HERstory: The Founding Mothers of Johnson & Wales University (1994)
HERstory: The Founding Mothers of Johnson & Wales University (1994)
Few intellectual movements have had as much influence on postmodernist social and behavioral studies as feminism. This isparticularly the case with film. From the beginning--more than thirty years ago--an academic tradition was born that has progressively pushed the boundaries of comprehending film theory and feminist experience. Both feminism and documentary film-making stress collaboration and collectivity, and HERstory: The Founding Mothers of Johnson & Wales University, told in narrative style, is a striking example of both. This 30-minute documentary captures and preserves the history of Gertrude I. Johnson and Mary T. Wales, founders of a business school for women in 1914, in Providence, Rhode Island. Giving "voice" to Gertrude and Mary, who had been rendered mute and historically invisible following their retirement in 1947, this documentary relies heavily on the narrative retellings of the few living students of Miss Johnson and Miss Wales, who attended the school in the 1930s and early 1940s. A synthesis of historical, narrative, feminist, and anecdotal research has brought the Johnson & Wales story to life, documenting Gertrude's and Mary's own life choices, their trailblazing within the institution of higher education, and their contributions to the women's movement.
Thomas Ruggiero University of Texas-El Paso truggier@utep.edu
