FOR EACH FILM IN THE SERIES Inventing Herself, I will find a form appropriate to the subject and the archival materials that are available. The style of filmmaking in A Midwife’s Tale, for example, is very different from the style of filmmaking in Tupperware! The films in my series on women’s history will not be cookie-cutter lookalike films. The pacing, the style of shooting, the choice of music, and the style of editing will be worked out during the research and pre-production period for each film.

IF THE CHOICES of topics are well made, I am confident that the whole series will have coherence. The essential first step in the process is coming up with a short list of women’s stories that would each make a good film – and that would collectively add up to an interesting mosaic exploring the lives of American women.

FINDING STORIES
ONE HAS TO LOOK HARD to find the stories of women from the past in the public media. With television and film being the primary sources of historical information for millions of Americans, it is disturbing to me that history programs on television are mostly devoted to wars, presidents, disasters, and celebrities. There is a huge gap between the work historians have been doing in social and cultural history (which is read by thousands) and the history that makes it onto television (where millions see it).