Women in Focus

At the end of the 1930s Ruth Stuart (1904-1982) was an internationally renowned amateur filmmaker; winner of multiple awards across America, Britain and Europe; and hailed by Movie Maker as "the maestra of Manchester" in 1939. This acclaim was driven by a series of award-winning films, and the celebratory promotion of her in amateur press and national newspapers as a prodigy who was filming solo at the age of 16. However, during the course of our research it became clear she hadn’t been a teenage filmmaker at all: so who was Ruth Stuart really?

Ruth Stuart Rodger in Egypt and Back with Imperial Airways (1931-2). Courtesy of the East Anglian Film Archive

Ruth was born on April 24th 1904 in Rusholme, Manchester, daughter to Robert Stuart and Maud Adeline Rodger. Her father had served as a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corp before he became the county coroner for Manchester. This suggests her family was financially secure: which may explain how she was able to access and practice with 16mm cine-camera equipment when it became commercially available in the 1920s.

The first of her films we have identified, RAF Pageant (1931), was shot when she was 26 or 27: but it may not have been her first film. Now that we know she was not a teenager at this stage, there may be earlier films that have been lost to time. Many amateurs in that period would experiment with short films or subjects; particularly if they hoped to enter their films in one of a growing number of national amateur film competitions.

Ruth submitted RAF Pageant to The Era newspaper’s 1931 Amateur Film Contest and, although she did not win the Challenge Cup or Gold Medal, her film was given a special medal because the "standard achieved… was so high." The Era review of the film noted it was "a picture of such outstanding merit… submitted by a lady… a poem of movement and high speed. The photographic quality is excellent… strongly reminiscent of the best German photography. For an amateur this picture is really a little gem, with so much to recommend it." (Hill, 1931: 7)

Ruth’s next film achieved even more accolades – and gained her more column inches in the UK national press as well. Egypt and Back with Imperial Airways (1931-2) was shot when she was 27 or 28 and acts as a record of her flight from Croydon to Crete, and then on to Cairo, where she tours the city and visits the Great Pyramid and Sphinx.

The film is notable for the quality of the cinematography and editing; it also offers images of Ruth Stuart herself setting up her camera or getting her possessions together before heading out to film; these were likely filmed by a local helper but raises the possibility Ruth was shooting with two cameras while on the trip. The film was awarded a Gold Medal by the UK-based Institute of Amateur Cinematographers (IAC), a premiere award at the 3rd International Amateur Film Concord in Paris, and the gold medal of the American Society of Cinematographers, elevating her to a well-known figure across the amateur community.

Egypt and Back with Imperial Airways (1931-2). Courtesy of the East Anglian Film Archive

The Sunday Mirror reported the film had "astonished experts in England and America by its perfect technique", although was more interested that she had booked return passage to Egypt without her parent’s knowledge: they thought she was in Southend (1933: 13).

This sense of incredulity was powered by the fact that around this time Ruth Stuart was regularly reported to be a teenager: the same Sunday Mirror article described her as "a young Salford (Lancs) girl… still in her teens"; in the Yorkshire Post she was as "an amateur of 17 years of age" (January 30, 1933: p.8); to the West London Observer she was "an 18-year-old Manchester girl" (January 12, 1934).

This legend has continued through amateur film history: a 1982 issue of Amateur Film Maker that celebrated the IAC’s 50th anniversary in 1982 described Ruth as "a schoolgirl" (August 1982: 15). The reasons for this remain opaque: there is no sense that Ruth promoted herself in this way but the adoption of this legend by the IAC could suggest that it may have sensed some promotional value in the story.

Whatever age they believed her to be, Ruth was clearly a talented and creative filmmaker adept at both cinematography and editing. Her status within the amateur film community was cemented by her next film, Doomsday (1936). Unlike her earlier documentary projects, this was a complex six-minute apocalyptic drama that offered a vision of the end of the world that owed a lot to German and Russian film movements.

Filmed in Poynton, Cheshire using unemployed men and women from the area, Doomsday received three awards at the American Society of Cinematographers (Grand Prize, Photography, Documentary film): the ASC noted none of the other competition entries "reached the goal received this year by Miss Ruth Stuart… There is a tempo to the production that is very seldom achieved by an amateur… Each sequence, each scene, each picture was left in the production for a purpose to give it atmosphere to help the story along… she is an editor and a cutter of high ability. Her selection of types and the manner in which she handled them shows a large measure of directorial ability" (American Cinematographer, January 1937: 25)

 Doomsday (1936). Courtesy of the East Anglian Film Archive

Between 1936 and 1939, Ruth Stuart was at the top of her game: a clear amateur success story; hailed at prestigious amateur award ceremonies; feted by amateur societies; her films screened across the world (Egypt and Back with Imperial Airways was one of seven films that was sent across Europe, Africa, India, Asia and Australasia by the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers 1935-39); a member of the Manchester Film Society; an Associate of the Royal Photographic Society; a woman who had the financial resources to travel for filmmaking and pleasure – whether flying to Kenya in 1935 or sailing on the Queen Mary to New York in 1937.

