, film museums and film archives in Australia, the USA, Great Britain and Europe. The novel form of the film - a hybrid of drama, dance, and documentary, mean that it has won three highly prestigious awards in three very different contexts. It has won:
The 2025 Platinum Remy at the Houston World Fest for Best Experimental Film or Video
The Filmaria Storia/Film History Jury Prize for best short history film (from over 1000 entries)
2025 Antenna Documentary Film Festival Award for Best Short Documentary. The jury citation from Antenna describes 'Breaking Plates' as:
"a playful invitation to consider very serious questions of feminism
and voice, as well as dynamics of structure and agency. The film is
an ambitious, experimental exploration of the power of images to
both reflect and transform, to challenge and provoke new ways of
being in and seeing the world"
Category of impactCulture impacts
Impact levelBenefit (mid)

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