Cherchez la Femme! Locating the Women in Early Romanian Cinema, Archival Fragments and the Case of Marioara Voiculescu

Through an analysis of primary archival materials, early press, and personal archives, this article aims to understand the contribution of the Romanian theatre actress and director Marioara Voiculescu to early attempts at local filmmaking in Romania and to reconstruct her filmmaking activities in 1913. Given that all films from this period are now lost, this article engages in a methodology of “cinema archaeology”, and studies archival ephemera and the cultural context of the time to provide a fresh perspective on these early filmmaking endeavors. By shifting the focus to Marioara Voiculescu, I reflect on the experience of conducting archival research in the face of material loss of women’s film histories, and more broadly on the spaces and roles that women were able to occupy with the growth of popular culture and media