Terra Femme: A Live Film Lecture-Performance
October 25 @ 2:30 pm
Ad Hoc Cinema, in association with Coral Gables Art Cinema, presents “Terra Femme” (2021), a live documentary lecture-performance by filmmaker Courtney Stephens featuring music by composer Sarah Davachi.
The film essay brings together rare amateur travel films shot by women between the 1920s and 1950s, examining their experiences traveling abroad and their contributions to early nonfiction cinema. Presented in a format resembling the live lectures that accompanied film screenings nearly a century ago, Stephens combines archival footage, narration, and Davachi’s musical score to explore questions of female authorship, representation, and the Western perspective on foreign cultures.
The footage documents women traveling independently during a period when travel narratives were largely dominated by men. Among the travelers are a divorcee touring biblical gardens and a widow embarking on a cruise to the North Pole. Their films offer personal records of unfamiliar landscapes while raising questions about how women documented the places and cultures they encountered.
Moving between historical research, personal reflection, and geographical exploration, “Terra Femme” considers the significance of amateur filmmaking in understanding women’s participation in early documentary cinema. The performance also examines how these private recordings function as historical documents and unintentional ethnographic studies.