Jill Tietjen and Barbara Bridges on “Top of Mind” with Julie Rose – BYU Radio

Hollywood HerStoryNews

Guest: Jill Tietjen, Historian and Author; Barbara Bridges, Founder of Women+Film Festival; Co-Authors of “Hollywood: Her Story, an Illustrated History of Women and the Movies”

Here’s something we know for sure: The Oscar winner for Best Director will not be a woman. None of the women who directed successful and critically acclaimed films in 2019 – like Greta Gerwig for “Little Women” or Lulu Wang for “The Farewell” – were nominated. That’s not a big surprise since the Academy has only ever nominated five women for “best director” and only one has actually won it. But here’s something I bet will surprise you – back in the earliest days of Hollywood, the highest-paid director in the industry was a woman. In fact, women pretty much ran showbiz in the silent film era. What changed?

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Conversations with Vicki St. Clair – KKNW-AM/FM, Seattle, Washington

Hollywood HerStoryNews

When the 2020 Academy Award nominations were announced, many said women in film are finally breaking through. Today’s guests say “No, they’re making a comeback!”

Co-authors Barbara Bridges and Jill S. Tietjen discuss how women helped found the movie industry – a time when they ran silent movie studios and held positions of power. When a female director, and an actress, were paid more than any man in the business.

We explore when and why that changed. Why it’s important we have more female representation in the industry. How they collaborated during the writing process. And snippets from their beautiful book Hollywood: Her Story, An Illustrated History of Women and the Movies.

Jill S. Tietjen is an author, speaker, and electrical engineer. One of the top historians on women in the U.S., Jill is inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame and her work has won many awards.  Entrepreneur Barbara Bridges cofounded Women+Film to bring audiences together with films by, and about, women. The Denver Post named her as one of Colorado’s Top Thinkers in Arts and Culture.

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December 2019 Newsletter – Christmas Movies

Hollywood HerStoryNewsletters

As we approach the holiday season, we are reminded of the Christmas movies that warm our hearts and have become movie classics.  Two specific examples are It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.  In this month’s newsletter, we focus on the actresses in the leading roles in those movies: Donna Reed and Natalie Wood.Read More