We're bringing into focus a wide range of women amateur filmmakers whose creative work has been overlooked and unacknowledged in the archives.
Working closely with two partner archives, the East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA) and the Irish Film Archive (IFA), we have conducted new research into existing collections of largely unknown women amateur filmmakers.
Our work
By identifying significant gaps in knowledge at the level of cataloguing, accession records, historical research, and metadata – and by adopting feminist methodologies that allow us to challenge existing practices – we have developed a toolkit that will allow any archive with a moving image collection to create more effective, useful and accessible records about women filmmakers.
The Filmmakers
As part of this work, we have produced a set of biographies that highlight some of these amazing creative women. As a small step to making such women’s filmmaking more broadly available, below you will find small selection of women amateur filmmakers from across the UK and Ireland collections.
Mabel Lilian Basham (1885-1966) resided in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, and shot a series of 9.5mm films throughout the late-1920s and early-1930s, documenting daily life and key events in and around the region, alongside the activities of the local Women’s Institute and expeditions abroad with friends and relatives. This collection, held at the East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA), is an early example of women’s amateur filmmaking in Britain. Basham’s 9.5mm films are included in the Keith Cable collection at the EAFA, a resident of Aldeburgh who donated films made by several filmmakers from the region. As such, many of the catalogue entries remain listed under Cable’s name.
Mabel Lilian Basham c. 1928. Courtesy of the East Anglian Film Archive
Mabel was the daughter of Sarah Ann (b.1860) and Horace Charles Basham (b.1855) and sister to Kennett (sometimes Kenneth) Robert (b.1887) and Horace Charles Jnr. (b.1883). The family home at Swiss Cottage in Aldeburgh, was situated close to the Suffolk coastline where her father worked as a merchant fisherman (Census 1911).
The importance of the local fishing industry to the Basham family is illustrated in a sequence included in one of Mabel’s films depicting the frenetic activity of dock workers at Lowestoft (Mr Cable Untitled Film 1930). Both brothers fought during the First World War, with Kenneth ultimately serving as Captain in the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment (Lives of the First World War).
After the war, Horace Charles Jnr married and moved to London where he worked as an engineer while Kenneth returned to Aldeburgh, running the Cottage Industry Shop, selling homemade arts and crafts (Census 1939). Kenneth features in several of Basham’s films, including sequences evidencing the family’s civic pride and prominent status within the town, through their attendance at society functions, fundraisers, and other key events.
Though details of Mabel’s early education and life in Aldeburgh are unclear, at the time of the 1911 census, whilst still living with her family at Swiss Cottage, her given occupation was listed as ‘ladies companion’. For the 1939 Register, after moving into her own property at 53 High Street, next door to the cinema in Aldeburgh, Basham’s given occupation is simply listed as ‘private means.’
Prior to her death in 1937, Kathleen Fisher Toulmin, daughter of Lancashire Daily Post founder Sir George Toulmin and Lady Mary Toulmin, was known to have resided in the Aldeburgh area and became a close friend and companion of Mabel Basham (Lancashire Daily Post, 1937: 3). Though it is unclear whether Basham was a ‘ladies’ companion’ to Sir George’s daughter, what we do know is that, along with Basham’s brother Kenneth, Kathleen and Mabel were both involved in the local amateur dramatics society.
Evidence of this survives in a sequence contained within one of Basham’s 9.5mm reels, entitled ‘Two Ladies and Gallant,’ in which we see Kenneth joined by two of Basham’s friends, as they act out a scene dressed in Regency-period costumes. Though not a complete sequence, the film offers a tantalising glimpse of an attempt at narrative filmmaking from an amateur women filmmaker whose other work primarily consists of travelogues and footage of the area in and around Aldeburgh.
These local films include a well-shot and edited document of the 1928 Aldeburgh carnival in which Basham positions herself in a series of carefully chosen vantage points to capture key moments including the crowning of the carnival queen and procession through the town (W.I Sports - Dunwich – Carnival Cat.215198).
‘Two Ladies and a Gallant’ sequence c.1928. Courtesy of the East Anglian Film Archive
Like the ’Two Ladies and a Gallant’ sequence, many of the short extracts are included in one of several reels edited together to form sequences typical of home movie exhibition programmes from this period. Alongside footage shot by Basham, these sequences also include a selection of Pathe newsreels and cartoons.
