AMIA 2024

Cinema’s First Nasty Women is a multi-part research, curation, and outreach project focused on expanding critical engagement with long-overlooked feminist films and filmmakers of the silent period. This session will present the results of the project’s most recent study: a demographics and attitudes survey of contemporary silent cinema audiences. The anonymous online survey was issued in spring of 2024, and received more than 3,000 responses. Survey questions covered basic demographic data, film viewing habits, exposure to silent cinema, familiarity with silent cinema organizations, and interest in feminist film scholarship. Presentation attendees can expect to come away with a more accurate understanding of the silent film community’s social profile in terms of gender, race, sexuality, age, and class. Analysis and discussion will explore practical takeaways for marketing, outreach, and advocacy decisions--but also raise questions about the purpose and impact of public programming.