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Silent Women

Silent Women

By: 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 Music
Episodes
  • 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 mins
  • 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 mins
  • 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 mins
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