Germaine Dulac

Early female director of the Impressionist school with a background in theater and journalism. Dulac began making experimental films as early as 1915 but is best known for "The Smiling Madame Beudet" (1923) and the Antonin Artaud-scripted "The Seashell and the Clergyman" (1927). Dulac also wrote on the cinema as a critic and theorist, championing film as a medium distinct from the other visual arts. From 1930 she supervised the production of newsreel documentaries for Pathe-Journal, France Actualities-Gaumont and Le Cinema au Service de l'Histoire.