Women in American politics in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s. From the director of the Emmy Award winning documentary HOME
ABOUT THE FILM
Make a tax deductible donation at https://www.nywift.org/after-the-vote-women-in-the-post-suffrage-era/
The story of women in the post suffrage era includes women in the historical narrative of America as they never have been before.
After winning the vote in 1920, women emerged from their suffrage networks and wielded influence and power in New York and beyond. They brought about progressive social change and blazed the path for the modern feminist and civil rights movements.
In the 1930s women were at the forefront of inquiries into the court scandals that brought down mayor Jimmy Walker, swept Fiorello La Guardia into office, reduced the power of Tammany Hall and modernized the city’s administration. During his twelve years in office, New York Mayor La Guardia appointed over one hundred women into his administration, including the first African American female judge in the nation, Jane Bolin.
Opportunities for black and white women expanded in Washington during the New Deal. Mary McLeod Bethune became an advisor to the President, Frances Perkins became the first woman appointed to a presidential cabinet and would forge the blueprint of legislation enacted as the Social Security Act which is still with us today. Black women in some states advanced from abolition to suffrage to leadership positions in federal agencies. From Eunice Hunton Carter to Ella Baker to Dorothy Height, black women were at the forefront of movements to fight corruption, end lynching, gain access to decent jobs, affordable housing and safer streets in northern cities.
About the Filmmaker
DAWN SCIBILIA
Producer/Writer/Director
Dawn Scibilia’s debut documentary, HOME won an Emmy Award for Best Writing and two Emmy Award nominations for Best Documentary and Best Photography. Dawn co-produced, directed, photographed, and edited the documentary featuring Alan Cooke and New York-based notables: Susan Sarandon, Liam Neeson, Rosie Perez, Woody Allen, Elaine Kaufman, Pete Hamill, Frank and Malachy McCourt, Fran Lebowitz, Colin Quinn, Alfred Molina, and a host of immigrants and native New Yorkers. Dawn began her career in the industry as a Screenplay Analyst, Film Runner and Production Assistant, and has worked on New York-based TV shows, music videos, and major studio motion pictures. She has written, directed, shot and edited short films and directed full length and one act plays with material ranging from Noel Coward to modern original comedy and period drama. Dawn is a native New Yorker and graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
TC RICE
Associate Producer
TC Rice has worked in virtually every capacity there is in the motion picture industry. He is primarily known for his work in Theatrical Distribution in North America of independent and foreign films and has worked distributing such films as Abel Ferrara’s BAD LIEUTENANT (1992), Jean Luc Godard’s IN PRAISE OF LOVE, Andrzej Krakowski’s LOOKING FOR PALLADIN (2008) and Patrick Wang’s IN THE FAMILY (2011) among many others.
His production credits include Aro Korol’s BATTLE OF SOHO (2018), New York Producer on Rosa von Paraunheim’s NEUROSIA: FIFTY YEARS OF PERVERSION(1995), and Claudia Buttenhoff Duffy’s documentary KOMEDA: A SOUNDTRACK FOR LIFE (2010). Whether in distribution or production Rice has worked on hundreds of films. Rice is at work on a pamphlet OR: CRIB NOTES ON FILM DISTRIBUTION, a short textbook available soon
JEREMIAH BORNFIELD
Composer
Jeremiah Bornfield is a multi-instrumentalist composer with roots in experimental audio-visual art. As a film composer he has most recently scored the breakout success “Make Me Famous”, in theatres as of November 2023 and boasting a 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes with scores of critical reviews, won a gold medal in film scoring presented by the International Independent Film Festival in 2019 for “Just Within Reach” written for Prague Philharmonic Players, is composer for “Diane”, (score written for Grammy winning So Percussion) winner of best narrative feature at Tribeca Film Festival 2018, and composer for HBO documentary and Cannes Golden Eye nominee with score written for Grammy Winning Attacca Quartet, Hitchcock/Truffaut. His concert music has been performed around the world at venues as esteemed as Carnegie Hall and Taipei National Concert Hall by dozens of award-winning artists and ensembles.
Advisors
Partial list of advisors for After the Vote
Elisabeth Israels Perry*
Chief historical advisor, granddaughter of Belle Moskowitz. Professor Emeritus of History & Women’s & Gender Studies, Saint Louis University. The film is largely based on the historical research contained in Elisabeth’s biography of Belle Moskowitz, Feminine Politics & the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith, Oxford University Press and her forthcoming book, After the Vote: Feminist Politics in La Guardia’s New York, Oxford University Press.
Susan Ware Honorary Women’s Suffrage Centennial Historian of the Schlesinger Library at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; General Editor, American National Biography, Oxford University Press.
Blanche Wiesen Cook Distinguished professor of history and women’s studies at the John Jay College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She was chosen as Scholar of the Year in 1996 by the New York State Council on the Humanities. Her biography Eleanor Roosevelt: Volume One received the 1992 Biography Prize from the Los Angeles Times as well as the Lambda Literary Award. Among her three volume biography on Eleanor Roosevelt (New York: Penguin, 2016)and other books is The Declassified Eisenhower. She has served as vice president for research of the American Historical Association and as vice president and chair of the Fund for Open Information and Accountability and was cofounder and cochair of the Freedom of Information and Access Committee of the Organization of American Historians.
Miriam Cohen Evalyn Clark Professor of History at Vassar College. Her specialties include the history of American women and twentieth-century social history. Her first book, Workshop to Office: Two Generations of Italian Women in New York City was published by Cornell University Press in 1993. She has published numerous articles on the history of social welfare in Europe and the United States. Julia Lathrop: Social Service and Progressive Reform was published in 2017 by Westview Press.
Barbara Winslow Professor Emerita, Secondary Education Department, Social Studies Program, School of Education, Women’s and Gender Studies Program, Brooklyn College of the City of New York; Founder and Director Emerita of the Shirley Chisholm Project; Coeditor of Clio in the Classroom: A Guide for Teaching U.S. Women’s History.
Susan Goodier PhD lecturer in history at SUNY Oneonta, department of History, Women’s and Gender Studies. Susan is an Affiliate Editor, New York History Journal, Public Scholar for Humanities NY and author of No Votes for Women: The New York State Anti-Suffrage Movement, University of Illinois Press and co authored Women Will Vote: Winning Suffrage in New York State, with Karen Pastorello, Cornell University Press
*Ms. Perry passed away after a long illness on November 11, 2018. The film is dedicated to her. Elisabeth’s contribution to After the Vote is invaluable.
DONORS
Foundations
Yip Harburg Foundation
IfundWomen Donors
Maudie McCormick
Libby B
Susan Ware
Miriam Cohen
Margaret Martin
Ann Marie Trnka
Ava Trnka
Beth Kelly
Laurie Weltz
Jane Applegate
New York Women in Film & TV is the official fiscal sponsor for After the Vote