We are excited to bring in the new year with an update on our documentary: we have just completed our fine cut! We are now in the stage of our filmmaking where we have woven in all the footage that you will soon be viewing. It was exciting to include footage such as a tour of the Film Section under construction, personal films from filmmakers’ visits to Sally’s home, and photographs from Sally’s lively office at CMoA, because all this visual material enriches the stories Sally’s loved ones tell.
In our exploration of the many places Sally took her career, we do not shy away from challenges she faced in a male-dominated field. She may have blazed trails for a revolutionary art form, but experimental film was still limited by traditional forces such as gender discrimination. Carolee Schneemann recalls the “wall of men” dominating and gatekeeping experimental film in the 1970s. It came as no surprise to learn from Carolee that Sally championed films such as Fuses when the CMoA board of directors and established experimental filmmakers would not. Sally also found herself professionally limited by gender discrimniation. Despite having to leave the department she founded, what she described as “the richest years of her career,” Sally was not finished making her mark on experimental film. In fact, her arrival in Minneapolis was highly anticipated by art institutions interested in expanding their film collections.
We are excited for you to join us as we follow Sally’s life and career from Pittsburgh to Boulder and Minneapolis.
Until our next update,
The Experimental Curator Team