Mindy Johnson: The Only Woman Animator - Bessie Mae Kelley & Women at the Dawn of an Industry (The Jonathan Dennis Memorial Lecture 2023), GCM Pordenone

Bessie Mae Kelley, ca 1920. Photo from Wikipedia.

Mindy Johnson. Photo: Le Giornate del Cinema Muto 2023.

The Jonathan Dennis Memorial Lecture: XIX Conferenza: Mindy Johnson: "La sola donna animatrice - Bessie Mae Kelley e le donne agli albori dell'industria"

Teatro Verdi, Pordenone, Le Giornate del Cinema Muto, 11 Oct 2023

GCM 2023: " In the earliest days of the animation industry, one woman animated and directed alongside the men who later became titans of the artform, yet her name and work have been lost – until now. Beginning at Bray Studios circa 1917, Bessie Mae Kelley quickly rose to assistant animator and then to animator/director, as well as one of the first animators to reveal the animation process to sold-out audiences “on the circuit” within the final decade of vaudeville. This ground-breaking artist, and her surviving films, are finally introduced to the world, featuring the earliest-known hand-drawn animation – animated and directed by a woman. "

" Author/historian/filmmaker Mindy Johnson is an Academy Film Scholar and 2023 Annie Award recipient for her groundbreaking work into the history of women within animation. A frequent speaker/lecturer on her continued research, books, and films, Mindy explores a range of diverse subjects in our cinematic past in addition to teaching at CalArts in Los Angeles, CA, and Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. "

The Bessie Mae Kelley films screened:

Flower Fairies (US 1921). 2023 restoration.

A Merry Christmas (US 1922). 2023 restoration.

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WIKIPEDIA: BESSIE MAE KELLEY

" Bessie Mae Kelley (fl. 1920s) was an early American animator. Her work is believed to be the earliest surviving hand-drawn animation drawn and directed by a woman.

Kelley began her career in animation late in 1917, working her way up through the ranks, cleaning cels and assistant animating, before quickly animating at Bray Studios. She contributed animation to Fleischer Studios' Koko the Clown series and others, before directing and animating short films. These included Gasoline Alley (1920) and Flower Fairies (1921) and A Merry Christmas (1922) in Chicago. She also contributed character designs and animations to Paul Terry's "Aesop’s Fables" series. She collaborated with Terry in drawing a mouse couple named Milton and Mary, which predated the creation of Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Kelley's work remained largely unknown until her collection was rediscovered and two of her films were restored by animation historian Mindy Johnson in 2022. Johnson discovered Kelley in a series of images of male animators from the early 1920s. Other historians had previously assumed her to be a secretary or cleaning woman. "

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AA: A fascinating illustrated lecture by Mindy Johnson on Bessie Mae Kelley and other talented women in silent animation.

This is the Centenary of the Walt Disney Company, and on Sunday's beloved Striking a New Note event (with children of Pordenone playing to silents), two animated Alice comedies were shown: Alice Solves the Puzzle and Alice the Whaler. They were animations about the adventures of the live action Alice in cartoonland. I saw them at the groundbreaking "Walt in Wonderland" retrospective at GCM in 1992 and did not revisit them this time.

The first leading character in Disney's animation world was female.

Let's also pay attention to the name above title: M. J. Winkler presents. M  J. Winkler was Margaret J. Winkler (1895-1990) who together with her partner Charles Mintz ran Winkler Pictures.

Walt Disney: Alice Solves the Puzzle (US 1925).

Margaret Winkler (1895-1990). Photo: Wikipedia.