The Kenyan trip saw her experimenting with 35mm film for the first time. The Nottingham Post reported that Ruth "alone and armed only with a cine-camera" had arrived back in Croydon after a month-long trip to Kisumu with Imperial Airways. Ruth said she had "some wonderful pictures… including a native war dance, which I believe has never been filmed before. A witch doctor who had heard of my camera travelled over 25 miles to be filmed and did a special dance. I have taken the films entirely for my own amusement and shall show them to friends in my private cinema at home” (4 March 1935: 7).

This film may have become N’Gomi, a 35mm film that was screened at the Manchester Film Society in early 1937. In October that year, after encountering Ruth during her New York visit, American journal Movie Makers described her as leaving "the vivid impression of a restless, inquiring imagination… one of the ablest women in amateur movies today" (476).

Despite this reputation and prestige, evidence of Ruth Stuart’s continuing filmmaking career largely stops there. A January 1939 Movie Makers report of a trip to India claims she filmed 35mm footage that "showed a Hindu fakir lifting a heavy stone with his eyelids" (8), while in September 1940 the same magazine mentioned discovering her non-filmmaking hobby was "reading Latin, especially in letters and current publications" (412).

Ruth largely disappears from the historical record from 1939 until her death in 1982. No further films are recorded beyond the 1938 India trip; and there is no sense of how the Rodger family coped after the death of R. Stuart Rodger in September 1936 (as reported in the Yorkshire Post). His estate was valued at £7,402 (approximately £600,000 in modern terms) and would probably have been enough to support his wife and daughter if they had no other income.

The final piece of evidence we have is that Ruth lived at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London in 1939: this luxury Mayfair hotel had opened a decade before and boasted its own ice rink. Listed as living under "personal means" it indicates Ruth was financially secure at this point.

Even with a lack of further personal information, we know that Ruth’s films continued to be screened: Doomsday was shown across America in the early 1940s; and two of her films (Egypt and Back and Doomsday) were saved for posterity by the IAC Film Library and stored at the East Anglian Film Archive. In 2019 a new score was composed for Doomsday by Laura Rossi; the film was screened in London, Norwich and on Talking Pictures TV.

Like many of the filmmakers we have researched, the full extent of Ruth’s creative work remains lost; the traces that remain of her life and work – particularly her two surviving films – allow us to get a sense of a woman who, for a brief time, dominated the amateur film world through her talents and skill as an innovative filmmaker.

Filmography

RAF Pageant (1931)

Egypt and Back with Imperial Airways (1931-2) Watch via EAFA.org 

Doomsday (1936) Watch via EAFA.org 

N’Gomi (1937)

[Untitled India film] (1938)

Bibliography

Amateur Film Maker. (1982). ‘The angry young men of ’32 who started it all.’ v.4, n.5 (August), p.15.

American Cinematographer. 1934. ‘Many Among Honorable Mentions Almost in Medal Class.’ v.14, n.9 (January), p. 370.

American Cinematographer. 1937. ‘Ruth Stuart Wins Triple Recognition in 1936 Contest.’ v.18, n.1 (January), p. 25.

Culbertson, E.M. (1942). ‘Inter-Club Program in Indianapolis.’ American Cinematographer. v.23, n.6 (June), p. 268.

The Era. 1931. ‘The Era Amateur Cine Contest.’ 9 December, p. 6.

First, Georgia T. (1942). ‘Tri-City Elects.’ American Cinematographer. v.23, n.8 (August), p. 361.

Hill, Sinclair. 1931. ‘Why the Interest Film Excelled.’ The Era. 9 December, p. 7.

Home Movies and Home Talkies. ‘“Home Movies” “Olympia” Competitions.’ v.2, n.6 (November), p. 211.

The IAC Bulletin. 1934. ‘Further Honours for Miss Ruth Stuart.’ v.2, n.4 (January), p. 29.

Lancashire Daily Post. 1937. ‘“Doomsday” Reward.’ 21 January, p. 6.

M.A.L.B. 1931. ‘Winners in “The Era” Contest.’ The Era. 2 December, p. 16.

Movie Makers. 1937. ‘Manchester’s tenth.’ v.12, n.4 (April), p. 179.

Movie Makers. 1937. ‘Close-up – what filmers are doing.’ v.12, n.10 (October), p.476.

Movie Makers. 1939. ‘Close-up – what filmers are doing.’ v.14, n.1 (January), p. 8.

Movie Makers. 1940. ‘Close-up – what filmers are doing.’ v.15, n.9 (September), p. 412.

Nottingham Evening Post. 1935. ‘Jungle Trip with a Camera.’ 4 March, p. 7.

Stuart, Ruth. 1934. ‘How I Made it.’ The IAC Bulletin. v.2, n.4 (January), p. 7 & 9.

Sunday Mirror [Sunday Pictorial]. 1933. ‘Girl’s Film Wins a Gold Medal.’ 17 December, p. 13.

Yorkshire Post. 1933. ‘London Notes and Comments: Amateur Cinematography.’ 30 January, p. 8.

Yorkshire Post. 1935. ‘This Year’s Best Amateur Films.’ 9 November, p. 7.

Yorkshire Post. 1936. ‘Mr. R. Stuart Rodger, Manchester County Coroner.’ 21 September, p. 5.