[7] Part-sponsored by the Eastern Arts Association and the British Film Institute (BFI),[1][8] NNFT became Cinema City in April 1978.
Vincendeau was joined by UEA librarian Biddy Fisher,[1] postgraduate film students Caroline Merz and Teresa Grimes (also a film-maker) and Elizabeth Bee, a lecturer in further education.
[9] This was the time of an explosion in feminist work, which had a significant impact on cinema in terms of both film-making and film theory.
The creation of the NWFW was encouraged by feminist theoretician and film-maker Laura Mulvey and followed a successful event called 'Women in Film' organised by Ginette Vincendeau in 1978.
The NWFW was held at Cinema City in Norwich, England, over one three-day weekend each year (except in 1984).
Cinewomen's aim was to make the festival as accessible to as many women as possible,[11][2] both local (including UEA students) and from across the UK.
Key to this aim were free accommodation, child-care[1] and on-site food at cost price.
[3][6] Screenings were introduced by a variety of speakers, often the film-maker/director, and a range of talks, exhibitions and discussions ran during the event.
[3][13] The NWFW also aimed to re-appraise women's roles in film production by showing the work of classic directors such as Alice Guy, Dorothy Arzner, Germaine Dulac and Ida Lupino,[3] and the output of then-neglected women who had worked in the British industry including Muriel Box, Wendy Toye, Kay Mander and Jill Craigie.
Films by Chantal Akerman, Valie Export, Sally Potter, Margaret Tait, Tina Keane, Lis Rhodes, Yvonne Rainer, Catherine Breillat and Jan Oxenberg were all shown at the NWFW throughout the years.
Also included was a distinctly militant brand of cinema which placed feminist struggles explicitly within terms of class as well as gender (referencing women's struggles including Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp and the Dagenham sewing machinists’ strike).
[14] Another important strand of films addressed sexual and gender politics, as a growing awareness and acceptance of 'queer' (then called 'gay and lesbian') questions politicised many practitioners.
[9] Comedy in Six Unnatural Acts by Jan Oxenberg, screened at the event in 1979, is today recognised as a pioneering work in queer cinema.
Members of feminist film distributors such as COW (Cinema of Women)[15] and Circles were invited to speak.
[1] NWFW also offered an exhibition space where work by photographers including Jo Spence, Terry Dennett, and Marianne Majerus was displayed.
[19] Organisers 1987-1989 include: Mandy Cran, Biddy Fisher, Avril Goodwin, Alison Gumbley, Margaret O’Connor, Frances Tye, Claire Whiston, Sue Winston.
On 3 September 2020 the originators of the Norwich Women's Film Weekend (Elizabeth Bee, Biddy Fisher, Teresa Grimes, Caroline Merz and Ginette Vincendeau) were reunited for a virtual event,[20] 'The Norwich Women's Film Weekend: reclaiming the history of a unique feminist event', as part of the art critic Jonathan P. Watts' public talks programme 'Of & By', hosted by Norwich-based arts organisation Assembly Online.
Susan Shapiro, Esther Ronay, Francine Winham (UK, 1978); Linda Beyond the Unexpected, dir.
Lorraine Gray, Women's Labour History Film Project (USA, 1978); One Way or Another, dir.
Nelly Kaplan (France, 1969); Blind Spot (Die Reise nach Lyon), dir.
Claudia von Alemann (West Germany, 1978/80); The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty, dir.
Valie Export (Austria, 1977); Backland, Famous Five Films (UK, 1982); An Epic Poem, dir.
April 13–15, 1983 Give Us a Smile, Leeds Animation Workshop (UK, 1983); Born in Flames, dir.
Penny Florence and Noe Mandelle (UK, 1983); The Hunger Years: In a Land of Plenty [de] (Hungerjahre), dir.
Diane Kurys (France, 1983); Red Skirts on Clydeside, Sheffield Film Cooperative (UK, 1983); Homes for the People, dir.
Christine Noll Brinckmann (West Germany, 1983); Toute une nuit, dir.
Paula de Koenigsberg and Lucy Winer (USA, 1985); Related Voices, dir.
Betty Houlden and Sylvia Greenwood, Sheffield Film Cooperative (UK, 1987); Hour of the Star (A Hora da Estrela), dir.
Selection of short films by British independent film-makers including: Taking the Stage, dir.
Ngozi Onwurah (UK, 1988); Needs Must When the Devil Drives (video on women's trade union history, no details); Salaam Bombay!, dir.