Irish Cahn presents Helen Gardner

Date: Saturday, November 7 at 1pm
Free admission
Location: Mountain Cinema in the Doctorow Center for the Arts, Rte. 23A, Village of Hunter, NY
Information: 518 263 2050

Helen Gardner: Cleopatra on the Hudson or You Could Vamp All You Want in Front of the Camera, But No One Liked a Producer with Breasts by Iris Cahn. It is hard not to present the story of Helen Gardner in theatrical terms. It plays as a storyline of woman discovered, woman triumphant, woman discarded and all but forgotten. Helen Gardner has a right to be remembered, resurrected, not just as a film actress, but as one of America's pioneer filmmakers, writers and producers.

Why such a project? While Scorcese and Spielberg had the background resonance of a Griffith, Porter, or DeMille, young women filmmakers (like the ones Irish Cahn teaches in the film production program at Purchase College) are relatively lacking in such archetypal role models. The models exist. Our job is to examine the traces they left us, questioning why their legend came to be lost in the first place.

As the second person ever to produce a feature-length film in American, and the first woman to do so, Helen Gardner should have been assured a place in every published film history in the pantheon of directors of the silent era. Gardner produced at least 11 films and acted in more than 30.

Iris Cahn first learned about Helen Gardner in 1994, coming across some correspondence about her sent to the Museum of Modern Art from a curator of the house that had been her husband's Orlando estate. Her face matched one that Iris Cahn had seen in a glass slide negative in a historical society in Tappan-on-Hudson while researching early filmmaking in the Hudson River area.

Come, see clips of Helen Gardner's silent film, Cleopatra and learn more about her from Iris Cahn. Ms. Cahn is an editor of feature films and documentaries and director of short films. She has received two Emmy Awards for specials and series, and her work has appeared at the Cannes, Berlin, Sundance, New York Lincoln Center, and Robert Flaherty Film Festivals, theatrically, and on network television.