Part of the Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers series

According to Mack Sennett, for whom both parties worked, Charlie Chaplin learned to direct films from Mabel Normand. “[She] starred in at least 167 film shorts and 23 full-length features, mainly for Sennett’s Keystone Film Company, and was one of the earliest silent actors to function as her own director. She was also one of the first leading performers to appear on film without a previous background in the theatre (having begun her career in modeling), to be named in the title of her films…and to have her own studio (the ill-fated Mabel Normand Feature Film Company).” – Women Film Pioneers Project

The program includes:

• Mabel Lost and Won (1915) | 14 min | Mabel contends with two troublesome men at a soiree.

• Mabel’s Blunder (1914) | 17 min | This slapstick gender-bender finds Mabel donning drag in order to spy on her boyfriend.

• Caught in a Cabaret (1914) | 24 min | Charlie Chaplin plays a bumbling waiter who impersonates an ambassador to impress Mabel.

• Mabel and Fatty’s Wash Day (1914) | 13 min | Mabel and Fatty are neighbors, both overworked and underappreciated by their spouses, who become jealous through some hilarious misunderstandings.