Club des Femmes

Based in London, the collective's name is based on Jacques Deval's 1936 film of the same name, one of the first examples of positive lesbian representation in film history.

A highlight of their programming catalogue is their debut curation, organised by the collective’s founders. In 2007, they presented a programme as part of the Summer Camp for Girls at Curzon Soho, featuring films by Vivienne Dick, Sadie Benning, Betzy Bromberg and Lizzie Borden. The programmers said that these filmmakers embodied a “new world order” with feminist and punk perspectives aimed squarely at queer audiences. This first experience was soon followed by a second programming opportunity. In 2008, the London Short Film Festival requested that Club des Femmes curate a programme of films, which included a screening of "Variety" (Bette Gordon, 1983). This raised the collective’s profile, leading to new collaborations with venues such as The Horse Hospital, Peccadillo, Pride London and FACT Liverpool. The vast majority of these programmes were organised with little to no funding.

In 2009, academic So Mayer joined the Club des Femmes team, followed five years later by programmer Jenny Clarke. Together, they curated increasingly ambitious and complex programmes at major cultural venues, including a tribute to the academic Ruby Rich held at the Barbican Centre (London) in collaboration with the Barbican itself and Birkbeck College. Their most extensive programme to date was "Revolt, She Said: Women and Film after ’68", which toured multiple venues across the UK in partnership with the Independent Cinema Office.

The collective has continued to grow and now includes Alex Thiele, Ania Ostrowska and Helen De Witt, in addition to the previously mentioned members.

Club des Femmes was born out of the revolutionary spirit of 1970s feminist collectives, which sought to bring together film studies and feminist politics. The collective’s working method centres on researching and selecting films that are rarely shown in mainstream cinemas. They aim to offer audiences the chance to discover queer feminist works and to create safe, communal spaces in which to view, discuss and share queer ideas and experiences.