Norwich-based online arts programme ASSEMBLY ONLINE continues with an event that brings together the originators of the Norwich Women’s Film Weekend 30 years on

Eastern Daily Press: Booklet from the original Norwich Women's Film Weekend (C) Assembly House TrustBooklet from the original Norwich Women's Film Weekend (C) Assembly House Trust (Image: (C) Assembly House Trust)

Arts charity The Assembly House Trust will be hosting an online event which brings together the originators of the Norwich Women’s Film Weekend which ran for 10 years from 1979.

The live stream event on September 3 at 7.30pm, which can also be watched after the event at www.assemblyhousetrust.org.uk, seeks to reclaim the history of a unique feminist event.

Teresa Grimes, Ginette Vincendeau, Caroline Merz, Biddy Fisher and Elizabeth Bee will discuss the origins, the life and evolution of the annual Norwich Women’s Film Weekend which was held from 1979 to 1989.

Four 10 minute presentations will be followed by an open discussion and a question and answer session with the participants, led by Of & By’s Jonathan P. Watts.

The event is hosted by ASSEMBLY ONLINE, a live stream series of arts events hosted and funded by The Assembly House Trust which includes talks, screenings, critical readings and poetry.

The free-to-view programme, which has run since the beginning of lockdown, is in lieu of the Trust’s usual lively progamme of events hosted at The Assembly House in Norwich.

While the Theatre Street-based venue is now open, the majority of arts events are currently paused until current restrictions end.

Elizabeth Bee worked with young people with additional support needs in Colleges of Further Education in Norwich and then in Lowestoft, where she was Head of the Special Needs Department.

She moved to Edinburgh in December 1987, completed an MPhil in Special Education at Glasgow University and then continued to teach within the Further Education sector. Elizabeth recently retired and is making a garden and stone carving.

Biddy Fisher OBE is a retired Chartered Librarian whose career was spent working in academic libraries including 10 years at the University of East Anglia.

Born in North Walsham in Norfolk but now living in the small village of Ramsgill in Nidderdale, Yorkshire, she has never forgotten her roots and retains great affection for Norwich and the North Norfolk coast where she grew up.

Her OBE was awarded after her three years as President of her professional body CILIP.

Teresa Grimes worked in the film and television industry as an editor, researcher, director and producer, most notably making the TV series Five Women Painters for Channel 4 and The Arts Council – she also co-wrote and edited the accompanying book.

She directed the award winning short film Ebb Tide, written by Tony Grisoni and for the past 10 years she has been director of the contemporary art gallery Tintype in London.

Amongst other things, Caroline Merz has been a journalist and film lecturer, and has a PhD in early film production. For the last 10 years she has lived in Edinburgh, where she works as a psychotherapist.

Ginette Vincendeau is Professor of Film Studies at King’s College London and has written and edited numerous books on French and European cinema in English and in French, specialising in popular films and stars.

She has been a regular contributor to Sight and Sound, has provided essays and commentaries for DVDs of French films and was for many years the British correspondent of the Créteil International Women’s Film Festival.

This is an Of & By event, a series of artist talks, screenings and discussions organised by the contemporary art critic Jonathan P. Watts.