Another of these short sequences, ‘W.I. Sports’, features Kathleen Toulmin and fellow members of the Institute participating in a series of games and races, followed by a fancy dress competition. Many of these women feature alongside Toulmin in other sequences shot by Basham, including in a series of short static shots of the women socialising in various locations.
Extract from Untitled Cable Films (Cat.215193). Courtesy of the East Anglian Film Archive
Between 1924 and 1928, Basham and Toulmin travelled from the UK to Genoa on three separate occasions, the first of these excursions lasting for six months and culminating in a return trip from Bombay (Board of Trade, 1924; 1925; 1926; 1928). Three of the reels in the Basham collection document what is likely to have been the last of these trips, which included a tour of Germany and the Swiss alps (Untitled Cable Films c.1928).
Within these films, Basham captures the arrival into Genoa on the ship Christiaan Huygens followed by a train journey through Germany. Upon arrival in Switzerland, Toulmin is seen in front of the camera as they traverse Grindelwaud Glazier, wander through the landscape surrounding Interlaken, Handech Falls, and other local villages.
The collection also features footage of Italy and China. Though it is likely that Basham’s trip reached these destinations, the use of professional intertitles, fades, and well-constructed shots suggests that some of this footage may have been incorporated from commercial newsreels or travelogues. However, given the technical prowess demonstrated by Basham in some of the other sequences, further investigation is required before assigning authorship.
Selected Filmography
Holiday (c.1928)
Untitled Cable Films (c.1928) [2 reels] – Contains ‘Two Ladies and A Gallant’ and holiday films in Germany and Switzerland]
W.I Sports - Dunwich – Carnival (c.1928)
Aldeburgh And District Scenes (c.1929) Watch Via EAFA.org
Lifeboat (c.1929) Watch via EAFA.org
Mr Cable Untitled Film (c.1930) [Contains ‘W.I. Sports']
W.I. Sports (1930) Watch via EAFA.org
Bibliography
1939 Register, England. Aldeburgh, Suffolk. BASHAM. Mabel L. 29 September 1939. RD 214/3. ED Twab. SN 244. [Online] Available at: http://www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 26 October 2022].
1939 Register, England. Aldeburgh, Suffolk. BASHAM. Kenneth R. 29 September 1939. RD 214/3. ED Twaa. SN 108. [Online] Available at: http://www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 26 October 2022].
Board of Trade (Great Britain). Passenger list for Christiaan Huygens departing Southampton for Batavia, Java. BASHAM, Mabel Lilian. 07 June 1928. Collection: UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960. [Online] Available at: http://www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 26 October 2022].
Board of Trade (Great Britain). Passenger list for Jan Pieterszoon Coen departing Southampton for Batavia, Java. BASHAM, Mabel Lilian. 07 January 1926. Collection: UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960. [Online] Available at: http://www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 26 October 2022].
Board of Trade (Great Britain). Passenger list for Narkunda arriving Tilbury from Bombay, India. BASHAM, Mabel Lilian. 15 April 1925. Collection: UK and Ireland, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960. [Online] Available at: http://www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 26 October 2022].
Board of Trade (Great Britain). Passenger list for Prins der Nederlanden departing Southampton for Batavia, Java. BASHAM, Mabel Lilian. 30 September 1924. Collection: UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960. [Online] Available at: http://www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 26 October 2022].
Census records. England. Aldeburgh M, Suffolk. 02 April 1911. BASHAM, Horace Charles (head). RD 215. PN 10935. ED 01. SN 217. [Online] Available at: http://www.ancestry.co.uk [accessed 26 October 2022].
Lancashire Daily Post. 1937. ‘Miss K. F. Toulmin.’ 10 May, p. 3.
Lives of the First World War. ‘We Remember Kennett Robert Basham.’ [Online] Available at: https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/lifestory/230755 [accessed 26 October, 2022].
Our partners
This work comes from a joint UK-Ireland collaboration between the University of East Anglia, Maynooth University, and the University of Sussex; funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Irish Research Council (IRC), as part of the UK-Ireland Digital Humanities scheme.
