After the advent of sound, women in the British film industry formed an essential corps of below-the-line workers, laboring in positions from animation artist to negative cutter to costume designer. This book maps the work of these women decade by decade, examining their far-ranging economic and creative contributions against the backdrop of the discrimination that constrained their careers. The author's use of oral histories and trade union records presents a vivid counter-narrative to film history, one that focuses not only on women in a male-dominated business, but on the innumerable types ... More

After the advent of sound, women in the British film industry formed an essential corps of below-the-line workers, laboring in positions from animation artist to negative cutter to costume designer. This book maps the work of these women decade by decade, examining their far-ranging economic and creative contributions against the backdrop of the discrimination that constrained their careers. The author's use of oral histories and trade union records presents a vivid counter-narrative to film history, one that focuses not only on women in a male-dominated business, but on the innumerable types of physical and emotional labor required to make a motion picture. The book's feminist analysis looks at women's jobs in film at important historical junctures while situating the work in the context of changing expectations around women and gender roles. Illuminating and astute, the book is a first-of-its-kind examination of the unsung women whose invisible work brought British filmmaking to the screen.