This experimental essay film, which will be performed with live narration by the artist, draws from an assemblage of travelogues shot on film by women from the 1920s through the 1950s. With a score by Sarah Davachi, the film moves between geographical essay, personal inquiry, and historical speculation, examining its archival footage as both private documents and accidental ethnographies.

Representing the world through women’s eyes, Terra Femme draws our attention to amateur movie-making in the history of early non-fiction filmmaking. Terra Femme has toured widely at institutions and festivals around the globe, including the Museum of Modern Art, The National Gallery, and Royal Geographical Society in London.  Reviews in the New York Times and the New Yorker, celebrate the way that Terra Femme weaves together questions of women’s authorship, the privilege of global mobility, cinematic excavation, and the colonial gaze.

A Q&A with Courtney Stephens follows.

Sponsored by the Visual and Performing Arts Program in the School of Arts, Humanities, and Technology.